Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/151

How BRITISH AND AMERICAN SUBJECTS UNITE 143 the laws of New York gave a measure of guidance to their judicial officers. 7 The people now had a machinery for making arrests, punishing offenders, and settling disputes more elabo- rate and more efficient than possessed before. The officers elected at this February meeting held office for more than two years. Another public meeting in May, 1843, authorized them to continue in office until July 5 of that year. A foreign visitor writing at the time testifies that the Willamette settlement is "ready to take cognizance under a code of its own formation of such cases of outrage as may occur." 8 From the facts here given it will be seen that the Willamette community had taken in 1841 a long step towards establishing an organized govern- ment. At the outset of this movement of 1841 all the people of the valley seemed to have joined in it. The journals of the public meetings speak of them as full meetings of all the inhabitants. Americans, French-Canadians, Englishmen were chosen im- partially for the offices created. The French Catholic priest, F. N. Blanchet, was named first on the legislative committee. A policy of conciliation and comprehension was evidently fol- lowed. The June meeting even went so far as to refer the question of the expediency of forming a government to the Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Apparently a spirit of harmony and good will prevailed at this period. But such unanimity of opinion and feeling did not long endure. There were some men who did not deem a govern- ment necessary.9 Captain Wilkes, of the United States Explor- ing Expedition, visiting the Willamette settlement at this time, advised against such a movement. Furthermore, the Hudson's Bay Company was opposed to it. Its officers feared a conflict with the young and belligerent community. The company had assisted in bringing into the country the priests who admin- 7 Dr. Babcock, supreme judge, was a native of New York. This is probably the reason for such instruction. James A. O'Neil, who came to Oregon in 1834, was a native of New York, had studied law to some extent in his native state, and had a copy of the New York statutes. This statement is made on information given many years ago by the late Medorem Crawford, also of New York State. Information given by Mr. George H. Himes. 8 Letter of Sir George Simpson, 1841. Am. Hist. Rev., XIV., p. 81. 9 Wilkes' Narrative, IV., p. 330.