The result of the interference of the governor with legislation was to bring down upon him bitter denunciations from that body, and to make the feud a personal as well as political one. When the assembly provided for the printing of the public documents, it voted to print neither the governor's annual nor his special message, as an exhibition of disapprobation at his presumption in offering the latter,[1] assuming that he was not called upon to address them unless invited to do so, they being invested by congress with power to conduct the public business and spend the public money without consulting him. But while the legislators quarrelled with the executive they went on with the business of the commonwealth.
The hurried sessions of the territorial legislature had effected little improvement in the statutes which were still in great part in manuscript, consisting in many instances of mere reference to certain Iowa laws adopted without change. An act was passed for the printing of the laws and journals, and Asahel Bush elected printer, to tho disappointment of Dryer of the Oregonian, who had built hopes on his political views which were the same as those of the new appointees of the federal government. But the territorial secretary, Hamilton, literally took the law into his own hands and sent the printing to a New York contractor. Thus the war went on, and the laws were as far as ever from being in an intelligible state,[2]
- ↑ The Spectator of Feb. 20, 1851, rebuked the assembly for its discourtesy, saying it knew of no other instance where the annual message of the governor had been treated with such contempt.
- ↑ The Spectator of August 8, 1850, remarked that there existed no law in the territory regulating marriages. If that were true, there could have existed none since 1845, when the last change in the provisional code was made. There is a report of a debate on 'a bill concerning marriages,' in the Spectator of Jan. 2, 1851, but the list of laws passed at the session of 1850–1 contains none on marriage. A marriage law was enacted by the legislature of 1851–2.
printers, and in May 1851 Waterman purchased the entire interest, when he removed the paper to Portland, calling it the Times. It survived several subsequent changes and continued to be published till 1864, recording in the mean time many of the early incidents in the history of the country. Portland Oregonian, April 15, 1876.
