HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
TUESDAY, November 14, 1865.The House met at 9 1/2 o'clock.
CORRECTION OF THE JOURNAL.
The Journal of yesterday having been read by the Clerk -
Mr. SHUEY called attention to the fact that the resolution offered yesterday by the gentleman from Lawrence [Mr. Boyd] was amended so that the Auditor of State shall report to this House, and was so adopted. The Journal was not correct in that.
The SPEAKER. The Journal will be corrected ia that respect.
So the Journal was authenticated and approved by the House.
TABLE OF STANDING COMMITTEES.
Mr. HENRICKS said he saw so many changes that had been made in the published list of standing committees of the House that he desired to move the reprinting of two hundred copies of the list, revised by the Speaker.
The SPEAKER said it, was the purpose of the Chair to-morrow to review this matter in reference to new members of the House.
[Messrs. Collins, Gregory of Warren, Humphreys, Hunt, Lee, Milroy, Shoaf of Allen, and Woods, appeared in the Hall this morning and took their seats.]
MAIL MATTER FOR MEMBERS.
Mr. GRIFFITH submitted the following:
Resolved, That until further ordered, the doorkeeper obtain the letters and other mail matter of the members of this House from the Post Office, and distribute the same in the House.
Mr. MILLER proposed to amend by striking out all after the word "resolved," and inserting the following:
That the arrangement for stationery clerk, and the rules governing the same for the regular session, be continued for the special session.
Mr. BROWN hoped the amendment would not prevail. He did not understand that the position of the Stationery Clerk was an office authorized by law, and hoped such an officer would not be created this session.
Mr. GRIFFITH'S object was simply to procure the mail matter in the most direct way. He agreed generally with the gentleman from Jackson.
Mr. SHUEY. In all probability no such officer will exist, and if so the amendment would destroy the resolution.
Mr. MILLER understood that the order of the House taken yesterday continued the Stationery Clerk. He hoped the order of the last session would be retained so far as this officer was concerned at least, and the economical rule which it adopted with respect to the care of mail matter and the procurement of stationery.
Mr. BROWN. That office, if it was an office, was created by resolution - not by law. The organisation of the House continues during the term, and contains only such officers as are known to the law. The amendment would kill the original resolution, for we have no Stationery Clerk - no such officer. He closed by moving to lay the amendment on the table.
The amendment was laid on the table - affirmative 60, negative 10.
Mr. FERRIS moved to amend by requiring ths Doorkeeper to convey the mail matter to members.
The modification was accepted, and so the original resolution was adopted.
NEW BILLS.
Mr. BURNES introduced a bill [H. R. No. 203] for an act to prescribe the duties of Prosecuting and District Attorneys in certain cases, and providing compensation for the same. [Said Attorneys to appear and resist every petition for divorce - shall be entitled to a fee of $10 in every case of sucessful resistance.] And on his motion it was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. GREGORY, of Warren, introduced a bill [H. R No. 204] for an act to legalize the acts of Commissioners which have heretofore been made under the order of the Court of Common Pleas, and of sales made by guardians under the order of said Court, and confirming such deeds and the titles under the same.
It was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. REESE introduced a bill [H. R No, 205] for an act to provide for more speedy settlement of claims against defaulting county and township officers. [The Court to appoint Commissioners to act - compensation $5 a day - defendant shall have ten days notice of the mating of said Commissioners, &c.] And on his motion it was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
JOINT CONVENTION - PRAYERS - MESSAGE.
Mr. SHUEY submittad the following:
Resolved, That seats be prepared on the right of the Speaker's Chair, and that members of the Senate be now invited to the Hall of the House to hear the message of His Excellency the Governor.
It was adopted, and the order was taken accordingly.
On motion by Mr. SHUEY, it was ordered page: 23[View Page 23] further, that the members, on the part of the House, of the Joint Committee appointed yesterday to wait on the Governor, &c., do now inform His Excellency of the foregoing action.
Senators having been received into the Hall and seated on the right - the Lieutenant Governor presiding on the right of the Speaker -
The LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR Gentlemen of the Convention, you have assembled in joint convention in pursuance of the joint resolution of both Houses for the purpose of bearing the message of His Excellency the Governor, and in pursuance of another joint resolution, the Convention will attend to the order of prayers by the Rev. Dr. Holliday.
Dr. Holliday prays.
The LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR. The Convention is now ready to hear the message of His Excellency the Governor.
Governor Morton then ascending the Speaker's dais; excused himself for sitting to read his message, which follows:
GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE.
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:
The Constitution provides that, if in the opinion of the Governor the public welfare shall require it, he may at any time, by proclamation, call a special session of the General Assembly. The provision of the organic law ofthe State rendering thae regular sesions of the Legislature biennial, and limiting them to the term of sixty-one days, the condition of parties in this State during the last four years, and the public excitement incident to a state of war, as fitting as it did, to some extent, the minds of men for the calm consideration of subjects of ordinary legislation, have all contributed to prevent the adoption of legislative measures which the progress of the State and the welfare of the people would seem to demand.
At the last session of the General Assembly many important bills were introduced, but failed in the different stages of their progress for want of time to perfect and pass them. That the time spent on these unperfected measures might not be lost to the public, an act was passed providing that the business of any regular or special session of the General Assembly, on the calendar or files of either House, and remaining unfinished at the expiration of such session, shall, at the next succeeding special session of the same General Assembly, be transferred to the calendar of the house in which it was pending, in the same order in which such business stood at the termination of such regular or special session, and shall be taken up and disposed of in the same manner it might have been taken up and disposed of at such preceding regular or special session. The considerations before mentioned, the fact that the unfinished business of the last session upon which much intelligent labor had been bestowed, could only be saved by reconvening the General Assembly in special session, and the belief that measures of vital importance demanded legislative action before the time fixed for the next regular session, have caused me to issue the Proclamation, in pursuance of which you are now assembled.
THE PUBLIC DEBT.
The amount of the public debt of the State consisting of two and a half and five per cent. registered stocks is seven million four hundred and eighteen thousand nine hudred sixty dollars and fifty cents ($7,418,960 50). Of this amount the sum of five millions three hundred and forty-two thousand five hundred dollars($5,342,500) is five per cent, and the sum of two millions seventy-six thousand four hundred and sixty dollars and fifty cents ($3,076,460 50) is two and a half per cent. stock; that is stocks upon which interest is paid at these rates.
Of these stocks the board of commissioners of the sinking fund have purchased and now nold the sum of four hundred and forty-six thousand six hundred and seventy-two dollars and sixty-seven cents ($446, 672 67) of the five per cents, and the sum of fifty-one thousand two hundred and seventy-two dollars and fifty cents ($51,272 50) of the two and a half per cents.
The State Debt Sinking Fund has purchased and now holds seven hundred and eighty-eight thousand and thirty-five dollars ($788, 035) of the five per cents, and ninety-six thousand nine hundred dollars ($96,900) of the two and a half per cents.
The aggregate amount of what the State holds, through these two funds, is one million two hundred and thirty-four thousand seven hundred and seven dollars and sixty-seven cents ($1,234,707 67) of the five percent. stocks, and one hundred and forty-eight thousand one hundred and seventy-two dollars and fifty cents ($148,172 50) of the two and a half per cents; in all, one million three hundred and eighty-two thousand eight hundred find eighty dollars and seventeen cents ($1,382,880 17,) leaving outstanding in the hands of the creditors of the State the amount of six millions thirty-six thousand and eighty dollars aad thirty-three cents ($6,036,080 33) of which four millions one hundred and seven thousand seven hundred and ninety-two dollars and thirty-three cents ($4,107,792 33) are five per cents, and one million nine hundred and twenty-eight thousand two hundred and eighty-eight dollars ($1,928,288) are two and a half per cents.
The face of the stock or the certificates of indebtedness provide that "this stock is redeemable at any time after twenty years from the 19th day of January, 1846, at the pleasure of the State, and until redeemed, is transferable upon surrender in the city of New York, in books provided for that purpose by the Agent of State there resident, by indorsement thereon, and according to such other rules and forms as are or may be prescribed for that purpose. And for the payment of the interest and redemption of the principal afore said, the faith of the State of Indiana is irrevocably pledged."
