Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 2/The Formation and Administration of the Provisional Government of Oregon
THE QUARTERLY
OF THE
OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
THE FORMATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF OREGON.
An address given by Hon. H.W. Scott, President of the Oregon Historical Society, at the unveiling of the Champoeg monument, May 2, 1901.[1]
We are here to-day to commemorate an event that took place on this spot eight and fifty years ago. That event was the birth of the first American commonwealth, the organization of the first American government on the Pacific Coast of the United States of America.
Oregon in those days was much more distant from our Atlantic States in time, and far more difficult to be reached, than America was from Europe when the settlement of the American continent began. The migration across the continent of America was, indeed, the most extraordinary of migratory movements since the date of authentic history. From the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi River it was a movement by comparatively short and easy stages; from the Mississippi westward it was a single leap. The slender column pushed its way over plains and mountains, through hostile native tribes and arid wilderness—the first parties requiring more than a year for the journey; the later ones, as the routes become better known, not less than six months. Quite as long, though with less danger, fatigue, and privation, was the voyage by sea around the continent to these western shores of America. Nearer to us than Jamestown and Plymouth is the heroic age.
But I am not to speak to-day of the discovery, exploration, migration, and settlement. It is the Provisional Government, created upon this spot, May 2, 1843, that is our theme to-day. At the outset I shall quote a remark made by an eminent citizen of honored memory. Judge William Strong, who, in an address before the Pioneer Society of Oregon in 1879, said: "Oregon owes by far the most of its prosperity and rapid progress to the early formation of the Provisional Government, the wise laws which were enacted, and the inflexible justice with which they were administered."
In pioneer days in Oregon, as elsewhere in America, the beginning of settlement was followed almost immediately by organization of government. The instinct of the race to which we belong to establish civil institutions and to organize government under regular forms of law was manifest here before there were so many as one hundred persons of American nativity in the whole country west of the Rocky Mountains. Joint occupation of the country by British subjects, and by people from the United States, each party hoping to hold the great Pacific Northwest for its own country, hastened action while the inhabitants were yet very few. Such, however, was the vigor and activity of the Americans that, though they were at first inferior in numbers, they soon gained the ascendant, and, rapidly reinforced during the years that followed, they had fully established civil government in Oregon long before the question of national jurisdiction was finally settled between the United States and Great Britain.
This first effort to establish a government here was rooted largely in this international competition. From the first the people of Oregon had been separated into two great divisions—those owing allegiance to Great Britain and those owing allegiance to the United States. How this came about is the one long story of our early history. There is no time to deal with it here. I merely speak of it as the fundamental fact in the early history of Oregon. So closely divided were the parties that it was difficult at any time after 1840 to say which had the numerical superiority. From the transfer of Astoria in 1813 down to the arrival of the American missionaries and first permanent American settlers—down, indeed, to the year 1840—the English influence was decidedly in the ascendant. Preponderance of the Americans was slowly gained.
The very first movement of the American settlers was a petition to congress, in the year 1840. That petition asked for the protection of the United States, and prayed that "congress would establish, as soon as may be, a territorial government in the Oregon Territory." It contained an allusion to the conflict with British interests here, as a reason why the United States should take speedy action.
As American influence increased, our pioneers became constantly more active and urgent for the formation of a government. Most of the subjects of Great Britain naturally held aloof from a movement in which American influence was likely to be paramount. We had three classes of Americans in the Oregon country: First, American trappers or mountain men, who were hostile to the Hudson's Bay Company and strongly attached to the United States; second, the American missionaries, who were ardently attached to the institutions of their own country, which are bound up with religious freedom; third, American settlers, who had come to make homes and to cultivate the soil. But the whole American population in 1842 was no more than one hundred and thirty-seven, of whom thirty-four were white women and thirty-two were white children. A considerable number of the American settlers and mountain men had native wives.
