Senator Benton

The following extract from a speech of Senator Benton on the Oregon question e.xhibits a comprehensiveness nnd reach of views which, were he divested of p,-rty trnmmels, rnight place him among the first statesmen of :he age. " The effect of the arrival of tho Caucasian or white race, on the Western const of America, oppodfe the Eastern coasl of Asia, remains to be , mentioned among the benefits which the seitlement of the Columbio will produce ; and that a benefit, not local to us, bul general and universal to the human race. Since the dispersión of man upon earth, I know of o human ovent, past or present, which promises a greater and more beneficent cbange upon earth, than the arrial of he van of the Caucasian race fthe Celic-Anglo-Sixon división) upon the borlerof the sea which washes tlieshore of Eastern Asia. The Mongolian, or Yelow race, is there, four hundred millions 0 number, spreading nlmost to Europe; a ace once the foremostoflbe human famly in the arts of civilization, but torpid and stationary four thousands of years. t is a race far above the Ethiopian or Black - above '.he Malay, or Brown, (iC we must adniit five races) - and above he American Indian, or Red j it is a race far above. all these, but still far below the White; and like all the rest, must receive an impression from tho superior race whenever they come in contact."It would seem ihat the white race alone received ihe divine command, to subdue and replenish the eailh ! for it is the only race that hasobeyed it - the onIy orre that hunts up nev and distan: lands, and even a New World, to subdue and replenish. Starting from Western Asia, laking Europe for iheir field, and the Sun Ibrtheir guide, and leaving the Mongolians behind, they arrived after many ages, on the sliores of the Atlantic, which they lit up witli the lights of science and religión, and adorned with the useful and elegant arts. Th ree and a half centuriesago, this race, in obedience to the greal command, arri ved in the New World, and found new lands to subdue and replenish. For a long time it was confined lo the border of ihe new field, (I now mean the Celtic-Anglo-S;ixon división and even fourscore years ago the philosophic Burke was considered a rash man because he said the English colonists would top the Alleghanies, and descend into the valley of the Mississippi, and occupy without parchment if the crown refused to make grants ofland. "What was considered a rash declaration eighly years ago, is old history, in our young country, atthisday. Triirty vears ago I said the same thing of the iocky Mountains and the Columbia; it vas ridiculed then ; it is becoming history o-day. The venerable Mr. Macón has often told me that he remembered a line low down in North Carolina, fixed by o roya; governor as a boundary belween the whites and the Indians: whero is that boundary now ? The van of the Caucasian race now top the Rocky Mountains, and spread down totheshores of the Pacific"In a few years a great population will grow up there luminous with the accumulated light of European and American civilization. Their presence in such a position cannot bo without its influenee upon Eastern The sun of civilization must shine across the sea ; socially and commercially the van of the Caucasians and the rear of the Mongolians must intermix.. " They must talk together, ond trade togeiher, rtíarry togethor. Cominerce is a great civilizer- social intercourse as great- and marryinggreater. The White and Yellow races can marry together, as well as eat and trade together. Mora] and intellectual superiority wül do the rest; the White race will take the ascendant, elevating what is susceptible of improvement - wearingout what is not - The red race has disnppeared from the Atlantic coasi : the tribes that resisled civilization met extinction. This is n cause of lamentation wilh many. For mypart, I cnnnot murmurat what seems to be the eflect of divine law. I cannot repino that this Capítol has replaced the wigwam - thisChrisfian people, replaced savages - white matrons the red squaws - and that such men as Washington, Franklin and Jefierson, have taken the place of Powhattan, Opecgonocruiough, and other red men, howsocver respeciable they may have been as suvagos. "Civüiza'.ion, or extinction, has been the fute of all people who have found thenicölves in the track of the advancing Whies, and civilizaiionj alwaysthe preforence of the Whiies, has been pressed as an objectj whileextinctiop has followed as a consequence of ils resistance. - The Blnck and the Red races have often feit their ameliorating influenee. TheYe! low ranges next to themselves in the scale of mental and mom! excellence, and in the beauty of form, once their superiors ín the useful and elegant arts, and in lenrning, and still respectable though stalionary ; this race cannot fail to receive a new impulse from ihe approach of the Whitcs, improved so much since so many ages ago they leit the western borders of Asia. The apparition of the van of the Caucasian race, rising upon them in the eastafter having left them on the west, afier hnving compleied the circumnavigation of the globe, must wake up and reanímate the torpid body of oíd Asia. " Our position and poücy will comnend us to their bospitable reception : polilical considerations will aid the acon of social and commercial nfluences. Pressed upon us- they must, in our approach, see the advent of friends, not of bes- of benefactors, not of invadfirs. - Ihe moral and intellectual superiority 3f the white race will do the rest : and luis, the youngest peopïe, and the new:st land, will become the reviver and the -egenerator of the oldest. " It is in this point of view, and as icting upon the somal, polilical ond reigious condition of Asia, and giving a new point of departure to the ancient ctvlization, that I look upon the settlemem of ihe Columbia river by tho van of the Caucassian race as the most momentous human event in the history of tnan since his dispersión over the eaith."