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 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE

372

north, to say nothing of the fact that a goodly population was found there before even a handful lived north of the river.

This meant that to the disadvantage of distant location was added the fatal defect of comparative paucity of representation. Consequently at a Fourth of July celebration in 1851, after program of the day, the first step was taken to secure

the set

A

a separate organization for the "Territory of Columbia." committee selected there called a meeting of representatives

from the counties north of the Columbia, to be held in August on the Cowlitz. Here twenty-six delegates, all from Lewis County, met, discussed the situation, and drew up a memorial to be presented to Congress by the Oregon Delegate. This document represented the necessity for a division of the territory of Oregon, prayed Congress to extend the provisions of the donation land act to the northern district, and asked appropriations for divers objects. Another meeting was set for the following May, when, if Congress should not have acted in accordance with the memorial, steps were to be taken for

State organization, and immediate admission to the

Union

would be sought.

The

congressional session of 1851-2 ended with no attention would-be territory of Columbia. Neither

to the requests of the

was the new State organized in May. But in September, 1852, was held at Monticello a convention to consider the sub-

there

During the past year a little newspaper, the Columbian, had been established at Olympia in order to agitate for sepSo successful had its campaign been, in connection aration. ject.

with the other motives urging separation, that the Monticello convention drew delegates even from the region bordering the Columbia River where it had been feared there would be opposition to the movement, since those people were not so seriously inconvenienced in their relations with the govern-

ment on the Willamette as were the inhabitants of the Sound A committee drew up a memorial which Lane predistrict. sented to the House of Representatives when the bill for territorial organization was brought up in Committee of the Whole. The memorial represented that Oregon Territory was too