On the seventh of February, 1841, a meeting of some of the inhabitants was held at Champoeg, then the center or seat of the principal settlement, "for the purpose of consulting upon the steps necessary to be taken for the formation of laws, and the election of officers to execute them.' The call was cautiously worded, so as to avoid the troublesome question of national sovereignty; for the Americans, who were making this initiatory movement, thought it prudent not to go too fast, realizing that the population of the country, though divided in their allegiance, yet had to live together. Rev. Jason Lee, of the Methodist mission, presided over this meeting. The Methodists were the leaders in missionary enterprise in Oregon. They had established the Willamette mission, under direction of Rev. Jason Lee, in 1834. In 1835, Samuel Parker, a Presbyterian missionary, came for the purpose of making examination of the field and selecting stations for missionary labor. Next year he returned by sea to New York. Whitman, with a small party, followed in 1836. Roman Catholic missionaries began their work in Oregon in 1838–39. From year to year there were additions to the various missions, and small parties of independent settlers were coming in. There was also in the country a considerable body of the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, some still in active service under the company's direction, others who had left its service voluntarily or had been discharged. These were mostly French-Canadians, who had taken Indian wives and settled down in the country. Thus there were two sentiments—one American, the other British; and as the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company was well established before the Americans came, the latter were looked upon very much as intruders—though in fact Great Britain had never made a serious or definite claim to that part of Oregon lying south of the Columbia River.
At this first meeting nothing was done beyond advising the selection of a committee for the purpose of drafting a code of laws for the government of the country. But an event soon occurred that hastened action.
This was the death of Ewing Young. He was a native of Tennessee; he had visited California as early as 1828, and in 1834 he came to Oregon, in company with Hall J. Kelley, who had long been known as an enthusiast in all that related to Oregon. Kelley was a citizen of Massachusetts. For years he had been indefatigable in his efforts to awaken interest in Oregon and to induce congress to take action for encouragement and promotion of settlement here. Finally he decided to visit Oregon himself, and see with his own eyes the land about which he had written and spoken so much. He. came by a circuitous route through Mexico and California, and in California he fell in with Ewing Young, whom he induced to come with him to Oregon. With a party of about sixteen persons picked up about Monterey and San Jose, they set out for Oregon in the summer of 1834. Kelley soon returned by sea to Boston, but Young remained, and from that time until his death, in February, 1841, his name has a conspicuous place in the pioneer life of Oregon. He left considerable property, to which there were no legal claimants or known heirs; and as there was no probate court, the administration of the property became a perplexing question. Most of the American settlers were present at the funeral, and after the burial service the discussion turned upon the necessity of civil government, "a new reason for which," says Thornton in his monograph, written for the Pioneer Society of Oregon, "was seen by all in the condition in which the estate of the deceased had been left." So a meeting was organized on the spot. Rev. Jason Lee was again chosen chairman, and Rev. Gustavus Hines was made secretary. To the committee of arrangements named at the previous meeting the name of George W. Le Breton was added; a committee of seven was likewise recommended, whose business it should be to draft a constitution and a code of laws for the settlements south of the Columbia River, and the meeting proceeded to instruct the committee to recommend the following officers, viz.: A governor; a supreme judge, with probate powers; three justices of the peace; three constables; three road commissioners; an attorney-general; a clerk of the courts; a recorder; a treasurer, and two overseers of the poor.
The committee to form a constitution and to draft a code of laws was composed of the following persons, viz.: Rev. F. N. Blanchet, Rev. Jason Lee, Rev. Gustavus Hines, David Donpierre, M. Charlevon, Robert Moore, J. L. Parrish, Etienne Lucier, and William Johnson. It will be seen from these names that there was an attempt at co-operation among the different elements of population then in Oregon. Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries, subjects of Great Britain and citizens of the United States, were associated on the committee, which was advised by the assembly to report a set of officials on a system suited to the wants of the community. Following these proceedings Dr. Ira L. Babcock was appointed supreme judge with probate powers; George Le Breton was named as clerk of courts and public recorder; William Johnson was appointed high sheriff, and William McCarty, Xavier Ladevant, and Pierre Bilique were chosen constables. It was resolved that "until a code of laws be adopted by this community, Doctor Babcock be instructed to act according to the laws of the State of New York/' On the eighteenth day of February the meeting was adjourned "to meet on the first Tuesday of June at the new building near the Catholic Church.' At this second meeting it was reported that no proceedings had been taken meantime by the committee appointed to draft a constitution and code of laws, and adjournment was taken "to the American Mission House, on the first Tuesday in October, 1841."
