Jeffersonian Democracy on the banks of the Columbia

The following is a corrispondence from Thomas jefferson to John Jacob Astor
(whose name was used for the colony at Astoria) on the founding of a "free
and independent empire" In other writing I have heard from second hand
sources Jefferson refers to the lands west of the "Stony Mountains" (the
Rockies) as a future republic on the banks of the mighty river and as the
Republic of the Pacific with the indication that it has its own democratic
development.


The following is from Jefferson to Astor:

"To John Jacob Astor, Esq.
Monticello, November 9, 1813.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of October 18th has been duly received, and I learn with
great pleasure the progress you have made towards an establishment on
Columbia river. I view it as the germ of a great, free and independent empire
on that side of our continent, and that liberty and self-government spreading
from that as well as this side, will ensure their complete establishment over
the whole. It must be still more gratifying to yourself to foresee that your
name will be handed down with that of Columbus and Raleigh, as the father of the
establishment and founder of such an empire. It would be an afflicting thing
indeed, should the English be able to break up the settlement. Their bigotry
to the bastard liberty of their own country, and habitual hostility to every
degree of freedom in any other, will induce the attempt ; they would not lose
the sale of a bale of furs for the freedom of the whole world. But I hope your
party will be able to maintain themselves. If they have assiduously cultivated
the interests and affections of the natives, these will enable them to defend
themselves against the English, and furnish them an asylum even if their fort
be lost. I hope, and have no doubt our government will do for its success
whatever they have power to do, and especially that at the negotiations for
peace, they will provide, by convention with the English, for the safety and
independence of that country, and an acknowledgment of our right of
patronizing them in all cases of injury from foreign nations. But no patronage
or protection from this quarter can secure the settlement if it does not cherish
the affections of the natives and make it their interest to uphold it. While
you are doing so much for future generations of men, I sincerely wish you may find
a present account in the just profits you are entitled to expect from the
enterprise. I will ask of the President permission to read Mr. Stuart's
journal. With fervent wishes for a happy issue to this great undertaking, which
promises to form a remarkable epoch in the history of mankind, I tender you
the assurance of my great esteem and respect."

( yamaguchy.netfirms.com/jeffer...b.html)

Note Jefferson did not say kill the native people or steal their lands. Instead Jefferson recommended " If they have assiduously cultivated the interests and affections of the natives, these will enable them to defend
themselves" ... "But no patronage or protection from this quarter can secure the settlement if it does not cherish
the affections of the natives and make it their interest to uphold it."

Three decades later the ethnologist Hortatio Hale of the US Exploring Expedition of 1841 described the use of Chinook Jargon during his stay at Fort Vancouver by a new emerging culture of Chinook Illahee in the 1840s:

"These are Canadians and half-breeds married to Chinook women, who can only converse with their wives in this speech, and it is the fact, strange as it may seem, that many young children are growing up to whom this factitious language is really the mother tongue, and who speak it with more readiness and perfection than any other."

( link to www.arts.ualberta.ca)

J.M.R. Le Jeune's "Chinook Rudiments" published on May 3rd 1924 describes the geographical placement of the use of Chinook Jargon and a partial glimpse of the demographics of who were the Chinook Jargon speakers of the time:

"Chinook, for a century the International Language of the Pacific Coast, from Northern California to Alaska, from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains."

"Gradually took shape between 1790 and 1810, becoming t(h)e necessary means of intercourse between natives of twenty-seven different tribes speaking as many different langauges, as well as between natives, whites and orientals."

( chinookjargon.home.att.net/ljcr24.htm)

""Chinook illahee" - the Chinook-speaking country beyond the Rockies"

( www.fortlangley.ca/Chinook%...ime.html)