From the county of Hillsdale-Stillman Ralph. Elijah J. Roberts and John S. Heath, from the county of St. Clair, each presented their credentials and respectively claimed a seat as the representative elect from the said county of St. Clair. On motion of Mr. Howe, of Washtenaw, Mr. Alden, of Branch, was elected speaker pro tempore. On motion of Mr. Lothrop, of Kalamazoo, George R. Griswold, was elected clerk pro tempore. On motion of Mr. Bingham, of Washtenaw, Houston was elected sergeant-at-arms pro tem. On motion of Mr. Convis, of Calhoun, A committee of two was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Lothrop and Ward, to wait upon the Senate and inform them that a quorum of the House was present, organized and ready to proceed to business. A message was received from the Senate, announcing that a quorum of that body was present, organized and ready to proceed to business. On motion of Mr. Lothrop, of Kalamazoo, A committee of five was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Lothrop, Felch, Ralph, Howe, Whipple, as a special committee on elections. On motion of Mr. Whipple, of Wayne, A committee of two was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Whipple and Convis, to act with such committee as may be ap pointed by the senate, to wait upon the Governor and inform him that both branches of the legislature are now organized and ready to proceed to business. On motion of Mr. Lothrop, The credentials of E. J. Roberts and John S. Heath, were referred to the committee on elections. The committee appointed to wait upon his excellency the Governor, reported that they had executed the duty assigned to them, and had received for answer that he would communicate by message or in person to both branches of the legislature this morning. A message was received from the Senate announcing that that body would meet in joint assembly with the members of the House of Representatives, in the hall of the house, this day, to receive a message from the Executive. On motion of Mr. Ely, A committee of two was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Ely and Butler, to wait upon the Senate and conduct them to seats. IN JOINT ASSEMBLY. The Senate having been conducted to seats, A committee of two was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Barry (of the Senate,) and Convis, (of the House of Representatives,) to wait upon the Governor and inform him that both branches of the legislature were now in convention, ready to receive any communication he may see fit to make. A message was received announcing the presence of his excellency the Governor, who, after being conducted to the chair, delivered the following message: MESSAGE. Fellow citizens of the Senate, and House of Representatives: On the annual assemblage of the representatives of the people, I am again required to review the affairs of the commonwealth, and in obedience to the express injunction of the constitution, to recommend to the legislature such matters as are expedient and essential to its permanent welfare and prosperity. In taking a retrospect of the past year, we find much cause for congratulation. The tide of emigration is rapidly extending its course to the remotest borders of the state; unprecedented health has blessed the habitations of the people; abundant harvests have crowned the exertions of the agriculturist; our cities and villages are thronging with an active and enterprizing population; and notwithstanding the embarrassments which have surrounded us in our relations to the federal Union, social order has been preserved, and the majesty of the law has been supreme. Such are the advantages which have been secured to us during the past year, and we should not overlook the gratitude due the High Source from whose bounty they have arisen, and through whose providence and power they are to continue. I wish it were in my power, fellow-citizens, to communicate to you as my first duty, the honorable and favorable accommodation of our difficulties with the general government. That duty I trust, however, is postponed to no distant day. The convention which assembled under the act of July the twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, and to whom was submitted the proposition of the congress of the United States, refused to accede to the proposed terms of admission of the state into the Union. A subsequent convention of the people, assembled without the sanction of the legislative or executive agency, have nevertheless given the assent required by the act of congress as a prerequisite to our admission, reserving at the same time to the people of Michigan, all their rights under the constitution of the United States, and protesting against the constitutionality of the power exercised by the federal government. It does not perhaps become me at this time, and in my present place, to deliberate upon the validity of the proceedings of this convention. It is sufficient for me to state, that it emanated with and from the exclusive source of all political power; that it had its origin in that declaration of your constition which asserts, that government is instituted for the benefit, protection and security of the governed; that it recognizes the greatest good of the greatest number as the vital principle of the social compact, and that its authority is the deliberate will of the people. I am unauthorized to say in what light the authorities of the United States will view the assent given by this convention. Whether it will be considered a compliance with the requisition of the act of congress, or not, I am unable to state. Nothing official has been received that would justify a conclusion on this point. Neither have I been able to indulge a reasonable hope that congress will remove the obstacle to our admission by a repeal of the obnoxious provision of their law, and permit the unconditional admission of the state into the Union, as she is in justice and by right entitled. My views of the rights of Michigan under the ordinance of seventeen hundred and eighty-seven, as repeatedly expressed to the legislature, remain unaltered and unalterable. In the question of our admission into the Union, I would yield to the general government nothing as a matter of right, unless their claim of power was clearly pointed out by the constitution and laws of the country. I protest against the constitutionality of an act of congress prescribing any condition to the admission of a state into the federal Union. The states themselves and the judiciary are the only tribunals competent to take cognizance of conflicting claims of boundaries between states. But it is needless for us to theorize longer upon abstract principles of right. We are compelled to view things as they are, and not as they should be. At one period of the controversy the legislation of congress was with us. It is now against us, and we must respect it. We therefore spend a bootless grief by delaying our admission into the Union, and I deem it your duty to extend every aid in your power, by which an object so desirable may be most certainly accomplished. The interests of your constituents demand this at your hands; a sound and prudent policy dictates it. The people of Michigan it is true, with an unanimity seldom if ever equalled, deny to congress the right of attaching any condition whatsoever to their admission into the Union. The power has however been exercised, and admitting the wrong, who will point out the remedy? An appeal to the supreme judicial tribu nal of the country is denied us until a state of the Union, and if the right could be acknowledged to us, we cannot exist as a state independent of that Union. Whatever brilliancy our increasing prosperity may exhibit, it is but a reflected light of a confederated republic. Then, fellow-citizens, what course is there left for us to pursue? But one, and that a patriotic obedience to the will of the people of the United States. We have our views in regard to the constitutionality of the power exercised by congress, it is true; but we must not forget that we constitute but a small fraction of the thirteen millions of people, who by their representatives have given this decision against us, and that their views are perhaps in their minds, entitled to equal consideration with our own. We can only judge the future by the past, and we cannot therefore reasonably expect the present or a future congress to annul the solemn enactment of their predecessors. We have no additional argument to offer, for argument has been exhausted. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; but all has been in vain. Yet there is, fellow-citizens, perhaps a remedy left us, which tyranny may drive a people to adopt. It is the natural right of resistance to oppression inherent in every community; it is the ultimo ratio of a desperate and oppressed people, whose edict mut be written in blood. But have we reached that degree of oppression where resistance to authority becomes a virtue? I will not, fellow-citizens, offer an indignity to your understandings and feelings, by an answer to such an interrogatory. I feel that as American citizens we should cherish the tender ties of a common descent, and recollect that our federal Union was the offspring of the great achievements, the common perils, and common triumphs of the fathers of the republic. We recognize in the government of the United States the representative head of that Union; we acknowledge it to be the guardian of the constitution, authorized and bound to enforce its laws; and although we have felt the heavy hand of its injustice, we will neither resist nor revile that parental authority, but rather, like the sons of old with averted faces, conceal with a garment a parent's nakedness. |