346 W. C. Woodward purpose of framing a constitution. 1 The convention project was defeated by a vote of 283 to 190. 2 This spirit of inde- pendence is illustrated in the reported stump speech of a can- didate for a seat in the legislature in 1846 in which he said that they as a separate people had a right, in common with all detached communities to govern themselves ; that he did not consider himself "a citizen of the United States or a subject of Great Britain" and could therefore take the oath to support the Organic Law of Oregon, without the qualifications. 3 As anxious as the people were to have the protection of the United States thrown over them in the form of a territorial organization, they had become so imbued with the idea of entire self-government that they took exception to the idea of being under the authority of appointive officers sent on from the East. It was understood by the colonists in 1847 that President Polk had his list of officials for Oregon already made out, in preparation for the passage of the territorial bill by Congress. There is therefore something decidedly im- pressive in the serene and unconscious audacity of these squat- ter sovereigns in calling a convention of delegates at the Falls of the Yamhill river "for the purpose of recommending to the Executive of the United States suitable persons to fill the various offices that will be created upon the passage of a bill establishing a territorial government in Oregon. 4 This action is thoroughly characteristic of the early people of Ore- gon and is demonstrated continually in the later history of the territorial organization. Aggressive and national though the American settlers were, the administration of affairs in Oregon under their govern- ment demonstrates the qualities of liberality, moderation and conservatism often under circumstances when a manifestation of opposite tendencies might be expected. When increasing numbers had made their influence dominant their attitude 1 Oregon Archives, p. 70. 2Lang, "History of the Willamette Valley," p. 286. 3Spectator, May 28, 1846. ^Spectator, October 14, 1847.