This was the end of the first effort. Neither committee nor assembly met again. As might have been expected, political and ecclesiastical jealousies began to arise. Was the American or British element to have ascendency? Was the Protestant missionary or the Catholic missionary to have the larger influence in the government? And, finally, there was the nonchurch element strongly individualized, which wanted to limit the ecclesiastics of all names to their own proper functions. So there could be no organization till more Americans should arrive.
During the next two years the project of local government remained quiet; but the number of Americans was increasing. To the one hundred and thirty-seven Americans in the country at the beginning of 1842, there were added by immigration that year one hundred and twelve persons, including forty-two families. There were also considerable reinforcements to the British-Canadian colony from the Red River of the North.
Early in the year 1843 the project of a Provisional Government was started again. This second attempt also was taken partly under cover of a utilitarian scheme. Beasts of prey bears, panthers, and wolves were very numerous, and the settlers suffered great loss through depredations upon their flocks and herds. A preliminary meeting was held at the Oregon Institute (Methodist mission) February 2, 1843, at which it was moved that a general meeting be called on the first Monday of March at the house of Joseph Gervais, a Hudson's Bay pioneer, whose name is perpetuated in the town of Gervais, Marion County. At this meeting, held at the appointed time, measures were taken for concert in destruction of noxious animals; and following this a committee of twelve was appointed to "consider measures for the civil and military protection of this colony." This committee consisted of Doctor Babcock, Doctor White, Messrs. O'Neil, Shortess, Newell, Lucier, Gervais, Hubbard, McRoy, Gay, Smith, and Gray. The names sufficiently show the predominance of men of United States nativity.
But the question whether the new organization was to be based on acknowledged allegiance to the United States or not, instantly came uppermost. An address of "the Canadian citizens of Oregon' was presented to the meeting, in which it was urged that "laws and regulations for welfare of our persons and for security of our property and labors" be enacted, but objection was made to organization of a military force, on the ground that it was "useless at present" and "rather a danger of bad suspicion to the Indians;" and, finally, that "we consider the country free to all nations, opening to every individual wishing to settle, without any distinction of origin, and without asking him anything, either to become an English, Spanish, or American citizen." This was signed by men proclaiming themselves "English subjects," numbering about fifty. It was "laid aside for the present,as the business of the meeting was understood to have been completed by the appointment of the committee of twelve, which was to develop a plan of organization.
This committee was to report at a general meeting, called to assemble at Champoeg, May 2, 1843. On the appointed day about an equal number of American citizens and British subjects came together in mass meeting, and it was announced that the report of the committee of twelve was ready. Doctor Babcock took the chair and the report of the committee was read. From the composition of the committee it was not doubted that it would report in favor of political organization, to continue in force until the United States should establish a territorial government. Such the report proved to be. The subjects of Great Britain could not be expected to participate and acquiesce, for such action on their part would have amounted to renunciation of their allegiance to Great Britain and consent to the American claim of sovereignty. So when the motion was put that the report be adopted there was a division on national lines; and so close was it that the chairman was unable to decide which party had the majority. Then Joseph L. Meek, one of our sturdy pioneers, a native of Virginia, who had come West in the spirit of boyish adventure, and had passed many year,s on the plains and among the mountains, sprang to his feet and called for a division. Appealing to the Americans, he exclaimed, in his impetuous way, "Who's for a divide? All for the report of the committee and an organization, follow me!" The effect was electrical. The men on either side fell into their places to be counted. The ayes were fifty-two, the noes fifty. Another account says the ayes were fifty-five; but it is probable that in the larger number some absentees, or persons who were expected but were not present, were included. Upon the announcement of the vote the opponents of the organization mounted their horses and rode away, leaving the field to the Americans. It was a victory to which missionaries, mountaineers, and independent settlers had contributed; it was a victory of the American spirit, asserted by a courageous few, at this remotest outpost of the American republic. Honor to the spirit and courage of Joseph L. Meek; honor to the leadership and memory of one who, though wholly without conventional culture, and lacking even in the elementary parts of school education, proved himself the man for the place and time.
