Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/355



LAST STEP IN PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 327

officers named for the district, three judges and a Sheriff, only one was an American. One of the judges appointed was the chief factor of the Company, James Douglas.

In character, it will thus appear, the union partakes of the nature of a treaty and not a real incorporation either of the Company or its officers on the basis of entire equality with other members of the new state. The officers of the Company treat as equals with the duly elected officers of a government acting for the people living south of the Columbia; they demand certain terms as the price of their inclusion in a union to take in the territory both north and south of the river ; these terms are granted and upon the basis of these concessions the union is constituted. The character of the territory north of the Columbia as the special reservation of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany is thus in large measure preserved. A second character- istic of the union is suggested by the comment of McLoughlin who describes it as an "association that does not pretend to exercise authority over such persons as have not voluntarily joined it, and do not contribute to its support; neither does it extend protection to any but its own members." Or its description by the two British military officers who visited the Oregon country just after the union had been formed, as "an organization formed for the purpose of neutralizing the pre- ponderating American influence," "a compact independent of the United . States Government, one in which emigrants of all nations, willing to uphold the law in the country, and for the protection of life and property, are enrolled as members." 11

These descriptions seem to indicate that the jurisdiction of the government extended only to its own members. While established by the majority and its sanction disputed, according to McLoughlin, only by a few of the Americans of the very worst character, there was no purpose to coerce the minority who refused to join it. Furthermore it seems to have been as characterized by Ware and Vavasour, a "coalition" govern- ment without distinctive national leanings.

1 1 Last Letter, 1 1 6. Warre and Vavasour's Military Reconnoisance, Quarterly, 10:51.