USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 62
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HIST. OR., VOL. II. 41
642
POLITICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL.
Oregon, the court, Judge Boise presiding, held that the act of congress authorizing the issue of treasury notes did not make them a legal tender for state taxes, and did not affect the law of the state requiring state taxes to be paid in coin. In another action between private parties, the question being on the power of congress to make paper a legal tender, the court ruled in favor of congress. On the other hand, it was de- cided by Judge Stratton that the law of congress of February 25, 1862, was unconstitutional. This law made treasury notes a legal tender for all debts, dues, and demands, which included the salaries of judges, which were paid from the state treasury. Hence, it was said, came the decision of a supreme judge of Ore- gon against the power of congress.
Turn and twist the subject as they would, the cur- reney question never could be made to adjust itself to the convenience and profit of all; because it was a war measure, and to many meant present self-sacri- fice and loss. For instance, when greenbacks were worth no more than thirty or forty cents on the dollar in the dark days of the spring of 1863, federal officers in California and Oregon were compelled to accept them at par from the government, and to pay for everything bought on the Pacific coast at gold prices, greatly advanced by the eastern inflation. The merchants, however, profited largely by the exchange and the advanced prices; selling for gold and buy- ing with greenbacks, having to some extent and for a time the benefit of the difference between gold and legal tenders. To prevent those who contended for the con- stitutionality of the act of congress from contesting cases in court, California passed a specific contract law providing for the payment of debts in the kind of money or property specified in the contract, thus practically repudiating paper currency. But it quieted the consciences of really loyal people, who were un- willing to seem to be arrayed against the govern-
643
CURRENCY AND CAPITAL.
ment, and yet were opposed to the introduction of paper currency of a fluctuating value.10
The Oregon legislature of 1864 followed the exam- ple of California, and passed a specific-contract law. No money should be received in satisfaction of a judgment other than the kind specified in such judg- ment; and gold and silver coins of the United States, to the respective amounts for which they were legal tenders, should be received at their nominal values in payment of every judgment, decree, or execution. A law was enacted at a special session of the legislature in 1865, called to consider the thirteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, making all state, county, school, and military taxes payable in the current gold and silver coin of the government, except where county orders were offered for county taxes. This law removed every impediment to the exclusive use of coin which could be removed under the laws of congress, and was in accordance with the popular will, which adhered to a metallic currency.
By the constitution of Oregon, requiring that at the first regular session of the legislature after its adoption a law should be enacted submitting the question of the location of the seat of government to the vote of the people, the assembly of 1860 had passed an act calling for this vote at the election of 1862.11 The constitution declared that there must be a majority of all the votes cast, and owing to the fact that almost every town in the state received some votes, there was no majority at this election; but at the election of 1864 Salem received seventy- nine over all the votes cast upon the location of the capital, and was officially declared the seat of govern- ment. As the constitution declared that no tax should be levied, or money of the state expended, or
10 See opinion of the supreme court of Cal. on the specific-contract act, in Portland Oregonian, Aug. 20 and Sept. 2, 1864; Or. Statesman, July 22, 1864; S. F. Alta, Jan. 29, 1868.
11 Or. Gen. Laws, 94; Or. Laws, 1860, 68-9.
644
POLITICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL.
debt contracted, for the erection of a state-house prior to the year 1865, this decision of the long-vexed question of the location of the capital was timely. Ten entire sections of land had been granted to the state on its admission to the union, the proceeds of which were to be devoted to the completion of the public buildings, or the erection of others at the seat of government; said lands to be selected by the goy- ernor, and the proceeds expended under the direction of the legislature. Owing to the obstacles in the way of locating the public lands, the public-buildings fund, intended to be derived therefrom, had not yet begun to accumulate in 1864, nor was it until 1872 that the legislature appropriated the sum of $100,000 for the erection of a capitol. It will be remembered that the penitentiary building at Portland had from the first been unnecessarily expensive, and ill-adapted to its purpose, and that the state had leased the institution for five years from the 4th of June, 1859, to Robert Newell and L. N. English.12
Governor Gibbs, in a special message to the legis- lature of 1862, proposed a radical change in the man- agement of the penitentiary.13 He suggested that
12 Leven N. English, born near Baltimore, in March 1792, removed when a child to Ky. He was a volunteer in the war of 1812, taking part in several battles. On the restoration of peace he removed to Ill., then a wilder- ness, where the Black Hawk war again called upon him to volunteer, this time as capt. of a company. In 1836 he went to Iowa, where he erected a flouring mill; and in 1845 he came to Oregon, settling near Salem. English's Mills of that place were erected in 1846. On the breaking-out of the Cayuse war, English and two of his sons volunteered. He had 12 children by his first wife, who died in 1851. By a second wife he had 7. He died March 5, 1875. San José Pioneer, Sept. 2, 1877; Trans. Or. Pioneer Asso., 1875-6.