No list was made at the time of the names of those whose votes that day carried the motion to establish a government in Oregon—the first government on the Pacific Slope within the domain of the United States. Diligent effort has been made to recover the names, and the effort has been almost wholly successful; but the list now obtainable depends on the memory of witnesses who were present, but one of whom survives to this day. This is F. X. Matthieu, who has lived continuously in this vicinity ever since the day of that meeting. Another, John L. Morrison, who came to Oregon in 1842, who built the first house on Morrison Street, in Portland, and for whom the street was named, was, till recently, living upon one of the islands in the northern part of Puget Sound. One of the most active, earnest and forceful of the men who helped to carry the day, May 2, 1843, was William H. Gray, who came with Whitman in 1836. He is one distinctly to be named among the fathers of Oregon. It is through the venerable Mr. Matthieu that the spot is identified where the meeting was held, and where the monument is placed which we dedicate this day.
The Americans now proceeded rapidly with their work of organization. A matter of the first importance was the formation of a legislative committee, whose duty it was to report a form of organic law for the new commonwealth. The committee was constituted of these names, to wit: A. E. Wilson, G. W. Le Breton, J. L. Meek, W. H. Willson, D. Hill, Robert Shortess, Robert Newell, Alanson Beers, T. J. Hubbard, W. H. Gray, J. O'Neil, Robert Moore, and William Dougherty. After deliberation of several days and election of A. E. Wilson to the office of Supreme Judge, G. W. Le Breton, Clerk of the court, J. L. Meek, Sheriff, and W. H. Willson, Treasurer, the meeting adjourned to the fifth of July, by which time the legislative committee was to be ready with the organic law.
No instructions seem to have been given to this committee as to where it was to meet for its work, but records show that it had its sittings at Willamette Falls, in a building tendered by the Methodist mission for the purpose. The building was devoted to a variety of uses. It has long since disappeared. It is described as a building one and a half stories high, sixteen feet wide, and thirty feet long, the upper portion being used as a storage and sleeping apartment, while the lower part was so divided as to make one square room for a schoolhouse and place of worship, and the other was used for storing wheat. The committee continued its sittings until the twelfth day of May, and then adjourned, to meet the last Thursday in June. At this last meeting the final touches were given to its work.
Upon the appointed day, July 5, 1843, the convention reassembled on this spot. Some description of this first State House of Oregon may be interesting. From the accounts I have been able to gather it was built with posts sunk into the ground, two and two together, with spaces between them, which were filled in with split timber. Such were the walls, which were held together by horizontal poles laid across the top; and the whole structure was surmounted by rafters made of fir poles, covered by a roof of cedar bark. That edifice, needless to say, has not remained to this day.
The civil officers elected in May were sworn in upon an oath of office drafted by a special committee consisting of Chairman Babcock and Rev. Jason Lee, Harvey Clark, and David Leslie. Then the report of the legislative committee was submitted. It was some what elaborate. We can not follow its details here, but will quote its preamble, as a passage of special interest, to wit: "We, the people of Oregon Territory, for the purposes of mutual protection and to secure peace and prosperity among ourselves, agree to adopt the following laws and regulations, until such time as the United States of America extend their jurisdiction over us." The dispute as to sovereignty with Great Britain was not yet settled; but here was avowal of a purpose to hold the country for the United States. The report of the committee proceeded to divide the territory into four districts. The first called Tuality district, "comprising all the territory south of the boundary line of the United States, west of the Willamette or Multnomah River, north of the Yamhill River, and east of the Pacific Ocean." The second was the Yamhill district, "embracing all the country west of the Willamette or Multnomah River, and a supposed line running north and south from said river south of the Yamhill River, to the boundary line of the United States and California." The fourth district was called the Champoeg district, bounded on the north by a supposed line drawn from the mouth of the Anchiyoke (Pudding) River, running due east to the Rocky Mountains, west by the Multnomah River, and south by the boundary line of the United States and California. The third district, "to be called the Clackamas district," comprehended all the territory not included in the other districts.
