Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/479

{{rh|428|LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS.||} Tualatin district; A. L. Lovejoy, from the Clackamas district; and Daniel Waldo, T. D. Kaiser, and Robert Newell, from the Champoeg district. Yamhill district was not represented. The reader is already acquainted with most of these men. Bailey had been in Oregon since 1835. He was of English birth and liberal education, though of rude experience, and was well adapted to the position. Osborne Russell was a native of Maine, had been several years in the mountains with the fur companies, and was of known integrity, and was well fitted to represent the conservative and moral element of colonial society. P. G. Stewart was one of the immigration of 1843, a jeweller, of fair education, a calm, dispassionate, and thoughtful man, deliberate, and careful of the interests of the independent and energetic pioneers who made broad the road to Oregon with laden wagons and lowing herds.

The imperfect laws of Oregon made no provision for the mode of conducting elections, except by adopting the laws of Iowa, with which the people were not familiar. Two thirds of the voters were of the late immigration, and had had neither time nor opportunity to become informed regarding the requirements of their duties as officers of the election. Hence those first regularly elected to the legislature of Oregon received no credentials as members of that body. But there was no disposition on the part of any to dispute their election; and they met on the 18th of June, at Oregon City, in the residence of Felix Hathaway, where they immediately organized for work by taking an oath to support the laws of Oregon, and faithfully to discharge their duties. McCarver was chosen speaker of the house, and Burnett acted as