Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Speech of Joseph R. Ingersoll, on the Oregon Bill: Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, April 16, 1846
The measure now proposed has in View an exclusive exercise of power and possession of land in Oregon. It designates the place which is to be governed and occupied by no particular name, and it describes it by no precise limits. It extends jurisdiction, and the incidents of jurisdiction generally, over at! That portion oft/re territory of the United States which lies west of the Rocky Mountains. I object (said Mr. Ingersoll) to this language as too indefinite. It begs the question of ownership, which has been in a state of fruitless controversy for nearly thirty years; and it exposes to endless dispute, and ever-varying construction, a law which ought to be, as the title is claimed to be, clear and unquestionable. The professed object is to protect the rights of American settlers. Settlement implies the existence of something to be occupied. It is essential to proper legislation, that the object of it should be fully ascertained and distinctly communicated.
The language which I have quoted from the bill is not only indefinite, but equivocal. I impute of course no improper design to the committee, much less to the member of it who reported the bill; but the terms are deceptive. They are calculated to mislead, by creating a belief that the rights of settlers will be measured according to the notion which each individual entertains respecting them. There are many Opinions as to the extent and position of the territory of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains. No less than three very recent European publications on the subject of Oregon are now before me. Two of them are from the English press, and one (question de l'orégon, par le Major G. T. Poussin) from that of Paris. While Dr. Twiss and Mr. Wallace would contest with us all territorial rights, strictly speaking, admitting only a concurrent initiate claim, and Major Poussin would, with some of our immediate friends, recommend a divided possession, not a few writers and speakers among us insist upon an incontestable title to the whole ground from 42° to 54° The doubtful language of the bill might apply to any one of these contingencies. In the application of it, however, great confusion would arise, °and with every new occasion a new rule of interpretation might be introduced. When all the original elements of title are combined, and discovery, exploration, occupation, and settlement, shall have left nothing to complete it but the assertion and exercise of eminent domain, there will be little doubt of the sufficiency of the terms which are used. But the sturdiest friend of Oregon must admit that, in the broad surface of more than twelve degrees of latitude, at the best, various stages of advancement may be found and while in some places settlements are practicable, and admit of protection, by many times the larger part is in the merest state of unexplored nature, and will so remain for ages. Other portions are held by subjects of another Government.
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