Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/111

 OREGON PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 103 It was further resolved that this committee be instructed to confer with Commodore Wilkes,, of the American squadron, and with Dr. John McLoughlin, with regard to framing a con- stitution and code of laws for the community. The committee was instructed to take into consideration certain other matters. So far as can be found, there was no meeting in October., and no further proceedings resulted from this preliminary organi- zation. In Commodore Wilkes' Narrative of the United States Ex- ploring Expedition, Vol. IV, page 352, he said that a com- mittee of five waited upon him to consult and ask his advice relative to the establishment of laws. He then said : "After hearing attentively all their arguments and reasons for this change, I could see none sufficiently strong to induce the step. No crime appears yet to have been committed,, and the persons and property of settlers are secure. Their principal reasons appear to me to be, that it would give them more importance in the eyes of others at a distance, and induce settlers to flock in, thereby raising the value of their farms and stock. I could not view this subject in such a light, and differed with them entirely as to the necessity or policy of adopting the change. "1st. On account of their want of right, as those wishing for laws,, were, in fact, a small minority of the settlers. "2nd. That these were not yet necessary even by their own account. "3rd. That any laws they might establish would be a poor substitute for the moral code they all now followed, and that evil-doers would not be disposed to settle near a community entirely opposed to their practices. "4th. The great difficulty they would have in enforcing any laws, and defining the limits over which they had con- trol, and the discord this might occasion in their small com- munity. "5th. They not being the majority, and the larger part of the population being Catholics, the latter would elect officers of their party, and they would thus place themselves entirely under the control of others. "6th. The unfavorable impressions it would produce at home, from the belief that the missions had admitted that in a community brought together by themselves they had not enough of moral force to control it and prevent crime, and therefore must have recourse to a criminal code.