History of Oregon (Bancroft)/Volume 1/Chapter 16

by Frances Fuller Victor

CHAPTER XVI.

LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS.

1844.

Character of the Immigration of 1843—The Land Law—Old and New Settlers—Organic Laws—Personnel of the Committees—Message of the Executive Committee—Revision and Correction of Legislative Errors—Judicial Affairs—The Blessings of Land and the Ballot—Willamette Falls the Seat of Government—The Question of Boundary—Law Relating to Marriage—Liquor Law—Slavery—Negroes and Mulattoes—Attitude toward the British Fur Company—Independence of Oregon.

 

The immigration of 1843 was composed of people of pronounced character, rudely arrogant and aggressive rather than tame and submissive. The poorest might claim the liberal grant of land offered by congress to actual settlers, while the leaders aspired to achievements no less than founding a state, and framing laws to govern it. If what had been already done suited them, well; if not, they would undo, if strong enough. Hence immediately on arrival they were deeply interested in what had been done by the provisional government. They then discussed the laws passed by the legislative committee, the most important of which was the land law, whose objectionable parts were the proviso allowing the missions six miles square of land, and granting but twenty days to new settlers in which to record their claims, the old settlers having a year.^[1]

This injurious discrimination against new-comers, joined to the greed of the missionaries, and the intimation given by Jason Lee, who met the immigration at the Dalles, that the Methodist Mission intended to make the laws for the colonists, was sufficient to arouse the independent spirit of the western men, who had besides a liberal contempt for the close-fisted Yankee class to which most of the missionaries belonged.^[2] But the Methodist was of all the Protestant denominations most popular on the western frontier, where zeal rather than intelligence contributed to the qualifications of members; and among the immigration were many zealous Methodists. Obviously these were likely to indorse, or at least excuse and condone, any acts of the missionaries.

But of the leading men few were hampered by this religious allegiance. Men of note amongst western communities, they possessed not only greater freedom from conventionalities than the ordinary New Englander, but greater mental culture. By reason of their struggles with the hardships of pioneer life, not to mention those of their ancestors, they were often lacking in refinement of manner, and always in the polish which inherited ease imparts; but their ideas were bold, strong, and speculative, and their conversation, though sometimes bookish, was seldom pedantic, while their adventurous past furnished them with original matter of interest far beyond the ordinary topics of salons. That this was so, and that they won the friendship and respect of the more regularly educated and trained gentlemen of the aristocratic Hudson's Bay Company by their true manliness and evident talents, is a matter of history.^[3]

If, then, some of the immigrants of 1843 affiliated at once with the Mission, others openly exhibited a regard and deference for the officers of the fur company, which was in missionary eyes heretical and dangerous. There was still another class composed of those who had conscientiously opposed the formation of a government in the doubtful condition of national affairs, who comprised nearly half of the former settlers, leaving out the Canadian population. These were glad to consult with the new-comers as to the right of the colonists to take such a step, and having some grievances of their own, were not averse to drawing party lines.

That some form of government was made necessary by the present addition, and by the probability that with every year it would be increased, was clear, even to the Hudson's Bay Company, who, however, could not bring themselves to give allegiance to the United States, but favored a temporary government which should be independent of any sovereignty.^[4] And seeing the embarrassment under which the fur magnates labored between their allegiance and the pressure brought to bear by the colonists, there were found some Americans prepared to give their consent to such a compromise. But the majority were opposed to the scheme: the Mission, because in the event of a union between the two nationalities it could not hope to preserve a leading position in colonial affairs; and others, because it was not patriotic to act independently of the United States government. Of this way of thinking were most of the immigrants of 1843, who were prompt to take part in the politics of the colony.

According to Article I., Section 2, of the organic laws adopted the previous year, the election of an executive and legislative committee, and other officers of the provisional government, was held on the second Tuesday of May 1844, and resulted in the choice of W. J. Bailey, Osborne Russell, and P. G. Stewart, to constitute the executive arm of the government; and for the legislative branch, P. H. Burnett, M. M. McCarver, David Hill, and Matthew Gilmore, from the Tualatin district; A. L. Lovejoy, from the Clackamas district; and Daniel Waldo, T. D. Kaiser, and Robert Newell, from the Champoeg district. Yamhill district was not represented. The reader is already acquainted with most of these men. Bailey had been in Oregon since 1835. He was of English birth and liberal education, though of rude experience, and was well adapted to the position.^[5] Osborne Russell was a native of Maine, had been several years in the mountains with the fur companies, and was of known integrity,^[6] and was well fitted to represent the conservative and moral element of colonial society. P. G. Stewart was one of the immigration of 1843, a jeweller, of fair education, a calm, dispassionate, and thoughtful man, deliberate, and careful of the interests of the independent and energetic pioneers who made broad the road to Oregon with laden wagons and lowing herds.

