Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/289

 and justice, has the right to quit his original domicile at his pleasure, he has not the equal right to acquire a new residence in another community against its consent. "The bird has the right to leave its parent-nest," but has not for that reason, the equal right to occupy the nest of another bird. A man may demand his rights, and justly complain when they are denied; but he can not demand favors, and can not reasonably complain when they are refused.

The principle is no doubt correct that when a State, for reasons satisfactory to itself, denies the right of suffrage and office to a certain class, it is sometimes the best humanity also to deny the privilege of a residence. If the prejudices or the just reasons of a community are so great that they can not or will not trust a certain class with those privileges that are indispensable to the improvement and elevation of such class, it 1s most consistent in some cases to refuse that class a residence. Placed in a degraded and subordinate political and social position, which continually reminds them of their inferiority, and of the utter hopelessness of all attempts to improve their condition as a class, they are left without adequate motive to, [or?] waste their labor for, that improvement which, when attained, brings them no reward. To have sueh a class of men in their midst is injurious to the dominant class itself, as such a degraded and practically defenseless condition offers so many temptations to tyrannical abuse. One of the great objections to the institution of slavery was its bad influence upon the governing race.

Had I foreseen the civil war, and the changes it has produced, I would not have supported such a measure. But at the time I did not suppose such changes could be brought about; and the fundamental error was then found in the organic laws of Oregon adopted in 1843. Article IV., Section 2 of those laws conferred the right to vote and hold office upon every free male descendant of a white man, inhabitant of Oregon Territory, of the age of 21 years and upward. ("Gray's Oregon," 354.) While the organic laws of 1843 professedly admitted all of the disfranchised class