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health as well as comfort of visitors. It is recommended that they be warmed in the same manner as the other passages.

If the Capitol grounds be extended to C streets north and south, as recommended by the architect, the Capitol would occupy about the centre of the enlarged area. It is universally conceded that the present limits are entirely too contracted. Justice to the adjoining proprietors requires that it should at an early day be determined to what extent their property contiguous to those limits will be needed for public uses. Squares numbered 575, 576, 687, and 688 were. appraised in 1860, by authority of Congress, as a preliminary step to their purchase. All permanent improvement of the property was suspended. The Senate subsequently passed a bill providing for the purchase of the squares, but limiting the price thereof to the appraisal of 1860. The value of real estate in that portion of the city has since then greatly enhanced. In view of these facts, the holders of this property have presented a memorial to this department urging that three disinterested appraisers be selected-one by the government, one by the property owners, and the third by these two; that Congress shall at once decide what grounds shall be purchased, and direct their value to be fixed by the appraisers. The propriety of early legislative action is suggested.

The work upon the north portico of the Department of the Interior is nearly finished. An estimate has been submitted of the amount necessary for completing it and paving the street.

The following statement shows the amount advanced to marshals of the United States for the year ending June 30, 1867; for defraying the expenses of the courts of the United States, including fees of marshals, jurors, and witnesses, maintenance of prisoners, and contingencies of holding the courts:

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Michigan, eastern district...

Michigan, western district.

Minnesota

Mississippi, northern district
Mississippi, southern district
Missouri, eastern district..
Missouri, western district.

Nebraska...

Nevada...
New Hampshire

$36, 411 76

17, 512 79 17,364 00

3, 007 00 7,915 25

37, 000 00

13, 289 68

14, 168 48

18, 863 00

New Jersey...

New York, northern district

New York, southern district

New York, eastern district...

North Carolina

Ohio, northern district

Ohio, southern district.
Oregon....

Pennsylvania, eastern district
Pennsylvania, western district.
Rhode Island ..
South Carolina

Tennessee, eastern district ..

Tennessee, middle district
Tennessee, western district

Texas, eastern district.

Texas, western district..

Vermont

Virginia ...

West Virginia.

Wisconsin

Arizona

Dakota..

Colorado

Montana ..

Utah.....

New Mexico

Washington....

5, 861 00 28,989 77 102,600 00

57, 000 00 21,589 00

6,000 00

42, 340 00 40, 838 00

3,222 00

33,905 00 27,060 00

8, 230 00 21,877 00

8, 221 86

2, 616 00

16, 195 00 20,335 00 11, 844 00 5,723 00

6, 125 00

8, 081 79 9, 653 02 10,000 00

5, 632 00 9, 564 95 10,278 00 6, 000 00 11, 936 (0 15,000 00

1, 203, 214 74

The amount paid to district attorneys, their assistants and substitutes, for the same period, was one hundred and forty-six thousand nine hundred and forty-five dollars and twenty-nine cents, ($146,945 29;) to United States commissioners, fifty thousand six hundred and forty-three dollars and fifty-five cents, ($50,643 55;) to clerks of the courts of the United States, seventy thou

sand eight hundred and ninety-five dollars and twenty-five cents, ($70,895 25;) and for miscellaneous expenditures one hundred and fifty-seven thousand, eight hundred and thirty-seven dollars and sixty-seven cents ($157,837 67.) Of this sum, sixty-six thousand and ninety-two dollars and ninety-seven cents, ($66,092 97) were paid for rent of buildings for the accommodation of the courts and their officers.

By an act of Congress approved May 12, 1864, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to designate some suitable prison or penitentiary, and to contract. with the authorities thereof for the confinement of persons convicted of crime, the punishment whereof is imprisonment, and sentenced by the courts of the United States in a district or territory where, at the time of such conviction, there should be no suitable prison or penitentiary. Under the authority so conferred my predecessor made contracts with the House of Correction at Detroit, and the Iowa State penitentiary, for the subsistence and employment of all convicts sentenced by the courts of the United States for the several Territories to imprisonment at hard labor. The former institution receives under the contract only such whose term of sentence was two or more years. Prisoners have been sent to these prisons from the Territories of Colorado, Nebraska and Montana. The act further provides that if in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior the expense of transportation will exceed that of maintaining the convicts in jail in the Territory during the period of their sentence, it shall be lawful so to confine them. None have been sent from any of the other Territories, as, in the opinion of my predecessors, in which I concur, the expense of their transportation would far exceed the cost of maintaining them in jails in the Territories.

An act entitled "An act setting aside certain proceeds from internal revenue for the erection of penitentiaries in the Territories of Nebraska, Washington, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, and Dakota," approved January 22, 1867, appropriated the net proceeds of the internal revenue of said Territories for the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 1866, and the two succeeding years, for the purpose of erecting, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, penitentiary buildings in said Territories, at such place therein as had been or might be designated by the legislatures thereof and approved by him. The amount to be expended therefor was not to exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) in Washington Territory, nor forty thousand dollars ($40,000) in either of the other Territories. The attention of the governors of these Territories was invited to the subject, and they were requested, when the territorial legislatures had passed an act designating the place for the erection of such penitentiaries, to transmit a duly certified copy thereof to this department. Advices have been received only from Washington and Montana.

