States had as yet no part. The repeal of the resolution may have signified that the committee did net desire to have its doings reported to congress, or it might have been done, because such a resolution was out of place in the organic law.
But however the legislative committee may have favored the independence of Oregon, there is no reason to suppose they intended to yield aught to the British government or Hudson's Bay Company,[1] but on the contrary, there appeared a disposition to vote down the bills and petitions presented in the interest of John McLoughlin.[2] In many small ways they unintentionally left proof that, if they aimed at independence for Oregon, it was as a government free from all influences foreign to their republican principles.[3]
The economy of the government is shown in the appropriations, which for its whole expenses for the first year amounted to $917.96, to meet which there were $358.31 in the treasury, the tax collector not yet having completed his labors. This was less than fifty events for each individual in the country, according to the census of 1844, the correctness of which I doubt, giving as it does a total of 2,109,[4] including the immigration of that year, which was also taxed.
- ↑ Gray accuses Burnett 'and a few other Americans' of truckling to the fur company. Hist. Or., 384; Niles' Reg., lxix. 224; Howison's Coast and Country, 17.
- ↑ One of the first petitions presented was from McLoughlin for permission to establish a ferry across the Willamette River, which was refused. McLoughlin also remonstrated against leave being granted certain Americas to construct a route to the island mills, but the leave was granted. But the petition for leave to construct a canal around the falls was allowed, because that was a work requiring a large outlay, and one which would be of great benefit to the colony. McLoughlin's name of 'Oregon City' for his town was steadily rejected by the legislative committee, who wrote 'Willamette Falls' at the head of their proceedings, till at the December session it was formally incorporated as Oregon City.
- ↑ Waldo's Critiques, MS., 8.
- ↑ Males over 18 years, 725; under 18 years, 536; females over 18 years, 353; under 18 years, 485. Champoeg County had the largest population; Tualatin next; then Yamhill, Clackamas, and Clatsop, in a descending scale. White in his report gave the population at 4,000. Ten Years in Or., 225; Concise View, MS., 54. The census of 1844 was taken by Thomas H. Smith, later a resident of Los Angeles County, Cal., according to an act of the legislature. It would have been impossible to obtain a perfect count at the time.
