Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

the next season; but I very much doubt that sufficient shipping can be commanded to transport this quantity, for it would require one hundred vessels to be constantly engaged, to accomplish it. The agricultural capabilities of this region have also been pretty thoroughly tested, and the fact has been demonstrated, that no portion of our noble State offers greater inducements to the enterprising farmer, than the Upper Peninsula. A ready market, at high prices, can be relied upon, for all such articles as can be grown in that latitude; and as an instance to illustrate the truth of this remark, an individual residing upon Portage Lake, has this year grown 4,000 bushels of potatoes, which are worth, at his door, one dollar per bushel.

The rapid growth of this trade, and consequent increase in the amount of tolls collected, will suggest the propriety of initiating the policy of reducing the rate of tolls, as, at the rate heretofore realized, the sum collected will be more than sufficient for the legitimate uses to which this fund may be applied. It would be unwise to make so great a reduction as not to provide for every possible emergency, as it is important that the utmost efficiency should be maintained, and every facility afforded to the interests connected with this Canal.

If the annual receipts could be kept up to the mark reached this year, a sufficient fund would be furnished for the ordinary expenses, as well as the interest on the canal debt, and provide a sinking fund to meet the principal when due. The amount charged for the past season has been six cents per registered ton for all classes of vessels. I think five cents per ton for the ensuing season will produce the required sum, and would, therefore, recommend that that figure be adopted.

I would recommend a careful revision of the rules and regulations for the Canal, and that full authority be vested in the Superintendent for their enforcement. A great many questions arise, growing out of conflicting claims of vessels as to precedence, &c., and the decision of the Superintendent should be final. Stringent laws should be adopted to prevent injury to

piers and locks, otherwise that valuable work will be gradually destroyed. In my last report I dwelt at considerable length upon the importance of removing certain obstructions which exist in the channel leading to the locks at the east end of the Canal. These obstructions consist of an old dock, with some additions which have lately been made to it. This dock is clearly within the limits of the grant made by Congress to Michigan for the purposes of a canal, and project so far into the river as to make it very difficult to enter the canal under certain cireumances. The embarrassment consequent upon the existence of this impediment will be more and more serious as vessels multiply, and the business of the Canal increases.

Legal proceedings have been instituted with a view of sending the controversy between the individuals claiming the dock and the State, but have not yet been de ermined.

The attention of the proper officer should be immediately called to the subject, and a final decision be had.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

SAMUEL P. MEAD,

Superintendent.

No. 14.

LEGISLATURE, 1861.

ANNUAL REPORT of the Attorney General.

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE,

December 31st, 1860.

To the Honorable the Legislature of Michigan:

I have the the honor to submit my official report for the year 1860.

The case of William Tyler, mentioned in my last report, in which the prisoner was charged with having murdered Captain Henry Jones, on board the brig Concord, lying in Canadian waters, was removed, upon a writ of error and bill of exceptions, to the Supreme Court of the State, and at the last April term thereof was argued and decided. The Court affirmed the judgment below, and directed the sentence to be carried into execution. Tyler was accordingly committed to the State Prison, where he is now undergoing the punishment due to his crime.

On the argument of this case, a question of some delicacy, as well as novelty, arose, touching the power of the State to enact the provision found in section 5944 of the compiled laws, (vol.

2, p. 1566.) The clause is in the following words: "If any such mortal wound shall be given, or other violence or injury shall be inflicted, or poison administered, on the high seas, or on any other navigable waters, or on land, either within or without the limits of this State, by means whereof death shall ensue, in any county thereof, such offense may be prosecuted and punished in the county where such death may happen "

This provision was copied into our statutes from those of Massachusetts, and has been in force there since 1795. It has also been in force in Wisconsin for many years; and yet I am not aware of any case having arisen under it in either of those States, nor have I discovered that a like provision exists in any other State, although a similar one has long been in force in England.

It was objected that inasmuch as Tyler did no criminal act within the limits of this State, he could not be held amenable within our jurisdiction for an act committed in Canada; but a majority of the Court were clearly of opinion that the provision was within the scope of the legislative power of the State. It is, I believe, the only reported case in which that provision has come in question, and I am not able to appreciate the argument by which it is sought to be annulled on the ground of unconstitutionality. (See 8 Mich. R. 321.)

The case of Tyler has been taken, by a writ of error, to the Supreme Court of the United States.

In my last report I embodied the material facts of the case of the State of Michigan against the Phenix Bank of the city of New York. At that date the case was pending on appeal in the general term of the Superior Court of that city. That Court decided the appeal, on the 23d of June last, by reversing the judgment and awarding a new trial. As I was not aware of the existence of any facts of importance not proved in the Court on the two former trials, and as the laws of New York author ized an appeal from the decision of the general term to the Court of Appeals, which is the Court of last resort in that State, I took an appeal to the latter Court, and the case is now pend

« AnteriorContinuar »