The imperfect laws of Oregon made no provision for the mode of conducting elections, except by adopting the laws of Iowa, with which the people were not familiar. Two thirds of the voters were of the late immigration, and had had neither time nor opportunity to become informed regarding the requirements of their duties as officers of the election. Hence those first regularly elected to the legislature of Oregon received no credentials as members of that body. But there was no disposition on the part of any to dispute their election; and they met on the 18th of June, at Oregon City, in the residence of Felix Hathaway, where they immediately organized for work by taking an oath to support the laws of Oregon, and faithfully to discharge their duties. McCarver was chosen speaker of the house, and Burnett acted as secretary in the absence of J. E. Long.^[7] The message of the executive committee was then read.^[8]

It is not surprising that there should be those who regarded the existing organization as imperfect. The organic laws, however ably drawn, had clearly been framed by one not versed in law; and while the compact, notwithstanding the looseness of its provisions, might be kept by the few who were in the country at the time of its adoption, and who were accompanied to govern themselves without law, it was likely to fail of its object with the addition of several hundred persons annually from all parts of the United States and the world. So, at least, the executive committee had decided, and they threw upon the legislative committee the ungrateful task of casting a doubt on what the friends of the original organization thought good and sufficient, by asking them to remodel the most important portions of that work.

The legislature of 1844 has been censured by some for undoing so much of the work of the previous year.^[9] But in their opinion as well as in the judgment of the executive committee, it must be done; the code of the older colonists must be changed, but it was an ungrateful task. The new-comers composed three fourths of the legislative committee of eight, the ninth member not being elected. But two thirds of the executive committee who recommended the changes were old colonists.^[10] Burnett before going to take his seat in the committee had never been at Oregon City, nor examined the laws of 1843.^[11] Therefore to charge upon him as has been done a premeditated intention of subverting them is manifestly unjust.

Having his attention drawn to the peculiarities of the organic law by the executive committee before making an examination of it, Burnett, who had been district attorney in Missouri, and was an able jurist, declares that on attempting to separate the fundamental from the statutory part of the code, or to understand where the constitution ended and the statutes began, he found himself unable to do so, and that it became necessary to make some distinction before further legislation could take place. As the organic law then stood, it was either all constitution or all stutute. No mode of amendment having been provided, if the organic law was in fact the constitution of Oregon, to amend it would be revolutionary; and unless it could be considered as statutory, and amended or appealed, there was nothing for a legislative committee to do. Under these circumstances it was decided to consider the laws in the light of statutes, and without altering the spirit or intent of that portion which might be understood to be fundamental, to remodel the remainder where they could be improved.

Accordingly on the 27th of June an act was passed "regulating the executive power, the judiciary, and for other purposes." The reader already knows that the expedient of a triumvirate had been adopted, not because it was considered a form of executive power most efficient by the first committee, but to avoid a division by rival candidates which would have defeated the organization. No such necessity now existed; therefore the judiciary act just mentioned vested the gubernatorial power in a single person to be elected at the next annual election, and to hold his office for a term of two years, with a salary of $300 per annum. The legislative power was vested in a house of representatives consisting of thirteen members; nine being thought too few in proportion to the increased population.

By the organic law the judicial power was vested in a supreme court, consisting of a judge and two justices of the peace; and in a probate and justice court. By this peculiar combination of jurisdictions, should a decision be made by a majority, the two justices could overrule the supreme judge, or if a unanimous verdict should be required, a disagreement would defeat any decision. The judiciary act of 1844 vested the judicial power in circuit courts and justices of the peace, and provided for the election of one judge, with probate powers, whose duty it should be to hold two terms of court, annually, in each county, at such times and places as the law should direct. It likewise established the duties of clerk, recorder, sheriff, and justices of the peace.

