Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1915-05-04
SOME EARLY HISTORY
REVIVED BY ANNIVERSARY OF
PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT.
Hudson Bay Company Ruled the Ore
gon Country With Iron Hand.
Jason Lees Grand Work.
(From The Oregonian).

The recurrence of May 2, the ami
yersary of the adoption of oregon
famous provisional government. re-
calls the invaluable services which the
authors of that instrument rendered tt
posterity. The white population of the
Willamette valley was at that time
pretty evenly divided between settlers
from the United States and F'rencf
Canadians who had been in the service
of the Hudson Bay company. Thsst
amiable but not very energetic colo
nists had taken up farms somewhat
to the north of Salems present site
and, with Indian slaves to lighter
their labors led peaceful lives in the
midst of plenty under the protector
of DR.. Mclaughlin and his great cor
poration. The American settlers hac
drifted in from various sources. Some
of them were born wanderers who hao
made their devious way hunting, Tight
ing Indians and prospecting for min"
erals, across the great plains into the
Willamette valley. Others had come
with Jason Lee, who, in the modest
guise of missionary to the Indians,
had acted with a statesman's far
sighted wisdom in the work he did.
The settlers on the Tualatin plains had
come under still other auspices.
Most of these American settlers
were discontented with the rule OF the
Hudson Bay company. That corpor-
alton did not wish to encourage colo
nization. It's ambition was to keep the
entire Oregon country as near unln-
habited as possible in order that it
might be a perennial preserve of FUR
bearing animals. DR.. McLoughlin's s
broad intelligence did not wholly ap-
prove of this ideal, and he was uni
formly kind to immigrants, but ms
conduct was not in harmony with the
desires of his company The joint oc-
cupation agreement framed by the
United States and England prevented
any active outbreak of hostilities be-
tween the company's servants and the
American settlers, but it did not pre-
vent Jason Lee and his friends from
country under the Stars and Stripes.
The French Canadian farmers were
naturally friendly to the Hudson Bay
company, but there was nothing veno-
nous in their opposition to American
sentiment Their placid minds were
not especially concerned with politics
of any sort.
The ardor of the American faction
was more or less stimulated by the
land question. The settlers had come
in from the state to grow crops and
breed stock, and they were naturally
anxious to obtain stable titles to their
land as well as to find markets for
their grain and cattle. BY its tradi-
tional policy the Hudson Bay com
pany could not be expected to encour-
age them in either of these particu-
lars. If it had possessed the power
it would undoubtedly have expelled
every farmer from the willamette val
lev except its own Canadian proteges.
This fact perceptibly urged the Amer
lean colonists toward union with the
United States. They had come to
Oregon to better their worldly condi-
ton. and it was commendable in them
to agitate for civilized government,
The outcome of their efforts was the
famous meeting of May 2, at which
the scheme of the provisional govern
ment was adopted under the romantic
leadership of 10 Meek, with the much
needed assistance of Father Matthieu.
Still, the colonists would not have
despaired had the vote gone against
them at that meeting. A numerous
states. which would have given them
a decided majority a little later. ia
son Lees lectures and sermons had
stirred up a great deal of interest IN
the oregon country throughout the
middle west. There had been debates
in congress which helped the matter
along. But the most effective causes
of the migration to Oregon were eco
nomic and social. For many years
people had been pushing westward in
to the Mississippi valley and in the
course of time they had taken up tho
more valuable lands To the pioneers
who needed wide spaces around then
for their comfort, the region had be
come crowded. Daniel Boone hat
crossed. the Missouri to find breathin5
space. Mutitudes would have follow
ed him but for the unpromising char
acter of the country, which was thel
supposed to be a desert. Between thu
Missouri river and the oregon coun
try there was very little land to b'
found which invited farmers to SETTLE
and till it. Rewards to hunters anC
trappers were bountiful, but not t.
men who wished to plow and SOW.
For this reason the migratory ele
ment in our population. which wa
then proportionally more numerou
than now, had begun to pile up lik'
damned hood waters in the Mississip
ri valley, and Jason Lees wonderful
stories of Oregon and its riches cam
to them like a message from the skies
Across the desert lay another prom
ised land which they were called t
take and possess. Moreover, the farm
ers of Missouri and Illinois were rails
ing crops which they could not sell
The earth's bounty had become
drug upon their hands. Their onl
outlet to the worlds markets was b
way of the Mississippi. and the voyag