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General Conditions Affecting Territorial Finances.

The situation with regard to the management of the public purse in Oregon was radically changed with the arrival, on March 2, 1849, of General Joseph Lane, the first Territorial Governor, appointed in pursuance of the act of Congress of August 14, 1848, organizing the Territory. The sources of revenue, the custody and administration of the public funds and the authorities supervising the disbursement of them, exhibit some features quite in contrast to those that obtained under the regime of the Provisional Government.

The exchange of the make-shift autonomy of the Provisional Government period for the more dependent status of a Territory brought with it two new sources of revenue for the creation of public institutions and. the support of public services. In this matter the Oregon people fared, of course, much as did other peoples passing through the territorial stage. In addition to the single revenue source of tax receipts of the former period, funds were now forthcoming directly from the national treasury through Congressional appropriations and also from the proceeds of the sales of lands granted to the Territory for educational purposes.

The national appropriations met in full the cost of the maintenance of the civil establishment of the Territory, i. e. the salaries of the executive, the legislative and the judiciary officials, and also provided for the creation of a territorial library and the construction of a penitentiary and a state