Northwest Coast of America. May 15,1826. Referred to the Committee of the Whole House, to which is committed the bill to authorize the establishment of a Military Post or Posts, within the Territory of the United States, on the Pacific Ocean, and to Provide for the Exploration of its Coasts and Waters
Report 213, 19th Congress, 1st Session. 22 pp, in an attractive modern binding of three-quarter leather and marbled boards, with gilt spine lettering. Light foxing and toning; very good. Congressman Baylies reviews various explorations of the northwest, including an apparently spurious one, in an effort to support the United States' claim to the Oregon Territory. Streeter (3339): "This pamphlet, after devoting a couple of pages to a report of a party in which Samuel Adams Ruddock was a member, that claimed to have made the overland journey from Council Bluffs to the mouth of the Columbia in 1821, reviews the various past explorations of the northwest coast, including those of Francis Drake, Captain Cook, and Lewis and Clark. On the basis of these accounts, it claims the 49th parallel and the Strait de Juan de Fuca as our boundary."
As for the information received from Ruddock, Wagner-Camp (31) explains that "Ruddock claimed to be a member of a trading party that supposedly traveled up the north bank of the Platte River, crossing below the forks on May 26, and thence southwest 410 miles to Santa Fe, [before heading northwest and eventually reaching] "the Multnomah of Lewis and Clarke. They then followed the course of this river to its junction with the Columbia and reached the mouth of the Columbia on the first day of August, completing the journey from the Council Bluffs in seventy-five days. To reach the shores of the Pacific in seventy-five days from the Missouri River by way of Santa Fe would have been a remarkable feat, if it had happened. Unfortunately, however, no corroborative evidence has every been advanced to confirm Ruddock's fanciful story."
Baylies concludes his report with a warning: "The indifference of the America stimulates the cupidity of Great Britain. Our neglect daily weakens our own claim, and strengthens hers; and the day will soon arrive, when her title to this Territory will be better than our, unless ours is earnestly and speedily enforced." Howes B-263; Sabin 4067.
Item #22567
Price: $400.00