John McLoughlin - Relations With American Settlers

Relations With American Settlers

In 1821 the British Parliament imposed the laws of Upper Canada on British subjects in Columbia District, and gave the authority to enforce those laws to the Hudson's Bay Company. John McLoughlin, as chief factor of Fort Vancouver, applied the law to British subjects, kept peace with the natives and sought to maintain law and order over American settlers as well.

In 1841, with the arrival of the first wagon train via the Oregon Trail, McLoughlin disobeyed company orders and extended substantial aid to the American settlers. Relations between Britain and the United States had become very strained, and many expected war to break out any time. McLoughlin's aid probably prevented an armed attack on his outpost by the numerous American settlers. The settlers understood that his motives were not purely altruistic, and some resented the assistance, working against him for the rest of his life.

The Hudson Bay Company officially discouraged settlement because it interfered with the lucrative fur trade. The company belatedly realized that the increasing numbers of American settlers in the area would result in Columbia District becoming part of U.S. territory. In 1841, Hudson Bay Company Governor George Simpson ordered Alexander Ross to organize a party of Red River settlers to emigrate and occupy the land for Britain. When the James Sinclair expedition of almost 200 men women and children reached Fort Vancouver later that year, McLoughlin took his time settling them on Hudson's Bay farms and encouraged them to settle south of the Columbia River.

As tensions mounted in the Oregon boundary dispute; Simpson, realizing that border might ultimately be as far north as the 49th parallel, ordered McLoughlin to relocate their regional headquarters to Vancouver Island. McLoughlin, in turn, directed James Douglas to construct Fort Camosun (now Victoria, British Columbia, Canada). But McLoughlin, whose life was increasingly connected to the Willamette River Valley, refused to move there.

McLoughlin was involved with the debate over the future of the Oregon Country. He advocated an independent nation that would be free of the United States during debates at the Oregon Lyceum in 1842 through his lawyer. This view won support at first and a resolution adopted, but was later moved away from in favor of a resolution by George Abernethy of the Methodist Mission to wait on forming an independent country.

In 1843 American settlers established their own government, called the Provisional Government of Oregon. A legislative committee drafted a code of laws known as the Organic Law. It included the creation of an executive committee of three, a judiciary, militia, land laws, and four counties. There was vagueness and confusion over the nature of the 1843 Organic Law, in particular whether it was a constitutional or statutory. In 1844 a new legislative committee decided to consider it statutory. The 1845 Organic Law made additional changes, including allowing the participation of British subjects in the government. Although the Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled the boundaries of US jurisdiction upon all lands south of the 49th parallel, the Provisional Government continued to function until 1849, when the first governor of Oregon Territory arrived.