HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
MONDAY, January 10, 1881-1:30 p. m.The Speaker's gavel fell at 1:34 o'clock p. m., and after prayers were said by Rev. Mr. Colvin, of Hendricks County, a call of the House was ordered, which discovered eighty-four member present and answering to their names.
Mr. Carter, from the Committee on Arrangements for the inaugural ceremonies, reported progrss. On his motion, Doorkeeper Evans was appointed Marshal. The time having arrived for taking up the line of march-
The Speaker declared the House adjourned, after the business of the Joint Convention was completed, till 10 o'clock to-morrow.
Members thereupon left the Hall of the House, and falling in the procession after members of the Senate, who were preceded by a band of music, marched from the Washington street entrance of the Court House, via Pennsylvania street and the Circle, to English's Opera House, where, as soon as the Assembly were seated, at 2:30 o'clock-
The President of the Senate commanded order, and after music, by the band, announced that this session of he Joint Convention of the two Houses of the General Assembly would opened with prayers by Rev. S. M. Vernon, Pastor of Roberts Park M. E. Church, in Indianapolis.
After prayer the band played a medley, including Yankee Doodle, (which was applauded.)
Representative Hinton asked and obtained unanimous consent of the Joint Convention to offer the following:
page: 29[View Page 29]Whereas, The day designated by the Constitution of the State for the inauguration of the Governor has approached, and,
Whereas, The result of the recent election for that high office has been announced by the President of the Joint Convention on Saturday, the 8th inst., admonishes us that there will be a change in the Executive office of the State, and,
Whereas, The present Executive has about completed his brief record as such officer, having succeeded the late Governor J. D. Williams, deceased November 20, 1880, as such officer, and the same is now a part of the history of the State, and is a proper subject for comment by his fellow-citizens, therefore,
Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives in Joint Convention assembled, that we recognize the patriotism, integrity, ability and efficiency of His Excellency, Isaac P. Gray. Resolved, That the administration of the Executive office of the State by His Excellency has been characterized by distinguished ability, and will long be remembered by the people of the State as a bright and glorious epoch in her history.
Resolved, That His Excellency, in his retirement from office, will take with him the good wishes of the people of the State, without distinction of party, who, with united voices, are ready to exclaim, with reference to his positive acts, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
The resolutions were adopted nemine contradicente.
The President pro tem. announced that the oath of office would now be administered by Hon. Wm. E. Niblack, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Indiana, to Hon. Albert G. Porter, Governor-elect, and to Hon. Thomas Hanna, Lieutenant Governor-elect.
This ceremony having been concluded with this form of an oath: You do solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Indiana, and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of Governor of the State of Indiana on which you are about to enter, so help you God-
The President pro tem of the Senate said: "Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, I have the pleasure and the honor of presenting to you His Excellency, Albert G. Porter, Governor of Indiana, who will now deliver his Inaugural address."
Governor Porter, when the applause had subsided, read as follows:
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
I enter upon the important trust confided to me by the people with unfeigned diffidence in my ability to discharge fitly its grave and responsible duties, but with a firm purpose to perform them with diligence and fairness, and with a constant regard for the public welfare.
The severe chastisement of the recent hard times, though it occasioned much distress and suffering, has been followed by many compensatory benefits. Frugal habits, more simple tastes, a reliance upon patient industry as the best means of obtaining a stable competence or wealth, have returned, and it has come to be felt by many, made not less happy by what they deemed the heavy strokes of adverse fortune, that there are copious fountains of enjoyment which take their rise, not in the eager pursuit of riches. but in the cultivation of the mind, in the laying up of stores of useful and entertaining knowledge, in the warmer nurture of the social affections, and in the exercise of that wiser benevolence which, when stinted in the means of giving, turns in an increased measure to a study of means by which conditions may be established which will render want less frequent.
This better state of public sentiment ought to be reflected in the character of our legislation, and in the administration of the public service. No unnecessary taxes ought to be imposed. The secret ways by which, under the form of perquisites and loss enactments in relation to costs, public offices are made unnecessarily lucrative, ought to be studiously avoided; and legislation ought to be in such form as to make known to the people, as far as practicable, the compensation received by every officer. The only efficient way to correct evils is to make the mischiefs which produce them as obvious as possible.
All moneys received from taxes ought to be promptly applied to the purposes for which they were collected, and a surplus of the general fund of the Treasury ought to be applied quickly toward the extinguishment of the State's funded indebtedness. No surplus ought to be allowed for any considerable length of time to be idle in the Treasury, or ever to be loaned for the private profit of any officer. For the last several years the taxes collected for the general fund have been more than sufficient to meet the demands thereon. It is not creditable to the State that, in consequence part of the State's indebtedness, the people have been paying interest upon a part of that indebted which ought to have been discharged by this surplus. If the law which was intended to make this surplus applicable , as it arose, toward the discharge of the funded debt of the State, is not obviously plain, its intent ought to be expressed by amendment with the most perspicuous clearness.
