OREGON EMIGRATING COMPANIES 227
in the matter of inspection, however, it was customary to select for that purpose a committee of outsiders, who were paid definite wages and whose judgment would be unbiased. 117
After adopting a code of by-laws, it frequently became neces- sary to modify or enlarge them 118 or to hold new elections of officers. 119 At meetings for these purposes action was taken by majority vote. 120 The legislative power within the company, however, was frequently limited by a number of devices in- tended to prevent sedition and mob rule. 121 Thus, an amend- ment to the constitution in some instances required a two- thirds majority. 122 Such action was final except in companies where the commander exercised a suspensive veto. 123
In the course of the long journey from the Missouri river to Oregon, the pioneers of the middle nineteenth century en- countered many unaccustomed dangers and novel problems. Obstacles in the shape of hostile Indians, diminishing sup- plies, and devastating diseases had to be faced and conquered. But all their difficulties were not physical. They encountered problems of organization and of government as well, and these, like their purely physical trials, they overcame with character- istic American resourcefulness and ingenuity. Out of their experiments and their governmental devices of the moment came much of that fund of political knowledge from which the settlers of the Pacific Northwest and their descendants in these latter days have drawn so freely.
117 Constitution, Savannah Oregon Emigrating Company, /.?. Minto, Robert Wilson Morrison, O. P. A. Transactions, 1894, p. 54.
118 Bryant, What I Saw in California, p. 33. ngOreg. Hist. Quart., VII, 343-
120 Bryant, What I Saw in California, p. 60.
121 Cf., however, Bryant, Loc. cit., "So thoroughly, however, are our people imbued with conservative republican principles and so accustomed are they to order and propriety of deportment, that with a fair understanding, a majority will always be found on the side of right opposed to disorganization."
122 Constitution, Savannah Oregon Emigrating Company, 21.
123 Resolutions, Oregon Emigrating Society, Rule 2, Wilkes, Loc. cit.
