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             THE QUARTERLY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
                            (Vol. 1, No. 1)




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                             THE QUARTERLY

                                 OF THE

                       OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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                 VOL. 1       MARCH, 1900        NO. 1

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                           Illustration: Logo


                                CONTENTS


          THE GENESIS OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND OF A       1
            COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT IN OREGON—James R.
            Robertson

          THE PROCESS OF SELECTION IN OREGON PIONEER       60
            SETTLEMENT—Thomas Condon

          NATHANIEL J. WYETH’S OREGON EXPEDITIONS—“In      66
            Historic Mansions and Highways Around
            Boston”

          REMINISCENCES OF F. X. MATTHIEU—H. S. Lyman      73

          DOCUMENTS—Correspondence of John McLoughlin,    106
            Nathaniel J. Wyeth, S. R. Thurston, and R.
            C. Winthrop, pertaining to claim of Dr.
            McLoughlin at the Falls of the
            Willamette—the site of Oregon City

          NOTES AND NEWS                                   70

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        PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS PER NUMBER, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR




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                     THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

                      ORGANIZED DECEMBER 17, 1898

                             --------------

          H. W. SCOTT                               PRESIDENT
          C. B. BELLINGER                      VICE-PRESIDENT
          F. G. YOUNG                               SECRETARY
          CHARLES E. LADD                           TREASURER

                 GEORGE H. HIMES, ASSISTANT SECRETARY.

                             --------------

                               DIRECTORS

        THE GOVERNOR OF OREGON, ex officio.
        THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, ex officio.

           Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1900,
                 H. W. SCOTT, MRS. HARRIET K. McARTHUR.

           Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1901,
                        F. G. YOUNG, L. B. COX.

           Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1902,
                 JAMES R. ROBERTSON, JOSEPH R. WILSON.

           Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1903,
                 C. B. BELLINGER, MRS. MARIA L. MYRICK.

                             --------------

The Quarterly is sent free to all members of the Society. The annual
dues are two dollars. The fee for life membership is twenty-five
dollars.

Contributions to The Quarterly and correspondence relative to historical
materials, or pertaining to the affairs of this Society, should be
addressed to

               F. G. YOUNG,

                    Secretary.

EUGENE, OREGON.

Subscriptions for The Quarterly, or for the other publications of the
Society should be sent to

               GEORGE H. HIMES,

                    Assistant Secretary.

CITY HALL, PORTLAND, OREGON.




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          VOLUME 1.]          MARCH, 1900           [NUMBER 1.

           --------------------------------------------------

                             THE QUARTERLY


                                 OF THE


                       OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.


 THE GENESIS OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND OF A COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT IN
                                OREGON.

    [Printed by the author for private distribution, August, 1899.]


At the present time, when interest is becoming more generally centered
upon the Pacific Coast and the future which seems to be lying before it
during the next century of our national life, any contribution to a
knowledge of its history can hardly be out of place. It is quite clear
that from now on through the future it must more and more pass out from
the sphere of purely local interest and assume a larger place in the
current of our national history. Although the southern half of the coast
may be more familiar to the greater number of people, yet the northern
half has a history which is fully as rich and well repays most careful
study. Of the many interesting phases which have presented themselves,
none has had so great an attraction for the writer as the development of
civil institutions. It is interesting to review the gradual evolution of
a locality from primitive conditions of wildness to that perfect form of
social life where individuals act under the privileges and restrictions
of a civil government, voluntarily imposed and perfectly integrated with
the larger scheme of national government. It is a stimulating process to
try to make any correct estimate of the various agencies which have
taken part in the complex process of growth, and to place an accurate
valuation upon the services of leading personalities, the influence of
aggregates of less prominent individuals, and general determining
influences which may not at first be seen at all. It is a test of
judgment to put oneself at the different points of view, so often
conflicting, to be fair to all and to be firm in drawing conclusions
where the weight of evidence seems to lie; and a knowledge of the
slowness of this process of growth, with the careful thought and heroic
action by which it has come about, creates a respect for government and
prepares for a wiser use of the privileges enjoyed under its beneficent
rule. In following out the theme set before us it is to be remembered
that by Oregon is meant that piece of territory whose boundaries have
been gradually shrinking to their present compass from an area extending
from the Spanish possessions at the forty-second degree of latitude to
the Russian possessions at the fifty-fifth degree, and between the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

