"Confessedly the provisional government of this territory was a government de facto, and if it be admitted that governments derive their 'just powers from the consent of the governed,' then it was a government de jure. Emigrants who first settled Oregon, upon their arrival here, were without any political organization to protect themselves from foes without, or to preserve peace within; and, therefore, self-preservation constrained them to establish a system of self-government. Congress, knowing their necessities and withholding the customary provisions for such a case, tactily acquiesced in the action of the people, and, on the 14th of August, 1848, expressly recognized its correctness and validity. No reason can be imagined for holding that the people of Oregon, in 1844, had no right to make such laws as their wants required; for where the functions of government have not been assumed or exercised by any other competent authority, it cannot be denied that such a power is inherent in the inhabitants of any country, isolated and separated as Oregon was from all other communities of civilized men. Some effort has been made to assimilate the laws in question to mere neighborhood agreements, but the argument seems to apply with equal force to the acts of all governments established by the people."
A sketch of the conditions of the town and country from 1850 to 1856, from the pen of a man who actually passed through that period, Mr. H. W. Scott, of the advisory board, is here added, that readers may know the actual facts from one eye witness.
"A youth who had come from Puget Sound, from Olympia to the Cowlitz river, down the Cowlitz in a canoe with a couple of Indians, and from the mouth of the Cowlitz to Portland on the steamboat Willamette, crossed the Willamette river in a skiff at the foot of Stark street, on the morning of Ocober 4, 1856, taking the road on foot for Oregon City, he arrived there at 11 o'clock; and from Oregon City pushed on to the southern end of Clackamas county that afternoon, to a point near Butte creek, arriving there at 6 p. m., thirty-six miles from Portland. It was a good days walk, but for those times, only ordinary work.
Last Thursday, October 4, 1906, this person, after the lapse of fifty years, again crossed the Willamette river at Portland, for observation and retrospect—walking over the Morrison street bridge.
Portland in 1856, contained about eighteen hundred inhabitants. All business was on Front street. A few residences were established as far back as Sixth street, and south as far as Jefferson; but throughout the whole district west of First street, no streets or roads had yet been opened on regular lines, and only paths, trails and zigzag roads made by woodmen, led the way through stumps and logs and over uneven places, out into the forest. The Canyon road had been opened, but was yet almost inaccessible from the nascent city, and most difficult of passage or travel when reached. The Barnes or Cornell road was even more difficult, for it had sharper turns and steeper places. It crossed Canyon or Tanner creek near the Multnomah field, ascended the hill through the present city park, and further on entered the ravine, upon which it followed substantially the track of the present road to the summit. In many places these roads were so narrow that teams could not pass each other, and most of the logs had been cut out at lengths, or widths, that gave room for only a single vehicle. In the winter there was bottomless mud—though the Canyon road was cross-laid with timber a portion of the way. No one who passes over those roads now can have any idea of the size of the trees or the density of the forest then. The logs, undergrowth, ridges and gulleys, hills, steeps and sharp turns in the ravines rendered road making a thing difficult now to comprehend or believe.
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On the east side, after passing the narrow strip of low land, of which Union avenue and Grand avenue are now the limits, there was unbroken forest then, and till long afterwards. The original donation claimants were the only inhabitants. The only house directly opposite Portland, was that of James B. Stephens.
