AFTERNOON SESSION.
The SPEAKER announced that the constitution requires that the Speaker shall this day open the returns of election of Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and makes the term of these officers to commence this day; and that he had issued a notification to the Senate to appear, as the constitution requires, for the purpose of witnessing this trrnsaction. As soon as the Senators appeared, he should proceed. The Door-keeper will prepare seats for the Senators on the right.
Mr. HEFFREN submitted a formal order of invitation for the Senate which was adopted.
JOINT SESSION OF INAUGURATION.
The President, members and officers of the Senate appeared and took seats in the Hall the President of the Senate on the right of the Speaker.
The PRESIDENT of the Senate. Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: The two Houses of the General Assembly having been called together in compliance with section 4 of the 5th article of the constitution of the State of Indiana, [which he read] the Speaker of the House of Representatives will now proceed to the discharge of that duty.
The SPEAKER of the House of Representatives thereupon proceeded to open and rend the returns of election of Governor and Lieutenant Governor, as polled at the last October election, in the several counties of this State, as far as they had been returned to him. He then announced the result, to wit: For the office of Governor-
- Thomas A. Hendricks had received 126,768 votes.
- Henry S: Lane " 136,125 "
Henry S. Lane having received the highest number of votes given to any one person, was thereupon declared to be duly elected Governor of the State of Indiana for the constitutional term of four years.
For the office of Lieutenant Governor-
- David Turpie received 126,292 votes.
- Oliver P. Morton received 136,470 "
Oliver P. Morton having received the highest number of votes cast for any one person, he was declared to be duly elected to the office of Lieutenant Governor for the term of four years from and after the 14th day of January, 1861.
Mr. Representative HEFFREN submitted an order, which was adopted, that a committee of five, three on the part of the House and two on the part of the Senate, be forthwith appointed to wait upon their Excellencies, the Hon. Henry S. Lane and the Hon. Oliver P. Morton, and inform them of their election, whereupon-
The PRESIDENT of the Senate appointed Messrs. Steele and Hamilton.
The SPEAKER of the House appointed Messrs. Heffren, Bundy and Veatch.
The joint committee presently performed the duty assigned them, and the Governor elect first appearing on the forum-
The PRESIDENT of the Senate introduced him to the General Assembly, and through that body to the people of the Commonwealth of Indiana.The Governor elect now received the Con page: 39[View Page 39]stitutional oath of his office at the hands of Judge Perkins, and proceeded at once to deliver his inaugural address. It is as follows:
GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE.
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives, and Fellow Citizens:
The people of Indiana, in adopting their present Constitution, expressed their gratitude to Almighty God for the free exercise of the right to choose their own form of government, in order to establish justice, maintain public order, and perpetuate the principles of civil and religious liberty. For the present enjoyment of these inestimable rights and privilages; for the blessings of peace and order within our borders; for bountiful crops and for general health and prosperity throughout the year which has just closed, our most heartfelt thanks and gratitude, individually, and collectively as a people, are due to the same almighty, allwise, and beneficent Being. I feel the strongest degree of confidence, Senators and Representatives, in the belief that you will, in the exercise of those high and important legislative powers with which you are invested by the Constitution, be constantly governed by strong motives impelling you to adopt wise measures for the advancement and maintenance of the true interests of the people of the different sections of Indiana; and also by a patriotic desire to prevent or allay all unnecessary and injurious local political excitement, and to promote and secure as far as possible the general prosperity, safety, and honor of our beloved State.
The annual reports of the several State officers for the fiscal years ending in 1859 and 1860 have been laid before both branches of the Legislature, and these documents present an official exposition of the business and operations of the various department of the State government. They are worthy of, and will doubtless receive, your most careful examination and consideration, in order that the proper legislative remedies may be applied for the removal of any defects that may be found to exist, either in the laws relating to these departments or in the administration of those laws. Entertaining as I do the strongest confidence in the honesty and capacity of the recently elected Treasurer of State; and without intending to cast any reflection upon the official conduct of any of his predecessors in office, still I deem it proper at this time to recommend to you such changes in the law regarding the Treasurer's office as will most effectually prevent any mis appropriation of the public funds, or their use for any purpose of private speculation or gain, and which shall insure the availability and safety of money in the public treasury at all times. Changes calculated to effect these desirable and important objects, will receive my most cordial approbation and support
Our common school system, from its importance, demands and will doubtless receive your careful consideration. It is believed that such a modification of the school law can be made as will make the system more useful and less burthen-some to the people. In your efforts to secure these objects you may rely upon my co-operation.