One of the conditions insisted on by the old colonists in consenting to a government organization was that they should not be taxed. But the committee of 1844 believed that no efficient and regular government could be sustained without a revenue; that no revenue could be had without taxation; and no taxation could be enforced unless the majority were satisfied with the government. The great majority would not support the organization unless convinced that they were receiving an equivalent in the form of protection, and it was a perplexing question how to secure the support of law-abiding men.^[12] The legislative committee remembered, however, that Americans prize above all things the possession of land, and the privilege of the ballot, and shaped their course accordingly. The ways and means act in its fourth section provided that any person refusing to pay taxes should have no benefit from the laws of Oregon, and should be disqualified from voting. Thus by outlawing those who refused to support the government, the people began to consider its value to them, and few were willing to forego its assistance in preventing trespass or collecting debts. Nor did many desire to be deprived of the ballot.^[13]

The land law of 1843 was repealed and another passed in its place. By the first, any person of any age, sex, or race could hold a land claim, while by the law of 1844 the conditions were narrowed. Only free men over eighteen years of age, who would be entitled to vote if of lawful age, and widows, could legally claim six hundred and forty acres. The claimant must take his land in a square or oblong form, and must begin improvements within two months from the time of location with the intention of occupying. Yet a boy under eighteen, if married, might hold land; and all claimants might own town lots in addition to their acres. The custom of recording claims was dispensed with as being of doubtful privilege, the country being unsurveyed, and involving as it would oftentimes a long journey. By an act passed at the second session of the committee in December, the word 'occupancy' was made to mean actual residence by the owner or his agent. The second act also authorized taking six hundred acres of prairie and forty acres of timbered land, not contiguous. Partnership claims were also allowed of double the usual amount, to be held for one year by improvements upon either half; or longer, if both halves were improved within the year. All persons complying with the law were deemed in actual possession, and if supporting the government, had the remedy of forcible entry and detainer, and action against trespass.^[14]

These were certainly improvements in the land law. But the great change aimed at by the legislative committee, and desired by the people, was to forbid the right of missions to hold thirty-six sections of land, thus repeating the practice of land monopoly by the Catholic missionaries in California. As a whole, we may be very sure that the repeal of the law of 1843 met with general approval from both the old and new colonists, the missionary element only excepted.^[15] The law of 1844 placed the missions on the same footing with other claimants. It also ignored the issues between McLoughlin, and Lee and Waller, with regard to the proprietorship of Oregon City.

The seat of government was established by law at Oregon City, called in the act Willamette Falls, after the custom of the early American settlers. The annual meeting of the legislature was fixed for the fourth Tuesday in June. An act was passed fixing the time of holding courts in the several districts, and another regulating the salaries of the officers. On petition of J. L. Parrish, a new district called Clatsop was established, of the extent of which there is no information.^[16]

It will be remembered that the whole territory of Oregon was divided into five districts by the committee of 1843, but in language so vague that a strict constructionist would be in doubt as to whether the country north of the Columbia was included. The committee of 1844 confined the jurisdiction of the provisional government to the south side of the Columbia, by an act making that stream the northern line of the several counties.^[17]

This action was susceptible of two interpretations. It might mean that they abandoned the country north of the Columbia to the British government, or it might indicate to the Hudson's Bay Company that its servants were excluded from participation in the benefits of the organization. If the latter, it was more powerful to influence the company than the law of 1843, which extended jurisdiction over the whole Oregon Territory, and held out no threat of outlawry to a portion of its inhabitants, It was one of those fine points which in the existing political conditions of the colony could not be rashly approached. The friends of the original organic laws, who resented the legislation of 1844 as an affront to the wisdom of the first legislature, saw fit to construe the act to mean that protection was withheld from such Americans as might settle north of the Columbia, and accused the legislatures of acquiescing in the claim of the British government, which sought to make that river the northern boundary of the United States.^[18]

So positive and determined was the opposition to any such admission, even by implication, that at the second session of the committee, in December, an explanatory act was passed defining the boundaries of Oregon as lying between latitudes 42° and 54° 40', and extending from the Rocky Mountains to the sea.^[19] This made plain the position of the British residents in Oregon; they were without a foothold in it.

The prying eyes of the legislative committee of 1844 discovered that the marriage law of Oregon was open to objection upon the ground that it rendered invalid marriages contracted without the consent of the parents where either of the contracting parties were under the age of twenty-one, and exposed the couple to the charge of living in adultery as well as their children to the taint of bastardy. The judiciary committee therefore amended the 17th article of the organic laws by an act of three sections making males of sixteen and females of twelve years of age competent to enter into the marriage relation, but requiring the consent of the parents, till the man was twenty-one and the woman eighteen. The person marrying minors without the sanction of parents or guardians was made liable to a fine of one hundred dollars, to be paid to the parents or guardians; but the marriage was not invalidated for want of their consent. Burnett says the law was enacted only to obviate the evils sure to grow out of the former one. Early marriages are the rule of all new communities for obvious reasons. In Oregon, especially, where women were few, a girl was sure to have suitors before she had fairly reached maturity. But making children of sixteen and twelve years of age competent to marry led to abuses in colonial and territorial times resulting too often in divorce, and sometimes in death.