13 As it was the practice of the lessees of the penitentiary to work the convicts outside of the enclosure, the most desperate and deserving of punishment often found means of escape. Twenty-five prisoners had escaped, twelve had been pardoned in the last two years of Whiteaker's administration, and five had finished the terms for which they were sentenced, leaving twenty-five still in confinement. The crimes of which men had been convicted and incarcerated in the penitentiary since 1853 were, arson 1, assault with intent to kill 15, assault with intent to commit rape 1, rape 1, assisting prisoners to escape 3, burglary 8, forgery 3, larceny 58, murder 1, murder in the second degree 12, manslaughter 6, perjury 1, receiving stolen goods 1, riot 1, robbery 3, threat to extort money 1, not certified 7-123, making an average of 13§ commitments annually during a period of 9 years. For the period from Sept. 1862 to Sept. 1864 there was a marked increase of crime, consequent upon the immigration from the southern states of many of the criminal classes, who thus avoided the
645
PENITENTIARY.
the working of convicts away from the prison grounds should be prohibited, and a system of manufactures introduced, beginning with the making of brick for the public buildings; and advised the selection of several acres of ground at the capital, and the erection of temporary buildings for the accommodation of the convicts. The legislature passed an act making the governor superintendent of the penitentiary, with authority to manage the institution according to his best judgment. Under the new system the expenses of the state prison for two years, from November 1, 1862, to September 1, 1864, amounted to $25,000, about $16,000 of which was earned by the convicts.14 As soon as the seat of government was fixed, the legis- lature created a board of commissioners for the loca- tion of lands for the penitentiary and insane asylum, of which board the governor was chairman; and who pro- ceeded to select 147 acres near the eastern limits of the town, having a good water-power, and being in all re- spects highly eligible.15 At this place were constructed temporary buildings, as suggested by Governor Gibbs, and during his administration the prisoners were re- moved from Portland to Salem. Under his successor still further improvements were made in the condition and for the security of the prisoners, but it was not until 1871 that the erection of the present fine structure was begun. It was finished in 1872, at a cost of $160,000.16
draft. In these 2 years 33 convicts were sent to the penitentiary, 12 for lar- ceny, 5 intent to kill, 4 burglary, 3 murder in the Ist degree, 2 manslaughter, 1 rape, 1 seduction, I arson, 1 receiving stolen goods. The county of Wasco furnished just § of these criminals, showing the direction of the drift. Or. Journal House, 1864, ap. 35-53.
11 The warden who, directed by the governor, produced these satisfactory results was A. C. K. Shaw, who, by the consent of the legislature, was subse- quently appointed superintendent by the governor.
15 The land was purchased of Morgan L. Savage, at $45 per acre, and the water-power of the Willamette Woollen Manufacturing Company for $2,000. George H. Atkinson was employed to visit some of the western states, and to visit the prisons for the purpose of observing the best methods of building, and laying out the grounds, with the arrangement of industries, and all mat- ters pertaining to the most approved modern penitentiaries. Or. Jour. House, 1865, ap. 7-12.
16 Gibbs' Notes on Or. Hist., MS., 20-22: Or. Code, 1862, ap. 71-3; Or. Laws, 1866, 95-8; Or. Legis. Docs, 1868, 7-10, 14; U. S. Educ. Rept, 548-57, 41st cong. 3d sess. See description in Murphy's Oregon Directory, 1873, 197-8.
646
POLITICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL.
Previous to 1862 no proper provision had been made for the care of the insane. The legislature in- vested Governor Gibbs with authority to select land for the erection of an asyluni at Salem, and to contract for the safe-keeping and care of the patients; but the state not yet being able to appropriate money for suit- able buildings, the contract was let to J. C. Hawthorne and A. M. Loryea, who established a private asylum at East Portland, where, until a recent date, all of these unfortunates were treated for their mental ail- ments.17 It was not until about 1883 that the state asylum, a fine structure, was completed.
