LAST STEP IN PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 315
Columbia or in any way to extend a definite jurisdiction. The bolder spirits among the Americans might be inclined to lay claim to control over the whole of the Oregon region, yet until the Hudson's Bay Company through its officials recog- nized the authority of the Provisional Government over them- selves and the territory under their control such assertions were without practical effect. Indeed, until the British citizens within the Willamette Valley had given allegiance to the new government it was without authority over them. There were men among the Americans, cooler headed and more moderate, who realized the desirability of securing the consent of those whom they would govern. The government of 1843 had proven ineffective so long as the French-Canadians, constituting as they did, a compact body of settlement on the lower Willamette prairie, and other Britishers held aloof. In 1844 these had, by peaceful means, persuaded that their own best interests would be served, been brought into the union. Now to complete this union territorially the region north of the Columbia needed to be included, and to secure what was more important a political union of the people settled north and south of that river. The settlers north of the Columbia constituted, for the most part, those directly connected with the Hudson's Bay Company and in its employ about two hundred in number and those who had been brought into the country under the direction of the Company and who recognized a certain measure of authority and control by its officials. The Provisional Gov- ernment could scarcely hope to compel from these people obedience to its laws. It was the better part of valor and wisdom to secure from them also by peaceful persuasion a recognition of its authority, to form with them a definite union. This last act in the making of the Provisional Gov- ernment of Oregon was accomplished in August, 1845, by a formal agreement entered into between the Legislative body acting on behalf of the people of the Willamette Valley and the officials of the Hudson's Bay Company speaking for the people to the north of the Columbia.
