Joe Meek calls out for males to take sides in the vote to produce a provisionary government in the Pacific Northwest on May 2, 1843 at what's now Champoeg, Oregon. (Courtesy Feliks Banel).

( Courtesy Feliks Banel).







BY FELIKS BANEL.

Reporting live from Seattle's past.

Divide! Divide! Who's for a divide? All in favor of the American flag, follow me!

Legend has it that these were the words called out by Joe Meek at a significant conference in the old Oregon Country 180 years ago today.

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According to the story, Meek, in addition to 101 other males, had actually gathered along the banks of the Willamette River near Champoeg (pronounced "sham-POO-ee"), located approximately in between contemporary Portland and Salem.

Some American homeowners of what's now Oregon, Washington, and Idaho were frustrated that the arrive at which they stood stayed in political limbo, captured in between the United States and the British, going back to a "joint occupation" agreement from 1818.

By 1843, Americans had desired the Oregon Country to be part of the United States for decades, states Dr. Melinda Marie Jette, a teacher at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire and authority on Oregon Country history.

" There had been petitions before 1843 by individuals who wanted to get Oregon into the United States, and there had actually been a great deal of published pieces-- you may even state propaganda pieces-- returning even to the 1830s and as far back as 1820 in some cases," Dr. Jette said.

Long before the May 2 meeting at Champoeg, the lack of a government was adding to issues that required practical services. A wealthy settler and landowner had actually passed away in 1841 without any successors and no will. Wolves and other wildlife were pestering farms. Settlers held meetings to plan what to do.

Amy Platt is the job manager of the Oregon Encyclopedia for the Oregon Historical Society. She says that the so-called "Wolf Meetings" that started in 1842-- together with a growing population-- were the drivers that caused the May 2 vote at Champoeg.

" In 1843, there were now hundreds and numerous people (in the Willamette Valley) because of the Oregon Trail, and they were having an issue with predators on their farmland," Platt stated. "So they thought, 'Oh, we've got to do something,' so they got together to put together a bounty system (for wolves) and a taxation [system] so they could pay the bounty.".

Platt states the settlers likewise desired some easy things that they thought just the government could supply.

" There are all of these things that we do every day that we think about mundane that to settlers were simply absolutely crucial," Platt stated. "How do you send by mail a letter if you do not have a government that has a post office that is sending your letter for you? That was among the first things the inhabitants desired.".

The lack of federal government in the Oregon Country from the early part of the 18th century to the 1840s likewise assisted foster an intricate sociopolitical circumstance, with representatives of global entities present and layers of standard human intrigue, too.

There were differences in between Methodist missionaries from the United States and French-Canadian fur trappers, a number of whom were Catholic. The Hudson's Bay Company, with its charter from Great Britain to harvest furs, functioned as a sort of de-facto government, with lots of staff members and infrastructure in the type of forts (or trading posts) and farming structures.

Numerous American inhabitants saw the Hudson's Bay Company-- and its allegiance to Great Britain-- as competitors for ultimate political ownership of the Oregon Country or, at the very least, as a challenge to the area becoming part of the United States.

The argument about developing a provisional federal government "was really an economic discussion in many methods," stated Amy Platt. "I know that there are lots of features of this dispute between the Methodists and the Catholics, however it was a fight of personalities, not a lot of theology," Platt said.

And in the personality department, Joe Meek was, by all accounts, a charismatic, larger-than-life character, but historians disagree regarding whether he actually spoke those stirring words to the crowd at Champoeg back in 1843.

They do concur that the end result was that the inhabitants voted to produce a provisionary government.

According to the legend, when the dust settled, 51 males stood with Meek, and 50 did not. The vote could not have been any closer. After the vote, the 50 opposed left, and the remaining males began working out the information of what to do next.

Legend likewise has it that an unidentified number of French Canadians-- possibly 2, perhaps simply a handful - -" crossed the line" to vote with the Americans and tip the balance in favor of the provisionary federal government.

" The French Canadians were in a tough area," stated Amy Platt. "They were topics of Queen Victoria, however it was clear that the Americans, population-wise, were taking control of whatever south of the Columbia River.".

Platt says that a lot of the French Canadians were married to Native American females, and lots of had biracial children.

" Were [the French-Canadians] going to buy into this provisionary government, which was pretty much going to push Oregon towards statehood with the United States, or are they going to stay loyal to their country-- to Canada and Great Britain?" Platt said. "There is some argument about the number of those French-Canadians were on this side of the line or that side of the line.".

Dr. Melinda Marie Jette matured in Oregon. She's part French-Canadian, and her Native American forefathers have lived in the Willamette Valley for centuries.

It makes an excellent story, however it's still, in a method, illustrative of what individuals were believing at the time. Even if they tell this story, you know, inhabitants and their kids, they tell the story. For them, it explains how they see things, so it's instructive, even if it's not actually true.".

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Despite the count, the final vote favored the provisionary government, and work started to arrange a standard set of laws-- cribbed from a book of Iowa laws that easily belonged to among the American inhabitants-- and to nominate American males to act as judges and in other main capabilities. Settlers reunited on July 5, 1843, to officially adopt the laws and to validate the elections.

"Some individuals, like the French-Canadians, are working in their own community's finest interest, what they see as their neighborhood interest. Economically, they desire to be part of the discussion.".

" So it's actually a complex story," Dr. Jette said.

Amy Platt states that Joe Meek's work to summon the elect a provisional federal government that day in Champoeg was just the start of his labors on behalf of Oregon. He was named sheriff on July 5, but then he likewise became something of a goodwill ambassador to the United States.

" After the May conference in 1843, they sent out Joe Meek out to Congress with another petition and stated, 'Hey, look what we're doing-- look what you forced us to do-- we've created our own federal government since you left us out here in the howling wilderness to take care of ourselves. Now you see that we mean organization,'" Platt stated.

" [The American inhabitants at Champoeg] had every objective of [the provisional federal government] pressing them towards territory-hood, certainly ... and then eventually statehood," Platt said.

Platt likewise states that Native Americans-- Kalapuya and other tribes-- played no direct role in the meeting at Champoeg, and that they were considered as a challenge by most of the American inhabitants.

" The individuals who satisfied at Champoeg were assuming that the Native Americans around them would pass away out in one method or another," Platt said. In contrast, French-Canadians worked together and engaged with Native Americans, Platt says, and the British "were in fact truly good at that type of settlement or colonization.".

" The Americans were not as good (as the British)," Platt stated. "So a great deal of the violence (toward Native Americans) that was occurring in the Oregon Country prior to 1843 was American.".

Diplomatic gears were turning in Washington, DC and London, and the United States and Great Britain settled the border problems of the Oregon Country through the Treaty of 1846; Oregon Territory, with a territorial governor selected by the President, was created in 1848. Washington Territory was created from the northern portion of Oregon Territory in 1853; Oregon became a state in 1859.

The website of historic Champoeg is now an Oregon State Heritage Area, that includes a visitor center with historical exhibits. A monolith was committed there in 1901, and an observance to mark the development of the provisional government has been held on the site every year since.

Editor's Note: This story was originally released May 2, 2017.

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday early morning on Seattle's Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O'Brien, learnt more from him here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea, please e-mail Feliks here.

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