an entire misreading of our diplomatic history in regard to the territory of Oregon.
"To return to the immigration of 1843. After four months' arduous journey, this vanguard of the great army of occupation that was to follow, with its convoy of horses and cattle, reached Oregon, and its numbers spread themselves over the valleys of the lower Columbia and immediately set to work in true American fashion to establish homes and schools and to organize a provisional government of their own. Among them were a number of persons of great force of character, who gave the impress of their personalities upon the religious. industrial and political development of the territory. Having shown the way, and having demonstrated the complete feasibility of an overland route to Oregon, they were followed by other hardy pioneers from the States, and before three more years had passed there was an American population in the territory of over twelve thousand persons—no miscellaneous rabble of adventurers, but staunch and self-respecting men and women, come to build up homes—the sturdy stuff of which a nation's greatness is made.
"Here we come to the end of the story, for the title of the American people to the possession of the Oregon territory which was originated in the movements of the good ship Columbia a century ago was practically consummated by the rush of immigrants half-way between that time and the present. Title (in full measure) by occupation was thus added to title by discovery, and when in 1846 the question of sovereignty again came up for consideration between Great Britain and the United States the great territory was amicably divided and we had little difficulty in keeping for ourselves the land upon which to erect the three goodly states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, besides the section that fills out the contour of Montana and Wyoming.
"Perhaps no one who has not visited this glorious country can adequately feel the significance of these beginnings of its history. When one has spent some little time in this climate—unsurpassed in all America—and looked with loving eye upon scenery rivaling that of Italy and Switzerland; when one has sufficiently admired the purple mountain ranges, the snow-clad peaks, the green and smiling valleys, the giant forests; when one has marvelled at the multifarious and boundless economic resources and realizes how all this has been made a part of our common heritage as Americans, one feels that this latest chapter in the discovery and occupation of our continent