In this quaint manner was a region of almost continental proportions, yet containing only a few hundred inhabitants—they wholly in the Willamette Valley—divided into representative districts. The southern line was the 42d degree of latitude, known as the line of boundary between California, then belonging to Mexico, and Oregon. Our claim extended to "fifty-four forty;" the British claim to the country north of the Columbia River was strongly asserted, and Englishmen made a kind of claim, indefinite and nebulous, to the territory south of the river. No citizen of the United States had yet settled in the country north of the Columbia. Within the present limits of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho there were some American missionaries, but they were not so situated as to be able to participate in this political movement. It was not till two years later that the first American settlers entered the territory north of the Columbia and west of the Cascade Mountains. Persons who came over the plains in 1844 were the first Americans who settled in the Puget Sound country. They were led by Michael T. Simmons, who settled at the head of Budd's Inlet in October, 1845. It was his party that opened the first trail from the Columbia River to Puget Sound.
Under the constitution reported by the committee the legislative power was to be vested in nine persons to be chosen by the qualified electors; each district to have representation in proportion to its population, excluding Indians. No discrimination as to suffrage was made against persons not citizens of the United States, but "every free male descendant of a white man of the age of twenty-one years and upward, an inhabitant of this territory at the time of its organization," was declared a qualified elector. Elections were to be held annually. The executive power was to be vested in "a committe of three persons, elected by the qualified voters at the annual election." The judicial power was to be vested in "a supreme court, consisting of a supreme judge and two justices of the peace; a probate court and two justices of the peace." Proceedings in general were to follow the laws of the Territory of Iowa. This simple outline of the provisions of the constitution of the Provisional Government will suffice, in a sketch like the present one, which can be but an outline. In the official record it is written that this ordinance, the organic law of the nascent commonwealth, was "approved by the people July 5, 1843." The convention proceeded to elect David Hill, Alanson Beers, and Joseph Gale an executive committee, and it confirmed the previous appointment of A. E. Wilson as Supreme Judge, of George W. Le Breton as Clerk and Recorder, of Joseph L. Meek as Sheriff, and of W. H. Willson as Treasurer. It appointed as legislative committee Robert Shortess, David Hill, Robert Newell, Alanson Beers, Thomas J. Hubbard, William H. Gray, James (O'Neil, Robert Moore, and William Dougherty, and then adjourned. The Provisional Government had been completed and set in operation. The number of Americans in Oregon was still much less than that of the subjects of Great Britain. Many of the latter were, however, within the limits of the present State of Washington, while nearly all the former were within the present limits of the State of Oregon. But a powerful reinforcement of the Americans was on the way and soon to arrive. That was the great immigration of 1843, which reached the Willamette Valley in the autumn of that year. It numbered about nine hundred persons, among whom were many men of strong character and conspicuous ability, afterwards famous in our affairs; as James W. Nesmith, Jesse Applegate, Matthew Gilmore, M. M. McCarver, John G. Baker, Absalom J. Hembree, Daniel Waldo, William T. Newby, Henry A. G. Lee, John and Daniel Holman, Thomas G. Naylor, John B. Jackson, the first American settler in the country between the Columbia River and Puget Sound, Peter H. Burnett, who went from Oregon to California and became the first Governor of that state after its admission to the American Union; and many more. With so great a reinforcement of American citizens, maintenance of the supremacy of the United States was no longer doubtful. Not yet for three years was the northern boundary to be settled; but it was certain that a territory which contained so many American citizens would never be ceded away.
A difficulty with the Indians on the Clackamas in the fall of 1843 led to the death of George W. Le Breton, clerk and recorder, a very useful young man who had come to the country by sea with Capt. John H. Couch. The alarm led to the formation of a company of "Oregon Rangers," numbering twenty-five men, with Thomas D. Keizer as captain. Happily the new commonwealth had as yet no need to use a military force, and this first company was not called into service.
The first general election was held May 14, 1844. It resulted in the election of Peter G. Stewart, Osborn Russell, and W. J. Bailey as Executive Committee; John E. Long, Territorial Recorder; Philip Foster, Territorial Treasurer; Joseph L. Meek, Territorial Sheriff; Ira L. Babcock, Supreme Judge. Peter H. Burnett, David Hill, M. M. McCarver, M. Gilmore, A. L. Lovejoy, Daniel Waldo, T. D. Keizer, and Robert Newell were elected to the legislature. Several of the new officials were of the immigration of the preceding year. The legislative body met at Oregon City June 18, 1844, and elected M. M. McCarver, Speaker. John E. Long, by virtue of his office as Territorial Recorder, was Clerk. The executive committee submitted a message, which was a cautious document, and dealt chiefly in generalities. Few recommendations were made, for the young government was as yet feeling its way. The legislature was, however, gently requested to "take into consideration the propriety of laying a light tax for the support of the government.The legislature sat ten days and adjourned until December 16. What lay chiefly on the public mind of those times may be judged from the nature of the two principal laws that were enacted—one of them to prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors, the other to prohibit the introduction of slaves and the advent and residence of free negroes in Oregon. Another session of the legislature was held in December, lasting eight days.
