requirements, and the various recommendations of the several Governors of our State, we have the common dictates of humanity which impels us to the conclusion that it is our duty as legislators to take such legislative action as shall furnish to the unfortunate classes, for whose benefit this institution is designed, all the necessary facilities for acquiring an education, and thus restore them to society, from which they are now practically and actually excluded, and enable them to advance and rise from the "basement or animal story," upward through the several stories, or grades, of "social, intellectual, moral, and even to the spiritual, or fifth story," and enable them to remove those curtains (in effect) and expose to view a well stored and well furnished interior, instead of the social, intellectual, moral and spiritual waste and blank, that must, for all time to come, characterize these unfortunate classes if left destitute of these facilities.

In examining this subject, we find that in accordance with the constitutional requirement, and the recommendations of our late Governor and his predecessors, former Legislatures have made various appropriations for erecting buildings and furnishing teachers, and other facilities for carrying on this institution.

We find, upon closely examining the various reports of the several Boards of Trustees, from public rumor, and especially from the report, both verbal and written, of the special committee sent by the other branch of this Legislature, to examine this institution in regard to its opera tions and results, and especially in regard to the expenditure of past appropriations, and the necessity of the further appropriation asked for by the Board of Trustees, that the appropriations thus far have been most judiciously and economically expended, resulting in the erection and completing of the school wing, and the erecting and roofing of the main building and the two connecting wings.

We find the school wing occupied by more than one

hundred persons, every room in it being perfectly crowded, every sleeping room filled with beds, all designed for single beds, but in each of which two persons are obliged to sleep.

We find it impossible for the institution, for want of room, to receive a single additional pupil, although scores of applications have been made for admission.

We find walls erected and roofed at an expense of nearly fifty thousand dollars, and perfectly useless without an additional appropriation to finish, and furnish, and render available.

And we find, also, that notwithstanding the unusual scarcity of money, and the difficulty with which, in some cases, ordinary expenses are met, we find that public opinion, as gathered from almost all the public prints of our State, without distinction of party, and from personal intercourse with prominent men of all parties, and from all parts of the States, demands that the buildings shall be completed, and the institution put into operation at the earliest practicable period.

In view of all these considerations, and in view of the fact that this work can be done at much less expense by making a sufficient appropriation to complete it during the two coming years, than by extending it over a greater length of time, your committee deem it highly important that this Legislature appropriate a sufficient amount to complete the buildings during the two coming years, and to carry on the institution for the same time, with one hundred additional pupils, during the second year. But .inasmuch as the House of Representatives have under consideration a bill entitled an act making an appropriation in aid of the Michigan Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind at Flint, your committee do not deem it advisable to report a bill at this time, but to await the action of the House of Representatives upon their bill, which your committee hope, and have reason to believe, will re

ceive a favorable consideration at their hands, and come before the Senate, where your committee hope it will receive the same favorable consideration, and thus become a law.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

JAMES M. HOYT, Chairman.

1859.

No. 17.

[ No. 17. ]

REPORT of the Committee on Finance, relative to a new Capitol for the State.

The committee on Finance, to whom was referred so much of the Governor's message as relates to the building of a new Capitol for the State, beg leave to report: They concur fully in the views taken of this important subject by the Executive. By the act of March 16, 1847, (No. 60,) the seat of government was removed from the city of Detroit, where it had been from the earliest territorial times, to Lansing, in the county of Ingham. The wisdom of this step is no longer a subject of discussion. Whether the State has been the gainer by taking away the seat of government from the commercial metropolis, whether the tone and style of its legislation have been thereby improved and the members of the Legislature less subject to influences unfavorable to the efficient and impartial management of public affairs, are questions that may engage the attention of speculation, but cannot now be of any practical utility. The present Constitution establishes the seat of government at Lansing, and it cannot be removed hence

without an amendment of that instrument, in the manner pointed out in the 20th article. It does not seem to your committee that any such amendment is likely, either to be agreed upon by the two Houses, or to be adopted by the popular vote, by which its effect is to be ultimately deter mined. Indeed, they think it may be taken for granted that the Capitol will remain here for the future; and if this be so, the question will arise whether the time has not come for the State to commence the erection of such buildings as are necessary for the convenience of the Legislature and the proper transaction of the public business. That the present Capitol building, and the building known as the State Offices do not afford such necessary conveniences is indicated, not only by the Governor's message but by the actual experience of every member of the Legislature now sitting, and every State officer.

The present State House was built in the year 1847, and by the terms of the act directing it, was intended only as a temporary arrangement, (see Sess. L. 1847, p. 78, sec. 6.) It has now been in use eleven years, and during that time, not only the constitutional frame work of the government has been changed in many important particulars, but our population has increased from 304,000 to 800,000, and the value of property in the State from 28,000,000 to 140,000,000.

The present State House is of wood, built of poor materials, and in a very imperfect manner-of green timber taken from the surrounding woods, badly jointed, badly framed, and badly finished in all its parts-a hasty struc ture thrown up on the spur of the moment, for the immediate accommodation of the Legislature and the Store offices. The Halls of the respective Houses are entir too small, so ill-contrived as to prevent continually and habitually an intermingling of members and spectators, and render it difficult for the eye of a stranger to distinguish between those who are engaged in the business of