In many respects this history resembles that of the other states of our
Union. In common with them there has been a gradual growth from those
fragmentary germs of civic life out of which civil government grows,
which fragmentary forms begin to operate as soon as individuals come
together in social relation, often long before localities are entitled
to take their places as parts of a nation. As in the case of other
states, there was the acquisition of territory, in this case preceded by
a partial acquisition. Like the other states, it has passed through the
various steps prescribed by congress for the transition from newly
acquired territory to perfect statehood; but, as other states have
passed through this common process with a great variety of interesting
and unique experiences, so Oregon has had its own history, peculiar to
itself, and in some respects different from that of any other state. It
is the purpose of this paper to set forth briefly the leading facts, so
far as they may be gained from the sources at present available, and to
present them, so far as possible, in historical perspective, and as a
part of the growth of our national life.

In the examination of a subject connected with local history it is easy
to be carried away by local circumstances, and to fail to grasp those
larger features which connect it with the history of the nation and to
some extent with that of the world. Our truest knowledge of the subject,
however, will come from this broader approach and a search first for
those general conditions which underlay the more detailed history and
were instrumental in determining its drift.

In order that we may see the wider scope of our subject we need only to
remember that during the early centuries of exploration the territory
whose civil life we are to study was at stake in the great struggle
between those countries which were striving for the mastery of the
world, and many a stroke of policy that seemed to affect these remote
regions had its only significance as it bore upon the conflict of
England and Spain. And then, when the Russian Empire, through the
impetus received from Peter the Great and Catherine II, continued its
process of expansion eastward, its outer wave reached the western shores
of America and they became an important factor in the larger stream of
world history. And finally when the thirteen colonies separated from
England, this new and vigorous nation found an interest in those
regions, and they became an important factor in the relations of England
and the United States.

In the study of the development of civil government in Oregon, since the
region has had any interest to our nation, we need first to note those
general conditions which have to a large extent been responsible for the
detailed history. The one which is perhaps most apparent and whose
effect has been greatest, is the geographical location of the territory
as compared with the rest of the United States. Separated from the older
sections of the country by long stretches of prairie, and by two large
mountain systems, accessible by water only after a long and tedious
journey around Cape Horn, its position was one of extreme isolation.
This peculiar isolation explains very much that is characteristic of the
early history of our civil government. It explains the ignorance that
prevailed so long in the older sections regarding the value of the
country, and the consequent apathy against which the champions of the
west in congress had so long to contend; it explains, likewise, that
voluntary and heroic action by which the colonists, stung by the delays
and impelled by their needs and desires for a democratic type of
government, took the initiative and brought into being a pioneer
provisional state to bridge over the period of delay, and to hold the
country in trust until the slow movings of the national consciousness
should awaken to its interests.

Another and equally important factor in determining the drift of events
was the joint claim and occupancy of the country with England. The
history of civil government under such circumstances must necessarily be
different from that of territory fully acquired by the national
government. It is clear that it must connect, indissolubly, the question
of a government with that of the boundary, and render any satisfactory
solution of the former impossible until the settlement of the latter.
The framing of any kind of a plan of government that would really be
efficient without giving cause for offense to the partner to the title
of the land must be a problem of the most difficult nature, as it was
found to be. And the problem was still further complicated by reason of
the fact that the question of boundary belonged to the executive part of
the government, while that of the formation of a civil government
belonged to the legislative. And then, too, by virtue of its being
thrown into the realm of international affairs, the formation of a civil
government was delayed because of its connection with that complicated
balancing of interests which always characterizes diplomatic procedure,
where settlement of questions is slow and ofttimes accompanied by
national friction.

To joint occupancy also must be attributed the throwing into close
relationship of two different and antagonistic types of life. There was
in the first place the difference of nationality, which, in view of the
feelings engendered in the struggle for independence and the war of
1812, did not promise cordiality; there was the difference of industrial
systems which brought into sharpest and most bitter conflict the ably
managed monopoly of the English company and the independent American
trader or trapper with his idea of free competition and equal right to
operation in the region jointly held. And lastly, there was the
difference in regard to the treatment of the native races. The English
found it mostly to their interest to leave things as they were, and to
keep the country a wilderness, suitable for a trapping ground for many
years to come, while the Americans aspired to better the life of the
savage