Provisional Government of Oregon | |||||||||
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| 1841/1843–1849 | |||||||||
 Salmon Seal of the Provisional Government
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 Original districts of the government with the eventual U.S. borders and states superimposed | |||||||||
| Status | Part of the United States (1846–1849) | ||||||||
| Capital | Oregon City | ||||||||
| Common languages |
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| Government | Republic | ||||||||
| Executive | |||||||||
• 1841–1843 | Supreme Judge Ira Babcock | ||||||||
• 1842–1843 | Chairman of the Committee at Champoeg Meetings Ira Babcock | ||||||||
• 1843–1845 | Executive Committee | ||||||||
• 1845–1849 | Governor George Abernethy | ||||||||
| Legislature | Unicameral | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Appointment of constitutional committee and election of Supreme Judge at Champoeg | February 18, 1841 | ||||||||
• First Wolf Meeting at Champoeg | February 1, 1843 | ||||||||
• Second Wolf Meeting at Champoeg | March 6, 1843 | ||||||||
• Creation of the Provisional Government at Champoeg | May 2, 1843 | ||||||||
| March 3, 1849 | |||||||||
| Currency | |||||||||
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The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected settler government created in the Oregon Country (1818-1846), in the Pacific Northwest region of the western portion of the continent of North America. Its formation had been advanced at the Champoeg Meetings since February 17, 1841, and it existed from May 2, 1843 until March 3, 1849, and provided a legal system and a common defense amongst the mostly American pioneers settling an area then inhabited by the many Indigenous Nations. Much of the region's geography and many of the Natives were not known by people of European descent until several exploratory tours and expeditions were authorized at the turn of the 18th to the 19th centuries, such as Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery going northwest in 1804-1806, and United States Army Lt. Zebulon Pike and his party first journeying north, then later to the far southwest.
The Organic Laws of Oregon were adopted in 1843 with its preamble stating that settlers only agreed to the laws "until such time as the United States of America extend their jurisdiction over us".[3] According to a message from the government in 1844, the rising settler population was beginning to flourish among the "savages", who were "the chief obstruction to the entrance of civilization" in a land of "ignorance and idolatry".[3]
The provisional government had organized with the traditional three branches that included a legislature, judiciary, and executive branch. The executive government was at first the Executive Committee, consisting of three members, in effect from 1843 to 1845; then in 1845, a governor replaced the committee. The judicial branch had a single Supreme Judge along with several lower local courts, and a legislative committee of nine served temporarily as a legislature until later when the lower chamber of the Oregon House of Representatives for the new federal Oregon Territory was established in August 1848 by action of the United States Congress and approved by the President up to statehood in 1859.
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
Scottwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Streveywas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Brown, J. Henry (1892). Brown's Political History of Oregon: Provisional Government. Portland: Wiley B. Allen. LCCN rc01000356. OCLC 422191413.