articles received in exchanges, find their respective places of destination by way of the Mississippi river and its tributaries; whereas it appears from the most accurate information which can be obtained upon the subject, that the value of the property lost during the last four years, in its transportation on the waters of the west, exclusively of hundreds of valuable lives, has amounted to nearly one million of dollars per annum, of which about one-half has been occaioned by snags, sawyers, or other obstructions in those waters; and that the losses thus sustained within the last eighteen months have equalled one-fifth of the steamboats engaged in the trade; and whereas, this immense loss, sustained almost exclusively by a people whose capital consists chiefly in persevering industry and indomitable enterprise, is calculated not only to keep down their energies, but also to prevent them from reaping the numerous advantages held out to them by an exuberant soil, a healthful climate, and unequal commercial facilities; therefore, Be it resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, Inerrations That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use their best exertions to procure the passage of an act providing for the removal of the obstructions in the navigation of the western rivers, either by means of snag boats or otherwise, as to the wisdom of Congress shall seem best calculated to secure an object of the highest importance to the people of this and the other western States and Territories. Resolved, That the Governor of this State be respectfully requested to forward a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress; and also copies to the Governors of the different States and Territories interested in the safe navigation of the western waters. PASSED Memorial to Congress MEMORIAL AND RESOLUTION relative to the public lands. To the Congress of the United States: Your memorialists do represent to your honorable body, that in view of the great interest and prosperity of the State, and citizens of Illinois, and in view also of the true interest and policy of the General Government in disposing of the public domain within the State of Illinois, your memorialists believe that the law passed by Congress providing for the entry and purchase of lands in quarter quarter sections, ought to be extended to actual settlers without restriction hereafter, and that all the public lands unsold, which have been in market, and subject to entry for fifteen years, ought to be reduced in price to fifty or seventyfive cents per acre. Resolved, therefore, That our Senators in Congress be in- Instructions structed, and our Representatives respectfully requested to use their best exertions to have a law passed in accordance PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS relative to the duties on foreign salt. WHEREAS, the article of salt is one of indispensible necessity Preamble to the whole country, and particularly to the agricultural population of the western States, among whose staple productions are pork, beef, &c.; and whereas, in consequence of the prevalence of low prices, the scarcity of money, and the want of sufficient markets, these articles are so reduced in price as scarcely to repay the labor and expense of production causing great and general distress; and whereas, in consequence of the high duty imposed by the lately enacted tariff law on salt of foreign manufacture, the price of that article has been oppressively increased, compelling the producers to pay to domestic manufactures exhorbitant prices, and for an article of inferior quality, constituting, in fact, an oppressive and partial tax upon those who are least able at this time to endure it, and who can receive no possible benefit from such tax; and whereas, the imposi tion of onerous taxes upon articles of pure necessity is in violation of all just principles of political economy, at war with the true spirit of our republican institutions, taking, as itdoes, money from the toiling many, who receive no return, and bestowing it upon the privileged few, who render no equivalent; and whereas, Col. Thomas H. Benton, the Hon. Samuel McRoberts, the Hon. John Reynolds, and other distinguished Senators and Representatives in Congress, have been and are still making strong exertions to procure the repeal of this obnoxious portion of the tariff law; and whereas, a solemn and united expression of the wishes of the people of the great west upon this subject (being as they are more injuriously affected than other classes,) is needed to secure prompt and efficient relief; it is therefore Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, Instructions That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use their united and untiring efforts to procure at the earliest possible day the passage of a law permitting the importation of salt free of duty. Resolved, That the Governor be requested to cause to be transmitted copies of the foregoing preamble and resolutions to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, and to the Hon. Thornus H. Benton. PASSED Memorial to RESOLUTION AND MEMORIAĻ relative to the reduction of postage. Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurCongress con- ring herein, That the following memorial be adopted, and that cerning post each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress be furnished with a copy of the same. age In behalf of our constituents, the people of the State of Illinois, we recommend to the especial attention of the National Legislature that subject of general complaint, the high rate of postage upon letters. In this young State we feel, in a peculiar manner, that inconvenience which operates with so much severity upon thousands of our citizens who are remotely separated from their early friends. There seems to be a necessity for exempting, by law, a class of public agents from this burthen; but were it not deemed inconsistent with a just regard to legislative convenience to restrict the franking privilege to the executive department of the Government alone, such restriction would lead irresistably to a clearer apprehension of the inconvenience to which the mass of the people are exposed by the present exorbitant charges for letter postage. Those who are exempt by law, or whose ample means place them above the consideration of small expenses, can with difficulty be made to sympathize with that large, intelligent, industrious and deserving portion of society who suffer under this abuse, and to whom the benefit of our extended mail arrangements is virtually prohibited. To show the extremity of this inconvenience during the present unusual dearth of money it may be useful to advert to a fact of frequent occurrence in this State. Letters have been enquired for at the post office, and seen by the person to whom they were directed, who has then endeavored to raise the money to meet the