Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/197



1 62 A History of the Pacific Northwest

tion. So the project to organize a provisional government was carried.

Election of officers; the July meeting. The officers recommended by the committee were chosen before the adjournment. They were a supreme judge, a clerk and recorder, a high sheriff (Joe Meek was very properly elected to this post), three magistrates, three constables, a major and three captains of militia. A legislative committee composed of nine members was also chosen at this meeting, and instructed to report a code of laws to be voted on by the people July 5. The pioneers who gathered at Champoeg to hear a Fourth of July address by Rev. Gustavus Hines remained over to the next day and ratified the provisions of the so-called First Organic Law.^

A government by "compact." "We the people of Oregon Territory," so the preamble of this famous document recites, "for purposes of mutual protection, and to secure peace and prosperity among ourselves, agree to adopt the following laws and regulations until such time as the United States of America extend their jurisdiction over us." Here we have another illustration of the well-known American method of forming a government by "compact," or agreement. Two hundred and twenty-three years earlier, when the Pilgrim Fathers met to draw up their "Mayflower

iThis document, as well as the provisional constitution of 1845, may be conveniently found in Strong and Schafer's "Government of the American People," Oregon edition, Boston, igoi, Appendix.