Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/142

 134 FREDERICK V. HOLM AN of the provisional government ? Your answer to this query is most respectfully solicited. Yours, with the highest respect. I. W. Smith, H. G. Lee, J. M. Garrison, Barton Lee." ^ " 'Oregon City, Aug. 15, 1845. I. W. Smith and others. Gentlemen: We have the honor to acknowledge your favor of the 14th inst, and beg in reply to say, that, viewing the organization as a compact of certain parties, British and Ameri- can subjects residing in Oregon, to afford each other protection in person and property, to maintain the peace of the community, and prevent the commission of crime a protection which all parties in this country feel they particularly stand in need of as neither the British nor American government appear at liberty to extend the jurisdiction of their laws to this part of America; and moreover seeing that this compact does not in- terfere with our duties and allegiance to our respective gov- ernments, nor with any rights of trade now enjoyed by the Hudson's Bay Company we, the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, consent to become parties to the articles of com- pact, provided we are called upon to pay taxes only on our sales to settlers. We have the honor to be, etc., John Mc- Loughlin, James Douglas.' ' : The initials of Smith, Chairman of this Committee, are a misprint. His initials, as given in the Oregon Archives, are "J. M.". September 2, 1845, at Fort Vancouver, Dr. John McLoughlin wrote an autograph letter to Dr. W. F. Tolmie, of the Hud- son's Bay Company, and then at Fort Nisqually, in relation to this agreement to join the Provisional Government. This original letter is in the possession of the Oregon Historical Society. In it Dr. McLoughlin wrote : "You will see by the accompanying copy of a letter addressed to me by several members of the Oregon Legislature, that we are invited to join the Legislature, and by our answer that, as it is merely a compact between the subjects of two nations living together in a country, free to both, to enable them to maintain peace and order among them, which could not be kept in any other way, and it does not interfere with our allegiance, as you see by the subjoined oath taken by the persons holding office, we considered it our duty to accede to the request, and we pay duties merely on the articles we sell to the settlers, as other merchants, and on our stock the same as other farmers."