Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/353



No story of the political development of a people would be complete without some notice of the basis of that development as found in the conditions of the settlement of its territory. The sources and manner of settlement, the motives prompting it, the geographical relations, the effect of frontier environment—all contribute toward expressing the character of the state builders. From Jamestown and Plymouth onward, the study of such conditions has contributed largely to an understanding of American institutions.

Particularly is such study important where distinctive elements enter into the situation as is the case in the political beginnings of Oregon. Two, if not three, such elements are to be noted. First, that of geographic isolation. The history f the westward extension of the American frontier had been that of a steady and gradual movement from the known to the relatively unknown. No advance was so decided that the new frontier was not linked to an appreciable degree with the old. A forward advance from Missouri to the Pacific wrote a new chapter in the story of American expansion. The second distinctive element, related to that of distance, is found in the fact that it was a land emigration. The early colonization of America, involving great distances, was effected by the sea voyage. An overland journey, embracing months en route over desert wastes and obstructive mountain ranges and involving dangers from hostile peoples, produces problems peculiar to itself. These two elements are geographical. The third is political. The vast country toward which the settlers were making their way was not strictly American territory. It was at the same time either American or British and was neither. By the treaty of joint occupation concluded between Great Britain and the