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 governor, 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.[1]
Governor Gibbs, in a special message to the legislature of 1862, proposed a radical change in the management of the penitentiary.[2] He suggested that
- ↑ 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 111., 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 Cay use 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 Jose Pioneer, Sept. 2, 1877; Trans. Or. Pioneer Asso., 1875-6.
- ↑ 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
