Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/276

 visional govern-

meut. But he did not oppose it. And his course was such, that when the- Brit- ish oificers, Warre and Vavasour, made their military reconnoissance in 1845, they say in their report to the British Government :

' ' In conclusion we must beg to be allowed to observe, with an unbiased opin- ion, that whatever may have been the orders, or the motives of the gentlemen in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts on the west of the Rocky Moun- tains their policy has tended to the introduction of the American settlers into the country."

The only explanation of McLoughlin's course consistent with common sense, and his honor as a man, is that he did not regard himself as the Agent of the British Government to oppose settlements by the Americans, although he was a British subject. And in the light of what McLoughlin did in apparent opposi- tion to British claims to the country, and his subsequent course in becoming a citizen of the United States, there should be no doubt that he thought that the United States had a just right to the country, and that settlement and organiza- tion under American laws and ideas would be best for the country and for the people. But other subjects of Great Britain and especially the Catholic settlers under the tutelage of their religious teachers, took a different view and a different attitude from that of McLoughlin. But that there was opposition open or con- cealed to an American government cannot be doubted. In Wyeth 's memorial to Congress made after his return from Oregon in 1838, he says: "A population is growing out of the occupancy of the country that is not with us ; and before many years they will decide to whom the country belongs, unless in the mean- time the American government shall make their power felt and seen to a greater degree than has yet been the case. ' '

The first semblance of authority of government in Oregon came from the Hudson's Bay Company, and through the initiative of John McLoughlin. Prior to the settlement of Americans in the Willamette Valley the authority of Mc- Loughlin was absolute, and whatever he ordered to be done that was the law, and no Hudson's Bay Company man thought of disputing it. Under the British Charter the Governor and Council of the Company had authority to try its own employees for any crimes committed on the Company's plantation, forts, fac- tories, or places of trade, or make war on any unchristianized nation. But as the Americans could not be ranked within this category McLoughlin procured an act of Parliament to be passed providing for the appointment of Justices of the Peace in different parts of the country, and under which James Douglas was appointed Justice of the Peace at Vancouver, with authority to try minor of- fenses, and to arrest persons charged with serious crimes and send them over the mountains to Canada for trial. But as the Americans could not be subjected to these officials of the Hudson's Bay Company, the Methodist missionaries in 1839 attempted to set up some sort of authority to maintain public order and protect life, and thereupon appointed two persons to act as magistrates. This was done without co-operation of the settlers but was tactily approved and acquiesced in. Under this authority David Leslie was appointed a justice of the peace; and afterwards when T. J. Hubbard was arrested and tried for killing a man who at- tempted to enter his (Hubbard's) cabin through the window, Leslie called a jury of the settlers, took the evidence and Hubbard was tried and acquitted being the first trial by jury in Old Oregon.