ment being finally adopted and the resolution put to vote, it was lost by fourteen to twenty-two. Six delegates to the convention were then chosen, and the meeting adjourned amidst excitement and efforts by the minority to obtain a hearing.[1]
When the convention met according to appointment at Oregon City, three counties only were represented, Champoeg by W. J. Bailey, J. Sanders, Joseph Barnaby, and F. Bernia, all from French Prairie; Tualatin by Hugh Burns and Robert Moore, each owners of town sites; Clackamas by Samuel McSwain, Philip Foster, H. Wright, H. M. Knighton, S. S White, and J. McCormick, each wanting a slice at Oregon City. The first resolution offered was by Bailey, and declared that the meeting viewed with indignation and contempt the unwarrantable, unjust, and obnoxious efforts of certain individuals, at a previous meeting in Oregon City, to deprive citizens of their rights, through a memorial to congress to reserve town sites, water-falls, and capes that had been settled for years, and were at that time rapidly advancing in value by improvement.
This was followed by another from Mr Burns, who resolved that the convention had full confidence in the constituted authority, the legislature, as the proper body to memorialize congress on matters touching the wants of the territory, and recommended the legislature to petition the government of the United States to allow the land law to remain under its present form, according to the organic compact of Oregon.
At this stage of the proceedings a motion to adjourn sine die was made by one of the Oregon City delegates, which was rejected, and Robert Moore offered a resolution declaring that it was the sense of the convention that it was highly improper to meddle with the rights
- ↑ As nearly as can be gathered from the resolutions and amendments offered at these several meetings in Oregon City, D. Stewart, James Taylor, S. S. White, and M. M. McCarver were responsible for the resolution concerning government reservations, though how much they were influenced can only be conjectured. P. G. Stewart earnestly resisted the movement.
