Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/118

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110
Fred Lockley

section shall begin to run when he or she shall arrive at such age.

"Section 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 upon trial before such justice, shall receive upon his or her bare back not less than twenty nor more than thirty-nine stripes, to be inflicted by the constable of the proper county.

"Section 7. That if any free negro or mulatto shall fail to quit the country within the term of six months after receiving such stripes, he or she shall again receive the same punishment once in every six months until he or she shall quit the country.

"Section 8. That when any slave shall obtain his or her freedom, the time specified in the fourth section shall begin to run from the time when such freedom shall be obtained."

This was passed at the June session in 1844. At the December session of the same year Peter H. Burnett introduced an amendment, which was passed on December 19, 1844, which reads as follows:

"An Act amendatory of An Act passed June 26th, 1844, in Regard to Slavery and for other purposes.
"Be It Enacted by the Legislative Committee of Oregon as follows:

"Section 1. That the sixth and seventh sections of said act are hereby repealed.

"Section 2. That if any such free negro or mulatto shall fail to quit and leave the country, as required by the act to which this is amendatory, he or she may be arrested upon a warrant issued by some justice of the peace; and if guilty upon trial before such justice had, the said justice shall issue his order to any officer competent to execute process, directing said officer to given ten days' public notice, by at least four written or printed advertisements, that he will publicly hire out such free negro or mulatto to the lowest bidder, on a day and at a place therein specified. On the day and at the place mentioned in said notice, such officer shall expose such free negro or mulatto to public hiring; and the person who will obligate himself to remove such free negro or mulatto from the country for the shortest term of service, shall enter into a bond with good and sufficient security to Oregon, in a