postage without success, and they have eventually gone to the department among the dead letters. Cruel incidents of this description are common at every post office, and in all parts of our country the high rate of postage, in every quarter, repressing correspondence, and amongst a valuable portion of society, prohibiting it altogether. It would seem to wear the character of not only a prac tical absurdity, but of a high handed abusc, to establish for the professed convenience of the public an institution which affords an accommodation to a limited few, while the mass of the people are not only too poor to reap any substantial benefit from it, but are prohibited from devising any scheme of their own to accomplish the object which this m nopoly fails to effect. Private enterprise might accomplish with equal certainty and speed for the whole people, what the department now practically accomplishes for a limited portion only. It is well known that letters are constantly transported, and in vast numbers, between our great Atlantic cities by private enterprise. Under a just and reasonable rate of postage, this successful competition with the public mail could never suc ceed. Some idea may be formed relative to the extravagance of the present charges for letter postage by adverting to calcula tions made in England previous to a recent experiment adopted there, under a greatly diminished rate. It was found that about one thirty-sixth part of a penny on each letter weighing one quarter of an ounce would defray the cost of carrying the mail between Edinburg and London, four hundred miles. This calculation led to the very important reform of establishing a uniforin charge upon every single letter transported by mail, without regard to distance. To quote the words of the British report: "If the charge for postage be made proportionate to the whole expense incurred in the receipt, transit, and delivery of the letter and in the collection of its postage, it must be made uniformly the same from every post town to every other post town throughout the United Kingdom, unless it can be shown how we are to collect so small a sum as the thirty-sixth part of a penny." It admits of demonstration that the expense of transporting a letter by mail between the most distant points of the United States is less than one cent. Whilst these facts show the enormity of the existing charges, they cannot fail to demonstrate the propriety of an uniform charge on each letter transported by mail without regard to distance, and that in establishing such charge our smallest silver coin, the half dime, should be the maxi. mum. When it is considered that a vast amount of correspondence by letter is effected upon our great thoroughfares through the medium of private conveyance, which would seek the public mail in preference, were the charges less exhorbitant, and that an immense portion of our population are nearly cut off from such communication by the present high rate, it may not be unreasonable to say, that the uniform charge of five cents for the postage of a single letter would yield more to the department than it now receives, whilst the object of its institution would be more fully accomplished. Relative to the franking privilege, the additional expense to the department on that account is probably over-rated; but so far as the public service is concerned, it would seem more just to provide for such expense through the ordinary channel of appropriation, than to extort any portion of it so directly from the hard earnings of the laborious emigrant. That decidedly just and salutary feature in the English reform, which determines the charge of postage on a sealed package by weight, without regard to the number of pieces enclosed, should not be overlooked. Our present method of prying into letters, by post masters and clerks, although countenanced by law, is not only unjust but exceedingly impertinent. It is a practice so revolting to all manly and correct feeling, that many of our post masters can never condescend to be made the tool of the department in carrying out a system of espionage which they consider so disreputable, and so little called for by the public interest. How infinitely unworthy the magnanimous spirit of a great nation to require that our public servants shall tear open the envelope of a suspected pamphlet or newspaper, to see that the treasury is not about to be despoiled of its due by the information surreptitiously conveyed, that somebody's "friends are well." How much is annually saved to the nation by this gross assault upon the proprieties of life-or how should it be expected that laws which sanction such rudeness can be respected by a free people? A reform which would be moderate and limited, compared with that which has met favor in England, might result in the following advantages: 1. A price more equivalent to the service rendered would be established. 2. The odium attached to the public mail conveyance, as an exorbitant government monopoly, would be removed, and the inducements to private enterprise to compete with it be reduced, if not destroyed. 3. The charge for letter postage would be uniform as well as just; the accounts more readily kept, and the duties of the post office more correctly and economically performed. 4. The people would acquire the habit of resorting wholly to the use of the public mail, and the increased correspondénce prove at least an equivalent to the reduction upon the rate of postage; which rate, if fixed at five cents, would still exceed, by more than ten fold, the actual mean cost of the receipt, transit, and delivery of the letter. 5. A large, deserving, and most useful portion of the community, which is now cruelly and unjustly debarred f.om the use of this important conveyance by the present exorbitant rates of letter postage, would reap that benefit from the public transportation of the mail to which every citizen is justly entitled. 6. The greatly augmented correspondence would facilitate commercial arrangements; yield an incalculable addition to social enjoyment, and more essentially promote the object of general education than any other means within the reach of the Federal Government; and we may here be permitted to remark, that whilst millions are annually expended in imparting literary and scientific knowledge to the rising generation, the adult mind should also be enlightened, or the guardians of youth can feel no interest in an object so important. Communication by letter is the especial province of mature years, and to a reflecting mind the importance of promoting an interchange of ideas by written correspondence, as a means of inducing the habit of correct thought, of classifying, extending and putting human knowledge to the best use, may be deemed a consideration of sufficient magnitude to demand some attention among the duties of legislation. 7. By regulating the postage on sealed packages by weight, |