The ninth section of an act to enable the people of Nebraska to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of said State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, approved April 19, 1864, (Statutes at Large, volume 13, page 47,) provides that fifty entire sections of land, to be selected and located by direction of the legislature thereof, on or before the first day of January, 1868, should be, and they were thereby, granted

to the State of Nebraska on her admission into the Union, in accordance with certain provisions of that act, for the purpose of erecting a suitable building for a penitentiary or State prison, in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe. The State was not admitted under that act. An act entitled "An act for the admission of the State of Nebraska," passed February 9, 1867, declares the State of Nebraska to be entitled to the rights, privileges, grauts, and immunities, and subject to all the conditions and restrictions of said act of April 19, 1864. The proclamation of the President contemplated in the third section of the act of 1867 was issued March 1, 1867. Nebraska, on her admission to the Union, was entitled to the grant of lands for the specific purpose of erecting a State prison. Her admission occurring after the passage of the act of January 22, 1867, changed entirely her pre-existing relations with the United States. That act regarded her only as a Territory, and did not authorize the building of a penitentiary within the limits of a State.

I have been informed by the Secretary of the Treasury that the entire amount appropriated for building these penitentiaries in Washington, Colorado, Montana, and probably Idaho, has been received and is available for that purpose. In Arizona and Dakota the revenue is inconsiderable, and the expense of collecting it so nearly exhausts the receipts that at the date of the Secretary's communication there was no available balance that could be applied to this purpose.

The legislature of Washington passed an act designating certain persons therein named, as a board of commissioners to superintend the erection of the penitentiary at such place as they might select in the county of Pierce, at o near the town of Steilacoom. By this act the entire control of the building is assumed by the Territory. It provides for the appointment of a person to superintend its erection, and authorizes the employment of the territorial convicts thereon, and for the payment into the treasury of the Territory of such sum from the penitentiary fund as their labor may be worth. The legislature seems not to have been fully aware of the provisions of the act of Congress. The latter makes it the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to approve the site, and provides that the buildings shall be constructed under his direction. No action can, therefore, under existing circumstances, be taken in the premises by the department. It is presumed that the legislature will amend its legislation so as to make it conform to that of Congress.

An act has been passed by the legislature of Montana locating the penitentiary at Argenta, and appointing commissioners to select a suitable site for said penitentiary at that place. The commissioners have performed that duty, and have made a report thereof to this department. At an early day steps will be taken to have the building erected in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress.

The Warden of the District Jail reports that on the 1st of November there were in his custody one hundred and thirteen prisoners, of whom forty-three were white and seventy colored. During the year preceding that date, twelve hundred and forty-one persons were committed, seventy-nine of whom were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment at Albany. The present officers consist of a warden and fourteen guards. The expense of the jail for said year, including

the cost of transporting prisoners to the penitentiary at Albany, was thirty thousand seven hundred and thirty-six dollars and forty-eight cents, ($30,736 48.) Pursuant to the requirements of a joint resolution, approved March 2, 1867, I examined the public grounds deemed available for the purpose, and selected as a site for a new jail in the District the parcel of land known as reservation, numbered seventeen, situated at the intersection of New Jersey and Virginia avenues, in the city of Washington. The "perfected plans" of the building were approved by a board of disinterested and competent engineers and architects, and public notice of the "letting of the contract" was given in the mode prescribed by law. After a careful consideration of the proposals, I accepted such as offered the best terms to the government. The contractors have executed bonds with acceptable security, conditioned for the faithful performance of their engagements, and I trust that the work may, without interruption, be prosecuted to an early completion.

Congress, at its last session, made no provision for the House of Correction for this District. Of the twelve thousand dollars ($12,000) appropriated at the preceding session, eight thousand dollars have been paid to the treasurer. Five thousand five hundred and five dollars and fifty-three cents ($5,505 53) have been expended by him upon the order of the trustees in repairing and furnishing the temporary building upon the government farm, in an attempt to render it fit for the reception and detention, for the time being, of juvenile offenders. One thousand four hundred and fifty-seven dollars ($1,457) have been spent in the employment of a watchman and for other purposes, of which the report of the board does not furnish specific information. The trustees are of opinion that the building now occupied cannot be adapted to any permanent use. For the erection of one such as is required, they suggest that an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) is necessary, and they request an additional appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) to meet the eurrent expenses of the institution. They have furnished no detailed estimate, and I submit the subject for consideration.

I earnestly invite attention to the views expressed in the last annual report of this department, touching the law directing the imprisonment of juvenile offenders sentenced by the federal courts. A modification of its provisions is indispensable to give it practical effect in many parts of the country.

The Metropolitan Police force consists of 238 men, of whom six are detectives. They made 20,075 arrests during the past year, 3,783 of which were of females, and 6,136 were of colored persons; 13,224 of the alleged offences were against the person, and 6,851 against property; 12,167 of those arrested were unmarried, and 7,373 could neither read nor write; 971 were committed to jail; 334 gave bail for appearance at court; 200 were turned over to the military; 6,330 were dismissed; 1,967 were sent to the work-house; and 576 gave bonds to keep the peace. In 569 cases, various light punishments were inflicted; fines, to the amount of $38,098 45, were imposed in 9,128 cases. 184 lost children were sent home; 3,473 destitute persons were furnished with temporary lodgings, and 131 were assisted or taken to the hospital. The dective force made 462 arrests; recovered stolen or lost property to the amount of $15,691 40, and performed

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