The legislature of 1862 passed an act for the loca- tion of the lands donated to the state, amounting in all to nearly 700,000 acres, besides the swamp-lands donated by congress March 12, 1860, and Governor Gibbs was appointed commissioner for the state to lo- cate all lands to which the state was entitled, and to designate for what purposes they should be applied.18
A similar act had been passed in 1860, empowering Governor Whiteaker to select the lands and salt springs granted by act of admission, by the donation act of 1850 for university purposes, and by the act of March 12, 1860, donating swamp and overflowed lands to the state, which the failure of the commissioner of the general land-office to send instructions had rendered inoperative. The legislature of 1860 had also provided for the possessory and preëmptory rights of the 500,- 000 acres donated to the state, by which any person,
17 In 1860 the insane in Oregon were twenty-three in number, or a per cent of 0.438; in 1864 there were fifty-one patients in the asylum from a popnla- tion of 80,000, giving a per cent of 0.638. The percentage of cores was 32.50. Or. Jour. House, 1862, ap. 49; Or. Jour. House, 1864, ap. 7-8. In Sept. 1570 the asylum contained 122 persons, 87 males and 35 females. Of the whole number admitted in 1570-2, over 42 per cent recovered, and 7 per cent died. The building and grounds there were not of a character or extent to meet the requirements of the continually increasing number of patients. Gov- ernor's message, in Portland Oregonian, Sept. 13, 1566; Nash's Or., 149; Or. Insane Asylum Rept, 1872: Portland West Shore, March 1880. The number of patients in 1878 was 233, of whom 166 were males. Rept of C. C. Strong, Visiting Physician, 1875, 6.
1. Or. Code, 1562, 105-7; Zabriskie's Land Law, 659-63.
647
STATE LANDS.
being a citizen, or having declared his intention of becoming such, might be entitled to, with the right to preëmpt, any portion of this grant, in tracts not less than 40 nor more than 320 acres, by having it surveyed by a county surveyor; the claimants to pay interest at the rate of ten per cent per annum upon the purchase money, at the rate of $1.25 an acre, the fund accruing to be used for school purposes. When- ever the government survey should be made, the claimant might preempt at the general land-office, through the agency of a state locating agent. By this act the state was relieved of all expense in select- ing these lands; but Governor Whiteaker gave it as his opinion that the act was in conflict with the laws of the United States, in so far as the state taxed the public lands, which opinion was sustained by the gen- eral land-office, as well as that the state could have no control over the lands intended to be granted until after their selection and approval at that office.19 The act was accordingly repealed, after the selection of about 22,000 acres, and another passed, as above stated.
Much difficulty was experienced in finding enough good land subject to location to make up the amount to which the state was entitled for the benefit of con- mon schools and the endowment of an agricultural college,20 on account of the neglect of the government to have the lands surveyed, the surveys having been
19 Or. Jour. House, 1862, ap. 27; Or. Statesman, Sept. 15. 1862.
"0 Or. Code, 1862, ap. 109-10. The U. S. law making grants to agricul- tural colleges apportioned the land in quantities equal to 30.000 ac.es for each senator and representative in congress to which the states were respectively entitled by the apportionment of 1860. By this rule Oregon was granted 90.000 acres. Id., 60-4. The selections made previous to Gibbs' administra- tiou were taken in the Willamette and Umpqua valleys. To secure the full amount of desirable lands required much careful examination of the country. The agricultural-college grant was taken between 1862 and 1864 in the Klam- ath Valley, and a considerable portion of the common-school lands also. Fastern Oregon, in the valley of the Columnbia, was also searched for good locations for the state. D. P. Thompson and George H. Belden were the principal surveyors engaged in making selections. Belden made a complete map of Oregon from the best authorities. Previous to this the maps were very imperfect, the best being one made by Preston, and the earliest by J. W. Trutch in 1855.
648
POLITICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL.
much impeded by Indian hostilities, and the high prices of labor consequent on gold discoveries. Upon the petition of the Oregon legislature, congress had extended the surveying laws to the country east of the Cascades, and preparations were making to extend the base line across the mountains east from the Wil- lamette meridian, with a view to operations in the county of Wasco and the settlements of Umatilla, Walla Walla, John Day, and Des Chutes valleys.21 But congress failed to make an appropriation for the purpose, contracts already taken were annulled, and little progress was made for two years, during which the squatter kept in advance of the surveys upon the most valuable lands. During the year ending June 30, 1860, the service was prosecuted along the Co- lumbia River in the neighborhood of The Dalles, in the Umatilla Valley, and also in the Klamath coun- try, near the California boundary, which was not yet established.
