em to sell their lands,
houses, or effects, or to retain the property thereof, at their
discretion; such of them as shall continue to reside within the said
boundary lines shall not be compelled to become citizens of the United
States, or to take any oath of allegiance to the government thereof; but
they shall be at full liberty to do so if they think proper, and they
shall make and declare their election within one year after the
evacuation aforesaid. And all persons who shall continue there after the
expiration of the said year without having declared their intention of
remaining subjects of his British Majesty shall be considered as having
elected to become citizens of the United States." "It is agreed that it
shall at all times be free to His Majesty's subjects, and to the Indians
dwelling on either side of the said boundary line, freely to pass and
repass by land or inland navigation into the respective territories and
countries of the two parties on the continent of America (the country
within the limits of the Hudson's Bay Company only excepted), and to
navigate all the lakes, rivers and waters thereof, and freely to carry
on trade and commerce with each other."

In his elaborate defence of Jay's treaty, Alexander Hamilton paid much
attention to the question of the fur trade. Defending Jay for permitting
so long a delay in evacuation and for granting right of entry into our
fields, he minimized the value of the trade. So far from being worth
$800,000 annually, he asserted the trade within our limits would not be
worth $100,000, seven-eighths of the traffic being north of the line.
This estimate of the value of the northwestern trade was too low. In the
course of his paper he made this observation:[186]

"In proportion as the article is viewed on an enlarged plan and
permanent scale, its importance to us magnifies. Who can say how far
British colonization may spread southward and down the west side of the
Mississippi, northward and westward into the vast interior regions
towards the Pacific ocean?... In this large view of the subject, the fur
trade, which has made a very prominent figure in the discussion, becomes
a point scarcely visible. Objects of great variety and magnitude start
up in perspective, eclipsing the little atoms of the day, and promising
to grow and mature with time."

Such was not the attitude of Great Britain. To her the Northwest was
desirable on account of its Indian commerce. By a statement