From the report of the Auditor of Public Accounts it appears that the total receipts from all sources for the fiscal year ending the 31st of October, 1860, amounted to $1,658,217 87. The total expenditures during the same period were $1,621,108 48, leaving in the treasury at the close of the fiscal year an actual balance of $134,660 39. From the same report it appears that the domestic debt of the State on the 31st of October amounted to $2,008,993 59, and the foreign debt to $7,770,273 50. By a careful revision of all the laws which relate to the mode of conducting the financial affairs of the State, and by the application of the most rigid economy to all the various departments of the State administration, the present Legislature will, it is confidently believed, be enabled to provide ways and means less onerous and more effectual than those which have heretofore been in operation for the gradual reduction and final extinction of our State debt. In the administration of every de partment of the State Government, the strictest economy that can be introduced, consistently with a steady maintenance of the public interest, will be in accordance with the wishes and just expectations of the people of Indiana; and in all your efforts to make provisions for a faithful and economical administration of the State Government, you will have my earnest, active and honest co-operation and support. And in this connection permit me to suggest the importance of instituting a rigid inquiry, by a joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives, into the past management and present condition of the various benevolent institutions of the State, and also of our State prisons; and if extravagance and mismanagement are found to exist in the administration of either or all of those institutions, to take such steps as shall in future prevent a recurrence of such abuses. The honor and interests of the citizens of the State of Indiana alike demand a thorough investigation in reference to the manner in which the swamp lands given to the State by the Congress of the United States have been disposed of.
The importance of a well organized and thoroughly drilled militia, in the present critical condition of our National affairs, can not be over-estimated; and I will most heartily concur with you in any measures which you may devise, for the purpose of giving greater efficiency to the present very defective militia laws of our State. A possible, (I hope not a probable,) contingency may arise during the present session of the Legislature, which will make it necessary and proper for you to appropriate a sum sufficient to equip a portion of the Indiana Militia for the purpose of aiding in the prompt execution of the laws, and in the maintenance of the Government. If this contingency shall occur during your session I doubt not that you will meet it in a spirit becoming freemen and patriots.
The present laws in relation to the mode of conducting elections are not sufficient to protect the purity of the ballot-box, nor to prevent frauds upon the inestimable privilege of the elective franchise; and I therefore recommend such a revision and change of the election laws as will most effectually accomplish these objects.
Within the last few months, gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives, we have page: 40[View Page 40]been compelled to be unwilling witnesses of the rapid progress of certain events which have seriously threatened the integrity of the Constitution and disturbed the harmony of the Union. In a few of the Southern States a treasonable conspiracy, originated by pestilent demagogues, has been allowed to grow and spread unpunished and even unrebuked, until, overrating its own strength and vastly underrating the patriotism of the people, it assumed form and boldness immediately after the late Presidential election, and now declares its objects to be the dismemberment of the United States and the founding of a Southern Confederacy of seceding States. To those who have carefully observed the rise and progress of this scheme of treason, it is evident that no compromises or concessions, which the people of the United States ought to make, in order to preserve the peace of the country, would be sufficient to satisfy the disunionists of South Carolina; and I regret to say that it seems to be almost certain that the people of a few of the Southern States are inclined, if not determined, to resist, by armed force, any attempt to hold South Carolina, or any other seceding State, in the Union, by means of the military and naval forces of the United States. But, notwithstanding the extraordinary and treasonable proceedings, and partial success of a large class of disunionists, I do not, at present believe it will become necessary to use any considerable part of the military power of the National Government, in order to punish overt acts of treason in any part of the Union. Every citizen of the Union is under an obligation to de fend the country, and its Constitution and laws, against the attacks of foreign enemies and the assaults of domestic traitors; and if ever a majority of the people of the United States shall deliberately repudiate this patriotic obligation, and shall wilfully and submissively permit treason to walk abroad in our fair land, defy our Constitution and laws, and assail our National Government, then our once magnificent, powerful and fraternal Union will sink into a state of hopeless anarchy and decay, and thus expose to the nations of the earth a chaotic mass of mighty ruins, upon which the friends of free popular government, throughout the world, may look with sorrow and despair.
