In this speech of December 26, 1850, Thurston said that if any persons in Oregon owed money to Dr. McLoughlin, he could proceed in the Courts. This is true. The difficulty was to enforce judgments. Judgments could not then or prior to that time and until long afterwards be enforced against land. An execution could only reach personal property. If a debtor did not wish to pay a debt, he could sell his crops privately in advance, or he could cover them and other personal property by chattel mortgages. Thurston as a lawyer knew the law. The law establishing the Territorial Government of Oregon provided that "all laws heretofore passed in said Territory [_i.e._, by the Provisional Government] making grants of land, or otherwise affecting or incumbering the title to lands, shall be, and are hereby declared to be, null and void." Under the Donation Land Law a settler on public land had merely a possessory right which did not ripen into a title to the land until he had "resided upon and cultivated the same for four consecutive years." It was an estate upon condition. It was not subject to execution sale. If such a sale could have been made, under a law of the Territory of Oregon, a purchaser would take nothing--not even the possessory right of a settler.[68] The settler was the only one who could complete the four years' residence and cultivation. In fact, it was a long time after the passage of the law before a land claim could be lawfully taken up. The settlers really held a kind of squatter's title until the Surveyor-General was ready to proceed or to receive applications for surveys. The first notifications were not filed until 1852. Besides, the statute of limitations, for bringing suit on these debts, did not exceed six years. The case of McLoughlin v. Hoover, 1 _Oregon Reports_, 32, was decided at the December term, 1853, of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Oregon. This case shows that Dr. McLoughlin did bring a suit shortly after September 29, 1852, the exact date not being given in the decision, against John Hoover to recover from Hoover a promissory note for $560 dated October 2, 1845, and payable one year after date. Hoover pleaded the Statute of Limitations. It was held by the Supreme Court of Oregon Territory that at no time under the Provisional or Territorial governments of Oregon was the statute of limitations to recover on notes and accounts for a longer period than six years. But by reason of amendments of the law, that the statute of limitations did not run a longer period than three years succeeding the act of September 29, 1849. The full six years from the time said note became due would end October 5, 1853, counting three days of grace, but under this decision the statute of limitations had run September 29, 1852, being less than five years from the time said note became due. The statute of limitations does not extinguish a debt. It merely stops the collection of it by law.