Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/149



Our trite saying that "America is but another name for Opportunity" might well be changed to "America is but another name for Experiment." It is no exasperation to say that the people of the United States have done more experimenting in the making of laws and in the administration of government than the people of any other nation on the globe. This has resulted chiefly from the nature of our multiform government that is at once federal and national, as regards the relations of States to each other and to the National Government. Within our national jurisdiction there are practically half a hundred sovereign States each and all engaged in practicing the methods and arts of self government. There is but little let or hindrance to experimentation in the making of laws and institutions.

Hut while there is the greatest range of freedom for originality tin-re is a surprising similarity in the fundamental principles of our laws and in the primary institutions of the States. English common law and traditions are our common heritage and constitute the ground work of our institutions. Hut. what may be called the acquisitive or adaptive disposition of Americans leads to the prompt observation of the workings of laws in other States and to their adoption where they work well. Moreover, by reason of our peculiar mode of creating territories out of the national domain it has generally happened that the laws of parent or adjacent territorial organizations have been continued or "extended" over the new territorial acquisitions; or they have been imposed ad interim until the inhabitants could assemble their