One of the acts passed intended to have a wholesome effect upon the colony, and which met the approval of the majority, was a prohibitory liquor law. The penalties were fifty dollars for importing, twenty dollars for each sale, and one hundred dollars for manufacturing, together with the destruction of the distillery. White, as Indian agent, was permitted to make some remarks before the committee in favor of its passage. The administering of the law by White has already been alluded to in a previous chapter.

An act touching the subject of slavery, free negroes, and mulattoes is worthy of notice. The adoption of the ordinance of 1787 as the basis of the organic law of Oregon had already made this free territory, and every article of the laws of 1843 was in consonance with free principles. Some occasion, however, was given for special legislation by an affray at Oregon City in the month of March previous, in which two white men and an Indian had been killed, and the public mind much excited, for all of which it was proven that a free negro was to blame. White had asked the secretary of war if the immigration of negroes could not be prevented, and the executive committee had thought the subject of sufficient importance to recommend the passage of a law on the subject of such offences as the negro had been guilty of. The opportunity offered for ridding the infant empire of Oregon of the negro, and all the questions dependent upon his presence in the community, was too good to be neglected. There was a deep-seated hatred of slavery by leading men of the western immigration. Most of them were natives of slave states, who, not having been of the privileged class of wealthy planters, well understood the evils of poverty and slavery together. They knew that education, honors, and all desirable attainments and dignities were denied to the poor white class of the slave states; and when they emigrated from them they determined to leave behind the clinging curse of caste, and to have for their own a free country, and free institutions to leave to their children. By a curious and contradictory impulse of the mind, no southern man, desiring freedom for himself from the evils of slavery, ever could be brought to look with complacency upon a free negro. The black man, though not to blame for the condition of society his presence entailed, was never forgiven for it, nor admitted to be a sufferer by it.

Undoubtedly something of this feeling of caste, where no caste was to be tolerated, influenced the founders of the provisional government of Oregon. Article 4 of the organic laws prohibited slavery or involuntary servitude except for the punishment of crimes whereof the party should have been duly convicted. The new legislation was intended, besides settling the matter of slavery in Oregon, to rid the country, in time, of every free negro or mulatto in it, and to prevent the coming of others,^[20] by inflicting corporal punishment on all of eighteen years of age, or more, who had not left the territory within two years after the passage of the act. But finding this law to conflict with the spirit of free institutions in too great a degree, it was amended at the December session by repealing the sections making whipping the punishment for remaining in the country, and susbtituting one requiring the arrest of such contumacious negroes, their trial before a justice of the peace, and if convicted, the hiring of the offenders to the person who should give bond to remove them out of the territory within the shortest space of time, paying himself out of their services. The law was in any case inoperative for two years, during which time such changes had occurred in the territory as to do away with the motive for enforcing it.

At the December session an act was passed for erecting a jail at Oregon City with money from the estate of Ewing Young; the executive committee being required to appoint an administrator to close up the business of the estate, and collect debts due to it; and the government being pledged to pay all money so received to the lawful heirs of Young whenever they should appear to claim it. A lot for the erection of the jail was offered by McLoughlin, and accepted by the committee.^[21] An act was also passed for the protection of Indians in the free use of such pieces of vacant land as they then occupied with their villages or fisheries; and the executive was empowered to bring suit in the name of Oregon against persons infringing the rights of the natives to the peaceable possession of such lands.

The two sessions of the committee of 1844 occupied less than three weeks, in which time forty-three bills were passed, many of them of general importance. Some of the shorter ones showed the improvements to which the accession of population was giving rise. Hugh Burns and Robert Moore were granted rights to keep public ferries on the Willamette; John McLoughlin to construct a canal round the falls; W. H. Wilson and L. H. Judson to construct a mill-race in Champoeg County. Jesse Applegate was appointed engineer to survey for a canal from the crossing of the Tualatin River, down Sucker Creek, to the Willamette River, in order to determine the cost of making this a mode of transportation from the Tualatin plains to the Willamette. Several road acts were also passed.

