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THE OREGON TERRITORY, ITS HISTORY AND DISCOVERY; INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF THE CONVENTION OF THE ESCURIAL, ALSO, THE TREATIES AND NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN, HELD AT VARIOUS TIMES FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF A BOUNDARY LINE, AND AN EXAMINATION OF THE WHOLE QUESTION IN RESPECT TO FACTS AND THE LAW OF NATIONS.
BY TRAVERS TWISS, D.C.L., F.R.S., PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, AND ADVOCATE IN DOCTORS' COMMONS.
NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY. PHILADELPHIA: GEO. S. APPLETON, 148 CHESNUT-STREET. CINCINNATI:--DERBY, BRADLEY & CO., 113 MAIN-STREET. MDCCCXLVI.
The object which the author had in view, in instituting the accompanying inquiry into the historical facts and the negotiations connected with the Oregon Territory, was to contribute, as far as his individual services might avail, to the peaceful solution of the question at issue between the United States of America and Great Britain. He could not resist the conviction, on reading several able treatises on the subject, that the case of the United States had been overstated by her writers and negotiators; and the perusal of Mr. Greenhow's Official Memoir, and subsequent History of Oregon and California, confirmed him in this impression, as they sought to establish more than was consistent with the acknowledged difficulty of a question, which has now been the subject of four fruitless negotiations. He determined, in consequence of this conviction, to investigate carefully the records of ancient discoveries and other matters of history connected with the North-west coast of America, concerning which much contradictory statement is to be met with in writers of acknowledged reputation. The result is, the present work, which has unavoidably assumed a much larger bulk than was anticipated by the author when he commenced the inquiry: it is hoped, however, that the arrangement of the chapters will enable the reader to select, without difficulty, those portions of the subject which he may deem to be most deserving of his attention.