In our hands, besides the roving bands of
trappers and traders, the country would have been explored and settled
by industrious husbandmen; and the fertile valleys bordering its rivers,
and shut up among its mountains, would have been made to pour forth
their agricultural treasures to contribute to the general wealth.
In respect to commerce, we should have had a line of trading posts from
the Mississippi and the Missouri across the Rocky Mountains, forming
a high road from the great regions of the west to the shores of the
Pacific. We should have had a fortified post and port at the mouth of
the Columbia, commanding the trade of that river and its tributaries,
and of a wide extent of country and sea-coast; carrying on an active and
profitable commerce with the Sandwich Islands, and a direct and frequent
communication with China. In a word, Astoria might have realized the
anticipations of Mr. Astor, so well understood and appreciated by
Mr. Jefferson, in gradually becoming a commercial empire beyond the
mountains, peopled by "free and independent Americans, and linked with
us by ties of blood and interest."
We repeat, therefore, our sincere regret that our government should have
neglected the overture of Mr. Astor, and suffered the moment to pass by,
when full possession of this region might have been taken quietly, as a
matter of course, and a military post established, without dispute,
at Astoria.
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