to receive the maximum penalty of two years, as against that of Senator Mitchell of but six months, while my fine was placed at $7,500, as against $1,000, imposed on the Senator.
I could not understand, nor do I to this day, why this great difference, for while I am free to acknowledge that Senator Mitchell occupied an exalted position in the State and Nation; that he was possessed of more education and a brain of greater force and development than that to which I could lay claim, I could not but believe that if anything, he was the greater criminal of the two. This man, elected to one of the highest positions in the gift of the Nation by the representatives of the people at large in the State of Oregon, respected and honored alike both at home and abroad, an able lawyer and prince of diplomacy, and a man, who, in all truth, was actually worshipped by his constituents, had, as the people of his State and Nation know, been indicted, tried, and convicted by the fellow citizens of his own State, and that, too, of a similar crime to my own—conspiracy to defraud the Government out of a portion of its public lands, but which, in Senator Mitchell's case, was by far the greater offense of the two, as to him had been entrusted the power to participate in the making of the very laws which he afterwards saw fit to violate, while I, occupying only the position of a plain citizen, uncultured and virtually without education, aspiring merely for the commonplace things of life, ambitious only that I might be able to provide comfortably for my family and place my children in reach of an education, I must submit to longer imprisonment and to suffer the imposition of a seven fold greaer fine.
It is probably not proper for me to criticise the wisdom of the trial judges in passing the respective sentences, but I must admit, if judgment was correct in both instances, it is beyond my power of comprehension.
It is true, of course, that Mr. Heney agreed that I should not be prosecuted on any of the other indictments against me, provided I withdrew my motion for a new trial and accepted sentence, but even at that, it appeared to me, because of the valuable information I gave to the Government officials and which enabled them to secure indictments against Senator John H. Mitchell and others, I should not have been so severely dealt with. It was the "big men" that the Government was after anyway—men holding high official positions, and men who were supposed to know better and to govern their actions accordingly. Besides, it has always been customary, from time immemorial, to deal leniently with any one furnishing their State or Government with information which would result in securing convictions of the principals to a crime, or conspiracy to commit crime.
I had been confined something less than a month when Robert L. Stevens, the newly elected Sheriff, took charge of the institution. Upon assuming control of the Sheriff's office, Mr. Stevens appointed Geo. T. Mitchell as Jailer, he having officiated in a similar capacity under Sheriff" William Fraser, whose office terminated some four years prior to Sheriff' Stevens' induction into office.
I had served something like three or four weeks of my sentence under Sheriff Stevens' administration, when I learned that I was to be moved to other quarters in the jail, United States Marshal Reed having directed that I be accorded the best accommodations possible. I was thereupon transferred to a room by myself, which was ten feet wide by fourteen feet long and nine feet high, with cement walls, nicely kalsomined and a hardwood floor and double windows, each of which were two and one-half by five feet in size, facing the street on the east side of the building. This room possessed electric lights, besides hot and cold water and a toilet, with furniture consisting of a large square writing table and two comfortable chairs, which was afterwards supplemented by the addition of a typewriting machine and stand. The entire jail was steamheated.
Meals were served thrice daily excepting on Sundays, when luncheon was omitted. They were all remarkably wholesome, and compared very favorably with those obtainable at first-class local restaurants for fifty cents.
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