Each and every year now added considerable numbers, by immigration, to the strength of the American settlement. The organic law was amended in several important particulars, one of which was a provision for retirement of the executive committee and the election of a Governor. The election was held June 3, 1845. The total vote cast was five hundred and four, and George Abernethy was elected by a plurality of ninety-eight. John E. Long was elected Secretary of the Territory, and Philip Foster, Treasurer. Here was the first appearance in public of James W. Nesmith. He was elected judge at the age of twenty-three.
Members of the legislative committee chosen at this election were: H. A. G. Lee, W. H. Gray, and Hiram Straight, from the Clackamas district; Robert M. Newell, J. M. Garrison, M. G. Foisy, and Barton Lee, from the Champoeg district; Jesse Applegate and Abijah Hendricks, from the Yamhill district; M. M. McCarver, J. W. Smith and David Hill, from the Tuality district; and John McClure, from Clatsop. This assembly met June 24, 1845, at Oregon City, hitherto known as Willamette Falls. A special committee, consisting of Lee, Newell, Smith, Applegate, and McClure, was appointed, charged with the duty of preparing an organic law. This committee, within a few days, made a report; on the second of July, 1845, the assembly adopted it, and three days later passed an act to submit it to the people, to be voted on by the people July 26. The assembly then adjourned to August 5. When it met on that day it was ascertained that a majority of two hundred and three votes had been given for the organic law. Of the legislation of the session I can give no account here. It consisted of acts deemed suitable for conditions existing in an infant or pioneer community; one of which was an act that made wheat lawful tender in payment of taxes and judgments, as well as for payment of all debts where no special contract had been made to the contrary; and stations were designated where wheat might be delivered in payment of public dues. This assembly adjourned August 20, 1845. No provision had been made for a new election at this time, and the old members met again at Oregon City, December 2, 1845—that being the day designated for the first annual session under the new organic law. Robert Newell was elected Speaker; J. E. Long, Chief Clerk, and Theophilus Magruder, Sergeant-at-Arms. This session lasted till the nineteenth of December, 1845.
Under the provisional constitution now in force the legislative power was to be vested in a house of not less than thirteen, nor more that sixty-one members, whose number might not be increased more than five at any one session. In 1846, for the second regular session of the assembly, thirteen were elected, namely, Angus McDonald, A. Chamberlain, Robert Newell, and Jesse Looney, of Champoeg; Hiram Straight, A. L. Lovejoy, and W. G. T'Vault, of Clackamas; George Somers, of Clatsop; W. F. Tolmie, of Lewis; J. E. Williams and John D. Boone, of Polk; Joseph L. Meek, D. H. Lownsdale, and Lawrence Hall, of Tuality; Henry N. Peers, of Vancouver, and Thomas Jefferys and Absalom J. Hembree, of Yamhill.
It will be observed that we have now reached the time when the American settlers within the territory comprised in the present State of Washington began to participate in the Provisional Government. A short statement on this part of the subject will be in place here.
