the vast region lying between California and Alaska on the Pacific coast of North America, that part south of the 49th parallel being ceded to the United States by Great Britain in 1846.
- 1843  England being rather unwilling to lend more money or goods to folk who won't pay, and the other European nations being equally untractable and surly, Jonathan has been compelled to carry his wonderful spirit of enterprise to the Oregon country . . . the Indians and bears of that civilized region not having yet found him out.
- 1853  As to the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company to the Oregon territory, and the country lying between Canada and Russian America, these rights consist only in the company having a license to hunt and trade there, which will expire in 1859, and which gives them no territorial claim whatever.
- 1953  In 1812, the Hudson's Bay Company bought the Astoria post from Astor, which helped to bolster the British claim to what was becoming known as the "Oregon Country."
- 1963  The Oregon territory, jointly occupied since 1818, furnished the pretext.