Political Parties in Oregon 335 eiven and because such a course would defeat the very pur- pose for which they had come. Yet their own Government refrained from throwing over them the protection of it's laws and political institutions. This remissness was a cause of embarrassment, if not shame, with the settlers, before their English competitors. While in the westward expansion of our territory the people have always preceded the National Gov- ernment, the remoteness of the territory and the fact of joint ownership made the situation in Oregon peculiarly trying, and called for prompt action. When on the other hand unusual dilatoriness and hesitancy was shown by the Government at Washington, it was a cause of disappointment and irritation. 1 That this apparent neglect on the part of the United States Government was occasioned by a difficult international situa- tion, the Oregon colonists were in a poor position to realize. In 1842 Dr. Elijah White was appointed by the President as a sub-Indian agent in Oregon. This has been designated as the initial step of the Executive Department in reclaiming Oregon and treating it as a territory of the United States. 2 That it was so considered by the American settlers is evidenced by the minutes of a meeting held June 23, 1843, at Champoeg, in which the following resolution is found : "Resolved, That we, the citizens of Willamette Valley, are exceedingly happy in the consideration that the Government of the United States have manifested their intentions through their agent, Dr. E, White, of extending their jurisdiction and protection over this coun- try." 3 But for years this was to be but a token of future action and was not followed up in a way to assist the colonists in solving a puzzling problem. "The American immigrants were often doomed to feel that they occupied the extraordinary and in every way anomalous position of a people who, without hav- ing either renounced their country, or being renounced by it, were, nevertheless, without one." 4 1 Robertson, "Genesis of Political Authority in Oregon," p. 21. 2Elwood Evans, "History of Oregon," Ms. p. 252. cf. Dr. Elijah White's "Early Government in Oregon," Ms., pp. 14, 26-29. 3Brown's "Political History of Oregon," p. 97. 4J. Quinn Thornton, "Oregon and California," pp. 28-30.
