Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/347

296 that the majority of the population being Catholics, they would elect their officers, which would be displeasing to the Protestants, and that an unfavorable impression would be produced in the United States concerning the influence of missions which were obliged to resort to a criminal code.

Finding themselves baffled at every turn, but encouraged to believe that the United States government would soon extend its jurisdiction over them, the missionary party now reluctantly consented to let drop their political scheme for the present, and for a year there was no more agitation of the subject of an established form of government in Oregon.

The arrival of White in 1842, with the commission of sub-Indian agent and a provisional claim on the governorship of the colony, stirred afresh the advocates of legislation. The idea of White becoming the civil head of the community was intolerable, but on the other hand, the fact that he was indirectly recommended for that position by the United States government was a great point in his favor; so, with characteristic discretion, the missionary party quietly used their influence to snub his pretensions without openly working against him, and by this course succeeded, as we have seen, in confining his authority to the management of Indian affairs.

But though the mass of the colonists appeared to be satisfied with the existing state of things, the advocates of a temporary government continued to agitate the question during the winter of 1842–3, discussing it in a debating society said to have been established in Oregon City for no other purpose.