SinghKing
Banned
Oregon: The Beginnings of Self-Government
The Oregon Country first entered the colonial era in the 1790s, when Captain Gray discovered the mouth of the Columbia River. US President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore Oregon in 1804, and even then, at such an early stage, he had the vision to realize the potential for the region to develop into a parallel, fully independent "Republic of the Pacific".
The 1818 Treaty of London, which officially ended the War of 1812 and set the northern border of the Louisiana Territory at the 49th parallel, also clarified the borders of the Oregon Country- from Russian Alaska (54 degrees, 40' N) to Spanish California (40 degrees N), and from the Pacific Ocean to the crest of the Rocky Mountains. Political control was never vested in either the U.S. or Britain; the area was considered to be under "joint occupation." The treaty would be automatically extended every ten years (as it was in 1828 and 1838) unless one side gave notice of renegotiation.
In Oregon at this time, the need for government depended upon who you were. The local Indians had tribal laws and customs that had served their cultures perfectly well for many centuries. Hudson's Bay Company employees, whether active or the retired French-Canadians farming the Willamette Valley's French Prairie, came under the jurisdiction of the HBC charter and its factors. But the fur traders, missionaries, former seamen, and arriving immigrants, primarily from the United States, were on their own. They were outside the jurisdictions of either the British or the Americans, and lacked the protection of any government.
As early as 1838, the Methodist Mission had provided a magistrate and constable for the protection of American rights, but there were no formal laws to guide their decisions except their own opinions and preferences. Once a decision was made, there was no avenue of appeal. In 1838, Jason Lee left for the east to request reinforcements for his mission. When he left he was also armed with an appeal from the settlers asking the US. Government to assume control of the Oregon territory. Their plea fell on deaf ears.
On February 7, 1841, Rev. Jason Lee also propagated a memorial by many residents of the Willamette Valley to the United States Congress, drafting a document requesting that the American government establish rule over the regions of the Oregon Country south of the Columbia River, highlighting the potentials of trade with Asia and the Pacific. This also failed to generate the necessary interest in the US Congress, and was ultimately of little consequence.
Of far greater importance though, Rev. Jason Lee also chaired an informal meeting on this date, "for the purpose of consulting upon the steps necessary to be taken for the formation of laws and the election of officers to execute them." In a short address, he advised the selection of a committee to draft a constitution and code of laws for settlements in the Oregon Country- albeit only those south of the Columbia at this stage. The first step had been taken- and within the short space of only three years, a new nation would be born...
The Oregon Country first entered the colonial era in the 1790s, when Captain Gray discovered the mouth of the Columbia River. US President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore Oregon in 1804, and even then, at such an early stage, he had the vision to realize the potential for the region to develop into a parallel, fully independent "Republic of the Pacific".
The 1818 Treaty of London, which officially ended the War of 1812 and set the northern border of the Louisiana Territory at the 49th parallel, also clarified the borders of the Oregon Country- from Russian Alaska (54 degrees, 40' N) to Spanish California (40 degrees N), and from the Pacific Ocean to the crest of the Rocky Mountains. Political control was never vested in either the U.S. or Britain; the area was considered to be under "joint occupation." The treaty would be automatically extended every ten years (as it was in 1828 and 1838) unless one side gave notice of renegotiation.
In Oregon at this time, the need for government depended upon who you were. The local Indians had tribal laws and customs that had served their cultures perfectly well for many centuries. Hudson's Bay Company employees, whether active or the retired French-Canadians farming the Willamette Valley's French Prairie, came under the jurisdiction of the HBC charter and its factors. But the fur traders, missionaries, former seamen, and arriving immigrants, primarily from the United States, were on their own. They were outside the jurisdictions of either the British or the Americans, and lacked the protection of any government.
As early as 1838, the Methodist Mission had provided a magistrate and constable for the protection of American rights, but there were no formal laws to guide their decisions except their own opinions and preferences. Once a decision was made, there was no avenue of appeal. In 1838, Jason Lee left for the east to request reinforcements for his mission. When he left he was also armed with an appeal from the settlers asking the US. Government to assume control of the Oregon territory. Their plea fell on deaf ears.
On February 7, 1841, Rev. Jason Lee also propagated a memorial by many residents of the Willamette Valley to the United States Congress, drafting a document requesting that the American government establish rule over the regions of the Oregon Country south of the Columbia River, highlighting the potentials of trade with Asia and the Pacific. This also failed to generate the necessary interest in the US Congress, and was ultimately of little consequence.
Of far greater importance though, Rev. Jason Lee also chaired an informal meeting on this date, "for the purpose of consulting upon the steps necessary to be taken for the formation of laws and the election of officers to execute them." In a short address, he advised the selection of a committee to draft a constitution and code of laws for settlements in the Oregon Country- albeit only those south of the Columbia at this stage. The first step had been taken- and within the short space of only three years, a new nation would be born...
