prepares for a wiser use of the privileges enjoyed under its beneficent rule. In following out the theme set before us it is to be remembered that by Oregon is meant that piece of territory whose boundaries have been gradually shrinking to their present compass from an area extending from the Spanish possessions at the forty-second degree of latitude to the Russian possessions at the fifty-fifth degree, and between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. In many respects this history resembles that of the other states of our Union. In common with them there has been a gradual growth from those fragmentary germs of civic life out of which civil government grows, which fragmentary forms begin to operate as soon as individuals come together in social relation, often long before localities are entitled to take their places as parts of a nation. As in the case of other states, there was the acquisition of territory, in this case preceded by a partial acquisition. Like the other states, it has passed through the various steps prescribed by congress for the transition from newly acquired territory to perfect statehood; but, as other states have passed through this common process with a great variety of interesting and unique experiences, so Oregon has had its own history, peculiar to itself, and in some respects different from that of any other state. It is the purpose of this paper to set forth briefly the leading facts, so far as they may be gained from the sources at present available, and to present them, so far as possible, in historical perspective, and as a part of the growth of our national life. In the examination of a subject connected with local history it is easy to be carried away by local circumstances, and to fail to grasp those larger features which connect it with the history of the nation and to some extent with that of the world. Our truest knowledge of the subject, however, will come from this broader approach and a search first for those general conditions which underlay the more detailed history and were instrumental in determining its drift.