The average amount of cash in the Treasury for the four years next preceding December 1st, 1858, was,.. The amount of interest received for the use of the same, was,. . . . . 309,858 27 67,465 25 No provision was ever made, previous to 1855, to prevent the constant increase of the public debt, by reason of the accumulated interest on the unadjusted portion of the five million loan, and although there was an average in the Treasury of $285,000, yet the interest upon that loan unpaid was yearly increasing the principal of our public debt, until it had reached the sum of $965,650 83. The following is a statement of interest annually accruing on the "unrecognized" (part paid), 5,000,000 loan bonds, by reason of the accumulation of interest and its incorporation into the Adjusted Bonds: The amount issued May, 1838, known as "Unrecognized Bonds, is $3,813,000 00; on which the State received only $955,960 24; the annual interest on this amount would be...... $57,357 60 But the Adjusted Bonds, when all the part paid bonds outstanding are called in, will amount to $1,921,611 07; upon which amount interest will amount to.... 115,296 65 An excess over the former amount, of interest upon the interest incorporated into the Adjusted Bonds-viz., interest on $965,650 83,.. $57,939 05 The Legislature of 1855, upon my recommendation, passed an act requiring these part paid bonds to be surrendered for adjustment, or that the interest shouid stop. It will be perceived that most of them have been returned, and new bonds at the adjusted rate have been issued in their stead. At that time the public debt had reached its maximum, and from that period the surplus moneys on hand in the Treasury, have been applied to its reduction. The total amount of State debt on the 1st of December, 1850, was.. On the 1st of December, 1854, it was. It had therefore increased, in the four years next preceding my administration, . . . . . . . .$2,488,498 66 2,531,545 70 43,047 04 Total State indebtedness, December 1, 1854, 2,531,545 70 From which is to be deducted bonds red'm'd, 1st January, instant,... Total,.... Diminution in four years,.. November 30, 1858, 2,337,629 67 20,000 00 . $2,317,629 67 213,916 03 For more minute particulars in reference to the condi tion of the Treasury and the management of the financial affairs of the State, I respectfully refer you to the Reports of the Auditor General and State Treasurer, in which the whole operations of those departments are given in detail. About eighty-five thousand dollars was levied the last year for the support of the State government, by a direct tax. This is at the rate of 48-100ths of a mill upon the dollar of valuation, and about ten or twelve cents to the person of our population. It will not fail to attract your attention, that the expenditures for the operations of the State government exceed its fixed and ordinary income, and to avoid taxation, resort has been had, to meet the appropriations of the Legisla ture, to the principal of the University, Common School and Swamp Lands, commonly known as the Trust Funds, and upon which the State pays the annual interest. I respectfully submit for your consideration, whether sound economy and correct statesmanship, does not require that the revenues of the State should meet its ordinary dis bursements, and whether it will not be necessary, to ac complish that object, to increase the rate of taxation. A State, like an individual, would feel far more independent and able to accomplish a much greater amount of public good, if she were entirely relieved from debt. A vigorous effort in the right direction, would soon relieve us of a burden which revives a painful recollection of youthful folly in incurring a debt of more than two millions, for which we have derived little or no benefit. I respectfully refer you to the report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, for a detailed statement in relation to the condition of the various Educational Institutions of the State. The University, the Agricultural College, the Normal School, and that still more useful institution the Common School, are all in a flourishing and satisfactory condition, each indispensable, and endeared still more and more in the hearts of the people. It is believed that no State of the same age and population with ours, has exhibited the same liberality in the construction of commodious school edifices, and voluntary taxation of great severity for the support of teachers and the construction of school buildings, is no uncommon thing among our people. Wise and liberal appropriations, on your part, to sustain such institutions as rely upon your fostering care, will be. therefore, sure to receive the approbation of a discriminating and enlightened constituency, The Revised Constitution of 1850 contemplated the establishment of an Agricultural College, and the Legislature of 1855 took the initiativé in an enterprise, which, I trust, will accomplish much for the welfare of the State in the improvement and elevation of its most valuable class of citizens. The idea of combining mental with physical training, and applying them to that great branch of labor which produces our food, and which supports and sustains all other classes, is worthy of the progressive spirit of the age in which we live; and, it it succeeds, we cannot estimate the beneficial results which will flow from it. The College was organized upon a new farm, a year ago last May, and, although it has encountered unpropitious seasons and other embarrassments, yet its success has fully equalled the expectations of those who had its management and control. It has been constantly filled by a class of young men of industrious habits and correct deportment, and whose rapid advance in literary attainments, it is believed, are not excelled in any other institution. A bill passed the lower House in Congress, at the last session, making a liberal grant of the public lands for the endowment of Agricultural Colleges. I trust you will lend your influence to secure its passage through the other branch of Congress at its present session. In a few years, when the Agricultural Farm is brought under cultivation and improvement, it is believed that it will be nearly or quite self-sustaining, but at present it will need your support. The number of children taught in our Common Schools the last year was, one hundred and seventy-three thousand five hundred and fifty-nine; two thousand three hundred and twenty-three male teachers were employed, and four thousand eight hundred and ninety-three females-and the total amount of teachers' wages was $443,118 71; the amount of public money disbursed was $107,395 12; the whole amount raised by tax upon property in the districts was $316,558 26; the number of volumes in the township libraries was one hundred and sixty-eight thousand nine hundred seventy-seven. These figures are the evidence. of great public spirit in the right direction, in a good cause. I refer you to the report of the Commissioner of the Land Office for a detailed account of the business of his Department. The number of acres of Swamp Land sold the past year has been ninety-seven thousand six hundred and twenty, and brought $122,287-of which $67,511 73 have been received in cash. The preference given to the actual settler has worked advantageously and satisfactorily, and new settlers are constantly seeking homes upon these lands, many of which are valuable. The reports of the State Prison Inspectors of the last as well as the present year, contain many valuable suggestions, to which I invite your examination. As the State grows older, with the steady increase of population, the administration of justice has become much more perfect, and the punishment of crime much more certain than formerly. The increase of convicts has created a demand for increased appropriations and expenditures to provide them with cells and shop room for their labor. The appropriations for that purpose for the last two years were $32,000, which has been faithfully and judiciously expended. It will be perceived that the whole number of convicts on the 30th November last was 473, and that the increase during the last year has been 62. The whole number confined since the establishment of the Prison is 1,521, of which 567, or more than one-third of the whole, were from the county of Wayne. The jail of Detroit is the common receptacle of those that are convicted of petty offences, those that are charged with crime, as well as the more hardened criminal. Not unfrequently, seventy or eighty of all ages and conditions, and degrees of moral turpitude, are huddled together, and it is thus made the preparatory school for the State Prison. Society is much better employed in preventing crime than in punishing it; and I respectfully suggest that the establishment of a penitentiary, or work-bouse, in Detroit, where its inmates would find employment, and be preserved from contamination, would do much to prevent the . rapid increase of the inmates of the State Prison, and sevo us the necessity of building a new one in a few years, The general depression in business has lessened to a considerable extent the earnings of the convicts; quite a |