CHAPTER IV.
A DELEGATE TO CONGRESS.
1849–1850.
The Early Judiciary—Island Mills—Arrival of William Strong—Opposition to the Hudson's Bay Company—Arrest of British Ship Captains—George Gibbs—The 'Albion' Affair—Samuel R. Thurston Chosen Delegate to Congress—His Life and Character—Proceeds to Washington—Misrepresentations and Unprincipled Measures—Rank Injustice toward McLoughlin—Efficient Work for Oregon—The Donation Land Bill—The Cayuse War Claim and Other Appropriations Secured—The People Lose Confidence in their Delegate—Death of Thurston.
During the transition period through which the territory was passing, complaint was made that the judges devoted time to personal enterprises which was demanded for the public service. I am disposed to think that those who criticised the judges of the United States courts caviled because they overlooked the conditions then existing.
The members of the territorial supreme court were Chief Justice Bryant and Associate Justice Pratt.[1] Within a few months, the chief justice's health
- ↑ O. C. Pratt was born April 24, 1819, in Ontario County, New York. He entered West Point, in the class of 1837, and took two years of the course. His stand during this time was good, but he did not find technical military training congenial to his tastes, excepting the higher mathematics, and he obtained the consent of his parents to resign his cadetship, in order to complete his study of law, to which he had devoted two years previous to entering the Military Academy. He passed his examination before the supreme court of New York in 1840, and was admitted to the bar. During this year he took an active part in the presidential campaign as an advocate of the election of Martin Van Buren. In 1843 he moved to Galena, Illinois, and established himself as an attorney at law. In 1844 he entered heartily into politics, as a friend of Polk, and attracted attention by his cogent discussion of the issues then uppermost, the annexation of Texas, and tho Oregon question. In 1847 he was a member of the convention to make the first revision
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