To the four districts defined and named in the first organization, the districts of Clatsop and Polk, lying within the limits of the present State of Oregon, and that of Vancouver, within the limits of the present State of Washington, had been added. The Vancouver district was created in 1845. By the act of the assembly the word "county" was now substituted for "district" throughout. Hitherto, there had been no organization north of the Columbia River, except as the districts of Tuality and Clackamas were supposed to extend northward to the boundary line, which the Oregon Legislature had declared was at the parallel of "fifty-four forty." The district of Vancouver, when created, embraced the whole American territory north of the Columbia River and west of the Cascade Mountains. The legislature appointed these officers, to wit: James Douglas, M. T. Simmons, and Charles Forest, justices, and John R. Jackson, sheriff. On the ninth of December, 1845, the County of Lewis was created out of "all the territory lying to the north of the Columbia River and west of the Cowlitz, up to fifty-four degrees forty minutes north latitude." No county officers were appointed, but the choice was left to the people at the next ensuing election, which was to be held in June, 1846; when, as we have seen, W. F. Tolmie was chosen to represent Lewis County, and Henry N. Peers to represent Vancouver County, in the legislature. These were men of the Hudson's Bay Company. Between them and the Americans, who composed a majority of the legislature, co-operation and harmony were hardly to be expected. In particular, the Americans .were determined to have a rigorous prohibitory liquor law, while the Hudson's Bay Company, having a profitable traffic in liquors, stood strongly against the proposed legislation, which, however, was carried over its protest. Again, in 1847, Vancouver County sent Henry N. Peers to the legislature; Lewis County sent Simon Plamondon. The vote of Lewis this year re-elected Abernethy as Governor, the majority south of the Columbia being against him. A. L. Lovejoy was Abernethy's principal competitor, and the men of the Hudson's Bay Company in Lewis County and elsewhere, no doubt advised by Dr. McLoughlin, between whom and Governor Abernethy harmonious relations existed, preferred Abernethy to Lovejoy. No counties other than Vancouver and Lewis were created north of the Columbia River during the existence of the Provisional Government. In 1849, the legislature of Oregon changed the name of Vancouver County to Clark County. Lewis, Vancouver, and Clatsop were at one time associated in the same legislative district. We find no record of any session of court north of the Columbia during the existence of the Provisional Government. During the latter part of September, 1849, a term of court was held in Steilacoom by Judge Bryant to try some Snoqualmie Indians, who had killed two white men some months before; and this is the first court north of the Columbia River of which any record has been preserved in history.
On the fifteenth day of June, 1846, a treaty was concluded between the United States and Great Britain which acknowledged the sovereignty of our country over that portion of Oregon lying south of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude. Thus, at last, was settled the Oregon boundary question. It was not known in Oregon till several months later, but was mentioned by Governor Abernethy in his message of December 1, 1846.
The great episode of the Provisional. Government was the Cayuse War. Monday, November 29, 1847, the Whitman massacre took place, and became known at Oregon City nine days later. I shall not attempt here an account of the Cayuse War. The expedition undertaken to recover the captives and punish the authors of the massacre was a prodigious effort for so small a population as the country then contained. It was successful. It absorbed all attention for the greater part of the year. Its cost to the territory was estimated at $109,311.50 a very large sum for so poor and small a community. In his message to the legislature, dated February 5, 1849, the Governor announced that the objects of the expedition had been attained and the war brought to a successful termination.
This was the last legislative body of the Provisional Government. The discovery of gold in California had drawn many persons away from Oregon, including officers of the Provisional Government and members of the legislature. Special elections were called to fill the vacancies. February 5, 1849, the legislature met. The following was its membership: Benton County, J. C. Avery; Champoeg, W. J. Bailey, Samuel Parker, William Portius; Clackamas, George L. Curry, Medorem Crawford, A. F. Hedges; Clatsop, John Hobson; Linn, H. J. Peterson, Anderson Cox; Polk, Jesse Applegate; Tuality, Ralph Wilcox, David Hill, S. R. Thurston; Yamhill, A. J. Hembree, L. A. Rice, W. J. Martin; Vancouver, A. L. Lewis. There was no representative from Lewis County, which still embraced the whole country north of the Columbia River and west of the Cowlitz. Levi A. Rice was chosen speaker. The Governor in his message stated that the chief business requiring attention was adjustment of the expenses of the Cayuse War, which it was expected the Government of the United States would assume. This was attended to through an act authorizing the ascertainment of amounts due and issue of scrip; and another act provided for the manner of exchange and payment of interest. Various minor matters of legislation received attention. Among them was "An Act to provide for the weighing and assaying of gold and melting and stamping the same. ' This was the source of the celebrated "beaver money," so called from the figure of a beaver stamped upon the coins. These pieces, coins of $5.00 and $10, of which six thousand of the former and two thousand eight hundred and fifty of the latter were stamped, are extremely scarce, and almost beyond price. The dies upon which these pieces were stamped were found many years afterward by Hon. D. P. Thompson in an old garret at Oregon City, and were by him sent to the Secretary of the State for safe keeping. They ought to be transferred to the custody of the State Historical Society.
