place named, which was laid on the table. Finally, on the 9th, a committee from both houses to draft a memorial to congress was appointed, consisting of Curry, Anderson, and Avery, on the part of the representatives, and Garrison, Waymire, and Humphrey, on the part of the council.[1]
Pratt's opinion in the matter was then asked, which sustained the legislature as against the judges. Hector was then ordered to bring the territorial library from Oregon City to Salem on or before the first day of January 1852, which was not permitted by the federal officers.[2]
The legislators then passed an act re-arranging the judicial districts, and taking the counties of Linn, Marion, and Lane from the first and attaching them to the second district.[3] This action was justified by the Statesman, on the ground that Judge Nelson had proclaimed that he should decree all the legislation of the session held at Salem null. On the other hand the people of the three counties mentioned, excepting a small minority, held them to be valid; and it was better that Pratt should administer the laws peacefully than that Nelson should, by declaring them void, create disorder, and cause dissatisfaction. The latter was, therefore, left but one county, Clackamas, in which to administer justice. But the nullifiers, as the whig officials came now to be called, were not
- ↑ Or. Council, Jour. 1851–2, 12–13. This committee appears to have been intended to draft a memorial on general subjects, as the memorial concerning the interference of the governor and the condition of the judiciary was drawn by a different committee.
- ↑ The Statesman of July 3d remarked: 'The territorial library, the gift of congress to Oregon, became the property, to all intents and purposes, of the federal clique, who refused to allow the books to be removed to Salem, and occupied the library room daily with a librarian of the governor's appointing.' A full account of the affair was published in a little sheet called Vox Populi, printed at Salem, and devoted to legislative proceedings and the location question. The first number was issued on the 18th of December 1851. The standing advertisement at the head of the local column was as follows: 'The Vox Populi will be published and edited at Salem, O. T., during the session of the legislative assembly by an association of gentlemen.' This little paper contained a great deal that was personally disagreeable to the federal officers.
- ↑ Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 27–8; Strong's Hist. Or., MS., 62–3; Grover's Pub. Life in Or., MS., 53.