An act was passed by congress June 25, 1860, for . the survey of the forty-sixth parallel so far as it con- stituted a boundary between Oregon and Washington, which work was not accomplished until 1864, although the length of the line was only about 100 miles, from the bend of the Columbia near Fort Walla Walla to Snake River near the mouth of the Grand Rond River.26 There was much delay in procuring the ser-
21 Land Off. Rept, 1858, 29-30.
22 While this matter was under consideration in congress, it was proposed in the senate that a committee should inquire into the expediency of reunit- ing Washington to Oregon. Sen. Misc. Doc., 11, 36th cong. 2d sess., a prop- osition which, so far as the Walla Walla Valley was concerned, would have been received with great favor by the state, the natural boundary of which is indicated by the Columbia and Snake rivers. This was the boundary fixed in the constitution of Oregon, from which congress had departed. A motion was made in the legislature to annex at several different times. See Or. Jour. House, 1865, 50-73; Memorial of Or. leg. in 1870. in U. S. II. Misc. Doc., 23, i., 41st cong. 3d sess .; Or. Laws, 1870, 212-13; Or. Jour. Sen., 1868; U. S. Sen. Misc. Dor., 2- 42d cong. 3d sess .; Salem Statesman, Feb. 14, 1871; Salem Mercury, March 18, . . 1. As late as 1873 Senator Kelly introduced a bill to annex Walla Walla county to Oregon, so as to conform the boundary to that named in the constitutional convention. On the other hand. the peo- ple of Washington would have been unwilling to resign this choice region. The matter was revived in 1875-6, when a committee of the U. S. house rep.
649
BOUNDARY SURVEYS.
vices of an astronomer and surveyor who would undertake this survey for the small amount appro- priated, the country being exceedingly rough, and including the crossing of the Blue Mountains.23 The contract was finally taken by Daniel G. Major late in 1864.24
By the time the northern boundary was completed, the mining settlements of eastern Oregon demanded the survey of the eastern boundary from that point near the mouth of the Owyhee where it leaves Snake River and continues directly south. The same ne- cessity had long existed for the survey of the 42d parallel between California and Oregon, which was not begun till 1867, when congress made an appro- priation for surveying the Oregon and Idaho boun- daries as well, Major again taking the contract.25 Owing to the continuous Indian wars in eastern Ore- gon, as late as 1867 it was necessary to have a mili- tary escort to protect the surveying parties and their supply trains; and it often happened that the forces could not be spared from the scouting and fighting which kept them actively employed. But in spite of these obstacles, in 1869 there had been surveyed of the public lands in Oregon 8,368,564 out of the 60,975,360 acres which the state contained; the sur- veyed portions covering the largest areas of good lands in the most accessible portions of the state; leaving at the same time many considerable bodies of equally
reported favorably to the rectification of the Oregon boundary, but the change was not made. II. Misc. Doc., 23, 44th cong. 2d sess .; Cong. Globe, 1875- 6, 300, 4710; 1I. Com. Rept, 764, 44th cong. Ist sess.
23 The amount provided was $4,500. Sur .- gen. Pengra recommended J. W. Perrit Huntington, a Connecticut man, an immigrant of 1849. After a brief res- idence in Oregon City he settled in Polk county, farming and teaching school, but removing to Yoncalla subsequently, where he married Mary, a daughter of Charles Applegate, and where he followed farming aud surveying. He was a man of ability, with some eccentricities of character. He was elected to the legislature in 1860, and was one of the most earnest of the republicans. In 1862 he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs, aud again by An- drew Johnson in 1867. He died at his home in Salem June 3, 1869. Salem Unionist, iu Roseburg Ensign, June 12, 1869; Deady's Scrap-Book, 29.
21 Land Off. Rept, 1864, 9; Portland Oregonian, Oct. 13, 1864.
25 Or. Jour. Hlouse, 1804, 42; Or. Argus, June 22, 1863; Lund Off. Rept, 1867, 113-14.
650
POLITICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL.
