Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/431

Speech of Senator J. Semple. 403 This line, it will be seen, stopped short of the Rocky Mountains. It does not pretend to designate the line beyond, either to give it to the British or acknowledge it to the United States. Being entirely silent, the grant to Virginia remained as it was at the time of the grant from England, which was from sea to sea. The acknowledgment of the inde- pendence of Virginia gave to her all the territory she then claimed, except so far as Virginia herself agreed to have those limits curtailed. When any nation becomes independent, it becomes so with the right to exercise sovereignty in all the territory claimed, and which it can maintain with arms ; and when independence is acknowledged, the same act gives the sovereignty over that territory. Saving the claims of France and Spain, then, Virginia claimed, as against England, all the land from sea to sea ; the purchase of Louisiana, therefore, with the cession from Virginia, which was good as against England, the United States became lawfully and of right possessors of all the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific. These limits went south of the present Mexican line, and north of the present Russian line. But as we have already ceded to those countries all north and south of the lines we now claim, we can have no other claim than to that country between the Mexican and Russian boundaries ; but to that I think our right is beyond a doubt. But there is another ground on which I place our right to the Oregon. And if, in taking this ground, I may depart from the idea some may entertain of right, I hope I may not be charged with injustice or even singularity, when they reflect that upon this ground the question will, in all probability, have to be ultimately determined. I allude to the right derived from power. We have the power to take it, and we will have it. It is contiguous to our territory. It suits us. There is a propriety and fitness in the country belonging to the United States, and there is no propriety or fitness in its belonging to the British. There is a great deal of justice and equity in our settlers' laws in this country. When a settler sets himself down on a tract of public land in Illinois, he lays claim to such portions of the adjoining land, as, in the nature, of the circumstances which surround him, is better suited for him than any other person ; and he maintains this right even against the Government of the United States. If this can be done amongst individual citizens, how much more among nations, who never feel themselves bound by the same strict rules of the law, when convenience and power both unite to require the doing of the act. We are not without British authority for this ; for when that Govern- ment took possession of the Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam (now New York), the best reason that was given to the world was, that it lay between the English Colonies of New England and those of Virginia. Nor is this right of power to be in all respects scouted. Every nation has a right to seek its own happiness and safety. If we seek for a lawful cause for resisting the laws of England at the time of our Revolution, we shall find that as, strictly speaking, no resisting of law can be lawful, so the propriety of things (the fact that we could manage our own affairs, in our opinion, better than the Parliament and King of England, and that we could promote our own happiness and safety to a greater degree) gave us an undoubted right to declare independence, and take our station among the independent nations of the earth. Having shown, as I consider, the right which we have to the country, I will proceed to show the advantages which would result to us from its occupancy. Not only at the present day, but from the earliest ages of the world, the trade of the East Indies has been of great importance to every