My faith in the power of American patriotism compels me to hope that a majority of the citizens of those States in which the greatest amount of angry excitement now prevails, will be found, in the hour of trial, ready to support and defend the constitutional authorities of the government of the United States, to baffle and defeat all the mad schemes of traitors and disunionists, to reestablish, in their respective States, the majesty of the laws and the supremacy of the Constitution, and to save our beloved country from the horrors of civil warfare and fraternal bloodshed. However alarming the present crisis in our affairs may be, still I hope, by prudent, firm, and patriotic action on the part of the people and their representatives, the right of every individual and State in the confederacy may be preserved inviolate, and that order, law, and justice may. soon be permitted to resume authority in those portions of the Republic where mob law has been too long tolerated in its murderous assaults on the persons and constitutional rights of American citizens. The novel, alarming, and treasonable assumption that any State in the Union has a right under the Federal Constitution to secede at pleasure, is a doctrine unknown to the Constitution, at war with the principles on which our government was established, and destructive of those high and sacred objects sought to be accomplished by the confederation. If the anti-Democratic and anti-Republican position now assumed by a large party at the South be true, " that the result of a Presidential election, legally and constitutionally conducted in all respects, is to be held a good reason for a dissolution of the Union," then the Union can only be preserved by a base surrender of the right of the majority to rule, and by striking down that liberty and equality which the Constitution was ordained and established to guarantee and perpetuate. The present disastrous agitation now existing in the Southern portion of the United States has been caused by the disingenuous and dishonest charges of unscrupulous and reckless partisans; who, in their madness and folly, have given to party that love which the patriot only bestows upon his country. Our Southern brethren have been taught to believe that the party lately triumphant in the Presidential election meditate an attack upon their domestic institutions and a violation of their constitutional rights. The history of that great party shows the utter groundlessness of these charges. A remote cause of the present hostile attitude of South Carolina may be found in the treasonable doctrines taught in 1832 and 1833 by the leaders of the nullification movement. These doctrines were temporarily crushed out by the firmness and patriotism of President Jackson, and by the almost universal disposition shown in all parts of the country to support him in the execution of the laws, and in the preservation of the Union. But, in an evil hour for the Republic, under a weak and wicked administration of the General Government, similar doctrines have again found utterance and support. But the immediate cause of the present crisis was the repeal of the Missouri compromise. That act of bad faith and worse statesmanship, that sin against the cause of freedom and the cause of peace, raised the storm which now threatens to destroy the freest, happiest and grandest government upon the earth. Another cause which has contributed largely to the present state of things in the South is this: Appeals are made by speeches and papers sent from the North, and freely circulated in the Southern States, conveying a false impression as to the objects, aims and doctrines of the great body of the Northern people. The answer to these incendiary and treasonable appeals is never suffered to reach the Southern States, and hence, many honestly believe that a large and organized party exists at the North, banded together to make war upon the interests and institutions of the Southern people, when every intelligent man here knows that no such party does or can exist. If secession in South Carolina be treason, and no one doubts but that it is, to aid and abet secession in other parts of the Republic is no less treason. If the South has her peculiar grievances, the North also has many and just causes of complaint. Many of her citizens have been deprived of property, liberty and life without evidence, without page: 41[View Page 41]trial, without crime. Mob violence has perpetrated such outrages upon American citizens as would lead inevitably to a state of war if committed by the subjects of a foreign power. If permanent peace is to be restored to our unhappy and distracted country, it must be done by the removal of all real causes of offense, North or South.
The doctrine of secession, peaceable or forcible, now or at any other time, is a dangerous heresy, fraught with all the terrible consequences of civil war and bloodshed, and leading directly to the utter ruin of all our free institutions. This heresy has not yet poisoned the public sentiment of Indiana, and may God in his kind providence put afar off the evil day which shall witness its prevalence amongst us. I most sincerely believe, and am proud to declare, that the people of Indiana of all parties are true to the Constitution, and loyal to the Union; and that they will always be in the future as they have shown themselves to have been in the past, willing to yield a ready and cheerful obedience to all the requirements of the Constitution and laws of the United States, and to maintain and uphold at all times, under all circumstances, and at every hazard, the glorious form of free government, under which we live. The people of our noble State, with very few exceptions, are, I think, resolved to support the President of the United States in the free exercise of his constitutional powers, with the manliness and courage worthy of a free people. The f people of Indiana fully appreciate the importance of the Union, and all the blessings which it confers upon us as a nation. They do not believe that secession or nullification can furnish a remedy for any political evil, present, past or to come; they are resolved to transmit to the coming ages undiminished, the rich inheritance of freedom, civilization and glory, bought for us by the blood of the Fathers. The light of no single star which blazes on our national flag shall ever be dimmed by the unconstitutional action of either the people or Legislature of our noble commonwealth.