The legislative committee fixed the pay of the executive committee at one hundred dollars each, per annum, for their services, the three receiving nothing above the amount fixed as the salary of the governor provided for by an act passed the following day. But as the organic law did not contemplate paying the executive committee in anything but honors, one hundred dollars to each might be considered as a gift. The legislative committee voted themselves two dollars a day, and the assessor of the revenue the same.^[22]

The judiciary report of 1843, in defining the powers of the executive committee, gave them authority to "recommend such laws as they might consider necessary, to the representatives of the people, for their action;" and they had, at the opening of the second session, recommended to the representatives to make provision for framing and adopting a constitution for Oregon previous to the next annual election on the first Tuesday in June. Accordingly an act was passed to provide for holding a constitutional convention, requiring the executive committee to notify the inhabitants of all the counties that they should at the next annual election give their votes for or against the call for a convention to frame a constitution, and notify the legislative committee elected of the result. This act, in which both committees elected by the people were agreed, was unfavorably commented upon by certain friends of the original organic law, as a movement toward an independent government. Applegate expressed the opinion that the changes made in the mode of administration were unnecessary for the short time the provisional government was expected to last.^[23]

Two of the executive committee, I think, leaned toward independent government, and they were among those who had been longest in the country. This was hinted in the message of June signed by the whole committee,^[24] though bearing the impress of but one author.^[25] The second message explains that adjournment to December was made in the expectation of receiving some information from the United States relative to the adjustment of claims with Great Britain. When this fact is taken into consideration, and that no satisfactory intelligence had been obtained of such settlement, the coloring given to the acts passed in December is such as to justify an opinion that there was a determination to perfect as rapidly as possible a government which would be able to cope with the exigencies to which it was liable to be subjected.^[26] In advising the adoption of a constitution, the writer of the message used this language: "It should be constructed in such a manner as would best suit the local situation of the country, and promote the general interests of the citizens, without interfering with the real or pretended rights of the United States or Great Britain, except when the protection of life and property actually require it." The legislative committee, by calling for the votes of the people upon a constitutional convention, may have been feeling their way toward what the future had in store for them, without meriting much opprobrium.

It is noteworthy, however, that at the first session Lovejoy moved to strike the word 'territory' out of the journal of legislative proceedings. This might mean that the legislative committee did not wish the country to be considered a territory of the United States, or that in their estimation it was not such at present. An attempt was made in the legislature of 1845 to establish the name Oregon Territory, but it was never adopted until the boundary was determined and the question of sovereignty set at rest. Again, in the judiciary act, the nineteenth article of the organic law is repealed, the same being a resolution that a committee should be appointed to "draw up a digest of the doings of the people of this territory, with regard to an organization, and transmit the same to the United States government for their information." That committee, consisting of Lee, Hines, and Walker, never informed the government of the organization, nor did the legislative committee of 1844. It was not until 1845 that congress was notified that Oregon enjoyed a government in which the United States had as yet no part. The repeal of the resolution may have signified that the committee did net desire to have its doings reported to congress, or it might have been done, because such a resolution was out of place in the organic law.

But however the legislative committee may have favored the independence of Oregon, there is no reason to suppose they intended to yield aught to the British government or Hudson's Bay Company,^[27] but on the contrary, there appeared a disposition to vote down the bills and petitions presented in the interest of John McLoughlin.^[28] In many small ways they unintentionally left proof that, if they aimed at independence for Oregon, it was as a government free from all influences foreign to their republican principles.^[29]

The economy of the government is shown in the appropriations, which for its whole expenses for the first year amounted to $917.96, to meet which there were $358.31 in the treasury, the tax collector not yet having completed his labors. This was less than fifty events for each individual in the country, according to the census of 1844, the correctness of which I doubt, giving as it does a total of 2,109,^[30] including the immigration of that year, which was also taxed. No census was taken of the amount of property in the country.

Applegate calls the acts of the legislative committee of 1844 "impolitic and unpatriotic;" and asserts further that the conservative class, which greatly outnumbered the mere demagogues and their followers, determined these wrongs should be righted at any cost.^[31] Had Mr. Applegate ever done anything to deserve the name of demagogue, here would be the time to accuse him of wishing in his turn to subvert a good government, because it was proposed to place it on a firm basis. He was perhaps unconscious of the influence at work to create public sentiment against the acts of the legislative committee, or the jealousies which struggled to prevent either of two of the members of the executive committee from being governor of the colony. How the people finally decided I shall relate in a future chapter concerning the legislature of 1845, of which Applegate was a member.

After all there appeared to be no great need of law in Oregon. The only occasion on which Judge Babcock, elected at the primary meeting of 1841, exercised his probate powers, was at the death of Cornelius Rogers in the spring of 1843.^[32] All the disturbances occurring in the colony had been of a nature to bring them under the jurisdiction of White. There is but a single mention of an assault previous to the establishment of circuit courts, and that one was accompanied by extenuating circumstances, the offender escaping with a fine. But in the spring of 1845 Joel Turnham assaulted Webley Hauxhurst with such violence that a complaint was entered against him. Turnham, being a constable, could not take himself into custody, and John Edmonds was deputed to make the arrest. Turnham resisted and attacked Edmonds, who was compelled to fire on him, the shots resulting fatally. The grand jury found no bill against Edmonds.^[33] Not long after this, Sheriff Meek had a warrant to arrest V. W. Dawson, an enemy of the government, who openly defied the organization, and would have resisted the officer had not Meek been as kind and cool as he was courageous. Dawson, finding he must submit, thereafter was a firm friend of law, and insisted that as he obeyed, every other must.

