The Doctrine of Discovery,
Manifest Destiny, and Oregon
Robert J. Miller
Professor
Lewis & Clark Law School
Portland, Oregon
From Ambrose & Axtell, L&C Voyage of Discovery (1998)
Louisiana Purchase - 1803
Johnson v. McIntosh, 21 U.S. 543
(1823).
Country settled on Discovery & Conquest
 Discovery limited tribal real property rights
 Discovery limited tribal sovereign rights

Jefferson’s Discovery policies
1792 – U.S. Right of Preemption
 1802-08 – Tribes own land; U.S. will buy
 1804 – Limits of LA - Discovery principles
 1808 wrote Congress U.S. has to buy the
land from the “native proprietors”

Jefferson’s Discovery policies
1792 U.S. exclusive control of tribal trade
& political interactions
 1804 Letter “Being now become sovereigns
of the country” - subject to “Indian rights of
occupancy”

Lewis & Clark & Discovery
Tribal speeches & sovereignty tokens
 Forts Mandan & Clatsop
 Lewis branding iron

Fort Clatsop March 18, 1806
“The object of this list is, that through the medium of
some civilized person who may see the same, it
may be made known to the informed world, that
the party consisting of the persons whose names
are hereunto annexed, and who were sent out by
the government of the U’ States in May 1804 to
explore the interior of the Continent of North
America, did penetrate the same by way of the
Missouri and Columbia Rivers, to the discharge of
the latter into the Pacific Ocean . . . ."
Elements of Discovery
First discovery - Actual occupancy
 Preemption/European title - Indian title
 Tribal sovereign & comm’l rts - Contiguity
 Terra nullius - Conquest
 Christianity - Civilization

U.S. claims to the Pacific NW
Robert Gray – 1792 Columbia Redidiva
 Lewis & Clark – 1805-06
 John Jacob Astor – Astoria 1811

Manifest Destiny
Special virtues of Americans & institutions
 America’s mission to redeem & remake the
world in our image
 Divine destiny under God’s direction to
accomplish this wonderful task

The Oregon Country & Discovery
U.S. & English settlement
 U.S. Spain, 1821, U.S. Russia, 1824
 US England treaties 1818, 1827, Polk 1846
 Indian treaties 1850-1855
 Oregon Territory Act 1848 (NW Ord 1787)
 Donation Land Act & HR Rep. 271 (1850)