The benevolent institutions of the State ought to be watched over with anxious vigilance, not only to guard, as respects the inmates, against any intentional abuses and willful mismanagement and neglect, but the hardly less serious ,abuses that often creep in imperceptibly through routine. Where so large a body of helpless persons is collected- separated from their friends and placed under the care of persons who must be governed in their treatment and care of them, in the long run, however happily exceptional may be individual instances, chiefly by a sense merely if official responsibility-the experience of man- kind has shown that there is a constant liability to an abuse or neglect of the trust. There is also often a disposition to treat these places too much as asylums and too little as places where the inmates are to be restored to or prepared for a condition which will make them cease to be a charge upon the State, and enable them to be self-supporting and useful members of society.
It seems to me that, as an additional safeguard to these afflicted wards of the State, and to secure with more certainty such efficiency in their restoration or instruction as may be desirable, a Board of Visitors, composed of persons noted or their zeal and disinterestedness in benevolent undertakings, ought to be appointed. They should be clothed with power-any number or all of them together- to visit at pleasure te several institutions, and to inquire without restriction into all things relating to their management,including especially the treatment of inmates. The members ought merely to be paid their actual expense, to be shown by an itemized account properly verified; and to guard against turning what is meant to be an occasional inspection into a permanent business, it would be proper to prescribe a maximum sum which the expenses of no year shall exceed.
This Board, it is believed, ought to be composed of five persons, and of these I have no hesitation - in saying that provision ought to be made that two, at least, shall be women. They, better than others, could learn what ought to be know - elation to the treatment of their own sex. and their sympathetic feeling quick intuitions and - experience in conduct of households would, in many cases, enable them to discern the abuses and needs of inmates of the other sex better than their male associates. In relation to the domestic economy of these establishments, in which there is a tendency often to extravagance ad waste, their observations and suggestions would be likely
page: 30[View Page 30]which our Reformatory for Women is conducted by women, attests their capacity to take a leading and beneficial part in the administration of all our public charities.
The manificent fund in the possession of the State for popular education, and all taxes thereof, ought to be devoted with scrupulous fidelity to the objects to which it is made legally applicable. While teachers should be fairly compensate, an no expenses should be spared which are necessary for the efficient conduct o the common-school system, care should be constantly taken to keep the machinery of the system as simple as possible.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.
The amendments to the Constitution, which at the last spring election were submitted to the electors for adoption or rejection, have been held by the Supreme Court, in opposition to what, it is believed, had, previously to the decision, been the general sense of the legal profession, not to have been Constitutionally adopted.
The Court, while deciding thus, took occasion to express an opinion that another submission might take place, notwithstanding the submission and vote which have occurred, if the Legislature shall choose to provide therefor by an appropriate enactment. The Court, though not now composed entirely of the same members a when the decision was made, will it is believed feel constrained to accommodate itself to this suggestion, whatever view the new Judges might entertain, if the question were one of first impression. I therefore earnestly recommend that a bill be speedily passed, giving the electors of the State another opportunity to pass their judgment upon these amendments.
The amendments have been the theme of frequent and careful discussion. So general is the sentiment of unbiased men in their favor that I believe if a vote upon them could be separated from party politics, it would be nearly unanimous for their adoption.
The expediency can hardly be questioned of limiting within reasonable bounds the debts which maybe contracted by cities and Townships, so that taxes may not become an intolerable burden, and of fixing a limit upon the fees to paid to officers in the populous Counties, so that while they shall be adequately compensated, estates and suitors may not be burdened with needless costs and our politics corrupted by the expenditures made in the greedy scramble to obtain office. These reforms are provided for by two of the amendments.
Another amendment is of such extreme importance that it may be regarded as almost vital to the elective franchise. When the elector places his ballot in the box, it is a hollow and preposterous ceremony if some other person, not entitled to the franchise, may neutralize his vote by a fraudulent ballot, or if some dishonest officer may substitute a false ballot for the one in lots. Our laws do not provide-the Constitution will not allow that they shall provide-that the person who offers his ballot shall prove, even when challenged, that he has resided a single hour or minute in the County or precinct where his vote is offered. It is enough that he shall show that at the particular instant he is such a resident, and has resided in the State for six monthes. No registration law can be passed; the Constitution will not allow one.
The consequence of all this is, that where even the most expensive and organized vigilance is maintained, persons from other Counties and other States, note entitled to vote at the precincts where they tender their ballots, often succeed in depositing fraudulent votes; and where this vigilance is not maintained, the feeble flood-gates against fraud fly open at the first assault, and the ballot-box is deluged with fraudulent ballots.