The twenty years referred to will expire on the 19th day of January next, and the question first to be considered is whether these stocks fall due at that time, and whether the contrast made by the State requires that payment shall be made on that day. By some it has been urged that the words, "at the pleasure of the State," are to be treated as surplusage, and the
page: 24[View Page 24]money held to fall due precisely at the end of the twenty years. ln support of this view it is argued that because a State can not be compelled to pay her debts by legal process, the payment will in all cases the "at the pleasure of the State." I fail to perceive the force of this, and must hold that the language in question means just what it says, that the State may consult her own convenience as to the time of making payment, unless there is something in the history of the transaction, out of which this form of indebtedness sprang, or something contained in the law creating it, which requires that a different construction should be put upon the language. The naked legal effect of the instrument, if not modified by history or provisions of the statute creating it, I take to be this: that until the end of the twenty years the State has no right to require the creditors to take their money, and tans stop the payment of the interest, but that the money was to be paid at some time after the end of the twenty years, according to the pleasure and convenience of the State. But this pleasure of the State must be reasonably exercised, so as not to defeat the payment of the principal sum absolutely. The construction I have heard contended for, that the State may defer the payment of the principal twenty-five, fifty, or one hundred years, or in fact forever, provided the interest is promptly paid, can not be maintained; for that would be to defeat the operation of the concluding sentence of the instrument, above quoted, which solemnly pledges the good faith of the State for the payment of the principal as well as the interest. This solema pledge would be a nullity if the State was at liberty to defer the payment of the principal forever, or indefinitely, by the prompt payment of the interest.
The next question to be considered is whether there is anything in the statutes creating this stock, or in the history of the whole transaction, showing the intention of the parties as to the time when the principal should bs paid, or pointing to a period beyond which the State would have no right to defer its payment.
On the 1st of July, 1846, the State was indebted upon bonds issued and sold for purposes of internal improvement in the sum of eleven millions and ninety thousand dollars ($11,090,000), On these bonds the interest had not been paid since 1841, The interest due and in arrears amounted to three millions fifiy-five thousand four hundred and thirty dollars ($3,055,430).
These bonds were issued between the years 1832 and 1842, were of different denominations, and were to run for twenty-five and thirty years, and bore interest at the rate of five, six, and seven per centum per annum, payable semi-annually, for which there were coupons signed and attached to the bonds. The State finding herself unable to pay the interest on her indebtedness accepted of a proposition made by her creditors, the details of which will be found embodied in the Act of January,1846 and the supplementary Act of January, 1847, which taken together, constitute what is generally known as the "Butler Bill." By the compromise and settlement as finally concluded in the supplement Act of 1847, the Wabash and Erie Canal, together with the lands which had been granted to the State to aid in its construction, were transferred, the canal in perpetuity, and the lands in fee simple, to certain trustees in trust for the bondholders, in absolute payment and discharge of one half the principal and accrued interest of the debt, which half thenceforward and forever ceased to be a liability against the State or a charge upon her revenues. The bond holders upon tbeir part agreed to make such additional subscriptions as might be necessary to complete the canal to Evansville estimated at eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,000), which condition was complied with on their part, and the canal so completed. For the other half of the debt, principal and interest, the State was to issue to the bondholders certificates of indebtedness or stock. Upon such stock issued for the principal sum, the State was to pay interest at the rate of five per cent, per annum, semi-annually. The interest in arrears from 1841 to 1847 was funded, and interest on the aggregate thus funded was calculated at the rate of two and a half per cent per annum from January 1, 1847, to January 1, 1853, and added to it, and for the whole amount stocks were issued bearing interest at the rate of two and a half per cent, per annum from the 1st day of January, 1853, payable Semi-annually. The arrangement was a complicated one, involving many details which it ia not necessary to give here, and I shall only present a very brief outline.
The Act of 1846 was, in many important respects, modified and amended by the Supplementary Act of 1847, and the two together constitute the basis and consideration upon which the creditors released the State from all liability for one-half the principal and interest of the debt.
The first section of the Act of 1846 concludes in these words:
"And provided further, That if the revenues of the State, up to the first day of January, 1853, to be derived from a property tax of twenty-five cents on every one hundred dollars of value, and a poll tax of seventy-five cents, shall not, by reason of the taxes being paid in six per centum treasury notes, or from other causes, be sufficient, after defraying the current expenses of the Government, to pay said rate of interest of two per centum, then and in that case, the State shall only be required to pay, up to said first day of January, 1853, such rate of interest as the par funds in her treasury, derived from the taxation aforesaid, shall enable her to do; which shall be paid and distributed, pro rata, on the principal specified in such certificate of stock, and the deficit, with six per centum interest per annum from the time it became due, the State shall and will make up and pay to the holders of ench certificates on or by the first day of January, 1853."
It will be perceived that this section does not, in direct terms, make a levy of twenty-five cents on every one hundred dollars of value, and of seventy-five cents on each poll, but it evidently proceeds upon the hypothesis that such a tax shall be levied and continued for a series of years. The act of which this section is a part was reported to the Legislature by Hon. Henry
page: 25[View Page 25]Secrest, Chairman of a Special Joint Comittee to whom tho subject had been referred. He accompanied the bill with a report from the Committee, from which I extract the following passsge:
"By reference to the tables appended to the second proposition of Mr. Butler, it will be seen that if the taxables in the State shall increase at the rate of $6,000,000 year in value (which is a moderate estimate,) a tax of twenty-five cents on the hundred dollars, and seventy-five cents poll, will afford the means of paying the State expenses, absorbing all the six per cent. treasury notes, and paying two per cent, interest upon the public debt, up to the year 1853; and from and after that time paying the State expenses at two and a half per cent, upon the entire funded debt of the State, including back interest and deficiencies of interest; and not only so, but that the proceeds of the same tax would, in addition, produce an annually increasing surplus, to be set apart for the absorption cf the principal of the public debt - which surplus for the single year, 1860, would be about $140,000."
From this it clearly appears to have been contemplated by the committee that a continuing tax of twenty-five cents on every one hundred dollars, and seventy-five cents poll, was to be assessed for the payment of the principal and interest of the debt, and reference is made to certain tables which had been prepared by Mr. Butler, going to show what would be accomplished by such a tax, estimating the increase of ths polls to be six thousand per year, and the increase of taxable property at six millions of dollars per year, and carrying the calculation as far down as 1860. Mr. Butler's calculation, however, turned out to be greatly erroneous, inasmuch as the ordinary expenses of tbe State Government were estimated too low, and the increase of taxable property from 1846 to 1864, averaged nearly twenty-one million of dollars, instead of only six millions per annum. On the next day after the passage of this bill, and apparently in pursuance of its provisions, the Legislature passed an Act making a general levy, for State purposes, of seventy-five cents poll, and twenty-five cents on each one hundred dollars worth of property.
In the supplementary act of the next year, 1847, the following provision will be found contained in the 14th section:
"And whereas, doubts have been suggested on the parts of some such last mentioned persons (foreigners holding bonds,) in respect of the matters hereinafter mentioned or referred to, which doubts may operate prejudicially to the operations contemplated by the said recited act, and it is therefore expedient that the same be removed. Now, to demonstrate the good faith of the State of Indiana, and for the removal of all such doubts as aforesaid, and with the view to create general confidence in the arrangement made in the said recited act by the State for the liquidation of its debt:
"Be it enacted. That the tolls, revenues, and profits of the said Canal and its appurtenances, present and future, and the moneys to arise and be collected by and from the sales of the land and premises contiguous thereto, and in the said act more particularly mentioned and described, and the personal taxes to be levied towards the payment of the said debt, as in the said act also mentioned, and the receipt and application thereof for that purpse, as in the same act is also provided, shall remain and be inviolate and in full force, and the payment of the principal moneys and interest on the certificates and stock intended to be created pursuant to the said act, and this act, and all certificates and evidences of the title thereof respectively, shall be and continue effectual and inviolate by the means aforesaid, until the objects and purposes of the said act, and this present act shall be fully accomplished."
The only taxes referred to in the act of 1846 were the seventy-five cents poll and the twenty-five cents on the one hundred dollars worth of property, and by this section the good faith of the State is solemnly pledged that the said taxes shall be maintained inviolate and in full force, and the proceeds thereof faithfully applied to the payment of the principal and interest of the stocks created in pursuance of the act of 1846. The substance of this pledge, and of the understanding entertained by the legislature on the one hand and the bondholders on the other, may be briefly stated as this: That a tax of seveaty-five cents on each poll, and twenty-five cents on each one hundred dollars of property, should be continuously levied, and that after defraying the ordinary expenses of the State Government, and paying the interest on the debt, the surplus proceeds should be applied to the liquidation of the principal turn.
