Political Parties in Oregon 331 to overwork. 1 They were probably not more patriotic, less selfish or more heroic than the average American, but they were characterized by those qualities which the exigencies of the situation called forth and which adapted them for the work of state-making under the peculiar conditions which were to confront them in the Pacific Northwest. , One of the first results of the appearance of the vanguard of American independent colonization in Oregon was a sudden reversal of its policy of occupation on the part of the Hudson's Bay Company. To the English Company Oregon was nothing but a fur bearing district. Settlement was discouraged. Dis- charged employees were transported out of the country. Ore- gon must be preserved in its primeval state. But with the Americans in the field it was different. The Puget Sound Agri- cultural Company was organized in 1837, as rather an adjunct to the old organization, its purpose being to colonize the terri- tory with British subjects. But English colonization of Ore- gon was difficult. Not until 1841 did an emigration arrive from the British Red river settlement of the North and the failure of its attempt at settlement north of the Columbia dis- couraged future attempts in this direction. They had waited too long. 2 The Americans had found the way, had conquered its obstacles and were arriving in numbers as convincing as disheartening to the British officials. The two systems of industry were now in open competition, the fur trade versus agriculture, typifying the struggle for possession between the two nationalities which they repre- sented. There could be little question as to the result. It has always been the same. With the arrival of the farmer the fur trader soon disappears. As opposed to the industry which had marked English dominance, agriculture meant settlement, development and Americanization. And as surely as it displaced the former, so surely did American interests supplant those of the British. There was a question as to which nation had priority rights by discovery and exploration. But there could 1 Judge Wm. Strong, "Oregon History," Ms. 19, 20. 2H. O. Lang, "History of the Willamette Valley," p. 234.