1. Grover's Or. Archives, 35.
2. Sylvester's Olympia, MS., 3.
3. Crawford's Missionaries, MS., 17.
4. Applegate's Views, MS., 41; Gray's Hist. Or., 261.
5. Niles' Reg., lxvii. 339.
6. Says Burnett: 'All his comrades agreed that he never lost his virtuous habits, but always remained true to his principles. He was never married. He is a man of education and refined feelings. After the discovery of gold he came to the mines, and has been engaged in mining in El Dorado County ever since.' Burnett's Rec., 161-2.
7. Dr John E. Long was born in England and bred to the profession of medicine. He immigrated to the United States in 1833, and to Oregon in 1843. He was a member of the Catholic church of Oregon City, but at the same time was a firm supporter of the provisional government. He was drowned or killed June 21, 1846, by a fall from his horse, which became unmanageable at a ford of the Clackamas River, throwing him into the stream. Or. Spectator, July 9, 1846.
8. To the Honorable the Legislative Assembly of Oregon Territory—Gentlemen: As a rising colony, under no immediate external control or civil protection, we have abundant reason for rendering up our thanks to the Great Ruler of the Universe for his parental care and protection over us, from the first entrance into this country unto the present day. And it becomes us humbly to acknowledge our dependence on him as our protector and preserver, and implore a continuance of his care and watchfulness over us and wisdom to direct us in the discharge of the duties devolving upon us. This country has been populated by powerful Indian tribes, but it has pleased the great disposer of human events to reduce them to a mere shadow of their former greatness, thus removing the chief obstruction to the entrance of civilization, and opening a way for the introduction of Christianity where ignorance and idolatry have reigned uncontrolled for many ages. There have perhaps been few colonies planted in North America under the same circumstances in which the present settlers of this territory are placed. We are situated in a portion of country remote from civilized nations, among the few remaining savages who are the original proprietors of the soil. The country is claimed by two powerful, civilized, and enlightened nations, proud of their national liberties, and jealous of their respective rights and privileges. It is obvious that these claims must be adjusted, and the soil purchased from the original proprietors, previous to any right being conferred upon the citizens of those governments, relative to the cultivation of lands in this Territory. The government of Great Britain has never publicly extended her claim so far south as to include the lands now under cultivation in this colony. But a treaty now exists between that government and the United States, giving to either party the right of mutual occupancy of this Territory in relation to the Indian trade. The United States have held out inducements to their citizens, and indirectly encouraged the settlement of this country by them. Consequently we are now improving the country by their consent, but without their protection; and it is self-evident that every community have a right to make laws for their mutual benefit and protection, where no law exists. It was under these impressions that the settlers in this Territory established a form of government last year, and adopted such rules and regulations as were at that time deemed necessary for the protection and prosperity of the colony. These regulations were so constructed as to be altered or amended by a legislative assembly, whose members were to be chosen by the people, annually, until such time as the government of the United States shall extend their jurisdiction over the Territory. At the time of our organization it was expected that the United States would have taken possession of the country before this time, but a year has rolled around, and there appears little or no prospect of aid from that quarter, consequently we are yet left on our own resources for protection. In view of the present state of affairs, gentlemen of the assembly, we would recommend to your consideration the adoption of some measures for a more thorough organization. Also to take into consideration the propriety of laying a light tax for the support of government. We would also recommend to your consideration the propriety of vesting the executive power in one person; and the impropriety of vesting the power of supreme, probate and district judges in one person; and the necessity of having an individual judge for each court. We would recommend that such of the laws of Iowa as have been or may be adopted, be so amended as to suit the circumstances of the country. That the militia law be so amended that military officers hold their commission during good behavior, and that each company shall have the privilege of electing their own officers, at such time and place as they shall think fit, excepting the days of annual review; and that such portions of the militia law of Iowa be adopted as will suit all the circumstances of our military organization. We would recommend that the first article of the land law be so amended as to require that some permanent improvement be made on a claim before recording, and that such improvement be designated on record, with