the force of salutary and necessary laws, and, consequently, lessens the respect paid to them. We ought, therefore, to pause and examine with great caution, before adopting propositions for altering the principles or details of laws, which have received a judicial construction, and with whose provisions the people have become familiar.

The very careful revision of our laws, at the last session of the General Assembly, brought under examination most of the important provisions of our statute law. Time has scarcely been afforded, since its promulgation, to test the operation of the various modifications and amendments therein introduced, and the necessity of any immediate alteration will, doubtless, be obvious and plain, before you will feel called upon to make it.

This

Our revenue, derived almost entirely from a direct tax on the people, presents a constant admonition to frugality and economy in expenditure, and should lead to frequent enquiry into the operation of our system of taxation. system is based, mainly, on income; and it is due to those who defray the expenses of government, that all productive property and profitable pursuits, should bear their relative proportion of the public burdens.

From frequent applications to me for the remission of small fines, imposed by the County Courts, for assault and battery, and other breaches of the peace, I have been led to the inquiry whether an alteration in the law on that subject might not save considerable sums to the State, without weakening the claims of justice or lessening public security. Judging of the character of the offence, by the amount of fine imposed, the presumption is strong, that respondents, in some cases, have been bound over to the County Court by Justices of the Peace, more on account of the inability of the offender to ⚫ pay a fine and costs, where the town in which the offence was committed might have had an interest, than by reason of the enormity of the offence. In a majority of cases, presented for the exercise of Executive clemency, the fine has been five or ten dollars, with costs varying from fifteen to sixty. Nor is the payment of enormous bills of cost, the whole charge to the State. Respondents, in cases of this character, being, usually, irresponsible and unable to procure bail, are consequently confined in jail, and the State charged with their support, as State prisoners. On conviction, a

sentence to pay a fine of a few dollars and costs of prosecution, operates as severely as a sentence of perpetual imprisonment, to the offender, and a perpetual charge on the State for his support, unless relieved by executive interference. If no other alteration should be deemed expedient, it would better accord with the humane spirit of our laws, to provide that the sentence, in such cases, should be in the alternative, either fine, or imprisonment for a limited time, when the fine is not paid. But I would respectfully suggest, as worthy of inquiry, whether a remedy might not be found, by providing, that, on conviction of certain inferior offences and misdemeanors, the fine should be paid into the town treasury, and whether it might not be expedient to enlarge the jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace for their trial.

By a salutary provision in the constitution of the United States, any person, committing crime in one state and escaping into another, shall, on demand of the Executive of the State having jurisdiction of the case, be removed there for trial. This provision should be carried into effect in good faith. Some of the States have made the act of procuring goods under false pretences an indictable offence. Cases are believed to have occurred where men, smarting under the loss of property, have been led to make oath to facts, at an ex parte hearing, which fully justified the commencement of a public prosecution for crime, where the real object was, evidently, to effect a compromise with a debtor, or extort money from his friends in satisfaction of a precarious debt. The executive warrant, when obtained, is used, not to bring a public offender to justice, but for individual benefit. The evil complained of might, perhaps, be prevented, were it made an indictable offence to compromise with, and permit to go at large, any person arrested on an executive warrant, issued at the request of the Governor of the State where the crime is charged to have been committed.

The condition of our common schools and seminaries of learning is always deserving your careful attention. In my last annual message, I urged the application of the income of the State school fund to purposes of education, and beg leave respectfully to refer to the suggestions there made.

We are practically an agricultural people. To the successful prosecution of this pursuit, are our citizens principally indebted, for the necessaries, and many of the luxuries, of civiliz

ed life. Although an interest of such vast importance to the prosperity of the State, it has heretofore received but little encouragement from the action of the government. Great improvements have been made, within the last half century, in this important branch of industry, owing, mainly, to the successful application of science in the developement of the properties of our various soils, and consequent adaptation of the same to the different products of agriculture. This is a matter, interesting, not only to the philosopher in his inquiries into cause and effect, but also furnishes an object of intense interest to the legislator and political economist. I feel justified in again urging upon the favorable consideration of the General As sembly, the propriety of a geological survey of the State. Much valuable information on this subject may be found embodied in the reports made to the three last sessions of the Legislature.

