Should the societies of any two adjoining counties state to the Board of Agriculture, a wish to consolidate said counties, or parts of counties, into agricultural districts, measures to be adopted in conformity thereto.

To embrace all the important objects in contemplation, and to bring them fully into the view of the Legislature, the committee ask leave to present a bill."

The committee presented a bill "to incorporate a state agricultural society for the promotion of agriculture and manufactures," but it was not passed.

1819. JANUARY. LEGISLATURE, FORTY-SECOND SESSION.

DE WITT CLINTON, Governor.

An act passed in 1818, chap. 228, changed the date of the annual meeting of the Legislature from the last Tuesday of January, to the first Tuesday of the same month. This statutory provision was incorporated in the Constitution of 1821, art. 1, sec. 14, by which the first Tuesday of January was fixed as the day for the opening of the annual session of the Legislature. This provision was continued in the Constitution of 1846, art. 10, sec. 6; but by the Constitution of 1894, art. 10, sec. 6, the date was changed to the first Wednesday in January.

The Legislature met on the 5th of January, 1819, pur

suant to the foregoing statute, and the next day the Governor delivered the following:

OPENING SPEECH.

GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND OF THE ASSEMBLY.- A meeting of the representatives of a free people for the purposes of legislation, is, at all times, an event interesting to the community and honorable to the human character; but its importance is greatly enhanced, when they are called upon, by the peculiar state of the country, to deliberate and to decide upon subjects intimately associated with its prosperity and its honor, and with the cardinal interests of all future generations. Under these circumstances you have now assembled, and fortunately at a time the most propitious to patriotic views, to wise deliberations and to energetic decisions. At no period, within my recollection, has the public mind been in a state of greater tranquillity, more exempt from the impulses of ambition, and the agitation of faction, and more accessible to the influence of reason and of patriotism.

Our country is in a state of profound peace, which promises a long duration, and even the civilized nations of the eastern hemisphere have sheathed the desolating sword. An enlightened and exalted spirit predominates, friendly to the primary interests of the state; to the promotion of agriculture, commerce, and the arts; to the encouragement of literature and science, of schools, academies, colleges, universities and learned societies; to the advancement of those great internal communications which form the basis of individual and public wealth, and to the elevation of our national character, by works of public and permanent utility, and by acts which consult the welfare and the dignity of the human race. In addition to these distinguished advantages, we have enjoyed the blessings of a healthy season and of an abundant harvest; our seminaries of instruction have increased in usefulness; our population VOL. II.-61

is augmenting beyond all former experience; justice is administered with purity and ability; the majesty of the laws is respected; the influence of religion and morality is spreading: and, after fully estimating those afflictions, which must be experienced by all human beings, and those evils which are incident to all human institutions, it is not too much to say that we never had more reason to be grateful to the Almighty Dispenser of all good. At a period so auspicious, we cannot, therefore, anticipate disappointment from your deliberations. As the faithful representatives of the people, possessing their confidence, you will not hesitate to obey their voice. And in discharging an important duty assigned to me by the constitution, I shall exhibit to you without reserve, but with the most profound respect, my views of the policy which ought to be pursued; of the evils which ought to be corrected, and of the measures which ought to be adopted.

The progress of our internal improvements has equalled our most sanguine expectations. In the course of the next season the Northern Canal, extending from Whitehall at the head of Lake Champlain to Fort Edward, on the Hudson River, a distance of 23 miles, and the whole of the middle section of the Western canal, comprising 94 miles, and reaching from the Seneca River to the Mohawk river at Utica, will be completed and in a navigable state. Thus, in less than two and a half years, canals to the extent of one hundred and seventeen miles will be perfected; and, as the eastern and western sections of the canal from Lake Erie to Hudson River will be about two hundred and sixty miles, it is evident that, by the application of similar means and the exertion of similar powers. the whole of this internal navigation can be finished in six years from the present period, including also the improvements essential on Hudson River, from Fort Edward to the head of sloop navigation. It is satisfactory also to know that, so far as

we can judge from the lights of experience, the actual expenses have not exceeded the estimates of the commissioners; and, with all the advantages arising from increased knowledge, from improved skill and from circumspect experience, we are firmly persuaded, that the aggregate expense will fall short of the total estimate. It is also a most gratifying consideration to find, from the progressive and flourishing state of the fund appropriated to this object the whole undertaking can be completed without providing any auxiliary resources, and without imposing any taxes on the community. From the commencement of the next year, the finished portions of the canals will be in a state productive of considerable revenue.

By the act respecting navigable communications between the great western and northern lakes and the Atlantic ocean, passed the 15th of April, 1817, the commissioners are only empowered to make canals between the Mohawk and Seneca rivers, and between Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. Possessing, however, under that act and the act to provide for the improvement of the internal navigation of the state, passed the 17th April, 1816, authority to make the necessary surveys and to lay out the proper routes for the whole of the Western and Northern canals, they have not overlooked the latter, although their attention has been principally devoted to the former object. By that initiatory arrangement, it was obviously the intention of the legislature to bring the calculations of the commissioners to the touchstone of experiment, and to determine whether the resources of the state are adequate to the whole operation.

This trial has taken place in the most satisfactory manner, and there cannot exist a doubt of the feasibility of the work or of the ability of the state. It is therefore highly expedient that a law should be passed, during the present session, authorizing the completion of the whole work as

soon as possible. In the course of this year the routes can be then so far definitively settled as to enable the formation of contracts to take effect in the spring of 1820, by which means a whole year will be saved to the operation, and the state will have the benefit of experienced contractors, who might, under a different state of things, be employed in other undertakings. And, when we contemplate the immense benefits which will be derived from the consequent promotion of agriculture, manufactures and commerce; from the acquisition of revenue; from the establishment of character and from the consolidation of the federal union, we must feel ourselves impelled by the most commanding motives, to proceed in our honorable career, by perfecting with all possible expedition this inland navigation.

At the present period a ton of commodities can be conveyed from Buffalo to Albany by land for $100, and to Montreal, principally by water, for $25. Hence it is obvious, that the whole of the vast region to the west of that flourishing village, and the greater part of the extensive and fertile country east of it, are prevented from sending their productions to our commercial emporium and that they must either resort to the precarious markets of Canada, or to places more distant, less accessible or less advantageous. When the great Western Canal is finished, the expense of transportation from Buffalo to Albany will not exceed $10 a ton. Almost the whole of the ascending trade of the west will be derived from the city of New York, and a great portion of the descending products will accumulate in that important depot. If half a million of tons

1 Chap. 105, passed April 7, přovided for the continuance and completion of the work on the great canals, intended to connect the Hudson River with Lake Erie and Lake Champlain. The canal commissioners were author. ized to use annually $600,000 for this purpose, and to borrow that amount if necessary. Canal tolls were to be established as soon as specified portions of the canals could be used for purposes of transportation. The act also contained detailed provisions relative to canal administration.

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