The Fur Company’s Land Empire Is Declared Public Domain

The Pioneer and Democrat of last week publishes a letter from Washington City, dated June 4th, containing intelligence which, if correct, is of much interest to the people of this county, and also to the people of Clark county and other localities. The writer signs himself “S. P. M.” After detailing some matters of minor import, he says:

Of more importance, however, and in fact of general importance to the whole Territory, is the final determination of the long-pending and vexatious question of the Hudson Bay and Puget Sound companies’ rights, which, I doubt not, will be received with shout and hurrah. Their trading license is now [void], and the Secretary of State (Gen. Cass) has declared that all their rights in Oregon and Washington expired at the same moment. The lands claimed by them are all pronounced public domain. And on yesterday the State Department was preparing a communication on the subject, to be addressed to the Department of the Interior, upon which the said lands are to be taken possession of by the United States and their survey ordered. It is a complete forfeiture, and the most interested construction now can leave them nothing more than their improvements, which they can sell to anybody. It does not appear that the government intends to abandon them, but [to take them for public use].

The fourth article applies to the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, and stipulates for the continuation of the lands belonging to them, or their transfer, at valuation, to the United States, if deemed of public or political importance to this country. The article is in these words:

“All [property] of every description belonging to the Puget’s Sound Agricultural Company, on the north side of the Columbia River, shall be confirmed to the said company. In case, however, the situation of those lands should be considered by the United States to be of public and political importance, and the United States Government should signify a desire to obtain possession of the whole or of any part thereof, the property required shall be transferred to said government at a proper valuation, to be agreed upon between the parties.”

The option of taking the lands of this company at valuation under the confirmatory clause [is] entirely harmless. The valuation can but little exceed the improvements, and for them it is just and equitable that payment should be made. The settlement of this company is at Nisqually, on Puget Sound, which Capt. Wilkes [described as] small. These possessions are few in number and small in extent. Fort Vancouver exceeds all the rest put together, and it only amounts to a few hundred acres. The fence is the limit of the possession, for there is no fee simple title to give a constructive possession to what is not enclosed.

The above is all of Benton’s speech that bears on the question of the position of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, but it [discusses] the ground thoroughly. No construction put upon the treaty at this time, we opine, would approach so near its true meaning as that above quoted; and hence any attempt to construe it differently would be [a mistake].