the committee be advised to confer with the commander of the American Exploring Squadron now in the Columbia river, concerning the propriety of forming a provisional government in Oregon." The naval commander, Capt. Charles Wilkes, and his fellow officers were definitely opposed to the settlers' plans, and assured the people that soon they would doubtless be placed under jurisdiction of the United States government. The arrival in September 1842 of an official sub-agent of Indian affairs, who contended that his office was equivalent to that of Governor of the Territory, served further to retard the movement for setting up a local government.
Several isolated Indian outrages, however, and the threat of a concerted Indian attack upon the American settlement in the Willamette Valley led the inhabitants of that region to meet at Champoeg on May 2, 1843, "for the purpose of taking steps to organize themselves into a civic community, and provide themselves with the protection secured by the enforcement of law and order." On July 5 of the same year the settlers again assembled at Champoeg and adopted "articles of compact" as well as a detailed "organic law" based largely upon the laws of Iowa. The provisional government thus organized was confirmed and came into effect as the result of a special election held on July 25, 1845. George Abernethy was chosen Governor, and remained so by re-election throughout the three years of provisional government.
President Polk attempted to secure a territorial government for the region before his term expired. On August 14, 1848, more than two years after the boundary dispute was settled, and as the climax of a 24hour debate; a dilatory Congress passed the bill admitting Oregon as a territory. President Polk signed the bill the next day and then proceeded to appoint Territorial officers, including General Joseph Lane, of Indiana, as Governor, and Joseph L. Meek as United States marshall. Meek had gone to Washington to report the Whitman massacre, and to function as a self-styled "Envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the Republic of Oregon to the Court of the United States." He returned by way of Indiana to inform General Lane of his appointment, and the two hurried to the Northwest, reaching Oregon City by boat and proclaiming the Territorial government on March 3, 1849, the day before Polk went out of office.
The new Territory of Oregon embraced all of the original Oregon country between the 42nd and 49th parallels from the Rockies to the Pacific. It was reduced to the confines of the present State of Oregon in 1853, when the rest of the original area was organized as the Tern
