Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/384

378 of the Columbia as 2,110, though it is claimed that it was taken under conditions that made it impossible to complete and that the number of people in the colony was 4,000. A small group of settlers south of the mouth of the Columbia had been set off as a new district (Clatsop), making now five in all. The Americans had also in 1845 made a start at settlement north of the Columbia. There was a little community in the Cowlitz Valley and another on the Sound. And by the close of this year the Legislature had organized two counties (Lewis and Vancouver) on that side of the river. The word "county" was at this time substituted for "district" in all the laws where it occurred. At the close of the period of the Provisional Government there were nine counties and a count taken in 1849, after the great exodus to California, gave 8,390 as the population. Normally there were probably between 10,000 and 12,000 people in Oregon. These had occupied the more desirable portions of the valley, reaching to the foothills at Pleasant Hill at the head of it, nearly 150 miles from the mouth of the Willamette.

Until after 1845 the territorial assessment was made directly by a territorial assessor and the revenues were collected by the territorial marshal or sheriff. From that time on the county assessors and county sheriffs were entrusted with these duties. Up to 1844 the mass or primary meeting had been used for the nomination and election of all officers and the approval of organic laws. The convention of delegates for making nominations and the ballot boxes in the different counties for ratifications were the rule from that time on.

It is seen thus that the political organization was in flux until after the adoption of the organic law on July 26, 1845. This was virtually the third constitution of this little community. Under that adopted by the folk moot of July 5, 1843, Oregon was a pure democracy with the missionary