Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/369

Rh After it had become an established fact that the Oregon Central of Salem was the designated beneficiary of the grant, special effort was made to give a grant to the Oregon Central West Side, and to that end the act of May 4, 1870, was passed, giving to the West Side Company a grant of land to aid in the construction of a railroad from Portland to McMinnville and Astoria, by way of Forest Grove.

The legislative assembly for the year 1868 convened September 14. B. F. Burch was elected president of the senate and John Whiteaker was elected speaker of the house. Among the members of the senate we notice the names of Lansing Stout, of Multnomah; D. P. Thompson, of Clackamas; Binger Hermann, of Douglas; and of the house John Whiteaker and H. H. Gilfrey, of Lane; T. W. Davenport and John Minto, of Marion; G. W. Burnett, of Yamhill. Victor Trevitt on Wednesday, September 16, 1868, introduced Senate Joint Resolution No. 4, rescinding resolution passed September 19, 1866, relative to amending the Constitution of the United States, and withdrew the assent of the State of Oregon to the proposed Fourteenth Amendment. It is recited in the resolution offered by Senator Trevitt that no amendment to the constitution is valid until ratified by three fourths of the states, and that until so ratified any state had a right to withdraw its assent, and that on July 28, 1868, Secretary Seward had issued a proclamation reciting, among other things, that the proposed amendment was ratified by the legislatures of Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia, and that the same was adopted by more than three fourths of the states. It was further recited in the resolution that the newly-constituted and newly-established bodies avowing themselves to be and acting as legislatures of these