Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/382



The great historic event whose fifty-eighth anniversary we meet on this occasion to commemorate was of greater importance and has been more far-reaching in its consequences than could have been supposed by any of those who took part in its proceedings. When, upon this exact spot fifty-eight years ago to-day, Joe Meek, in his impulsively patriotic manner, called for a "division,and, taking his stand apart from the others, asked all those who were in favor of an organization to follow- him, he could not have foreseen, neither could his compatriots, the future great commonwealth to be reared upon an enduring foundation, the corner stone of which was that day so dramatically provided; but all governments have their beginnings, and where they are not the result of a revolutionary overthrow of some former one, but spring from the necessities of pioneer settlers, they are usually the offspring of an unselfish endeavor and a purpose to protect life, liberty, and property impartially and effectually.

A truthful recital of the circumstances surrounding the early occupation and settlement of Oregon reads like a well-prepared romance. The situation was wholly unlike that pertaining to the early occupancy of any other portion of our entire country. When the early American immigrants began to come here in considerable numbers, the "Oregon country' was not a part of any nation, but was resting under a not well defined claim of both the