such other regulations relative to land claims, as, in the opinion of this assembly, will be most beneficial to the interests of the public. We would recommend that the fourth article of the land law be repealed, as it is considered detrimental to the interests of the community. We would recommend that commissionars be appointed to locate roads, in such places as this assembly shall deem necessary for the interests of the public, and that a law be enacted for the purpose of establishing ferries at different thoroughfares crossing the Willamette River. We recommend the encouragement of the means of education, as far as our limited circumstances will allow. We would also recommend that the laws of Iowa be taken into consideration, concerning blacks and mulattoes, and that a law be enacted for the punishment of offenders inciting the Indians against the whites, and regulating the intercourse of the whites among the Indians of this colony. And in conclusion, we desire to impress upon your minds, that although the colony is small, and its resources feeble, yet the life, rights, and liberties of an individual here are of equal value to him as to one in the city of Washington or London. And it is a duty which devolves on you, and on us, to use as much discretion, vigilance, and caution in maturing and adopting measures for promoting the interests of this little colony, as if we expected our names and acts would be enrolled in the pages of history, or inscribed on pillars of stone, when our day and generation shall have passed away.
   ⁠Willamette Falls, June 18, 1844. ⁠P. G. Stewart,
   ⁠O. Russell,
   ⁠W. J. Bailey,
   ⁠Executive Committee.
9. The standing committees were as follows: Ways and means, Newell, Hill and Gilmore; military affairs, Hill, Kaiser, and Gilmore; land claims, Waldo, Lovejoy, and Newell; roads, Burnett, Waldo, and Kaiser; judiciary, Burnett, Lovejoy, and Gilmore. Gilmore was a plain farmer, and carried no great weight on the judiciary committee. Burnett, it is understood, did the responsible work. The committee to draught rules for the government of the house consisted of Lovejoy, Burnett, and Waldo. The different parts of the executive message were then referred to the committees chosen to consider them; and on motion of Burnett, so much of the executive committee's message as relates to a more thorough organization, to vesting the executive power in a single individual, and to the appointment of several judges, and also those parts of said message that relate to the amendment of the laws of chancery, were referred to the judiciary committee. Grover's Or. Archives, 39.
10. Gray, who was on the first legislative committee, is very bitter toward the committees of 1844. Hist. Or., 375. And even the more just Applegate, offended because his friend Shortess was not found to be a faultless legislator, says: 'The few and simple duties prescribed to these committees by the organic law were far too limited for the display of abilities and statesmanship which they hoped to obtain the credit of possessing; and not understanding that the apparent defects of the organic law were its wisest provisions, without warrant first obtained from the people to do, and without submitting their work, when done, to their sanction or rejection, proceeded to remodel the organic law itself to an extent amounting to its subversion.' Views of History, MS., 41.
11. Burnett's Rec., 204.
12. This refers as much to the Canadians, who were law-abiding, as to the American colonists. Says Brown, Willamette Valley, MS., 31-2, the 'Americans played a pretty sharp game on the British subjects to bring them into the organization of this government.'
13. The ways and means act called for a tax of one eighth of one per cent upon the fair valuation of all merchandise brought into the country for sale; on all improvements in town lots; on mills, pleasure-carriages, clocks, watches, horses, mules, cattle, and hogs; and every white voter must pay a poll tax of 50 cents. The sheriff was made collector of the revenue, for which he received 10 per cent for all moneys received. Burnett's Recollections, 205.
14. Or. Laws, 1843-9, 72, 77-8; Hines' Or. Hist, 433; Greenhow's Hist. Or., 387.
15. Charles E. Pickett, an emigrant of 1843 to Oregon, but for many years subsequently a resident of California, published in 1877 a pamphlet entitled The Paris Exposition and Other Expositions, in which he asserts his claim to the distinction of having been one of the first to denounce the mission monopoly, and to enforce his views by taking a claim on the tract reserved by the Methodists. These articles were first published in the S. F. Examiner, Nov. 1877.
16. A compilation was made in 1853 of The Laws of Oregon from 1843 to 1849, incomplete and carelessly done. It is, however, with thanks that the historian accepts so much of a guide to the acts of the temporary government of Oregon. Previously the only printed code was a volume of Iowa laws of 1838. It was brought to Or. in 1843, and furnished the laws adopted in 1844. It was called the 'blue book,' and was bound in blue boards. In 1845 the larger revised statutes of Iowa, of 1843, found their way to Or., also in blue covers, and were partially adopted in 1849. This volume became the 'blue book,' and the first the 'little blue book,' of Or. legislators. Letters of M. P. Deady.
