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OREGON PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 107 the matter by the Oregon Lyceum or Falls Debating Society at Oregon City. After a long discussion, the following reso- lution was presented by George Abernethy, the Steward of the Methodist Mission, afterwards Governor of the Provi- sional Government: "Resolved, That if the United States extends its jurisdiction over this country within the next four years, it will not be expedient to form an independent government." For some reason or reasons Rev. Jason Lee and George Abernethy opposed the formation of the Provisional Govern- ment in 1843, although the former was chairman of the meet- ing held February 17, 1841, and he was one of the committee appointed at the meeting of February 18, 1841, to frame a constitution and to draft a code of laws. It is probable that, as leaders of the Mission Party, they feared that such a gov- ernment would interfere with the power of the Mission and they preferred to let well enough alone. In Brown's Polit- ical History of Oregon, he says (page 96) that at a meeting of the Committee on Government, in March, 1843 : "Rev. Jason Lee and George Abernethy were disposed to ridicule the proposed organization as foolish and unnecessary, and repeated some anecdotes to illustrate their meaning." Thornton, in his "History of the Provisional Government," says, that at said meeting of the Committee : "Nearly all the principal men at the Falls, including the Rev. Jason Lee and Messrs. George Abernethy and Robert Moore, were present by invitation and they participated in the deliberations ; most of them, especially Rev. Jason Lee and Hon. George Abernethy, going so far as to speak of the con- templated measure as both unnecessary in itself and unwise in the manner proposed." But these ideas did not prevail with all of the Methodist Missionaries for several of them were at the meeting of May 2, 1843, and voted in favor of forming a provisional govern- ment. On the one side against a provisional government, some edu- cated man, one undoubtedly who wrote French, or some other foreign language better than English, but who did not dis- close his name, prepared a paper signed by French-Canadians,