Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/383

Rh United States and of Great Britain. It was, indeed, an independent community, really owing allegiance to no higher power, and was, in fact, for some years after its inception, a pure democracy. The early settlers referred to the United States as a foreign country. The early archives are full of such references, and as late as the seventeenth of December, 1847, the legislature passed an act appropriating $500 "to defray the expenses of J. L. Meek as special messenger to the United States."

It is both interesting and profitable to note that the early efforts towards establishing a civil government were marked by that simplicity and sturdy economy that characterized the pioneers in their daily lives. It was the ground work for that predominating feature in our present state constitution, inserted by the successors of these men in a later decade, which limits the number of state officers performing the principal duties of the state government belcw that prevailing in any other state in the Union.

The meeting held on this spot fifty-eight years ago has passed into history as the "Wolf meeting," but was really an adjourned meeting from a prior one held on the second of February of the same year, at the Oregon Institute, and another held on the first Monday of March at the house of Joseph Gervais, both of which were held for the purpose of "taking into consideration the propriety of adopting some measures for protecting our herds," etc.

In view of recent legislation in our state it is interesting to note that the meeting held at the residence of Joseph Gervais on March 1, 1843, passed a full-fledged scalp bounty law. I will quote the report of the committee, which had been appointed at the February meeting for the purpose of taking the initiative in the matter of subduing the predatory wolves: