Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/153

 FINANCIAL HISTORY OF OREGON. 145 Portland and the university at Marysville (now Corvallis.) 39 This act also named a board of commissioners to select a site and superintend the erection of the penitentiary. How- ever, as this action was taken without consulting Governor Gaines, he refused to co-operate, declining to recognize the act as a law of the Territory. The terms of the law making this appropriation provided that the location of these institutions should be with the concurrence of the Governor and the money appropriated with his sanction. 40 Though Congress, in May, 1852, ratified the action of the territorial legislature, nothing was done by the first board of commissioners more than to select a site in South Portland, near the river. Under an act of January 28, 1853, supplementing the former and appointing a new board, construction was begun. The first appropriation did not actually become available until late in 1853. From this time on the work of construction was pro- ceeded with. The effort of the Oregon Territorial Government to provide itself with a penitentiary, using funds supplied by the Na- tional Government, was, however, not crowned with conspicu- ous success. The first board actually to undertake construc- tion was so indefinite in its first report of its financial trans- actions that it was required, in answer to a resolution of inquiry by the legislature, to explain each item of its accounts explicitly. Even then the legislature thought it necessary to order an investigation to determine whether there had been any illegality in the expenditures. The attorney employed by the Governor subjected all who had in any way been con- nected with the purchase of the site and the work of construc- tion to questioning under oath, and submitted two suits on statements of facts and arguments against parties to whom supposedly unwarranted payments had been made. Every- thing was found " legal," but the penitentiary fund suffered charges for attorney's and notary's fees and other incidentals 39 Oregon Statutes, Second Session, pp. 222-3. 40 Executive Record, 1849-59, MSS.