the governor's view of the seat-of-government question, while Pratt, siding with the main body of the legislature, repaired to Salem as the proper place to hold the annual session of the United States court. Thus a majority of the legislature convened at Salem as the seat of government, and a majority of the supreme court at Oregon City as the proper capital; and the division was likely to prove a serious bar to the legality of the proceedings of one or the other.[1] The majority of the people were on the side of the legislature, and ready to denounce the imported judges who had set themselves up in opposition to their representatives. Before the meeting of the legislative body the people on the north side of the Columbia had expressed their dissatisfaction with Strong for refusing to hold court at the place selected by the county commissioners, according to an act of the legislature requiring them to fix the place of holding court until the county seat should be established. The place selected was at the claim of Sidney Ford, on the Chehalis River, whereas the judge went to the house of John R. Jackson, twenty miles distant, and sent a peremptory order to the jurors to repair to the same place, which they refused to do, on the ground that they had been ordered in the manner of slave-driving, to which they objected as unbecoming a judge and insulting to themselves. A public meeting was held, at which it was decided that the conduct of the judge merited the investigation of the impeaching power.[2]
The proceedings of the meeting were published about the time of the convening of the assembly, and a correspondence followed, in which J. B. Chapman
- ↑ Francis Ermatinger being cited to appear in a case brought against him at Oregon City, objected to the hearing of the cause upon the ground that the law required a majority of the judges of the court to be present at the seat of government, which was at Salem. The chief justice said in substance: 'By the act of coming here we have virtually decided this question.' Or. Spectator, Dec. 2, 1851.
- ↑ The principal persons in the transactions of the indignation meeting were J. B. Chapman, M. T. Simmons, D. F. Brownfield, W. P. Dougherty, E. Sylvester, Thos. W. Glasgow, and James McAllister. Or. Statesman, Dec. 2, 1851.
