Written by former Provisional Supreme Judge J. Quinn Thornton, this historical account chronicles the 1843 establishment of Oregon's Provisional Government at Champoeg and its subsequent legislative evolution. The narrative details the transition of the Willamette Valley from a loosely governed frontier outpost into an organized American political entity, emphasizing the drafting of its organic laws and the urgent lobbying for official U.S. territorial recognition. A keen insight drawn from the text is how Thornton’s intense personal vanity and staunchly anti-British prejudices transform this administrative history into a highly subjective, partisan autobiography. By actively framing himself as the indispensable architect of the 1848 Territorial Act and the primary crusader responsible for explicitly banning slavery in the region, Thornton weaponizes the historical record to settle old political vendettas and artificially inflate his own legacy in Pacific Northwest statecraft.

54 p.

The first book account of the Donner Party. Thornton’s journal of his crossing with the Russell party in 1846 provides details of the Trail and the Donners and Reeds up to the parting of the ways at the Little Sandy. Thornton describes the difficulties he faced taking the Applegate Cutoff to Oregon and excoriated Applegate as a liar for promoting the route. Two years later he traveled to California where he interviewed Donner Party survivors and rescuers including William Eddy and researched accounts previously published in the California newspapers. Thornton’s description of the events set the tone for most of the Donner Party histories to this day. Thornton’s chapters about the Donner Party were excerpted and published as The California Tragedy, Biobooks, 1945, and Camp of Death, Outback Books, 1986

2 volumes : frontispiece, plates, folded map ; 20 cm.