A voluntary and prompt repeal of all State legislation, (either by Northern or Southern States,) contrary to the letter or spirit of the Constitution and intended to defeat the execution of any of the laws of Congress, would be a peace-offering worthy of a great, intelligent and free people, and would be hailed with joy by every patriot in the land. Indiana has not now, and never had, any such legislation upon her statute books.
Whatever may be the condition of public sentiment in other sections of the Union, the people of our State would favor an amicable settlement of the existing difficulties between the different parts of the Republic; but such settlement, to be permanent and final, must be based upon measures equal and just in their operation, and alike honorable to all portions of our common country.
In all the official relations of Indiana with her sister States, I hope her conduct will be characterized by courtesy and fraternal feeling, and that we shall cheerfully and promptly yield to them all their just rights as equals under the Constitution, and that in all our actions as a State or as individuals, we shall be governed by a high sense of justice, and by a sincere desire to advance the peace and prosperity of the people of all the States in the Confederacy. While we are prepared to respect and observe all the just rights of the citizens of all other Strtes, we should be careful to assert, maintain and protect all the rights of our own citizens at home and abroad. Standing as the main pillars which support our noble Christian civilization and our boasted freedom, there are certain inestimable rights which belong to every citizen of the United States by the laws of God and man. These rights rise in importance immeasurably above all party triumphs and party creeds, all local laws and false political theories. The liberty of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of religious worship under just and reasonable laws must and will be maintained and perpetuated by the people of these United States, in defiance of all opposition, and even by the free use of the sword, if all other means should fail.
In conclusion, Senators and Representatives, I rest in the firm belief that you will labor dilligently and successfully in the discharge of your difficult and important duties; and that the results of our legislation will promote the general welfare of the State, and improve the condition of the various public and private interersts confided to your care by the people of Indiana; and to that end may all your deliberations be guided by "that wisdom which cometh down from on high."
HENRY S. LANE.
The PRESIDENT of the Senate now expressed his thanks for the consideration extended to him while he had enjoyed the honor of Presiding over the Senate, and announced his retirement, in connection with the introduction to that body ef his Excellency, the Lieutenaut Governor elect, the Hon. Oliver P. Morton, who, under the constitution, becomes ex officio, President of the Senate.
His Excellency Lieut. Governor MORTON, having received the oath of his office at the hand of the same official qualifying the the Governor, desired, through the Senate, to tender his sincere thanks to the people for calling him to preside over their deliberations, and entered at once upon his duties, and added that he would endeavor to perform his duty faithfully and impartially in the Senate ; but having no experience in such a position, and but limited knowledge of parliamentary law, he should be obliged to rely on their kindness and assistance to enable him suitably to discharge the obligations which he this day assumed.
He then added officially: The object of the joint committee having been accomplished, Senators will now return to their Chamber.
SENATE MESSAGE-ELECTION OF U.S. SENATOR
A message from the Senate by Mr. Sec'y Tyner, announced that that body had concurred in the resolution of the House to go into the election of the U. S. Senator next Wednesday at 2 o'clock.
PRINTING THE MESSAGES.
Mr. CAMERON submitted an order to print 5,000 copies of Governor Lane's inaugural and page: 42[View Page 42]2,000 copies in the German language, for the use of the House of Representatives.
Mr. HEFFREN proposed to amend by adding the same number of copies of the message of Ex-Governor Hammond, less the 500 copies heretofore ordered.
The amendment was accepted, and the order made accordingly.
Mr. STOTSENBURG introduced a bill [R. K. 30.] to amend the 78th section of the practice act of June 17, 1852; which was passed to the second reading to-morrow.
And then the House adjourned.
