Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/303

UKCOLLECTIONS OF AN OLD PIONEER. _".'. tittn. sale and distillation of ardent spirits in Oregon"; and, as far as my knowledge extends, the passage of that act gave ireneral satisfaction to the great majority of the people throughout the territory. At the session of December. 1845, several amendments were proposed to the old law, and passed. Tin- new features given to the bill by those amendments did not accord with the views of the people; the insertion of the words "give" and "gift" in the first and second sections of the bill, they thought, was taking away their rights, as it was considered that a man had a right to give away his property if he chose. There were several other objections to the bill, which I set forth to your honorable body in my message. I would therefore recommend that the amendments passed at the December session of 1845 be repealed; and that the law passed on the 24th of June, 1844, with such alterations as will make it agree with the organic law, if it does not agree with it, be again made the law of the land. It is said by many that the Legislature has no right to prohibit the introduction or sale of liquor, and this is probably the strongest argument used in defense of your bill. The bill was passed over the veto of the Governor by the following vote: Yeas, Messrs. Boon, Hall, Hembree, Louns- clalf. Loony, Meek, Summers. Straight, T'Vault, Williams, and the Speaker, 11 ; nays, Messrs. Chamberlain, McDonald, Newell, Peers, and Dr. W. F. Tolmie, 5. Mr. Parker, in a public address to the voters of Clackamas County, in May, 1846, charged that rum was sold at Van- couver contrary to law. This charge was based upon rumor. Mr. Douglas, in a communication to the "Oregon Spectator," published June 11, 1846. among other things says: If, with reference to these supplies, Mr. Parker had told his hearers that her majesty's ship Modeste. now stationed at Fort Vancouver, had, with other supplies for ship use from the stores of the Hudson's Bay Company, received several casks of rum; or if. referring to the company's own ships, he had stated that a small allowance of sjririts is daily served out to tin crews of the company's vessels, and that other classes of the company's servants, according to long accustomed usage, receive on certain rare occasions a similar indulgence, he would have told the i>lain and stimplf truth, and his statement would not this .lay have been called in question by me. These acts