was not put into effective operation till after the new immigrants arrived. When our people began going to the country there were no American laws to control their actions, and no government whatever except that which was exercised over British subjects by officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. The missionaries in the Willamette valley, and the other settlers who gradually collected there, regarded this as one of their principal grievances, and repeatedly petitioned Congress to extend the laws of the United States over them. But, as we have seen, that body could not be induced to take any action. In 1840, with the arrival of the Lausanne company and the Rocky Mountain trappers of that year, the American party felt greatly strengthened and began to talk of organizing a provisional or temporary government on their own account, in the expectation of giving it up whenever the United States should be prepared to extend its authority over the country. The French settlers, however, being attached to the fur company, remained satisfied with conditions as they were.
The first step toward an organization, 1841. Early in 1841 an incident occurred which brought out sharply the need of some regular authority, and set in motion plans to secure a political organization. Ewing Young, the pioneer stockman of the W^illamette valley, whose connection with the cattle company has already been described, in the course of nine years' residence in the country, had become possessed of a large herd of cattle and considerable other property. In February
