Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/187



ESTABLISHMENT OF PACIFIC COAST REPUBLIC 179

On June 15, 1846, the treaty with Great Britain was signed which secured to the United States the territory of Oregon lying south of the forty-ninth parallel of latitude. The Ore- gon question was thus settled, and it was supposed that the American government would at once proceed to organize a government for the newly acquired territory. It was not, how- ever, until August 14, 1848, that the bill providing for the organization of Oregon as a territory became law. This un- expected delay, caused by the opposition of the pro-slavery leaders in Congress to the clause in the Oregon Provisional Government declaring that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, should ever be permitted in the territory, was peculiarly galling to the citizens of Oregon, who felt that although their efforts had been largely responsible for the acquisition of this valuable territory by the United States government, that government was now refusing them necessary assistance and protection. Nevertheless all bitter feelings were forgotten in the general rejoicing at the news of the passage of the Territorial Bill in 1848.

March 3, 1849, the territorial government was put into op- eration by a Democratic governor (General Joseph Lane) ap- pointed by President Polk. The governor entered upon his duties with energy and enthusiasm, and the machinery of gov- ernment was. soon running smoothly. 3

In Oregon at this time the political lines of demarcation were not those laid down by the great national parties; such parties as existed were based on purely local issues.

Before the territorial organization the people of Oregon had had little reason to be interested in the national disputes of Whig and Democrat, and the Oregon settler, though perhaps a violent partisan before his immigration to the far west, after that immigration soon came to think little of his former party alignment, and to concentrate his attention on local affairs. 3

on

i Schafer, History of the Pacific North-West, pp. 216-217.

a Bancroft, History of Oregon, i, 780.

3 Woodward, Rise and Early History of Political Parties in Oregon, in Or-

Historical Society, The Quarterly, XII, pp. 36-37-