The difficulties which have beset the business transactions of the country since 1836, are, by a large majority of the people of this State, considered as having grown out of the improvident measures of the general government. Many of our most enlightened and sagacious statesmen clearly foresaw and predicted the result; a majority of the community, notwithstanding, deceived by the plausible reasoning and specious promises of interested and designing men, and by the apparent prosperity and success with which most kinds of business were then pursued, were led, for a season, to give them their support. The people, however, are now engaged in a fearful strife to remove from the administration of the federal government those, who, in the discharge of their official trusts, they believe, have wantonly disregarded the best interests of their constituents. As the struggle progresses, the final result appears less and less doubtful. The recent ⚫ elections indicate, with a certainty almost unerring, that the great mass of our population, whose only interest in government is, to have it wisely and frugally administered, are becoming convinced of the ruinous tendency of some of the leading measures of the administration. This result is the more to be prized, affording, as it does, indubitable evidence of that honesty of purpose and purity of intention, which have ever characterized the great body of the American people. It can hardly be otherwise, while the interest of the great majority of each of the political parties, into which the

country is at present divided, is the same, the greatest good of the greatest number. It furnishes a sure guarantee for the durability of our institutions, and a serious admonition to our rulers, that they will always receive a rebuke at the hands of the people, whenever they make the success of partizan measures an object paramount to the general good.

The subject of the currency will, doubtless, claim a share of your attention. The hostility to banks and a paper medium, for the transaction of the business of the country, has been carried on in an unrelenting, and in some instances, vindictive spirit. While some openly assail, and would at once abolish them, thereby compelling a resort to an exclusive specie currency, others, with a pretended conviction of their utility and necessity, covertly attempt their destruction, by advocating measures and principles, which, if sustained and adopted, would, ultimately, effect their ruin, by taking from them all their ability for usefulness. Among other charges, it has been said, that the operations of banks have induced high prices. Has the farmer, the artizan, or the merchant, suffered in consequence? High prices and a ready sale are great encouragements to individual industry and enterprise. Low prices operate to the reverse. It is alledged, that they have given a fictitious value to property. Be it so; under this state of things, and during their existence, immense indebtedness and liabilities have been incurred, in the purchase of property, in investments in manufacturing establishments and machinery, and in permanent and valuable improvements in the condition of the country. Would it be just, or humane, or honorable, for the same government, which authorized the establishment of banks, and gave them power to exert this influence over the business of the community, by encouraging liberal discounts in aid of these enterprises, at once to annihilate these institutions, or, what is equivalent, to discredit their issues, and thus bring the property of the country to what is claimed to be its real specie value? While thus unsettling the value of property, and the relative condition of our whole population, it must be remembered, that indebtedness cannot be reduced, but, on the contrary, it will be increased in the same ratio in which the price of property is reduced, and the means for payment lessened. The control of the whole property of the country would thus soon be placed in the hands of capitalists and money lenders.

I would not be understood as being an advocate for an irresponsible or unsafe banking system. But, believing, as I do, that the facilities heretofore afforded by banks and the credit system, have eminently contributed to foster and carry forward the great interests of our country, I hold it to be our duty, our imperative duty, as conservators of the public welfare, to sustain a safe and efficient banking system, as the best, if not the only, means of securing and promoting the pecuniary prosperity of our constituents.

I have no hesitation in saying that banks have been chartered with too great facility, and upon improper principles, in some sections of the Union; perhaps, to some extent, in this State. Much of the prejudice, now existing against these institutions, has arisen from this fact, and from their improper management. Where banks have been established upon solid capital, in places whose bona fide business transactions needed accommodations from that capital, and where the stock has been properly distributed and owned by capitalists seeking such investment of their money, I have heard but little or no complaint. Indeed, it is believed, that, in the most disastrous season of the last four years, such banks, instead of being liable to the censure so freely bestowed upon all banks-of crippling and oppressing community-have, uniformly, afforded more aid, and at a more reasonable rate, than would have been obtained, had the same amount of capital been under the control of individuals.

The danger and loss to community have arisen from granting bank charters, where the active business of the country did not require them, and from having them placed in operation upon a fictitious capital, managed by borrowers instead of lenders, their accommodations monopolized by directors or their friends, and embarked in hazardous, not to say, desperate speculations. While the business of the country remains prosperous, the bills of the bank are redeemed and obtain credit; but when a reverse occurs, and money cannot be raised from the particular business in which the borrowers are engaged, the bank fails to meet its liabilities and the bill-holders must suffer the loss; for, whenever an examination takes place, the notes for loans, and the capital stock of the bank, are found to be identical. The history of one of these swindling institutions would require but little variation, to serve as the history of every bank which has failed in New England.