Chapter LIII

The liquor law.--Amended act of 1845.--Message of the governor on
the same.--Repeal of the prohibitory and passage of the license
law.--Letter of James Douglas.--Reply of Mr. Samuel Parker.--Dr.
Tolmie's resolution on the judiciary.--The governor's veto of the
license law.--Immigration for Oregon and California in
1846.--Arrival of the brig Henry.--The Oregon Printing
Association.--The _Spectator_, the first newspaper in Oregon.--W.
G. T. Vault, first editor.--H. A. G. Lee, second editor.--G. L.
Curry, third editor.--Judge Wait, fourth editor.

_The Liquor Law._--Peter H. Burnett framed a law on this subject, which was revised by Newell in the summer of 1845, and lost on the final vote. In December, 1845, Gray, from committee on ways and means, reported a bill on ardent spirits, expressing the views, and gaining the approval of a decided majority of the people. Governor Abernethy, in his annual message the next year, expressed an opinion that this law required some amendment, but, by combining the whole liquor influence in the country, the law was repealed, and a license law substituted, by a two-thirds vote over his veto; while, at the same time, nearly two-thirds of the voters of the Territory voted to _prohibit_ the sale of liquor, instead of to _regulate_ it, as expressed in the organic law.

The law, as reported by the committee of ways and means, was passed December 6, 1845, by the following vote: Gray, Garrison, Hendricks, H. Lee, B. Lee, McClure, and McCarver--7, for; Foisy, Hill, Straight, and Newell--4, against.

On the 8th, the Monday following this vote (Hendricks and Barton Lee having been treated and tampered with), on motion of B. Lee--

"_Resolved_, That the house now reconsider the vote on the final
passage of the bill on ardent spirits."

_Yeas_--Hendricks, Hill, B. Lee, Smith, Straight, and Newell--6.

_Nays_--Foisy, Gray, Garrison, H. Lee, McCarver, and McClure--6.

So the motion to reconsider was lost, and the bill published in the first newspaper ever published on this coast, as provided for in the bill itself, which is as follows:--

_Amended Act of 1845._