tenant Hawkins was still attached immediately took passage in a canoe for Oregon City, where they arrived the 2d of March, two days before the expiration of Polk's term of office.[1]
On the day following his arrival Governor Lane published a proclamation as follows:
"In pursuance of an act of congress, approved the 14th of August, in the year of our Lord 1848, establishing a territorial government in the territory of Oregon: I, Joseph Lane, was on the 18th day of August in the year 1848 appointed governor in and for the territory of Oregon. I have therefore thought it proper to issue this my proclamation, making known that I have this day entered upon the discharge of the duties of my office, and by virtue thereof do declare the laws of the United States extended over and declared to be in force in said territory, so far as the same or any portion thereof may be applicable. Given under my hand at Oregon City, in the territory of Oregon, this 3d day of March Anno Domini 1849.
"Joseph Lane."[2]
Thus Oregon enjoyed one day's existence under the president whose acts were signally linked with her history, in the settlement of the boundary, and the establishment of the laws of the United States. The only other presidential appointee besides the governor and marshal present in the territory at its setting out on its new career was Associate Justice O. C. Pratt, who had arrived about a month previouslv.[3] He administered the oath of office to the
- ↑ Crawford's Nar., MS., 185; Lane's Autobiography, MS., 3; Or. Argus, May 19, 1853.
- ↑ The proclamation was printed on the little press used by G. L. Curry to print his independent paper, the Free Press. Lane's Autobiography, MS., 5.
- ↑ Pratt arrived on the bark Undine, loaded with returning gold-miners, which missed the river and ran into Shoalwater Bay. She entered afterward and went up the river for a cargo of lumber. Pratt landed at Shoalwater Bay, and went down the beach to Cape Disappointment and Baker Bay, and crossed to Astoria, where a large number of natives were congregated, to observe some of their barbarous festivals. 'At this war-dance,' says Crawford, 'I saw O. C. Pratt for the first time.' Nar., MS., 181.
