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Acknowledgment is made of assistance received from the Carnegie Institution of Washington in preparation of this study.

On the first Monday in June, 1857, the people of Oregon Territory by a vote of nearly five to one decided to have a constitutional convention. Congress had passed no enabling act but this Oregon community of some 45,000 people, in the far-outlying and then isolated Pacific Northwest, had at divers times been under the necessity of acting independently and without express leave granted at Washington. The people of this territory had shown considerable facility in community achievement of a political character and some disposition to have their own way. Congress, on the other hand, was at