been equally dangerous to the aspirations of the promoters of the Provisional Government. It would have been the policy of the legislative committee to have steered between Scylla and Charybdis by picking out the statutes wanted, and adopting them as original enactments, and so avoid the danger of offending the susceptibilities of either party by showing partiality for the laws of any particular State. It would be interesting if a history of that lone Iowa statutes could be obtained. The long and short of the matter is, that the legislative committee adopted the laws of Iowa because they had the laws of Iowa, and no other laws."
J. Quinn Thornton, in his "Oregon and California," (vol. II, p. 31) published in 1849, in mentioning reasons why organization was not effected in 1841, says: "They were, too, without either books (excepting one copy of the Iowa statutes), to which to refer for assistance in framing their laws, or a press upon which to print them when framed." Doctor Herriott's first surmise seems then to have the strongest foundation.—Editor.
