Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/389

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Organization of Provisional Government.
373

illustrated, however, by this quotation from the official record of June 28, 1844, when Mr. Garrison introduced the following resolution, which was referred to the committee of the whole, but which was never acted upon, so far as the records show:

"Resolved, That whereas the people of Oregon, assembled en masse, did on the second day of May, A. D. 1843, resolve that no tax should be levied upon this people, confirming the same by the adoption of the report of the committee of ways and means, adopted by the legislative committee and referred to the people en masse, and by them enacted on the fifth day of July, 1843; therefore

"Resolved, That this house has no right to levy a tax of any kind without the consent of the free voters of this territory previously obtained.

"Resolved, That all acts and parts of acts on that subject, passed by the legislative committee, were contrary to the express resolution and action of the people. The preserved record of that meeting held at this place fifty-eight years ago makes no mention of the passage of the resolution here referred to, but such action must have been taken, which seems to indicate that the vision of our fathers did not reach far into the future if they expected to maintain a government without levying taxes upon the people. By following the official records it will be seen that eighteen months later than this, to wit, on the nineteenth of December, 1845, this law was approved by Governor Abernethy:

"Section 2. The governor of Oregon is hereby authorized to give public notice throughout Oregon, either by publishing the same in the newspaper, or otherwise, that he will receive sealed proposals from all who may desire to give donations to the government for the purpose of erecting public buildings and locating the seat of government—said proposal to state the amount to be given