56 Marie Merriman Bradley. ufacture of all intoxicating liquor was prohibited, and all negroes and mulattoes were ordered to be expelled. The code made no provision for the method of conducting elections, except by adopting the laws of Iowa for that pur- pose. These laws were unfamiliar to most, as there was but one copy in the territory. Two-thirds of the voters of 1844 were of the late immigration and had had neither time nor opportunity to be informed regarding the requirements, or their duties as officers of the election. The legislature of 1844 has been censured for undoing so much of the work of the previous year.^^ Yet while three- fourths of the legislative body were newcomers, two-thirds of the executive committee who recommended the change were old colonists. The man most influential in making the change was one Burnett, an ex-District Attorney of Missouri. The constitution was so constructed that it was impossible to separate the fundamental from the statutory part of the code ; or to understand where the constitution left off and the statutes began. It was necessary to make some distinction before further legislation could take place. As the organic law stood, it was all constitution or all statute. No mode of amendment was provided for. If the organic law was the constitution, it would be revolutionary to amend it. Unless it could be considered statutory, and amended or appealed from, there was nothing for the legis- lative committee to do. Therefore, it was decided to con- sider it statutory, remodel, where they could improve upon, without altering the spirit or intent of that portion under- stood to be fundamental. In the formation of the organic law, the reason for vesting the executive in a triumvirate was to prevent a division which would defeat the organization. Now there was no danger of that. An act was passed, vesting the gubernatorial power in ^ I !;• ^'Jl 18 For discussion of the adoption of the Iowa laws into the Oregon code, see F. L. Herriot, Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, 1904, Vol. V, p. 140, etc. 19 Bancroft, History of Oregon, Vol. II, p. 431.
