Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/63



Hall Jackson Kelley 41

As to the financial arrangements, the Circular set forth that the funds of the Society should be made up of $200,000 of stock and certificate money and all such donations as benevo- lent and public spirited individuals might make. It presented an extract from the report of a committee charged with devis- ing a plan of financing the enterprise, which contained the fol- lowing suggestions :

''Let a portion of the funds of the society constitute a capital stock of Two Hundred Thousand DoUars, to be divided into shares of $100 each, and to be raised by loans. Each share entitling the owner thereof to 160 acres of land, as set forth in the certificate of stock, — ^the lots are to be numbered and determined according to the rules and plan of division ex- pressed by the By-Laws of the Society. This stock shall be secured on the pledge of all the public and common property and revenues of the settlement — ^the emigrants covenanting with the Society before embarkation, that all debts incurred directly or indirectly, for the l)enefit of the settlement, to the full amount of said stock, shall be paid in the manner aforesaid.

"Your G)mmittee would also suggest the propriety of rais- ing funds by donations and subscriptions, to meet more specific purposes in the Oregon Country. Let one be called the Edu- cation or Indian Fund; and another called the Religious Fund, . ..

"[The] par value [of the stock] cannot be depreciated by the contingency of ill success of the enterprise ; for, in that possible event, every dollar of the stock will be refunded, the same being on hand either in money, or in public property. . . ."^

The details of the financial plan were also presented in an- odier pamphlet which was also issued in 1831. This was a stock book which bore the legend "This book of stock, sub- scriptions, &c., in which shall be enrolled, the names of all persons contributing to the success of founding a settlement in Or^on, either by subscriptions, donations or investments in the Societ/s stock, shall be preserved, in perpetuum, by the

24 Pp. 2S-6.