Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/66

54 Marie Merriman Bradley. running due east to the Rocky Mountains ; west by the Wil- lamette and a supposed line running due south from said river, to the parallel of 42 deg. north latitude ; south by the boundary line of the United States and California, and on the east by the summit of the Rocky Mountains. The chief object of the Methodist Missions, in their desire to establish a government, v^as to have some legal method of holding the lands they had selected against the incoming emi- grants. There was a political significance, too. By adopting the Ordinance of 1787 as a basis, it was intended to settle the slavery question west of the Rockies as it had been settled in the Old Northwest, and by extending the jurisdiction over the whole of Oregon up to "such time as the United States should take possession," the right of Great Britain to any part of the country was ignored, a step in advance of the position publicly taken by the United States Government. The provisional constitution made no provision for taxa^ tion. Expenses were met by voluntary subscriptions.^^ The government had no public buildings; meetings were held at private houses. Its defects were soon apparent. It was evi- dent that the government was not adequate to the needs of so large a community, or for any length of time. However, its imperfections were looked upon as a safeguard by those who feared independence from the United States. The question of separation became the all-absorbing one, and became the basis of party lines in the territory. The immigration of 1843 had brought in a people of prominent character, some of them inclined to be roughly arrogant. They were interested in the provisional government; if the laws pleased them, well and good ; if not, they would change them. They were irritated by Jason Lee's assertion that the Mission would govern the colony. In those early, generous- hearted frontiersmen was an inherent dislike for the close- fisted Yankee. The pioneers were not hampered by religious 15 Grover, Oregon Archives, p. 27. 16 Lang, History of the Willamette Valley, p. 261, also pp. 275-277.