Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/119

 OREGON PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 111 week at his home in Portland, is, that besides Reverends F. N. Blanchet and Modeste Demers, there were at least 60 French- Canadian men who were settlers in the Willamette Valley, of which only 52 voted at this meeting. Therefore, the total number of men who were then in Ore- gon south and east of the Columbia River, was about 160, of which 102 only were present at the meeting. These estimates may not be accurate, but they are approximately correct. It must be borne in mind that the meetings of May 2 and July 5, 1843, were merely mass meetings, not called by any lawful authority, and certainly not binding on any one, who did not participate in these meetings. At a meeting of the Committee of Twelve, held at Oregon City about March 10, 1843 ? it was agreed to hold a public meet- ing at Champoeg May 2, to determine the matter of the forma- tion of a government. I have not ascertained the form of notice, but the time for the meeting was well known. The meeting of May 2, 1843, was a most dramatic occasion. There were the 51 French-Canadian settlers, formerly in the active employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. Among them was Etienne Lucier. There was also Francois Xavier Mat- thieu, who was counted as one of them, merely by reason of his race. He had escaped from Canada, in 1838, on account of his connection with the Canadian rebellion of 1837-38. He had spent the winter of 1842-3 with Lucier and had frequently told of what he considered the tyranny of the British in Canada, which had caused the rebellion. He had expatiated on the excellencies of the government of the United States and how much better to be under its control than under the domination, of what he considered the tyranny, of the British government. The facts about Matthieu in this address, I have learned from personal interviews with him, the last of which was only the week preceding this address. The 51 French-Canadians had been carefully drilled to vote "no" on every question and motion proposed by the Americans at this meeting.