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placed in the hands of some person to be chosen by the whole, as treasurer, who should give bonds, with approved security for the fulfillment of his duty. A treasurer was accordingly chosen, who, after giving the necessary bonds, collected about one hundred and ninety dollars of the money promised; some refused to pay, and others had no money in their possession. All these and similar matters having been satisfactorily ar- ranged, the separation took place, and the companies proceeded to the election of the necessary officers. . . . We found, too, that it was bad policy to require the several companies to wait for each other . . . (and) we adopted a resolution desiring the several companies to abandon the arrangement that required each to delay for the other and that each company should have the use of the pilot according to its turn. Our proposition was not for the present accepted by the other companies." 83 The division to which Palmer belonged and of which he was elected captain, abandoned the other parties altogether; but later a reunion was effected. 84
4. THE EMIGRANT GOVERNMENTS IN OPERATION.
Enough has been indicated already in discussing the prob- lems of organization to make it possible to sketch the actual operation of the emigrants' government very briefly. Execu- tive authority was entrusted to the president, 843 - captain, 85 commander-in-chief, 86 general, 87 colonel, 88 or whatever might be the title under which the chief officer was elected. 89 In case the company was comparatively small and moved as a
83 Palmer, Travels (Thwaites), p. 43 ff.
8 Ibid., p. 50.
84a Iowa Journ. Hist, and Pol., X, 419 ff.
85 Burnett, Recollections and Opinions, Oreg. Hist. Quart., IV, 68. Cf. Oreg. Hist. Quart., Ill, 392, F. O. M'Cown, Address, O. P. A. Transactions, 1884, p. 19, and Palmer, Travels (Thwaites), p. 42.
86 Farnham, Travels in the Great Western Prairies (Thwaites), p. 60.
87 Cf. references in note 91.
88 Stephen Staats, Address, O. P. A. Transactions, 1877, p. 47.
89 There was frequently much electioneering and the claims of the various candidates were urged with much vehemence and impassioned rhetoric. Cf. Bryant, What I Saw in California, p. 29 and a communication in the New Orleans Picayune, Nov. 21, 1843, reprinted in Oreg. Hist. Quart., I, 398 f. Minto, Antecedents, Oreg. Hist. Quart., V, 39. Palmer, Travels (Thwaites), p. 39. Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies (Thwaites, Early Western Travels, XIX), p. 198.