The new Constitution, which was framed in 1850, three years after the passage of this act, contains the following provision:
Section 2, Article X: "All the revenues derived from the sale of any of the public works belonging to the State, and from the net annual income thereof, and any surplus that may at any time remain in the Treasury derived trom taxation for general State purposes after the payment of the ordinary expenses of the government, and of the interest on bonds of the State, other than bank bonds, shall be annually applied under the direction of the General Assembly, to the payment of the principal of the public debt."
This provision evidently contemplates the speedy payment of the public debt, and the existence of an annual surplus to arise from general taxation for State purposes, and imperatively commands the annual application cf such surplus to the liquidation of the public debt.
To show the views entertained by the committee who prepared the section, I will present in full the report by which it was accompanied when it was laid before the Convention:
"The Committee on State Debt and Public Works, to whom was referred sundry resolutions directing them to inquire into the expediency of appropriating all the revenues derived from the sale of any of the public works belonging to the State, and from the net income thereof, and also any surplus that may at any time remain in the treasury derived from taxation for general State purposes, after the payment of the ordinary expenditures, have had the same under consideration, and have come
page: 26[View Page 26]to the conclusion that the entire debt of the Stato will be paid within fifteen years, by a continuation, of the rate of taxation prescribed by law, have directed me to report the accompanying section, to be engrafted in the new Constitution, and ask to be discharged from the farther consideration of the subjects embraced in said resolutions."
This report was submitted by Judge Hall, of Gibson county, one of the most eminent lawyers in the State, and is so explicit in regard to the understanding of the committee that the tax was to be continued, and that it would pay the debt by 1865, that it leaves no room to doubt as to the purpose for which the constitutional provision was introduced.
Afterwards, on the 25th day of January, 1851, this provision came up in the Convention for consideration, when Mr. Howe, of Lagrange, offered to amend by adding the following clause, not as a substitute, but additional:
"That a specific tax of fifty thousand dollars, with an annual increase of five per cent., be levied for twenty-five years, and expended each year in the purchase of our State bonds, unless the State debt is sooner paid off."
In support of his amendment he used the following language:
"It is very probable that the present rate and method of taxation guaranteed in what is commonly called the Butler Bill, will be observed; but even if tbat taxation affods a fund for the payment of the debt, this will enable us to pay it off sooner. Besides our public debt was contracted chiefly for the benefit of property, and property should pay it."
Mr. Harden then said:
"I desire to make an inquiry of my friend from Gibson (Mr. Hall), whether the section now under consideration provides that any overplus of the taxes arising from the imposition of twenty-five cents tax on the hundred dollars valuation, shall be applied to the definite object of liquidating the principal of our outstandirg State debt after the payment of the interest on the debt?"
In answer to this question, Judge Hall said:
"The arrangement, and only arrangement, with our bondholders, was under the acts of 1846 and 1847, by which twenty-five cents on every hundred dollars worth of taxable property, and seventy-five cents poll tax, were pledged for the payment of the principal and interest of the public debt until it shall be entirely paid. According to a calculation made, if this system of taxation shall be continued, in eighteen years the entire public debt will be paid off. The committee of which I am chairman, having charge of the subject, believing that there was a propriety in placing it beyond the power of the Legislature to violate the pledged faith of the State, instructed me to introduce a section providing that the twenty-fire cants on each one hundred dollars of taxable property, and seventy-five cents poll tax, should ba annually assessed until the debt was paid. This section was laid upon the table, and, I think, inconsiderately. I think the matter should be placed beyond the power of change by the Legislature."
Mr. Borden then replied as follows:
"Sir, on a previous occasion, I desired that this should be done; because I know that this is the wish of the people I have been sent here to represent. They do not want the subject to be left with the Legislature. They are willing to carry out in good faith the arrangement made with the bondholders of the State, and to pay twenty-five cents tax upon every one hundred dollars valuation, until the State debt is extinguished; and they desire that a clause shall be inserted in the Constitution which shall secure the application of this overplus to the extinguishment of the principal of the Stats debt."
Mr. Stevenson then followed, opposing Mr. Howe's amendment, on the ground that taxes should not be levied in the Constitution, and in conclusion used these words:
"Sir, this attempt to levy an additional tax upon the people by us is all wrong. I believe there is virtue enough in the people to settle this matter through their representatives in the Legislature, and I much prefer to leave it with that body."
Mr. Walpole followed in a speech, opposing the adoption of the original section reported by the Committee, for the reason that he would do nothing to confirm the contract made by the State with the bondholders unless there was also a provision requiring the bondholders to perform their part of the contract.
Mr. Maguire followed in support of the original section as reported by the Committee, and referred with approbation to the calculation, showing that the then existing rate of taxation would pay the debt in fifteen or sixteen years, if the surplus was properly applied from year to year in the purchase of our stocks at the market value.
Mr. Ritchie then moved to recommit the section, with instructions to strike out and insert that, "the present rate of taxation, twenty five cents on taxable property, and seventy-five cents on each poll, shall be continued until the indebtedness of the State is fully liquidated."
Mr. Ritchie then said:
"I would remark that this is a transcript; of the report; of the Committee on the subject, and I have no doubt if this course is adopted that in some fifteen or eighteen years the public indebtedness of the State will cease to exist. Under the action of the General Assembly we made this agreement with our bondholders in reference to the payment of the bonds they held, which constituted the public debt. The adoption of a proposition of this kind will not only increase the credit of the State, but do away with any suspicion that we have any disposition, to repudiate the contracts we have made. We owe it to our constituents that we should endeavor to erase the unjust aspersions cast upon them in relation to this matter. And it is due also to our bondholders that we should repeat here, in this Convention, the action of the Legislature in the arrangement made by which, in some fifteen years, we will rid our State of its public debt."
Here the debate ended, and the original section was adopted, both amendments being laid upon the table.
I have referred particularly to this debate to show the views entertained by the Committes reporting the Constitutitional provision, and
page: 27[View Page 27]the understanding of the Convention at the time of its adoption. It seems clearly to have been understood by the Convention that the Butler Bill guaranteed the continuance of the tax of seventy-five cents on each poll and twenty-five cents on each one hundred dollars worth of property, until the debt was liquidated, and the main subject of discussion was whether this guaruntee should be specifically incorporated into the Constitution.
If the levy and continuance of a specified tax for the payment of the principal and interest of the debt was guaranteed in the original arrangement made by the Legislature with the creditors, it would be conclusive evidence that the State and the creditors were looking to the payment of the principal sum as well as the interest, and that the State could not, in good faith, indefinitely postpone the payment of the principal sum.
But it is equally clear, from Mr. Butler's calculations, that he did not expect that the taxes which were guaranteed would be sufficient, to pay the debt by the 19th day of January, 1866, for, in fact, by his tables, the principal of the debt could not be paid before 1872 or 1874, and when we take his tables in connection with the language of the certificate, "redeemable at any time after twenty years at the pleasure of the State," it is manifest that Mr. Butler had no assurance that the principal of the debt would be paid promptly at the end of the twenty years.
It turned out, however, that the basis of taxation was far more favorable to the speedy payment of the debt than was contemplated by Mr. Butler and the Legislature of 1846, for the average increase of taxable property, from that time until the present, has been, as before stated, nearly twenty-one millions of dollars per annum, instead if six millions. And a Circulation which I have caused to be made, will show that if the guaranteed rates of taxation had been maintained, thera would be in the Treasury, on the 1st day of January, 1866, a surplus of four millions eight hundred and ten thousand seven hundred and four dollars and thirty-one cents ($4 810,704 31), after defraying the ordinary expenses of the State Government, and the interest on the State debt from year to year; and it is easy to show that if this surplus had been applied from time to time, as it accrued, to the purchase of our stocks at their market value, the whole debt would bave been paid by the 19th day of January, 1866.
It was well understood by Mr. Butler and the bondholders, in 1846, that these rates of taxation were all that the State was able to bear at that time, or would be able to bear for many years, and the language of the certificates, making the principal payable "after the end of twenty years at the pleasure of the State," shows that the Legislature entertained doubts whether the State would be able to pay promptly at the end of twenty years, and that they did not intend to place her in a situation where, if she failed to make such payment, she would violate her contract, and stand before the world so repudiating or bankrupt.
In 1852 the Legislature departed from these rates of taxation, and reduced the levy to twenty cents on each one hundred dollars worth of property, and fifty cents on each poll. This rate upon polls was continued until 1865, but the levy upon taxable property fluctuated from fifteen to twenty cents on the one hundred dollars from 1853 to 1861.
