Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/494

Rh States had as yet no part. The repeal of the resolution may have signified that the committee did net desire to have its doings reported to congress, or it might have been done, because such a resolution was out of place in the organic law.

But however the legislative committee may have favored the independence of Oregon, there is no reason to suppose they intended to yield aught to the British government or Hudson's Bay Company, but on the contrary, there appeared a disposition to vote down the bills and petitions presented in the interest of John McLoughlin. In many small ways they unintentionally left proof that, if they aimed at independence for Oregon, it was as a government free from all influences foreign to their republican principles.

The economy of the government is shown in the appropriations, which for its whole expenses for the first year amounted to $917.96, to meet which there were $358.31 in the treasury, the tax collector not yet having completed his labors. This was less than fifty events for each individual in the country, according to the census of 1844, the correctness of which I doubt, giving as it does a total of 2,109, including the immigration of that year, which was also taxed.