Before the creation of the Oregon Territory in 1848, the Oregon Country provisional government, through legislation on June 27, 1844, and December 19, 1845, selected Oregon City as Oregon's first capital. J. Quinn Thornton described an early capitol building as 20 by 40 feet with a platform at one end for the president. One of the private buildings this government used was constructed by John L. Morrison in 1850; it served as a capitol until the government moved to Salem. Governor Joseph Lane affirmed Oregon City's status as capital by proclamation. In 1850, the legislature passed an act designating Salem the capital. However, Governor John P. Gaines refused to relocate, on the basis that the same act located the university in Corvallis and the penitentiary in Portland; he declared the act unconstitutional, on the grounds that the authority to locate those institutions was his, and the Territorial Supreme Court concurred; the governor and most of the Supreme Court remained in Oregon City. Justice Orville C. Pratt, who had dissented, relocated to Salem; on May 14, 1852 an act of the United States Congress settled the matter in Salem's favor.