Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

.community, as this of an irredeemable paper currency. It has never yet failed to demoralize the people who have yielded to its temptations, or to afford a harvest for the speculator and the extortioner, at the expense of honest industry. We see its influences surrounding us, in the extravagance of expenditure rapidly leading to indebtedness of individuals and communities—in the impatience of any other industry than . such as may seem to lead, by some short road, to wealth-in the bold combinations of reckless men to control, for their own gainful uses, the very sources of commercial life-in threatened panics-in uncertain values-in disappointing wages of labor-but above all, in that decadence of moral strength, which, by the frequently occurring defalcations and bankruptcies, is being exposed in places where faith and trust have been the strongest.

Labor.

Out of this condition of things there naturally arise questions closely affecting the widely extending interests of the labor of the country. Impressed with the growing importance of such questions, the State of Massachusetts has provided, by legislation, for thorough information of the condition of this great interest in that State, and I commend this legislation to your favorable attention.

Official Corruption.

In connection with the demoralizing influences I have noticed, the corruptions which have attached to the official service of the country, cannot be overlooked. With a common shame, our people have witnessed the development of this great evil, through municipal governments and State Legislatures, until its recent culmination in the exposure of hidden scandals vitally affecting the purity of congressional legislation. Deplorable enough in itself, the peril of this exposure lies in the shock it has given to public confidence in the civil service of the country, and the popular belief it has excited in the existence of more flagrant abuses of official trust which only await the favorable circumstance to disclose them. And

[ocr errors]

certainly no graver peril than this can threaten our institutions-resting, as they do, and as in a Republic all institutions of government necessarily must, upon the moral sense of the people for their support. The whole fabric is undermined whenever the public service ceases to be respected and the suspicion becomes fixed that its official positions are prostituted to private profit-its legislation trafficked, or even so much as the hem of the garment of its judiciary soiled with . venality.

We have seen this.exemplified in the governments of the Southern States since the termination of the war. Given up as a prey to the political adventurer, civil government in most of those States at times, and in some of them until now, has existed simply by the force of its own corruption. And, as a natural sequence, we see to-day the State of Louisiana, with its chief city, the metropolis of the Southwest, subjected to armed intervention by the General Government, in violation of constitutional rights so palpable, that no other justification. is seriously pretended for it than that it is necessary to save the people of that State from anarchy.

Conclusion.

The Constitution of the State requires me "to give to the General Assembly information of the state of the government." I have endeavored to perform the duty. If I have adverted to matters not strictly within the domain of your powers, it was because they have a lesson for us. They bring into bright contrast the excellence of that self-government, which it has ever been the pride of the people of Connecticut to maintain for themselves, and without which for its local support,. the fabric of our Republican institutions cannot be upheld.

The duty of legislation now begins with you.

Connecticut owes much to her law-makers. The strong men who laid the foundation-stones of the commonwealth, secured them by-laws to promote the intelligence and the industry of its people. Those who have followed them have never lost sight of this noble object in their work. And therein lies the power, as well as the glory of our State.

Guided by the same high aim, may we, in our respective spheres, labor as successfully in the same honored service; mindful of the Hand that brought over the vine and planted it, and by whose sustaining care it is, that the labor of the husbandman has not been in vain.

HARTFORD, May 7, 1873.

CHARLES R. INGERSOLL.

THURSDAY MORNING, May 8th.

The President called the Senate to order at eleven o'clock. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Charles R. Fisher, Chaplain of the Senate.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The President announced the following Joint Standing and Joint Select Committees.

JOINT STANDING COMMITTEES.

On the Judiciary, Hon. Mr. Elmer, of the Eighteenth Dis

trict.

On Incorporations, Hon. Mr. Hoyt of the Twelfth District.
On Railroads, Hon. Mr. Landers of the First District.
On Banks, Hon. Mr. Wilcox, of the Sixth District.
On Education, Hon. Mr. Stoughton of the Second District.
On Cities and Boroughs, Hon. Mr. Tenny of the Eighth
District.

On Finance, Hon. Mr. Wheeler of the Tenth District.
On Military Affairs, Hon. Mr. Marcy, of the Twentieth

District.

On Claims, Hon. Mr. Morrow of the Twenty-first District. On School Fund, Hon. Mr. Mitchell of the Third District.

On Humane Institutions, Hon. Mr. Stannard of the Nineteenth District.

On the State Prison, Hon. Mr. Barton of the Seventeenth District.

On Agriculture, Hon. Mr. Day of the Thirteenth District. On New Towns and Probate Districts, Hon. Mr. Stevens of the Fifth District.

On Roads and Bridges, Hon. Mr. Daboll of the Seventh 'District.

On Sale of Lands, Hon. Mr. Fenner of the Fourteenth District.

On Fisheries, Hon. Mr. Roberts of the Fifteenth District.

JOINT SELECT COMMITTEES.

On Engrossed Bills, Hon. Mr. Comstock of the Ninth District.

On Canvass of Votes for Judges of Probate, Hon. Mr. Smith of the Sixteenth District.

On Unfinished Business, Hon. Mr. Landers of the First District.

On Constitutional Reform, Hon. Mr. Wheeler of the Tenth District.

PETITIONS.

Petition No. 32. The petition of James Cantwell for release from state prison was received, and referred to the Committee on State Prison.

RESOLUTIONS.

A resolution authorizing the printing one thousand copies of the Governor's Message, was received from the House hav-. ing been passed.

The Senate concurred with the House in the passage of the resolution.

Hon. Mr. Wheeler of the Tenth District, introduced a resolution appointing a Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Reform.

The resolution was passed.

Hon. Mr. Smith of the Sixteenth District, introduced a resolution appointing a Joint Select Committee to Canvass the Votes for Judges of Probate.

The resolution was passed.

Hon. Mr. Roberts of the Fifteenth District, introduced a resolution appointing a Joint Select Committee on Engrossed Bills.

The resolution was passed.

Hon. Mr. Wheeler, of the Tenth District, introduced a resolution amending the Charter of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company.

The resolution was referred to the Committee on Railroads. Hon. Mr. Wheeler, of the Tenth District, introduced a res .olution that no new business be received after Wednesday May 28th.

The resolution was passed.

A resolution authorizing Administration on the estate of Archelaus Wilson, deceased, was received from the House, having been passed.

The Senate concurred with the House in the passage of the resolution.

Hon. Mr. Barton, of the Seventeenth District, introduced a resolution appointing a Committee on Contested Elections. The resolution was passed; afterwards rescinded and indefinitely postponed.

A resolution amending the Joint Rules of the General Assembly de Standing Committees was received from the House, having been passed.

The Senate concurred with the House in the passage of the resolution.

On motion of the Hon. Mr. Stannard, of the Nineteenth District, ordered, that when the Senate adjourns it be to meet on Tuesday, May 13th, at 11 1-2 o'clock A. M.

On motion the President declared the Senate adjourned.

« AnteriorContinuar »