Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/183

Rh without their friends. The Oregonian, which was the accredited organ of the federal clique, was loud in condemnation of the course pursued by the legislators, while the Spectator, which professed to be an independent paper, weakly supported Governor Gaines and Chief Justice Nelson. Even in the legislative body itself there was a certain minority who protested against the acts of the majority, not on the subject of the location act alone, or the change in the judicial districts, leaving the chief justice one county only for his district, but also on account of the memorial to congress, prepared by the joint committee from both houses, setting forth the condition of affairs in the territory, and asking that the people of Oregon might be permitted to elect their governor, secretary, and judges.

The memorial passed the assembly almost by acclamation, three members only voting against it, one of them protesting formally that it was a calumnious document. The people then took up the matter, public meetings being held in the different counties to approve or condemn the course of the legislature, a large majority expressing approbation of the assembly and censuring the whig judges. A bill was finally passed calling for a constitutional convention in the event of congress refusing to entertain their petition to permit Oregon to elect her governor and judges. This important business having been disposed of, the legislators addressed themselves to other matters. Lane was instructed to ask for an amendment to the land law; for an increase in the number of councilmen in proportion to the increase of representatives; to procure the immediate survey of Yaquina Bay and Umpqua River; to procure the auditing and payment of the Cayuse war accounts; to have the organic act amended so as to allow the county commissioners to locate the school lands in legal subdivisions or in fractions lying between claims, without reference to size or shape, where the sixteenth and thirty-sixth