Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/165

 How BRITISH AND AMERICAN SUBJECTS UNITE 157 be free to make such regulations as are suited to their own needs. Such in brief is the purport of this curious document. Unfortunately we are without a record of this March meet- ing of 1844 to which this address of the Canadians was pre- sented. Minutes of other public meeting of the time have been preserved in our archives, but for some reason this one is men- tioned by no contemporary American writer, and only casually alluded to by the Hudson's Bay official correspondence. But from what followed the meeting it seems that some under- standing must have been reached in it. Possibly the Americans suggested that the new legislature soon to be elected would be able to repeal the obnoxious laws and consider the suggestions given as to modifications in the existing form of government. The letters of the Hudson's Bay Company officials written at the time imply some kind of definite compact or agreement be- tween Canadians and Americans. 44 In their address the Cana- dians had professed a willingness to obey the laws adopted in 1843 and to recognize the government then set up and now, apparently, satisfied with assurances given them they agreed to associate themselves with the organization already formed and to signify such union by participating in the election of officers in the coming May. At this annual election they voted for the first time and helped to elect a new executive committee, a legislative committee, and the other prescribed officers. 45 The new executive and legislative committees showed very great consideration for the sentiments of the Canadian and British settlers, 46 and a desire for harmony and compromise. At the suggestion of the executive the legislative committee passed several laws that indicate such a spirit. Following the suggestion of the Canadian address the land law was repealed and a new one enacted that abandoned the requirement for 44 British and Yankees have joined in forming a sort of provisional govern- ment," writes the commander of the British ship of war, Modeste, who visited Oregon in July, 1844. F. O. Amer., 440. "The Canadians and other retired servants of the Company became parties to these measures (those passed by legislative assembly of 1844.) "Letter of Sir George Simpson. 45 McLoughlin Letter March 20, 1845. 46 One of the executive committee. Dr. Bailey, characterized by McLoughlin as a "cockney," was an Irishman by birth. Gray speaks of him as having come to the meeting in 1841 with the Canadians pledged to elect him for governor. Hist, of Oregon, p. 275.