The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1871-09-22
REMARKS OF GOV. GROvER
ON LAYING THE CORNER
STONE OF THE PENITENTI-
ARY.

here to-day to lay the corner stone of
the first permanent public building Of
this State--the Penitentiary. Before
you are rising the walls of structure,
palatial in appearance. Its architect
ural designs-its open portals and
windows, its wings and angles, and its
coming dome, strike you as work of
beauty and place Of cheerfulness-
and you ask, can this be prison?
Perhaps the progress Of society can
be no better judged than by obsery-
ing the course of public law for the
punishment of crime and the modes
Of inficting the punishment. In the
earliest times there were no prisons
The law of retaliation was executed
and retributive justice was meted out
"a life for life-an eye for an eye
and tooth for tooth. For theft
and other minor offences the death
penalty was often awarded, and vim
dictiye punishment, graduated by
different modes of torture, were in
flicted according to the character of
the offence.
tSAbNR tuC tA1ltCS Vi WEILLtu law dIIU
the adjudications Of organized courts,
we read of the cross, the gibbet, the
burning stake, and the suffocatine
dungeoD-attainde of blood and the
forfeiture Of estate often following
capital convictions, as though the
sufferings of the convict In person
could not expiate his crime.
The first prisons were only dun
geons-dismal dens of solitary ex-
clusion from the world, in which the
victims often preferred starvation and
added torture.
But the worlds progress has
changed penal laws as well as the
modes and purposes of punishment.
Under the institutions no attaint of
blood is allowed, and forfeiture OF
estate does not follow ordinary crime.
The death penalty is imposed in but
few cases, and torture in executions
is thing of the past. For large
class of offences, labor, reform, and
restoration TO society are, In the pur-
pose of the law, substituted for igno-
minious death and disgrace of family.
We build prisons and workshops
suitable to this change. We let in
the same light of heaven as preserv-
er of health and co-laborer in re-
form. We porvide for the unfortu-
nate prisoner all the aids of reforma-
ton. They are treated with kindness
and are furnished with moral and re-
ligious instruction. We enforce
cleanly habits. We teach mechanical
trades, agriculture and sometimes let
ters. We try to rise up and reclaim
man, instead of brutalizing and de-
stroying hnman being. This is the
leading policy, and we work to it as
nearly as possible.
The building before you is to be
completed to these ends, and will
bear all the improvements of modern
prison structure, the Rotunda plan,
having central section, generally oc-
tagonal, from which four wings pro-
ject at right angles with each other
This structure, will when complete,
be in the shape of Roman cross
the front projection representing the
head of the cross; the two broad
wings which you see in your front,
representing the arms, which now ex-
tend two hundred feet from end to
end, while rear wing to be built in
future, as the requirements of the
State suggest, will represent the main
standard of the cross. For economy
and security in management, consid-
cred best.
An appropriation of $4,000 was
made at the Legislature for the erec-
ton of this building; and we have
authority to use convict labor in ad-
dition to this amount of money, to
such extent as can be made available.
At this time $4,000 of the appropria-
ton has been expended, and one
million and half of brick have been
laid in these walls. The brick work
will be completed by the use of about
two and half millions of brick. We
expect the building will be enclosed
this season and outline the expendi-
ture of the appropriation. AS you
see, the work is of the most durable
character. The whole job is a credit
to the commissioners, the supervising
architect and the workmen. And as
for the success of the swhole under
taking, private enterprise has not
done better thing in the State for
the same outlay.
I can congratulate you, fellow cit
izens, that the great work of con-
structing one public building is credit
ably begun.
A THRILLING TALE.