Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/190

 182 F. G. YOUNG. 1859. Licenses. Chinamen and Kanakas were to pay two dollars a month for mining gold in Jackson County. All Chinamen and Kanakas engaged in any kind of trade or barter among themselves, in the counties of Josephine and Jackson, were to pay for such privileges fifty dollars per month. These taxes were to be collected and accounted for the same as the ' ' China taxes" of the preceding year. APPENDIX. Some Features of Oregon's Experience with the Financial Side of Wer Indian Wars of the Territorial Period. The experiences of the people of Oregon with the finances of the Indian wars waged during the territorial period illus- trate in a most striking way the salient features of the condi- tions in the Pacific Northwest at that time, and constitute im- portant elements in the economic life of that region. The campaigns of 1855-6 were large undertakings for the com- munity, caused serious interferences with their productive ac- tivities and involved a destructive use of a considerable portion of their accumulated wealth. There was no restitution by Congress for losses sustained for five years and, in fact, such was the dilatoriiiess and niggardliness of Congress in this matter that there never was a fairly adequate return for as- sumino- the burdens of "common defense." It is no doubt true that the Indians in some cases had pro- vocation. If every representative of the white race had treated the Indians as members of a superior race should treat members of an unfortunate people whose territory they were encroaching upon and whose means of livelihood they were year by year rendering more precarious war might have been postponed. These conditions were not fulfilled in the Pacific Northwest any more than they have ever yet been fulfilled anywhere.