State of Oregon,
The history of this State properly begins with the discovery of the mouth of the Columbia River by Captain Gray, of Boston, in the ship Columbia, May 7, 1792, who gave the name of his vessel to that river.
His report caused President Jefferson to send the explorers Lewis and Clarke (qq.
v.) across the continent to the Pacific (1804-6). In 1811 John J. Astor and others established a fur-trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River, and called it Astoria.
The British doctrine, always practised and enforced by them, that the entrance of a vessel of a civilized nation,
State seal of Oregon. for the first time, into the mouth of a river, gives title, by right of discovery, to the territory drained by that river and its tributaries, clearly gave to the Americans the ___domain to the lat. of 54° 40′ N., for the discovery of the Columbia River by Captain Gray, in 1792, was not disputed.
In 1818 it was mutually agreed that each nation should equally enjoy the pri
y which government is bound to render a reason to the judiciary before it lays its hands upon a citizen, has been called the high-water mark of English liberty.
Jefferson, in his calm moments, dreaded the power to suspend it in any emergency whatever, and wished to have it in eternal and unremitting force.
The present Napoleon, itending with rapid strides, you say inevitably—I do not deny it; necessarily—I do not question it; we are tending towards that strong government which frightened Jefferson; towards that unlimited debt, that endless army.
We have already those alien and sedition laws which, in 1798, wrecked the Federal party, and summoned the Democustice.
But I will cite an unquestionable precedent.
It was a grave power, in 1807, in time of peace, when Congress abolished commerce; when, by the embargo of Jefferson, no ship could quit New York or Boston, and Congress set no limit to the prohibition.
It annihilated commerce.
New England asked, Is it constitutional?
The Su
l government, have been as follows:
1789-93: Washington; Adams, Vice-President, Federalist; Jefferson, State; Hamilton, Treasury; Knox, War; Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General. Congress, Federalist; Muhlenberg and Trumbull speakers.
1793-97: Washington and Adams again; Jefferson, then Randolph, State; Hamilton, then Wolcott, Treasury; other minor changes.
Congress, 1793-95, Republican House; Muhlenberg, speaker; 1795-97, Dayton, speaker.
1797-1801: Adams, Federalist; Jefferson, Vice-President, Republican; Pickering, State; Wolcott, Treasury.
Congress, Federalist; Dayton and Sedgwick, speakers.
1801-5: Jefferson; Burr, Vice-Presi- dent, Republican; Madison, State; Gallatin, Treasury.
Congress, Republican; Macon, speaker.
1805-9: Jefferson; George Clinton, Vice-PresidentJefferson; George Clinton, Vice-President, Republican; Madison, State; Gallatin, Treasury.
Congress, Republican; Macon and Varnum, speakers.
1809-3; Madison; Clinton, Vice-President, Republican; Robert Smith, later Monroe, State; Gallat
