US Oregon Territory successfully integrated pre-railroads?

[Umbric Man]

Westward Expansion

books.google.com

The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society

books.google.com

Henry S. Tanner and Cartographic Expression of American Expansionism in the 1820s | Paulus Swaen

During the second and third decades of the nineteenth century, the unique contributions of cartographers John Melish and Henry Schenck Tanner helped establish a national identity in ways that were visionary, influential, and powerful.

www.swaen.com

The above trio of links explores American interest in the Pacific Northwest before genuinely interest ramped up in the 1840s. Apparently it was the official American position to try to make the 49th parallel extend to the Pacific Ocean in the 1818 Convention negotiations, and a number of Congressmen in 1820-1824 - John Floyd (VA), Francis Baylies (MA), and Thomas Benton (MO) - advocated a very early settlement of the Columbia River valley, with an "Origon Territory" being incorporated into the Union come two thousand peoples' worth of settlement. In response to the sheer distance and Rocky Mountains barriers, they noted 1) Kentucky was seen as distant and unable to be integrated in 1775, 2) steamships were already making the rivers very easy to travel (and it must be noted the Missouri River to Fort Benton and Columbia-Snake to Lewiston ID is navigable just fine by them), 3) Americans had already crossed the Appalachian Mountains and settled past the Mississippi River within the lifetime of those who won independence to the then-current 1820s, 4) the Pacific Ocean was as good a border as any, and 5) the Pacific-Asian trade and local forestry/farmland would help pay for things, of course. Those who opposed it, meanwhile, 1) kept stressing the sheer distance and Rocky Mountains, as well as the local area perhaps not being suitable enough for settlement via its thick forests, 2) if it was settled the distance would cause the locals to develop a mind of independence, 3) and that Britain already had a sincere toehold via the Hudson Bay Company's local fur-trapping activity. Absolutely vital to note is that this all was discussed and advocated before the first American railroads were built in the latter half of the 1820s.

BUT: assume the 49th parallel to the Pacific is set as the border in 1818, the first proposal to settle Oregon in 1820 does indeed lead to settlement of the Pacific Northwest shortly after, and an earlier Oregon Trail and Oregon Territory definitely established if still admittedly newly-so by the end of the decade at 1830 . Again, before railroads became common and caused distance to become a non-issue. Could the Pacific Northwest become a fully-established, integral/-grated part of the Union pre-railroads or would the distance and Rocky Mountains prevent it from effectively being so?

 

[Workable Goblin]

Could the Pacific Northwest become a fully-established, integral/-grated part of the Union pre-railroads or would the distance and Rocky Mountains prevent it from effectively being so?

It depends on what your definition of "fully-established, integral/-grated part of the Union" means. I would lean towards "probably not," but just because these things take time and what I see as "fully-established, integral/-grated part of the Union" is having not just formal statehood but a substantial network of settlements and major trade links to the East Coast. Also, statehood isn't necessarily the most reliable indicator in this instance since there was, of course, the sectional divide in state admissions. The result is that by the time Oregon has reached that status railroads probably exist anyway.

The railroad is something of a red herring here in any case because it wasn't until the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 that it was relevant to the connection between the East and West coasts, and there wasn't a railroad connection to Oregon and Washington until the 1880s. So the Oregon Territory managed to be controlled perfectly well by the United States while relying on sea transport (and whatever river transport existed) from 1848 onwards, which suggests that there likewise would not have been an issue in the 1820s in controlling the territory.