Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/129

 OREGON PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 121 I have not found a copy of the report of the Committee of Nine which was adopted May 2, but the report of the Legis- lative Committee which was adopted July 5, 1843, began as follows : "Sec. 1. We, the people of Oregon Territory, for the purposes of mutual protection and to secure peace and pros- perity among ourselves, agree to adopt the following laws and regulations, until such time as the United States of Amer- ice extend their jurisdiction over us." (Oregon Archives, page 28.) This is identical with the preamble of the organic law adopted by a vote of the Oregon people July 26, 1845. It is, infer- entially only, a declaration in favor of the United States ever having control of Oregon. There was no mention of the rights of Great Britain. The oath of office of the Provisional Gov- ernment of 1843 was not one of subordination to the United States. It was rather a declaration that Oregon and its Pro- visional Government were independent of any other country. The oath of office under the Organic Law of 1845 was that of a provisional government only, and, inferentially, recognized that Great Britain as well as the United States had some claim or right in Oregon, at least that citizens of the United States and subjects of Great Britain, in holding office under the Pro- visional Government, and in taking the oath of office, were in nowise disloyal to their country or to its sovereign. This was very far from the Provisional Government being for the pur- pose of giving the United States the control of Oregon, ex- cluding Great Britain therefrom, and saving Oregon from British claims and establishing the claims of the United States. Had the meeting of May 2 declared for the sovereignty of Great Britain, that would not have established it or changed the status under the convention of joint-occupancy. As early as 1825 Great Britain was willing to concede to the United States all of the Oregon Country south of the Columbia River and south of latitude forty-nine, east of that river. In a document found among the private papers of Dr. John McLoughlin, after his death, in his handwriting, a full copy