Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/476

 those feelings and ineradicable prejudices. And it was the greatest good fortune, and never to be forgotten by the Americans, that the power and influence of the Hudson's Bay Company was at that time exercised in Oregon by a man of the highest character for justice and humanity. Had John McLoughlin been anything less than the great man that he was, the American colony would have been starved out, if not otherwise disposed of by native Indian ferocity; and England would have owned and possessed the Oregon Country for all time. The reports of the British Agents Warre, Vavasour, and others, as well as the forced retirement of McLoughlin from the control of the H. B. Co. in Oregon, conclusively show that McLoughlin was condemned by the British management of the Fur Company in London, and by the British Government for permitting and aiding the destitute American immigrants to get a foothold in the country and organizing the Provisional Government. Under such clouds and conditions as these the Americans hopefully organized the infant state, and proceeded to establish their homes and American institutions in Oregon. To make this beginning at all in the face of all the doubts and uncertainties that surrounded the pioneers, required an amount of faith, confidence and courage that the Oregon citizen of 1912 can but little comprehend. Yet little by little, step by step, so small they would not be counted in this day, the great work of founding a state and establishing civilization, and all that is comprehended in the term, was accomplished.

The first matter that engaged the attention of our Oregon Pioneers was the land — six hundred and forty acres for each head of a family, or for the man able to bear arms and fight Indians. There was no law authorizing it but the law of the Provisional Government, and that had no more authority to dispose of the land than it had to send senators to congress or make treaties with foreign nations. But the land grant was proposed in Senator Linn's bill before Congress, and they expected it to become a law some time. The Provisional Government and everything else was founded on the land. If there had been no chance to get a tract of land for each man or family, the whole pioneer movement would have failed. And the bargain, proposition, or law, whatever it may be called, of those pioneers to grant land to each other as the foundation of their whole scheme for a new state, stands in bold relief as a matter of the most intense interest. The following extract from the land law enacted by the provisional legislature was the statutory authority for the original Oregon land titles:

Art. 1. Any person now holding, or hereafter wishing to establish a claim to land in this territory, shall designate the extent of his claim by natural boundaries, or by marks at the corners, and on the lines of such claim, and have the extent and boundaries of said claim recorded in the office of the territorial recorder, in a book to be kept by him for that purpose, within twenty days from the time of making said claim—provided, that those who shall already be in possession of land, shall be allowed one year from the passage of this act, to file a description of his claim in the recorder's office.

Art. 2. No individual shall be allowed to hold a claim of more than one square mile of six hundred and forty acres in a square or oblong form, according to the natural situation of the premises; nor shall any individual be allowed to hold more than one claim at the same time. Any person complying with the pro-