In 1852 the Legislature passed an act creating the State Debt Sinking Fund, and levying a tax of two cents on the one hundred dollars "for the reduction and ultimate extinction of the public debt."This fund was was placed under the control of three Commissioners, consisting of the Auditor, Treasurer, and Agent of State; who were directed to invest the procceds of the tax from time to time in the purchase of the two and a half and five per cent. stocks. The interest on the stocks thus purchased was to be paid semi-annually to the Commissioners, who were to invest the same in similar stocks, and thus create a Sinking Fund for the ultimate redemption of the stocks created by the Butler Bill.
In 1847 the Legislature failed to levy any tax for State purposes for the years 1857 and 1858, and for those two years no revenue was collected. In 1859 an act was passed instructing the Auditor of State to sell the stocks which had been purchased by the State Debt Sinking Fund to the Board of Commissioners of the Sinking Fond, in order to raise money to defray the ordinary expenses of the State Government, and to supply the deficiencies in revenue growing out of the failure to levy and collect taxes for the preceding two years. This act being held void for want of a title, the Board of Commissioners of the Sinking Fund refused to act upon it, but the Auditor of State treating it as an instruction, sold the stocks in open market and put the money into the Treasury. At the regular session in 1861 it was enacted, that for the year 1863, and every year thereafter, five cents be levied on each one hundred dollars worth of property for the reduction and ultimate extinction of the public dabt, to be used by the State Dabt sinking Fand Commissioners as before described, but at the extra session in the same year, an act was passed diverting this tax, and that for the years 1861 and 1862, from the State Debt Sinking Fund, to the payment of the War Loan, which had just been authorized, with a provision, however, that if the holders of the War Loan Bonds would not sell them to the State at rates not exceeding their par value, the proceeds of the tax should ba invested in the stocks created by the Butler Bill, according to the terms of the original act creating the State Debt Slaking Fund.
This legislative history, it must be admitted, is rather curious and contradictory, and comes short of performing the obligations which the State in 1846 entered into with her creditors.
For this non-performance, up to 1861, a valid excuse can hardly be found, but for what has happened since, the excuse is ample. The contingencies and necessities of war override all other considerations, and if they cause a failure in the strict performance of a contract, it would not subject a State to the imputation of being wanting in good faith.
In view of the whole matter as I have presented it, the just conclusion seems to be this.
page: 28[View Page 28]that while the State is not bound to pay the principal of this debt on the 19th of January, 1866, or be considered in default, yet that she is not at liberty to postpone the payment of it indefinitely; that to do so would be to violate the fair construction of the certificate itself, and the explicit understanding that existed in the Legislatures of 1846 and 1847, and in the Convention of 1850, as shown by their several enactments and debates; but that she is bound to make provision to pay the debt within such reasonable time after the twenty years as may comport with the original understanding of the parties, the ability and condition of the State, as left by the war, the faithful performance of her contracts, and the preservation of her good name. The whole subject is therefore commended to your careful consideration, in the hope that your conclusion, whatever it shall be, may be announced before your final adjournment, so that the State and her creditors may know what they have to depend upon.
As before shown the amount of these stocks outstanding in the hands of our creditors and to be provided for is six millions thirty-six thousand and eighty dollars and thirty-three cents (6,036,080 33).
The Auditor of State has furnished me a statement in which he estimated that there will be in the Treasury, on account of State Debt Sinking Fund, on the 1st day of March next, the sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000).
The Board of Commissioners of the Old Sinking Fund will probably have on hand, in cash, on the 1st day of January, 1866, the sum of six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000).
There is due also to the Old Sinking Fund about nine hundred thousand dollars ($900,000) on loans secured by mortgages of real estate, which, however, could not be made available for several years, owing to the extension of time made by the State to the motgagers, unless by the issue of a like amount of bonds bearing six percent. interest, which is one per cent. less than that which the State receives on the mortgages, the bonds to be paid out of the proceeds of the mortgages when collected. These bonds disposed of to our creditors or others, at par value, and the moneys referred to, if promptly invested in our stocks, would procure some two millions six hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($2,650,000) of our stocks, and thus reduce the amount in the hands of our creditors to three millions three hundred and eighty-six thousand and eighty dollars and thirty-three cents ($3,386,080 33).
The cash on hand in the Old Sinking Fund draws no interest, and has not for many months, and without regard to the conclusion you may come to as to the time or mode of paying the public debt, I earnestly recommend that all the cash and other assets belonging to the Old Sinking Fund, be as speedily as possible invested in our State stocks, and the somewhat formidable and costly machinery by which that fund has been managed, abolished. The fund thus converted into our stocks can be easily managed by the Auditor of State with equal advantage to our common schools, and at a saving of no small expense. Of course it will be understood that such stocks as now belong to the Old Sinking Fund, or as may be purchased by its assets, must in some form be kept alive for the benefit of the School Fund, so that that fund which is made inviolable by the Constitution, may not suffer by the conversion.
The financial system of Indiana is complicated, expensive, and anomalous. The State is a debtor, owing large sums of money, upon which she pays interest semi-annually, and incurs all the expenses thereto necessarily incident, such as the keeping of an agency in New York, the purchase of exchange, and other items of cost too numerous to mention. She is at the same time a lender of money, and maintains an expensive machinery to carry on that operation, and is subject, of course, to occasional losses incident to all money lenders.
If, therefore, the trust funds of the State could be invested in her own stocks it would greatly cheapen and simplify her financial system, and restore to its administration that public confidence, the absence of which has long been felt.
Should the assets of the sinking funds be converted into our public debt, as I have suggested, the whole debt of the State left outstanding in the hands of her creditors to be provided for might be thus stated:
| Two and a half and five per cent stock | $3 386,080 33 |
| War loan bonds | 438,000 00 |
| Vincennes University bonds | 66,685 00 |
| Floating debt, estimated at | 100,000 00 |
| Total debt | 83,990,765 33 |
The conversion suggested can be made within the next six months, and there is no propriety in the State appearing to the world as being indebted in the sum of seven or eight millions of dollars when she has the means in her own hands of reducing it to less than four millions.
ENUMERATION AND APPORTIONMENT.
It is not creditable to the State that any provision of its Constitution, mandatory in its character, and not in conflict with the National Constitution, should remain a dead letter because of the non-action of the legislative department. If law-makers would have their enactments obeyed by the masses they should set an example of obedience by a prompt and faithful performance of those duties enjoined upon them by the higher law contained in the Constitution itself. More than fourteen years have elapsed since the adoption of the present Constitution of the State, and to this day there are two subjects on which its language is that of positive command where there has been no corresponding obedience - one of these subjects being almost vital to the existence of the Legislature itself. The first of these is the periodical enumeration of the white male inhabitants above twenty-one years of age, and the periodical apportionment of Senators and Representatives, based upon this enumeration. The other is the providing of Houses of Correction and Reformation far juvenile offenders.
Allow me earnestly to call your attention to both of these constitutional mandates in the order above stated. The Constitution of 1851 provides that the first and second elections of members of the General Assembly after its taking effect shall be According to the apportionment last made by the General Assembly before the adoption of said Constitution. This
page: 29[View Page 29]provision gave ample time for making the enumeration and apportionment required by the organic law of the State. The Constitution says that the General Assembly shall, at its second session after the adoption of this Constitution, and every six years thereafter, cause an enumeration to be made of all the white male inhabitants over the age of twenty-one years. It further says that, "the number of Senators and Representatives shall, at the session next following each period of making such enumeration, be fixed by law and apportioned among the several counties according to the number of white male inhabitants above twenty-one years of age in each." The General Assembly of 1863 designed to carry out the first of these provisions by passing an act approved Febrary 24th, 1853, entitled, "An act to provide for the enumeration of all white male inhabitants over the age of twenty-one years, in the State of Indiana in the year 1853, and pay the officers for taking the same." In consequence of defects in this law, as I understand the matter, the enumeration contemplated by it was never completed and published, and although more than twelve years have since elapsed, no other act providing for an enumeration has been passed. In 1857 the General Assembly passed an act entitled, "An act to apportion Senators and Representatives for the next four years." This act was not based upon an enumeration of the white male inhabitants of the State over the age of twenty-one years, for no such enumeration had been completed, and although it has long since expired by its own limitation, no other apportionment law has been enacted in its place, and by common consent, and from the necessity of the case, members of both houses of the General Assembly are still elected under the provisions of this law which has ceased to exist and which if in existence, has become grossly unjust and unequal by the change in the population of the several counties of the State since 1857. A literal compliance with the Constitution as to enumeration and apportionment is now impossible, but the nearest practicable approach to it abould be promptly made. To this end, I recommend the passage of an act providing for an enumeration such as is contemplated by the Constitution, to be made in 1866, and another in the year 1871, and another every sixth years after the year 1871. These periodical enumerations should be provided for by a permanent enactment that would require no renewal at the expiration of each period of six years, and to secure its enforcement there should be adequate penalties for any failure of duty on the part of the officers charged with making the enumeration. To meet the present emergency I further recommend the passage of a law, temporary in in its character, making a new apportionment of Senators and Representatives on the basis of the votes cast at the Presidential election in 1864, such apportionment to continue until a new one can be made, based upon the enumeration required by the Constitution.
