Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/162

 154 ROBERT CARLTON CLARK president; J. Gervez [signs with his mark, usually written Gervais] as vice president; Francis Renay, apparently as a second vice president; and Charles E. Pickett and S. M. Holderness as secretaries. Now the two last came to Oregon with the immigration of 1843. 39 An examination of the internal evidence furnished by the document itself is quite as convincing as that already given that it belongs to the year 1844. 1. In the first and second clauses of the address the Canadians say that they "desire laws and regulations for the protection of persons and property and will not resist the measures of this nature passed last year by a part of the people, although not approving of all the regula- tions then made. Let the magistrates finish their year." Now in the opinion of those accepting 1842 as the date of the ad- dress these clauses have reference to the effort made in 1841 to form a government. Yet there were no definite laws or regulations adopted then, no officers elected for any prescribed term, and whatever action then taken had been that of the whole people, Canadians as well as Americans, and not of "part of the people" as described in the address. These statements of the address seem to apply exactly to situation created by the movement of 1843. Laws and regulations had then been adopted by a part of the people and officers elected for a year. Moreover at the date of the address the Canadians are ready to form a union with the other settlers. In 1843 they were op- posed to forming a government, attempted to outvote the Americans and withdrew from the May meeting when defeated. This certainly fixes the date at some time subsequent to the meeting of July 5, 1843, at which the government was finally established. 2. The address shows a knowledge of the, arti- cles and laws adopted at that meeting. It is largely a criticism of the American plan of union and such a criticism as would have been made after having studied its organic act. Since the work of the legislative committee that drew this up was not completed until the latter part of June, 1843, such knowl- ZgNesmith list of 1843 Immigrants, Trans. Oreg. Pioneer Assoc., 1879.