Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/139

OREGON PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 131 hundred. There were the sixty persons, British subjects, com- posing the immigration of 1841 from Canada, who first settled on Nisqually Plains, none of whom took part in the meeting of May 2, 1843. The American Missionaries living at Waiilatpu and Tshima- kain, now in the State of Washington, and at Lapwai, now in the State of Idaho were the only American citizens living in the part of the Oregon Country controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company. They took no part in the Provisional Govern- ment. If the Provisional Government extended east of the Columbia River and of the Cascade Mountains, there were some white trappers, few in number, who had their habitats there but took no part in the Provisional Government. The Hudson's Bay Company had several of its twenty -one forts or posts east of the Columbia River, including Fort Hall, Fort Boise and Fort Walla Walla. There were also Fort Umpqua, on the Umpqua River, and a post at what is now Astoria. It will, therefore, be seen that up to July 26, 1845, the Pro- visional Government had no practical jurisdiction, excepting in parts of the Willamette Valley if it can be said to have had jurisdiction at all or more than mere existence. It was a gov- ernment in name rather than of power or of authority. As was said by Frances Fuller Victor, in Bancroft's History of Ore- gon, referring to the formation of the original Provisional Government "after all, there appeared to be no great need of law in Oregon." (Bancroft's History of Oregon, Vol. I., page 444). While there was undoubtedly a strong feeling by a few Americans of forming a provisional government in favor of the United States, that was merely incidental to the main object of having some kind of an organization for mutual pro- tection and benefit. So far as the records show there was no direct or practical attempt to make that organization more than a local provisional or temporary government. The adoption of the Organic Law July 26, 1845, and the dis- cussion of the new Legislature about exercising jurisdiction