HOUSE OF REFORM FOR JUVENILE OFFENDERS.
The other particular before alluded to, in which a positive requirement of the Constitution has hitherto been wholly disregarded, relates to the establishment of Houses of Correction and Reform for Juvenile Offenders.
The second section of the ninth article of the Constitution reads as follows, viz:
"The General Assembly shall provide Houses of Refuge for the Correction and Reformation of Juvenile Offenders."
In accordance with this humane and enlightened provision, the eighteenth section of the first article further provides that the penal code shall be founded on the principles of reformation, and not of vindictive justice.It may well be doubted whether the county jails should, in any instance be used as places of punishment for any class of offenders, and whether they should not be solely employed as places of detention of accused persons awaiting trial. Be this as it may, there can be no doubt as to the duty and policy of speedily establishing Houses of Reform for Juvenile Offenders.
The Legislature of 1855, impressed with the propriety of providing a place in which youthful offenders might be confined, uncontaminated by the proximity and examples of old and hardened offenders, authorized a purchase of a tract of land a few miles west of Indianapolis for the express purpose of establishing a house of Reform for Juvenile Offenders. In pursuance of this authority the land was purchased, but since then nothing further has been done to carry into execution the provisions of the Constitution on this subject.
Institutions of this description have ceased to be an experiment, numbers of them having been established in other States of the Union, with the most beneficial results. I most earnestly recommend that immediate steps be taken for carrying into execution, with the least possible delay, this requirement of the Constitution.
SOLDIERS' RELIEF LAW.
The restoration of peace and the consequent discharge from the service of the United States of the major part of the Volunteers of this State, since the adjournment of the General Assembly, render it proper that there should be a complete and thorough revision of the Act for the relief of the families of soldiers, seamen and marines, and sick and wounded soldiers in hospitals, approved March 4th, 1865. Difficulties have arisen in the construction of the act, and although the Auditor of State has taken great pains to prevent a diversity of action in taking the enumeration contemplated by the act, I regret to say his efforts have not been successful in procuring entire uniformity. There is also a want of uniformity of construction as to the persons entitled to receive the benefits of the act, the local authorities in some counties, as I am informed, holding that the soldier's family must be reduced to a condition of absolute pauperism, before they can receive the allowance provided for by the act, while in other counties, relief has been afforded whenever the soldier's family was, in the language of the seventh section of the act, otherwise without "sufficient means for their comfortable support," although they might possess some property or means. The latter is obviously the proper construction, and it is greatly to be regretted that the act should not have
page: 30[View Page 30]been liberally construed in all parts of the State.
There is also some uncertainty as to the time when the weekly allowance provided by the act shall commence, or from what time it shall be computed to those entitled, although in my opinion the Auditor of State has very properly decided that the allowance should commence from the date of the passage of the Act. So far as it may be neceesary to continue the provisions of the Act in force, I recommerd the adoption of such explanatory legislation as may be neceseary to remove existing ambiguities, and to secure the benefits of the Act to all those within its scope and spirit, and to prevent the illiberal construction before alluded to. The Act contemplates the levy and collection of a three mill tax on all taxable property, and a poll tax of one dollar on each taxable poll, for each of the years 1865 and 1866, I respectfully suggest that under existing circumstances it, will neither be necessary or proper that these taxes should be levied or collected for the year 1866, believing that the levy for 1865, if properly disbursed, will be sufficient to furnish all the relief that the altered condition of the country demands.
SOLDIERS' AND SEAMEN'S HOME.
I earnestly invite your attention to the neccessity for the speedy establishment of an Institution in which Indiana soldiers and seaman, disabled by wounds or disease contracted in the service of the United States, shall be cared for and maintained during the continuance of the disabilities under which they are laboring. Justice, humanity, and the honor of the State, forbid that these brave men should be permitted to suffer for the comforts of life, or be compelled to receive from the public such assistance as is accorded to ordinary paupers.
On the 15th day of May last, for the purpose of enlisting the sympathies of the people in the establishment of such an institution, I issued an address, of which a copy is herewith respectfully submitted. In pursuance of the invitation contained in this address, two successive meetings were held at Indianapolis, for the purpose of effecting a temporary organization of a Home for disabled Indiana soldiers and seamen, and to inaugurate a system for the collection of voluntary contributions sufficient to place it ultimately on a permanent foundation.
At the second of these meetings, held on the 24th day of May last, a temporary organization was effected, the basis of which will be seen by reference to a copy of the proceedings of said meeting, herewith respectfully submitted.
Soon after, application for relief on the part of disabled soldiers were presented to the officers of the Association, and the Common Council of the City of Indianapolis, generously tendered the gratituous use of the City Hospital Buildings to the managers of the Association for a temporary Home, which offer was accepted, with the distinct understanding that its acceptance should not in any degree influence the ultimate location of the Institution, should the effort to place it on a permanent basis, be successful. The temporary Home was opened on the seventh day of August last, and the absolute necessity for such an Institution is demonstrated by the fact that already forty-six (46) disabled soldiers have been admitted into the Institution, twenty-one (21) of whom, after remaining some time and receiving the best care and medical treatment, have been discharged with the prospect of being sufficiently restored to enable them to care for themselves, and one has died, leaving twenty-four still to be cared for. Of the twenty-four still in the Institution, seventeen are totally disabled, either by old age, disease, or wounds received in battle.
The funds received by the Treasurer of the Home for voluntary contributions, amount in the aggregate to $4 994 55, in addition to which there are unpaid subscriptions, the estimated amount of which will increase this to over $20,000. It is to be feared that the Institution can not be placed upon a permanent foundation by voluntary contributions, and in view of this I submit the entire subject to the General Assembly, and respectfully, but earnestly recommend that prompt measures be taken to secure the object in view, feeling eassured thait it will commend itself to your judgment and sympathies.
The United Spates General Hospital, at Jeffersonville, in one of the most complete establishments of the kind in the country, and is well adapted to the purposes of a Soldier's Home. I have written to the Secretary of War and Surgeon General for information, as to whether the Government would be willing to turn over this hospital to the State of Indiana, to be used in the establishment of such an institution, should the State desire it. The answer, when received, will be communicated to the General Assembly.
OFFICIAL BONDS.
The public interests require that there should be seme legislation on the subject of Official Bonds, to prevent the sureties therein from setting up, as a defense to actions brought on such bonds, same unperformed outstanding agreement between them and their principals. Under existing decisions a surety in an Official Bond, when sued thereon, may plead, as a defense, that when he signed the bond the principal promised him that he would procure some other person to execute it as a co-surety, and that the bond was filed and approved in violation of this agreement. Sound policy requires that when Official Bands are properly approved, and fixed in the proper office, there should be no doubt as to their bidding obligation on all the parties executing the same. I respectfully recommend the passage of a law, providing that every principal and surety in an Official Bond shall be required, before such bond is approved, to acknowledge its execution before some officer authorized to take the acknowledgement of deeds, the acknowledgement to be certified on the bond, and making the bond thus acknowledged as binding, to all intents and purposes, upon such surety as it is upon the principal, and declaring that as between the State and the surety, such surety shall be deemed and taken to be a principal, and expressly prohibiting him from setting up any defense thereto, other than such as might avail the principal.
page: 31[View Page 31]GRAND JURIES
The experiment inaugurated in 1852, of depriving the grand juries of jurisdiction over misdemeanors, has been fully and fairly tested, and I respectfully submit, that the lesson taught has not confirmed the wisdom of this change, in the administration of our penal code. Experience, I think, has clearly demonstrated that where it is not made the sworn duty of some properly constituted tribunal to make diligent inquiry and true presentment, as to the minor offences against the penal code, these offences will go unpunished, and thereby beget a disregard of law, and result in the increase of crime.