17. Or. Laws, 1843-9, 74.
18. Applegate's Views, MS., 41; Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 297.
19. 'Commencing at that point on the Pacific Ocean where the parallel of 42° of north latitude strikes the same, as agreed upon by the United States and New Mexico; thence along the coast of said ocean, so as to include all the islands, bays, and harbors contiguous thereto, to a point on said ocean where the parallel of 54° and 40' of north latitude strikes the same; thence east along the last parallel, as agreed between the United States and Russia, to the summit of the main dividing ridge of the Rocky Mountains, dividing the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; thence southerly, following said main dividing ridge to the said parallel of 42° of north latitude; and thence west to the place of beginning.' Or. Laws, 1843-9, 72-3; Clayman's Note Book, 6.
20. 'Be it enacted by the legislative committee of Oregon as follows: Sec. 1. That slavery and involuntary servitude be forever prohibited in Oregon. Sec. 2. That in all cases where slaves shall have been, or shall hereafter be, brought into Oregon, the owners of such slaves respectively shall have the term of 3 years from the introduction of such slaves to remove them out of the country. Sec. 3. That if such owners of slaves shall neglect or refuse to remove such slaves from the country within the time specified in the preceding section, such slaves shall be free. Sec. 4. That when any free negro or mulatto shall have come to Oregon, he or she, as the case may be, if of the age of 18 or upwards, shall remove from the country within the term of 2 years for males, and 3 for females, from the passage of this act; and that if any free negro or mulatto shall hereafter come to Oregon, if of the age aforesaid, he or she shall quit and leave the country within the term of 2 years for males, and 3 years for females, from his or her arrival in the country. Sec. 5. That if such free negro or mulatto be under the age aforesaid, the terms of time specified in the preceding section shall begin to run when he or she shall arrive at such age. Sec. 6. That if any such free negro or mulatto shall fail to quit the country, as required by this act, he or she may be arrested upon a warrant issued by some justice of the peace, and if guilty on trial before such justice, shall receive upon his or her bare back not less than 20 nor more than 39 stripes to be inflicted by the constable of the proper county. Sec. 7. That if any free negro or mulatto shall fail to quit the country within the term of 6 months after receiving such stripes, he or she shall again receive the same punishment once in every 6 months, until he or she shall quit the country. Sec. 8. That when any slave shall obtain his or her freedom, the terms specified in the 4th section shall begin to run from the time when such freedom shall be obtained.'
21. The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another as a site of a prison.' Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, 53. 'We are getting along finely,' writes a settler; 'and have already laid the foundation of a jail.' Niles' Reg., lxx. 214.
22. Oregon Laws, 1843-9, 76.
23. Views of History, MS., 41.
24. The message of December was signed only by Russell and Stewart.
25. Burnett says, 'I think Russell wrote the message,' but this is simply an opinion.
26. McLoughlin wrote to Alexander Simpson under date of Nov. 1844: 'They declare that, if in ten years the boundary is not settled, they will erect themselves into an independent state.' This refers to the colonists at large. See Simpson's Or. Ter. Claims, 41.
27. Gray accuses Burnett 'and a few other Americans' of truckling to the fur company. Hist. Or., 384; Niles' Reg., lxix. 224; Howison's Coast and Country, 17.
28. One of the first petitions presented was from McLoughlin for permission to establish a ferry across the Willamette River, which was refused. McLoughlin also remonstrated against leave being granted certain Americas to construct a route to the island mills, but the leave was granted. But the petition for leave to construct a canal around the falls was allowed, because that was a work requiring a large outlay, and one which would be of great benefit to the colony. McLoughlin's name of 'Oregon City' for his town was steadily rejected by the legislative committee, who wrote 'Willamette Falls' at the head of their proceedings, till at the December session it was formally incorporated as Oregon City.
29. Waldo's Critiques, MS., 8.
30. Males over 18 years, 725; under 18 years, 536; females over 18 years, 353; under 18 years, 485. Champoeg County had the largest population; Tualatin next; then Yamhill, Clackamas, and Clatsop, in a descending scale. White in his report gave the population at 4,000. Ten Years in Or., 225; Concise View, MS., 54. The census of 1844 was taken by Thomas H. Smith, later a resident of Los Angeles County, Cal., according to an act of the legislature. It would have been impossible to obtain a perfect count at the time.
31. Views of History, MS., 41–2.
32. Hines and Gray appraised the estate at $1,500, debts $700. Rogers' heirs resided in Utica, N. Y. Hines' Or. Hist., 140.
33. White's Concise View, MS., 40; Niles' Reg., lxviii. 393; Kaiser's Nar., MS., 10, 11; Salem Directory, 1871.