*No. 39. [45]
Mr. Bates to Mr. Sturgis.
My Dear Sir: The Oregon question is now as good as settled, provided the Senate, by a good majority, pass their pacific resolutions. Your pamphlet, by fixing public attention on a reasonable mode of settlement, on both sides of the water has done more than all the diplomatic notes. I claim the merit of suggesting the mode of getting rid of the question of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the navigation of the Columbia, by allowing the company to enjoy it for a fixed number of years. Mr. McLane and the Government had not thought of it. In the Quarterly is an article written by Croker, which adopts completely these views. * * *The Oregon question sure to be settled on the American basis.