Robert Newell has been previously described.
Such being the composition of the Legislative Committee of Oregon in 1844, it is not surprising that interests of classes and cliques should find advocates, and that the absolute wants of the country should be neglected. The whole time of the session seems to have been taken up in the discussions of personal bills. The question of convention of the people was before this session and was lost.
There was one inhuman act passed by this Legislative Committee, which should stamp the names of its supporters with disgrace and infamy. We find its inception recorded on the 25th of July, the sixth day of the session.
On motion, the rules were suspended for the special purpose of allowing Hon. P. H. Burnett to introduce a bill for the prevention of slavery in Oregon, without giving previous notice; which was received and read first time. It was read a second time next day in the forenoon, and in the afternoon of the same day the bill to prevent slavery in Oregon, and for other purposes, was read a third time, and on the question, “Shall the bill pass?” the yeas and nays were demanded, when the vote stood: yeas, Burnett, Gilmore, Keizer, Waldo, Newell, and Mr. Speaker McCarver—6; nays, Lovejoy and Hill—2.
The principal provisions of this bill were, that in case a colored man was brought to the country by any master of a vessel, he must give bonds to take him away again or be fined, and in case the negro was found, or came here from any quarter, the sheriff was to catch him and flog him forty lashes at a time, till he left the country.
These six Solons, who got up and carried through this measure, did it for the good of the black man of course, as one of the first principles laid down by the people the year previous in the organic law, and unanimously carried, was: “That slavery, except for the punishment of crime, whereof the parties shall have been previously convicted, shall never be tolerated.”
The principles of Burnett’s bill made it a crime for a white man to bring a negro to the country, and a crime for a negro to come voluntarily; so that, in any case, if he were found in the country, he was guilty of a crime, and punishment or slavery was his doom.
Mr. Burnett claimed great credit for getting up a prohibitory liquor law, and made several speeches in favor of sustaining it, that being a popular measure among a majority of the citizens.
At the adjourned session in December, we find the executive urging the Legislative Committee to adopt measures to secure the permanent interests and prosperity of the country, also to amend their act relative to the corporal punishment of the blacks, and again urging the calling of a convention of the people.