the dangers at the mouth of the Columbia, were tackled in a way by the state.
The habit of a people whose progenitors for several generations back had largely participated in the van of the westward movement accorded with a let-alone policy by the state. There were no men of the Alexander Hamilton type in the state constitutional convention, though there were some able exponents of the ideas of Jefferson.
These conditions inherent in the people and in the environment discouraged any vision of possible achievement through commonwealth effort. The ultra-individualistic tendencies were at their climax when the state constitution was formed. jit took the hue of the times. Its provisions of severe restriction of state action have been the molds determining the cast of state policies. The constitution has been retained unchanged in these features through half a century.
The following restrictive provisions are characteristic:
"The legislative assembly shall not loan the credit of the state, nor in any manner create any debts or liabilities, which shall singly or in the aggregate with previous debts or liabilities exceed the sum of fifty thousand dollars, except in case of war, or to repel invasion, or suppress insurrection . ."[1]
(There is a similar county limit of five thousand dollars.)
"No tax shall be levied, or money of the state expended, or debt contracted for the erection of a statehouse prior to the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five."[2]
"Provided, That no part of the university funds, or of the interest arising therefrom, shall be expended until the period of ten years from the adoption of this constitution, unless the same shall be otherwise disposed of by the consent of congress for common school purposes."[3]
Such strait-jacket features in a constitution were no doubt salutary so long as the people were closely limited in economic resources, in purposes cherished as a commonwealth