The date of final adjournment of the Legislature of the Provisional Government was February 16, 1849. The work of this government was done. Two weeks later Gen. Joseph Lane, who had been appointed Governor by the President of the United States, under act of congress of August 14, 1848, entitled "An Act to establish the Territorial Government of Oregon," arrived and lost no time in setting the wheels of the new government in motion. A census was taken, an election was held, and on the sixteenth of July, 1849, the first territorial legislative assembly met at Oregon City.
No delegate to congress was elected by the people during the existence of the Provisional Government. After the settlement of the boundary dispute with Great Britain, it was hoped and expected that the jurisdiction and laws of the United States would be extended speedily over the Oregon territory. Yet congress at the next ensuing session took no action, and the people of Oregon were greatly disappointed. The cost of maintaining the Provisional Government and of upholding the sovereignty of the United States over this vast territory was weighing heavily on them. It was resolved to send a representative to Washington to lay the case before congress and to urge the erection by the United States of a territorial government. J. Quinn Thornton, who had come over the plains in 1846, and had been appointed supreme judge early in 1847, was selected by Governor Abernethy for this mission. It was at first proposed to hold an election, but this was decided to be impracticable, because there was no law to authorize such election, and the necessary arrangements could not be made in time for it was the fall of the year (1847) and the only vessel upon which a delegate could go that year was about to sail. Finally, there was no law of the United States under which a delegate could demand to be received; and it was deemed just as well, therefore, to send a representative, with a letter from the Governor, explaining the nature and objects of his journey to Washington, and what was desired by the people of the Oregon country. Thornton was appointed in October, 1847, and took the bark Whiton, then lying near the site of the present City of Portland, for San Francisco, where he obtained passage in the United States sloop of war Portsmouth for Boston. He arrived at Washington in May, 1848. Senator Douglas, with whom he had personal acquaintance, introduced him to President Polk, and prepared a memorial to congress, which was presented by Senator Benton. Thornton's services were useful and important. They contributed very materially to the enactment of the territorial organic law.
It has not been my purpose on this occasion to go into details as to legislation of the Provisional Government and its organic law. Any account of these details would be too long for the present discourse. Many of them may be had in Thornton's sketch, to which I have already adverted. The organic law itself may be found in "Deady's Code" a book which, though now out of print, is readily accessible. It is also printed in Brown's "Political History of Oregon" a book of high value, containing a greater number of documents and facts relating to the Provisional Government and the early political history of Oregon than has elsewhere been collected.
What shall I say more of the impressive scene that was acted upon this spot eight and fifty years ago? All the actors save one, the venerable F. X. Matthieu, who providentially is with us to-day, have passed from earth. The results of their work remain; and what we must regard as a thing of high significance is the fact that they well understood that they were laying the foundation of a state. In what they did here that day there was a clear premonition to them that it was a work for unborn ages. The instinct for making states, an instinct that so strongly characterizes that portion of the human race that has created the United States of America, never had clearer manifestation or more vigorous assertion. On the spot where this work was done we dedicate this monument this day. May every inhabitant of the Oregon country, through all ages, take pride in this spot, and an interest in preservation of this monument, as a memento of what was done here!
- ↑ The Board of Directors of the Oregon Historical Society, in pursuance of the object of the society to identify and mark historical sites, had, through its committee, Hon. T. T. Geer, Governor of the state, and Assistant Secretary George H. Himes, identified the spot where the vote for organization was taken on May 2, 1843. The Hon. F. X. Matthieu, the only surviving participant in the formation of the Provisional Government, was their main, if not sole, reliance in accomplishing this. Governor Geer then recommended to the next Legislative Assembly of Oregon that it appropriate a modest sum for a monument to mark the spot. The legislature acted in accordance with his recommendation. The monument was unveiled on an anniversary of the event it commemorates in the presence of a large and representative assemblage of citizens of Oregon.