good land, which would at a later period be required for settlement.26
The first sale of public lands in Oregon by procla- mation of the president took place in 1857. Only ten or eleven thousand acres were sold, netting the government little more than the expenses of survey- ing its lands in Oregon.27 The homestead law of 1862 conferred benefits on actual settlers nearly equal to those of the donation law, though less in amount. The later arrivals in Oregon had only begun to avail themselves of its privileges, when the president again offered for sale, in October 1862, 400,000 acres, by which act the public lands were temporarily with- drawn from preemption and homestead privileges, and preemptors were forced to establish their claims and pay the price of their lands immediately in order to secure them against the danger of being sold at auc- tion by the government. This was felt to be a hard- ship by many who had before the passage of the homestead law been glad to preëmpt, but who now were desirous of recalling their preemption and claim- ing under the homestead act; especially as the more honest and industrious had put all their money into improvements, and could only meet the new demand by borrowing money at a high rate of interest. But as only about 13,500 acres were sold when offered,
26 Land Off. Rept, 1869, 225. There were surveyed, up to June 1878, 21,127,862; there remaining of unsurveyed public lands and Indian reserva- tions 39,849,498 acres. In the remainder was included the state swamp-lands, of which only a portion had been selected. U. S. 11. Ex. Doc., ix. 18, 45th cong. 3d sess. Of the surveyed lands, 139,597 acres were either sold or taken under the homestead or timber-culture acts from June 30, 1877, to July 1, 1878. Ibid., 146-160. Dept Agric. Rept, 1874-5, 67; see also Zabris- kie's Public Land Laws of the United States, containing instructions for ob- taining lands, and laws and decisions concerning lands, where are to be found many descriptions of the country, with the resources of the Pacific states, collected from official reports. San Francisco, 1870. Compare U. S. H. Ex. Doc., i. pt 4, vol. iv., pt i., 32-6, 156-60, 290-319, 452-8, 504-8, 41st cong. 3d sess .; U. S. Sec. Int. Rept, pt i., 44, 58, 268-76, 42d cong. 2d sess .; U. S. H. Ex. Doc., 170, x., 42d cong. 2d sess .; U. S. Sec. Int. Rept, pt i. 11, 16-17, 226-37, 280-99, 313-14; Salem Willamette Farmer, Aug. 2, 1873; Sulem Unionist, Dec. 17, 1866.
27 The expenses of the year 1857, for surveying the public lands, were $11,746.66, and the returns from their sale, $13,233.82. Land Off. Rept, 1858, 43-9.
651
PUBLIC ROADS.
few claims could have lapsed to the government, even if their preemptions were not paid up.
It is not surprising that during the public surveys certain individuals should seize the opportunity to se- cure to themselves large bodies of land by appearing to assume necessary enterprises which should only be undertaken by the government; and it might be ques- tioned whether the legislature had a proper regard to the interests of the state in encouraging such enter- prises. By an act of congress, approved July 2, 1864, there were granted to the state, to aid in the construc- tion of a military wagon-road from Eugene City across the Cascade Mountains by the way of the middle fork of the Willamette, near Diamond peak, to the eastern boundary of the state, alternate sections of the public lands designated by odd numbers, for three sections in width, on cach side of said road. When the legislature met, two months after the passage of this act, it granted to what called itself the Oregon Central Military Road Company all the lands and right of way already granted by congress, or that might be granted for that purpose; with no other pro- vision than that the lands should be applied exclu- sively to the construction of the road, and that it should be and remain free to the U. S. government as a military and post road. It was, however, enacted that the land should be sold in quantities not exceed- ing thirty sections at one time, on the completion of ten continuous miles of road, the same to be accepted by the governor, the sales to be made from time to time until the road should be completed, which must be within five years, or, failing, the land unsold to re- vert to the United States.28
What first called up the idea was the report of Drew on his Owyhee reconnaissance in 1864, showing that a road might be made from Fort Klamath to the
28 Or. Jour. Sen., 1864; Special Laws, 36-7; Jacksonville Sentinel, May 3, 1864; Zabriskie's Land Laws, 636-7.
652
POLITICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL.
Owyhee mining country at no great expense, and pass- ing through a region rich in grass, timber, minerals, and agricultural lands. The grant amounted to 1,920 acres for each mile of road built, less the lands already settled on. The distance was about 420 miles. Of this enormous grant, exceeding all granted to the state on its admission to the union by 150,000 acres, excepting the swamp-lands, whose extent was un- known, about one half, it was expected, would be available. At the minimum price of $1.25 an acre, the one half would amount to $1,008,000. Along the first twenty miles of the road, from Eugene City to the Cascade Mountains, the best lands were taken up; upon representing which to congress, other lands were granted in lieu of those already claimed, to be selected from the public lands. The law allowed a primary sale of thirty sections, or 19,200 acres, with which to begin the survey, which land was offered for sale in March 1865. With its own and the capital accruing from sales of land and stock, the company-consisting at first of seventeen incorporators29_pushed the road to the summit of the Cascade Mountains in the autumn of 1867. This was the most difficult and ex- pensive portion of the work, and though by no means what a military road should be, was accepted by the governor. It was never much used, and was almost entirely superseded in 1868 by a wagon-road from Ashland to the Klamath Basin, by the old Scott and Applegate pass of the Cascades, discovered in 1846.
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