Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/157

How BRITISH AND AMERICAN SUBJECTS UNITE 149 of Iowa, together with some parts of the Iowa code. 2 ? Land and militia laws suitable to local conditions, together with a provision for districting the territory, were added. The two novel features of the constitution were the vesting of the executive power in three persons and the provision for secur- ing funds to support the government by voluntary subscription. The land law seems to show the animus and purpose of the whole movement. While it makes provision for registering land claims with the recorder of the territory and thus ful- filled one of the chief objects of those desiring a constitution, by furnishing a means of avoiding conflicts in land claims and laying the basis for a more secure title, in its fourth clause it prohibited the holding of a claim of 640 acres "upon city or town lots, extensive water privileges or other situations neces- sary for the transaction of mercantile or manufacturing opera- tions." Then in order to shut out the Hudson's Bay Company and yet recognize the rights of the Methodist mission a proviso was added that "nothing in these laws shall be construed as to affect any claim of a religious character made prior to this time." The constitution of 1843 fell far short of providing an or- derly and stable government. Its makers showed great timid- ity and hesitation, and failed completely to provide the proper sanctions for such a government. It manifestly included within the bounds of its powers only those who had participated in its formation or voluntarily submitted to its terms. Perhaps a majority of the settlers did not recognize the government set up by it. The provision for supporting the government by the circulation of subscription papers shows that there was no intention on the part of the makers of this constitution to coerce any one. They even hesitated to fix a northern boundary to the territory because they did not wish to claim a definite jurisdiction over the Hudson's Bay Company officials and prop- 27 Careful comparison of the Organic Articles with these sources shows how phrases were picked out here and there and woven together to describe the various authorities set up. Section i of the Articles is almost identical with the articles of compact closing the Ordinance of 1787. Articles 4, 5, 6, 7, in section 2, are adapted from sections 7, 2, 4, and 9, respectively, of the Iowa Organic Law. The other articles are taken from the code of Iowa. The Statute Laws of Iowa, Reprint of 1839 edition.