The General Assembly has already found it necessary to restore the jurisdiction of grand juries over one class of misdemeanors, and it is not perceived why the same considerations which induced this partial return to the old system, do not require a complete restoration of the jurisdiction so long exercised by the Grand Inquests of the several counties. I therefore respectfully recommend the restoration of this jurisdiction.
EMIGRATION.
The return of peace will increase the tide of emigration from Europe to the United States, whilst many of the brave soldiers of Indiana, who havo been campaigning in the Southern States will doubtless seek new homes in the regions through which they have marched - These considerations render it of the highest importance that steps should be taken to attract to this State the largest possible number of foreign emigrants.
To this end, I repeat the recommendation for the establishment of a Bureau of Emigration, contained in my last regular message.
WORLD'S FAIR,
In this connection, I call your attention to the subject of the World's Fair, or "Universal Exposition," to be opened at Paris, France, on the 1st of April, 1867. It is eminently desirable that specimens of the agricultural productions, manufactures, mechanical improvements and mineral wealth of Indiana should be there exhibited. They would constitute the best advertisement, to the people of the Old World, of the great resources, progress, and wealth of the State, the energy, intelligence, and refinement of her people, and the superior inducements and advantages presented to immigration.
I recommend to your consideration the propriety of making provision for such exhibition, and herewith lay before you certain documents in regard to the Fair which I have received from the Secretary of State of the United States.
EDUCATION.
The subject cf Education will doubtless have your early and careful consideration, I can not refrain from again rccommending the speedy establishment of a State Normal School Competent and skillful teachers are essential to a good system of education, and these can not be supplied in sufficient numbers to meet the increasing wants of our people, without an institution whose business it shall be to train teachers for their profession.
MORGAN RAID,
I again respectfully invite the attention of the General Assembly to the damages occassioned to some of our citizens, by the invasion of the State by John Morgan, in 1863, I have seen no cause for changing the views expressed on this subject in my regular message delivered at the commencement of your last session, and therefore repeat the recommendation therein made.
SCHOOL FUND.
The first section of Article Eight of our State Constitution provides as follows: ''Knowledge and learning, generally diffused throughout a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage by all suitable means, moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; and to provide by law for a general and unitorm system of common schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all." The language of this provision is very broad, and would seem, in letter and in spirit, to embrace all the children in the State without regard to color. Surely it can not be denied that as we have a colored population in our midst, it is our interest independent of those considerations of natural justice and humanity which plead so strongly, to educate and elevate that population. An ignorant and degraded element is a burden and injury to society, whatever may be its color. It therefore becomes a matter of sound political economy, as well as absolute justice, that whatever colored population we may have should be educated, and enabled to become intelligent, industrious and useful members of the community. It is also especially important at this time, when the President of the United States and the people of the North are requiring the people of the South to make provision for educating their colored population, and protecticg them in the enjoyment of civil rights, that the Northern States should set the example, and practice what they preach, by extending to their smaller colored population the rights and benefits which they demand for them from others.
The laws of lndiana exclude colored children from the common schools, and make no provision whatever for their education. I would therefore recommend that the laws be so amended as to require an enumeration to be made of the colored children of the State, and such a portion of the School Fund as may be in proportion to their number, be set apart and applied to their education by the establishment of separate schools, under such suitable provisions and regulations as may be deemed proper. I would not recommend that white and colored children be placed together in the same schools, believing, as I do, in the present state of public opinion, that to do so, would create dissatisfaction and conflict, and impair the usefulness of the schools. I am informed that a system can be devised, by which separate schools for the education of colored children can be sucessfully maintained in various parts of the State,
page: 32[View Page 32]and believe that justice, humanity, and sound policy require that it should be done.
By the school law of 1865, negroes and mulattoes are not taxed for the support of common schools, but if colored schools should be established this law should be so amended as to subject them to like taxation with white persons for educational purposes.
TESTIMONY OF COLORED PERSONS.
In my Message to the Legislature at the last session, I held the following language in regard to the admission of the testimony of colored persons in cases in which white persons are parties:
"The statute which excludes negroes from testifying in courts of justice, in cases in which white persons are parties, is, in my opinion, a stigma upon the humanity and intelligence ef the State, The idea that the white race must be protected against the colored, by imposing on them this disability, is absurd, and has been made the cover and protection for much crime and injustice. As the law stands, murder may be perpetrated with impunity by white persons in the presence only of colored witnesses; and it is well known that negroes are often employed by white persons as the instruments of crime and fraud, because of their inability to testify in courts of justice. The interests of both races demand that this disability be removed; and if the fact of color affects credibility, that can be referred to the court and jury as in other cases, and would undoubtedly receive due consideration. Indiana and Illinois are the only free States whose statute books are dishonored by the retention of a law so repugnant to the spirit of the age and the dictates of common sense."
I can add nothing to the force of what I have before said, but desire again earnestly to recommend the repeal of this obnoxious statute. It is due, however, to the State of Illinois, to say that her statute book is no longer disgraced by this law, and that Indiana has the bad eminence of being the only State in the North that retains it.
INDIANA TROOPS.
The part which Indiana has taken in the war for the suppression of the rebellion, is a matter upon which the citizens of the State may justly pride themselves.
In the number of troops furnished, and in the amount of voluntary contributions rendered, Indiana, in proportion to her population and wealth, stands equal to any of her sister Spates. It is also a subject of gratitude and thankfulness that, whilst the number of troops furnished by Indiana alone in this great contest, would have done credit to a first class nation,measured by the standard of previous wars, not a single regiment, battery, or battalion, from this State, has brought reproach upon the national flag, and no disaster of the war can be traced to any want of fidelity, courage, or efficiency on the part of any Indiana officer.
The endurance, heroism, intelligence, and skill of the officers and soldiers sent forth by Indiana to do battle for the Union, have shed a luster on our beloved State of which any people might justly be proud. Without claiming superiority over our loyal sister States, it is but justice to the brave men who have represented us on almost every battle-field of tha war, to say that their deads have placed Indiana in the front rank of those heroic States which rushed to the rescue of the imperiled Government of the Nation.
The total number of troops furnished by the State for all terms of service in the armies of the Union, exceeds two hundred thousand men, much the greater portion of these being for three years; and in addition to this, not less than fifty thousand State militia have from time to time been called into active service to repel rebel raids and defend our southern border from invasion, all of which will be fully shown in the official report of the Adjutant General, now in course of preparation for publication.
Since the end of the war, all the Indiana troops have been mustered out of service except eighteen regiments of infantry, and three regiments of cavalry. Every effort consistent with the interests of the Government has been made by the Executive Department of the State to procure the early muster out of these remaining Indiana regiments, and assurances have been received that orders for their discharge will be issued as soon as their services can be dispensed with. For other interesting details relating to our troops, you are respectfully referred to a communication from the Adjutant General herewith submitted.
REORGANIZATION.
Since the adjournment of the Legislature the civil war which had desolated our country has terminated in the complete triumph of the Government and the suppression of the rebellion. The evacuation of Richmond, and the capitulation of Lee's army, were rapidly followed by the surrender of every other rebel army in the field, and irregular guerrilla warfare almost entirely passed away in a few weeks. The suppression of the rebellion and the subjugation of armed rebels seems to be complete, while every rebel State has confessed to the irretrievable destruction of the institution of slavery. The people of the South have been beaten and overpowered in tho fieId; they have wholly lost their property in slaves; much of their country has been overrun and made desolate by the march and ravage of great armies; poverty and wretchedness have been brought home to large classes who before had lived in wealth and luxury; large numbers of their population have perished in the conflict, and there is prevailing among them great exasperation and bitterness which time alone can assuage.
The great majority, however, appear to regard the verdict of the war as irreversible, and to promptly accept the situation as one they cannot modify or put aside. But while the heresy of State sovereignty has been extirpated, and the questions involved in the conflict settled by the arbitrament of arms, it is yet of the greatest importance to the nation that these questions be adjudicated and determined by the highest judicial tribunal, which might most appropriately be done in the trial, for high treason and other atrocious crimes, of the chief instigator and head of this most wicked and bloody rebellion, It should be definitely
page: 33[View Page 33]established as a principle in our Constitution, both by judicial decision and example of punishment, that rebellion is treason, that treaaon is a crime which may not be committed with impunity; and that there is but one sovereinty which resides in the collective and undivided people of the United States.
