Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/366



Political organization in what is now the State of Oregon has assumed, in turn, three well developed and quite distinct phases, and there was naturally a characteristic financial system and practice for the support of each. A provisional government antecedent to the territorial organization under the Government of the United States had its initial development early in 1841. A judge with probate powers and the essential ministerial officials for his court were elected at a mass meeting of the settlers in the Willamette Valley. Two years later this nucleus was expanded into a full fledged, though primitive, political organization. As the appointive officials of a typical territorial government did not supercede it until March 3, 1849, this virtually autonomous regime had ample time to exhibit its traits and tendencies. The territorial period was prolonged to a decade, as the act for the admission of Oregon into the Union was passed February 14, 1859.

The Provisional Government was, it is true, weak in resources, transient in purpose, and primitive in its machinery and devices, yet its officials had to exercise about all the