DESPITE A FORMAL, newspaper obituary announcing the death of
the Pacific Fur Company, Astor was not about to give up his Colum-
bian enterprise. Diplomacy might restore what bad fortune had
snatched away. In late March 1814, as the American and British
governments moved closer to a negotiated peace, Astor confided his
diplomatic hopes to Gallatin. "If matters go right," he wrote, "I am
sure you will not forget the object in which I am so much interested
and which sooner or later will and must become of great national
importance." Whether Astor knew it or not, his views on the future
of the Columbia were at last shared by some members of the Madi-
son administration. Perhaps years of lobbying were now paying off.
On the same day that Astor wrote Gallatin, Secretary of State James
Monroe sent instructions to John Quincy Adams and other Ameri-
can peace negotiators. Monroe reminded Adams that when talks to
end the war reached the point that exchanges of captured territory
were under discussion, "you will have it in recollection that the
United States had in their possession at the commencement of the
war a post at the mouth of the River Columbia which commanded
the river." Monroe assumed that Astoria had been captured during
the conflict and now expected the post to be promptly returned. He

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