212 HARRISON C. DALE
age. 26 For those between sixteen and twenty-one, the consent of guardians was necessary. 27 Good character was insisted on 28 and no one was admitted "whose intention was obviously apparent to avoid payment of his debts." 29 Requirements under this head did not stop here. In one company every member had to be a believer in the Christian religion 30 and in another, to possess a copy of the Bible. 31 Rigid insistence, however, seems rarely to have been laid on such points as the last. Negroes and mulattoes were regularly debarred. 32 The company reserved the right to expel undesirables at any time. 33 After the company got under way, the admission of new mem- bers required a vote. 34
The dues required of members were of two kinds, a nominal fee, usually a dollar, to be paid on joining the society and a heavier assessment, intended to be a pro rata charge covering the expenses of the journey, imposed on those who actually emigrated. The members of the company which the Oregon Provisional Emigration Society proposed to send out in the spring of 1840 were to pay $400, in the case of persons over sixteen years of age, and $300 for each child carried in the wagons. In return for this the society was to furnish "horses,
26 Cf. Resolutions of the Oregon Emigrating Society, Rule i, in George Wilkes, History of Oregon, New York, 1845, Part II, p. 70. The "Oregon Emigrating Society of Iowa Territory, at Iowa City," placed the age limit at first at eighteen years but later reduced it to seventeen. Iowa Journ. Hist, and Pol. X, 417, 422.
27 Constitution, Savannah Oregon Emigrating Company, .?. See also Con- stitution of the Oregon Emigration Society of lozva Territory at Iowa City, Article V , /. Iowa Journ. Hist, and Pol. X, 423.
28 Hall J. Kelley, General Circular, Title Page. Cf. Oregpnian and Indians' Advocate, p. 223. Cf. also Constitution of the Oregon Emigration Society of Iowa Territory, at Iowa City, Article V , \2 and Article I, 15.
29 Constitution, Savannah Oregon Emigrating Company, 5.
30 "Notice to Emigrants, //' Oregonian and Indians' Advocate, p. 286, "Every man becoming a member of the society emigrating must be recommended by one with whom he is personally acquainted, as a man of good moral character and a believer in the Christian religion." Cf. Ibid., p. 223.
31 Oregon Emigrating Society of Bloomington, Iowa, Oreg. Hist. Quart., HI, 392.
32 Ibid. Cf. Minto, Antecedents, Oreg. Hist. Quart., V, 45. Constitution of the Oregon Emigration Society of Iowa Terrtory, at Iowa. City, Article V, j.
33 Constitution, Savannah Oregon Emigrating Company, 5. Robert Sl^rtess, First Emigrants^ to Oregon, O. P. A. Transactions, 1896, p. 97. Constitution of the Oregon Emigration Society of Iowa Territory, at Iowa City, Article I, 13.
34 Edwin Bryant, What I Saw in California, New York, 1849, P- 4^- Resolu- tions of the Oregon Emigrating Company, Rule 5, Wilkes, History of Orz^on, p. 71. Constitution of the Oregon Emigration Society of Iowa Territory, at Iowa City, Loc. cit.