The work of reorganizing the Governments of the rebel States, and bringing them again into practical relations with the Government and people of the United States, is now upon the country, and demands for its successful performance the greatest wisdom, patience, and forbearance.
But while it is important that the work of reorganization shall not be unnecessarily delayed, it is more important that it shall proceed upon sound principles, which will furnish guarantees for the future integrity and peace of the Republic. The principal discussion which arise on this subject pertain to the future status of the negro in the Southern States. By some it is urged that conferring suffrage upon him shall be made a condition of reorganization, or in other words that the States lately in rebellion shall not be permitted to resume their practical relations with the Government, except upon the terms of first conferring the rights of suffrage upon their freedmen. As to the manner in which this measure shall be accomplished, the friends of it differ. Some are in favor of persistently excluding the members of Congress from the Southern States, until negro suffrage has been incorporated into their several State Constitutions. Others assume that the States lately in rebellion are no longer members of the Union, but have forfeited and lost their character as States, and are in fact held as conquered provinces, and, like unorganized territories which may have been acquired by the Government, are under the complete control and jurisdiction of Congress, which may confer suffrage upon whomsoever it pleases.The subject of suffrage is, by the national Constitution, expressly referred to the determination of the several States, and it can not be taken from them without a violation of the letter and spirit of that instrument.
But without stopping to discuss theories or questions of Constitutional law, and leaving them out of view, it would, in my opinion, be unwise to make the work of reconstruction depend upon a condition of such doubtful utility as negro suffrage.
It is a fact so manifest, that it should not be called in question by any, that a people who are just emerging from the barbarism of slavery are not qualified to become a part of our political system, and take part, not only in the government of themselves and their neighbors, but of the whole United States. So for from believing that negro suffrage is a remedy for all of our national ills, I doubt whether it is a remedy for any, and rather believe that its enforcement by Congress would be more likely to subject the negro to a merciless persecution, than to confer upon him any substantial benefit. By some it is thought that suffrage is already cheap enough in this country; and the immediate transfer of more than half a milIion of men from the bonds of slavery, with all theignorance and degradation upon them which the slavery of generations upon Southern fields has produced, would be a declaration to the world that the exercise of American suffrage involves no intellectual or moral qualificatioas, and that there is no difference between an American freemen and and an American slave, which may not be removed by a mere act of Congress. What is far more important to the freedmen than suffrage, is that their several States shall give them the right to testify in courts of justice, afford to them the ordinary judicial machinery for the protection of their civil rights, provide for their education, and thus enable them to qualify themselves for the higher political duties of the citizen. It is not less vital to their interests, that the Constitutional Amendment be adopted, which not only forever prohibits slavery throughout the nation, but confers upon Congress the power of legislating for the protection of their liberty and their civil rights; and these things, among others, the President of the United States has imposed as precedent conditions in the work of reorganization, and has declared his purpose to hold and govern these States by military authority, as in a state of war, until they have been complied with. Time, and the influence of the new conditions by which they are surrounded, will elevate the condition of one race, and soften the prejudices and asperities of the other, and will accomplish what legislation and violent political changes can not. The inevitable presence of both races upon the same soil, the demands and necessities of capital and labor, and the unavoidable community of interest, will, in process of time, I cam not doubt, force a reciprocity of rights and privileges. The institution of slavery was so closely intertwined about the foundation of society in the Southern States, that, when it was destroyed, society was uprooted and broken to pieces. The process of its reconstruction is but beginning, but it is very certain that the new structure will differ, in most essential particulars, from the old. Free labor, free speech and free schools, will come into it as new and powerful elements of change and progress, and large emigration from the Northern States and from Europe, bringing commerce, manufactures and improved agriculture, will exert a modifying and beneficial influence, the effect of which can hardly be over-estimated.
Another amendment, not only conducive to the interests of the freedmen, but demanded by the rights and interests of the white people of the North, should be made, changing the basis of representation in Congress and the apportionment of political power, among the several States. The present provision ia the Constitution of the United States concerning this, reads as follows: "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, which may be included within this Union, by adding to the number of free persons, including those that may be bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons." The phrase, "three fifths of all other prisons," was a periphrastic description of the slave population, and gave representation for
page: 34[View Page 34]three fifths of their number. By the abolition of slavery the population is added to the "number of free persons," and thus increases the basis of representation by the addition of two fifths.
The inequality produced between the several States by this form of representation, is too palpable to require agument. By its operation, eight million of white people in the Southern States, hold, and exercise political power, full sixty per cent. greater than an equal number of white people in the Northern States, by reason of having in their midst four and a half millions of negroes. This provision was the chief compromise which our fathers made wiith the institution of slavery, and. although, through a sense of its great injustice, it has been impatiently acquiesced in by the Northern people, yet it has been carried out in good faith; but now that slavery, the foundation of this compromise, has passed away, the provision should be so changed as to suit the altered conditon of the country, and do justice to every part of the nation. If it were so amended as to apportion representation and political power among the several States according to the actual number of male voters over the age of twenty-one years, it would be equally fair for all, and would put it out of the power of the people of any State, or class of States, to increase or double their political power by the presence in their midst of a population which they themselves deprive of all political rights; and thus inducements would be presented to the several States, in order to enlarge their power in the Government, to confer political rights upon every class of persons, without regard to color or nationality, as rapidly as might be deemed consistent with their true interests.
By the census of 1860, the fifteen slave States were allowed eighty-four (84) members of Congress, because of the representation of three-fifths of their slaves, and now that the slaves are made free, and the other two-fifths added to to their basis of representation, they would be entitled to fourteen members more, although perhaps in point of law this increase cannot take place anterior to the year 1870. If the negro population was equally differed throughout all the States, this inequality would not exist, but the fact is, it is not so diffused, and the probability is that the concentration in the Southern States will become greater from year to year by the emigration thither of the colored population of the North. According to the census of 1860, the Southern States upon a white basis would have been entitled to sixty-six members of Congress, instead of eighty-four according to the existing basis.
Whatever opposition there may be to the adoption of this proposed amendment, it amounts, when stripped of its coverings and sophistries, simply to this: that the white people of the South shall continue to exercise in the future, as in the past, sixty per cent. more of political power in the National Government, than an equal number of white people in the North, and for this great inequality and injustice I am wholly unable to perceive any good or sufficient reason.
Should such an amendment be passed by the requisite majorities through the Congress of the United States, before yoor final adjournment I would most respectfully, but earnestly, recommend its immediate ratification on your part.
In conclusion upon this subject, I am not of the opinion that the herculean work of reconstruction will be accomplished at one time, by any general and sweeping process, but that it will proceed State by State, as each one shall conform to the requirements of the Government, and show itself loyal and prepared to resume its practical relations in the Union. The conditions which have been imposed upon these States by the President, are not only reasonable and legitimate, but are dictated by justice and a wise foresight for the future of the Republic, and although they may not be accepted this year, or even the next, yet that they ultimately will be I have no doubt. And if the work of reorganization shall be successfully completed within the same period which was required to put down the rebellion, it will be within the limit of my expectations.
CONCLUSION.
The war has established upon imperishable foundations, the great, fundamental truth of the unity and indivisibility of the nation. We are many States, but one people, having one undivided sovereignty, one flag, and one common destiny. It has also established, to be confessed by all the world, the exalted character of the American soldier, his matchless valor, his self-sacrificing patriotism, his capacity to endure fatigues and hardships, and his humanity, which in the midst of carnage has wreathed his victorious achievements with a brighter glory.
He has taught the world a lesson before which it stands in amazement, how, when the storm of battle had passed, he could lay aside his arms, put off the habiliments of war, and return with cheerfulness to the gentle pursuits of peace, and show how the bravest of soldiers could become the best of citizens.
To the Army and Navy, under the favor of Providence, we owe the preservation of our country, and the fact that we have to-day a place, and the proudest place, among the nations.
Let it not be said of us, as it was said in olden time, that "Republics are ungrateful." Let us honor the dead, cherish the living, and preserve in immortal memory the deeds and virtues of all, as an inspiration for countless generations to come.
OLIVER P. MORTON.
The SPEAKER adjourned the Convention; and then -
On motion by Mr. HAMRICK, the House took a recess till 2 o'clock P. M.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
The SPEAKER announced the first business in order is House bills on the second reading.
WIDOWS.
