Charles Henry Carey

“ It said that those in favor of statehood assume that the population will be 65,000 and the taxable property as much as fifty-three millions by the time the state is established, and argue that the total expense of state government will not exceed $50,000 per year, which could be paid by a poll tax of one dollar for each inhabitant, whereas, the actual fact was that in 1850 the total population was but 13,000, and the taxable property but $8,000,000. Not more than one in seven are taxpayers and personal property alone pays taxes. ”

“ The Indian difficulties upon our frontiers have, and will for a time, deter an increase of our population by the ordinary means of overland immigration, which has been the usual source of important yearly accessions, chiefly to the agricultural class of our inhabitants. Hundreds of industrious and enterprising people would have started from the states in the ensuing spring, by the overland route, to make homes in Oregon, but for the unprotected condition of the route. ”

“ Immediately after Oregon was organized as a Territory it began to aspire to statehood. In fact, at the very first session of the new territorial legislature the formation of a constitution for a state was proposed, and in the following ten years, that covered the life of the Territory, the question of statehood was voted upon by the people several times. ”

“ Although the democrats were in the majority in the state, they were by this time becoming hopelessly divided. Some leading men of the party, while unwilling to have slavery introduced, thought that all negroes should be excluded, and on this point alone the right and left wings of the party seemed to be in accord.
In the meantime in the House of Representatives at Washington there was another bill authorizing the people of Oregon to form a state Constitution and state government. ”

“ Foreign capital for the establishment of manufactories, and for the building of works of internal improvement would not be introduced until there was proper basis for investment and employment. There must be population and reproductive wealth, the only foundation of prosperity. Immigration had been and would be retarded by the Indian war. There was nothing in the claim that Oregon would gain by increased representation in congress, since with the one delegate representing the Territory there was no divided counsel, and there was an advantage in unity in action. ”

“ The last amendment offered was one by Senator Green, in the nature of a rider to the bill to the effect that Kansas be put upon the same basis to authorize her to form a constitution. Whether this affected the defeat or not, the Oregon bill was at an end for this session. When the election in Oregon of delegates to the Constitutional Convention came on in June, 1857, it was definitely known in the Territory that congress had again failed to act, and Bush of the Statesman began to suspect his political ally, Lane, of luke-warmness, if not of actual treachery. ”

“ Party spirit was intense, and the democrat majority at Salem showed a rancor that through the ten-year period of the Territory and afterward in the early years of statehood, was always characteristic of the political relations of the times. The democrats objected to the whig president appointing executive and judicial officers for the Territory and demanded the right of local self-government. They believed that if the state could be organized under a constitution of its own, the unsatisfactory condition of dependence upon distant Washington would come to an end. ”

“ At the next session, by some strange metamorphosis, the whig members became special friends of a state government, and sought to take the initiative towards the formation of one. A bill for that purpose passed the house that session by a vote of fourteen to nine, every whig but one voting aye. The bill went to the council, and was there rather summarily rejected, in consequence of which the whig members of the House, in a pet, all voted to adjourn and the adjournment was carried at their instance, before any business had been transacted, and as a punishment of the contumacious council. ”

“ However, the following afterward appeared in the Umpqua Gazette, written by General Lane:
"Some time since I wrote a letter for publication in relation to the division of Oregon Territory, as proposed by the people of Jacksonville and Yreka, in which I gave my views in opposition to such a division and urged the establishment of a state government for reasons I think will be considered legitimate and proper. A new Territory cannot be made as proposed. The delegation from California does not think of entertaining the idea of clipping their state." ”

“ The spirited debate was participated in by many members, the committee of the whole arrived at no conclusion, and the bill did not pass. During the debate Cadwallader proposed an amendment fixing the eastern boundary at the summit of the Cascade Mountains, but this was successfully opposed by Lane, who urged that the people of Oregon should be allowed to fix their own boundaries. [27] Amendments were also offered to require the voters to be citizens of the United States. Lane finally gave up his fight for the bill, doubtless foreseeing defeat, and it did not come to formal vote. ”

“ An independent sovereignty will be certain to induce, by the only other means of access, a character of population, differing in interest, but quite as requisite to the permanent prosperity of the country. ”

“ Resolved by the House, the Council concurring, That our delegate in congress be and hereby is requested to use his best endeavors, and to act in concert with the senators of California, to procure the passage of a law creating and organizing a new territory to be known by the name of Jackson Territory, including all that part of Oregon Territory lying south of the latitude of 43 degrees and 45 minutes, and all that portion of California lying north of the Trinity Mountains. ”

“ There were really no vacant lands in the Willamette, Umpqua or Rogue River valleys, and the only available lands were east of the Cascades, which could not be had until after the Indian war was over and they were surveyed by the government. ”