Mr. Kilgore's bill [H. R, No. 34] to amend the 18th section of the act regulating descents and the apportionment of estates, coming up -
Mr. MILLER. There was a report on this bill by the Judiciary Committee, making an amendment.
page: 35[View Page 35]The SPEAKER. The Clerk will report the amendment.
It provides that if there be children or their descendants of the first husband living, then the estate shall vest in such widow.
Mr. KILGORE. If he recollected aright, in the discussion of the bill at the last session, he had come to the conclusion that it would not effect the object he had intended, he therefore would move its indefinite postponement.
Mr. MILLER thought it right in principle as it now stands. When there are no heirs from her former husband, the title vests with the widow, and she can convey; but when there ara heirs9 she can not.
Mr COFFROTH explained the law, showing that it was already ample upon this subject. The bill simply proposes to allow the widow to do what the law already allows.
The bill and pending amendment were then indefinitely postponed.
PROTECTION OF GROWING FARM PRODUCTS.
Mr. Harrison's bill [H. R. No. 44] to amend the 66th section of the misdemeanor act of June 14th, 1852, coming up, with an adverse report from the Judiciary Committee.
It was laid on the table.
DRAINAGE.
Mr. Coffroth's bill (H. R. 81) to amend the second section of the act to enable owners of wet lands to drain and reclaim them when the same can be done without affecting the rights of others - coming up - with a favorable report from the Committee on Swamp Lands -
It was passed to the third reading.
RAILROADS.
Mr. Branham's bill (H. R 95) to enable railroads to change their lines in certain cases, coming upwith an amendment from the Committee on Railroads, viz: adding this:
"And any change so made by any railroad company shall subject them to the payment of all damages that may be sustained by any party by such changeto be recovered the same as other damages are now recovered."
The amendment was concurred in.
Mr. HAMRICK moved that it be referred to the Committee on Corporations.
It was so referred.
COUNTY RECORDERS.
Mr. Miller's bill [H. R. 101] to entitle County Recorders to their fees in advance, and compensate them for indexing entry bookscoming up with a favorable recommendation from the Committee on Fees and Salaries.
Mr. HIGGINS. There was perhaps no county officer better paid than the Recorder, and he objected to raising their compensation in this way.
Mr. GRIFFITH. The object of the bill was to enable Recorders to demand their fees in advance.
Mr. THATCHER said the committee report was unanimous for its passage.
Mr. BROWN made a statement of the object of the bill. The Recorder shall not be compelled to record papers till his legal fees are advanced. He thought, it was right.
Mr. RHOADS, There were many who, if their deeds were on record, cared nothing for their title deeds. The cbject of the law was to enable the Recorder to protect himself from such as never remove their deeds from his office.
Mr.SHUEY thought the friends of the bill were seeking a little too much. If they would not increase the compensation, it would not be exceptionable. This pay for the indexing was the objection. He would strike out this indirect way of raising salaries.
Mr. COFFROTH believed the office of County Recorder, instead of being the best, was almost the poorest of county offices. But still, he objected to his going into the county treasury for compensation for indexing, though it would be right to require indexes. The bill might be amended.
Mr. GROVES gave his experience as a County Recorder. He had not been able to collect his fee bills. He was in favor of the bill - would allow the Recorder power to demand hs fees before he does the work.
The House rejected the motion to postpone affirmative 33, negative 48.
Mr. NEWCOMB moved that the bill be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
It was so referred.
TOWN CORPORATION ACT.
Mr. Puett's bill [H R 108] to repeal the 35th section of the general city and town corporation act of March 9 1857, coming up with a favorable report from the Committee on Corporation.
Mr HAMRICK thought the Senate bill would be preferred in our legislation, and he moved that this bill be laid on the table.
It was laid on the table.
DEEDS.
Mr. McVey's bill [H. R. 121] to cancel effective acknowledgments of deeds in certain cases, earning up with a favorable recommendation from the Judiciary Committee.
It was passed to the third reading.
INSURANCE
Mr. Newcomb's bill [H. R. 117] to amend section 39, 42, 45 and 56 of an act for the incorporation of insurance companies, coming up with a favorable recommeadation from the Judiciary Committee -
It was passed to the third reading.
RAILROADS
Mr. Ollerman's bill [H. R. 125] to declare forfeited the right of way of railroads, &c., of which no part has been completed and on which no work has been done for ten years, coming up recommended by the Committee on the Judiciary,
It was passed to the third reading.
Mr. McVey's bill [H. R 135] to amend section 651 of the general practice act, of June 18, 1852, coming up recommended by the Judiciary Committee,
It was passed to the third reading.
TREASURY SYSTEM
Mr. Hunt's bill [H R No.138] to amend the Treasury System act of March 1, 1861, coming up recommended by the Committee on Fees and Salaries,It was passed to the third reading.
POWER OF JUDGES
Mr. Dunbam's bill [H R No. 141] to give Circuit and Common Pless Judges additional powers page: 36[View Page 36] during vacation, coming up with amendments by the Judiciary Committee. First, with respect to notice; and, secondly, this:
"The Judge before whom any such motion is made shall make such order and record as may be right, and in every such case as aforesaid all his orders shall be in writing, signed by him, and be filed, and constitute a part of the record."
The amendments were agreed to, and the bill passed to the third reading.
NOTORIOUS INDECENCY.
Mr. Miller of Clinton's bill [H. R. 148] to amend the 221 section of the misdemeanor act of June 14, 1852, coming up, with a favorable recommendation by the Committee on Courts and Township Business -
It was passed to a third reading.
NUMBER OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES.
Mr. Stringer's bill [H. R. 150] to prescribe the number of Senators and Representatives of the General Assembly, coming up with the Judiciary Committee's amendment ("33" instead of "25" in the 9th line, and "67" instead of "50" in the 10th line) -
The first amendment (as to the number of Senators) was adopted - affirmative 54, negative 14.
Mr. PRATHER proposed to amend the second amendment (as to the number of Representatives,) so as to make it 94 - one for each county.
Mr. NEWCOMB said the gentleman's amendment would not give one for each county. The object of the committee was to establish an odd number. It was not improbable that the bill would be rejected at last.
Mr. HENRICKS demanded a division of the question.The House refused to strike out; so the amendment to the amendment failed.
The question recurring on the second amendment by the Judiciary Committee, and the yeas and nays being demanded, ordered and taken thereon, the result was - yeas 81, nays 8.
So the amendment was concurred in.
Mr. HARRISON moved that the bill be indefinitely postponed. He read the constitutional provision, going to show that it did not look to a diminution of the number.
Mr. NEWCOMB believed a reduction of the number would be an improvement in legislation.
Mr. LASALLE deprecated haste in making any change in the State organization. Indiana was now a large State - with a population of perhaps nearly 2,000,000, The spirit of our government looked to a fell and free representation of the people. He was satisfied that the people everywhere desired that every county sacnld be specially represented in the General Assembly. He admitted the advantages of deliberation and efficiency in smaller deliberative bodies, but could not forego his regard for the principle stated.
Mr. WOODS. Free and full representation was tho life-blood of a republic, and this would be taking a backward step.
The smaller counties would be especially dissatisfied with such a measure. He was in favor of indefinite postponement.
Mr. MILROY, to give time for further deliberation on this bill, moved that the House do now adjourn.
And accordingly the House (at 4 P. M.) adjourned (under the rules) till to-morrow morning nine o'clock.
The following was omitted in Monday's report of the
ORGANIZATION.
Mr. NEWCOMB submitted the following:
Resolved, That the following Assistants be allowed to each officer of the House, to-wit:
To the Principal Clerk - 1 Reading Clerk, 1 File Clerk, 1 Registry Clerk, 2 Engrossing Clerks, 1 Enrolling Clerk, 1 Page.
To the Assistant Clerk - 4 Journal Clerks.
To the Doorkeeper - 3 Assistant doorkeepers, 2 Firemen and Sweepers, 1 Water Carrier and Spittoon Cleaner.
- That two Pages shall be appointed by the Speaker, and, at his option, one Page for himself.
- That a Committee of five members of this House be appointed by the Speaker, to whom all applications for an increase of the employes of the House shall be made by the proper officer, and if said Committee shall regard such increase as necessary, they shall report a recommendation to that effect for the action of the House.
- That the several officers above named may appoint the subordinates to which they are severally entitled at such times as they may deem their services necessary, and shall report the names of their several employes, and the date when their services commenced, to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Mr. COFFROTH moved to amend by making the number of pasges three; which was rejected.
The proposition was then adapted.