I find, upon examination, that nearly all the Northern States, except Indiana, require, as a qualification to vote, a previous residence of the voter in the Precinct where his vote is offered, and that hardly a less number require a registration of voters. These laws are an expression of the people of those States, founded upon experience, that such provisions are necessary to preserve the purity of the elective franchise.
At every general election for many years sums of money, vastly greater than has ever been suspected by the people, have been expended to prevent invasions of the ballot-box by persons not authorized to vote, which need not have been expended but for the clause in our Constitution that will not allow safeguards against fraud to be established, which our own experience has show to be necessary, and the legislation of other States has provided with respect to those States.
Bad laws seldom inflict merely a single evil. Where the facilities for fraud are so considerable, the members of each party think that their opponents will perpetrate them, and the next step too apt to be to lay schemes by which wrong may be met by kindred wrong. The consequence of all this is that politics become embittered; that neighbors who, in their business transactions, would place implicit confidence in each other believe that, to obtain a party advantage, they would quarter false voters, encourage repeating and connive at a false count of the ballots and that the young, learning and believing that fraud is perpetrated without disgrace by the most respectable persons, in what they are taught to be the most important of transactions, are not able to draw the refined distinction which would make it wrong or disgraceful to perpetrate frauds it i less important ones. Thus the foundations of private virtue are applied by tolerance given t public fraud.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
I regret that I am not able to concur with my immediate and respected predecessor in his opinion that Convention ought to be called to revise our present Constitution.
I do not believe that theme is a necessity such a Convention, and the people would not, in my judgment, so soon after they have emerged from the financial crisis which has crippled their means of support, patiently incur the needless but great expense incident to its assemblage. The present Constitution contains an admirable provision for its own amendment without the assembling of a Convention. If two successive Legislatures shall recommend a particular amendment, it shall then be submitted to the people. This avoids two extremes-the one, of not allowing the Constitution to respond by amendment, with reasonable promptness, to the deliberate will of the people; the other, of hastily placing in the constitution improvident provisions which it would be difficult to withdraw. By the simple means provided in the Constitution itself, ample facilities are furnished for amending that instrument as such amendments may, from time to time, be deemed necessary.
The provisions of the present Constitution are, in the main, wise and satisfactory to the people; they have generally undergone interpretation by the Courts, and their construction is fixed and determined. If a new Constitution shall be framed, we shall again be launched upon a sea of doubt, and be compelled to incur the expense and inconvenience, which, in practice,will be found to be great, of having the meaning of its principle provisions settled by judicial construction.
DRAINAGE OF SWAMP LANDS.
The best means of reclaiming by drainage the vast area of swamp lands in the State which it will not be practicable to reclaim under the provision of existing laws, ought to engage your earnest attention. These lands, according to the
page: 31[View Page 31]estimate attainable, embrace more than 800,000 acres of soil that would be highly productive if rendered by drainage susceptible of . This area is larger than the territorial area of Rhode Island, and more than one-fourth as large as that of Connecticut. These lands are already crossed by railroads, and lie conveniently near to the cities of Chicago and Louisville respectively, and the drainage would, increasing their value, add greatly to the taxable wealth of the State. The lands the natural market of whose products is Chicago would find, it is understood, a convenient means of drainage through the Kankakee River, could the barriers which obstruct the flow of that stream be removed. These obstructions, however, are in the State of Illinois, and it has not been found practicable to get rid of the difficulties which lie in the way of acquiring a right to remove them. There is strong reason to believe that with an outlay immeasurably less than the value of the benefit to be derived from the expenditure, the current of the Kankakee might be diverted to the extent desired into the Tippecanoe and Iroquois Rivers, thus reducing the height of the surface of the stream and rendering the country whose natural drain it is susceptible of easy and cheap reclamation by ditching.
I urgently recommend that provision be made by law for the employment of an Engineer, of high skill din his profession and of good general knowledge, to make a careful survey of such portion of our swamp lands as are deemed insusceptible of early reclamation under existing provisions of law, with a view of ascertaining how these lands can be drained, the probable expense of drainage, and how the expense can be so defrayed that the owners may be able, without sacrificing them, to pay the cost of reclamation.
It is proper to remark that an examination of the legislation of other States shows that the money required to effect the drainage of lands is often raised upon bonds issued by Commissioners of Drainage, secured by a pledge of assessments, which latter are made payable in installments running for a series of years, and bearing interest from the time they respectively mature.
DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS AND GEOLOGY.
The Department of Statistics and Geology, under its zealous and efficient head, has been successful in collecting trustworthy facts relating to many interesting subjects. Among these may be mentioned the rather novel statistics showing the cost of building and maintaining fences throughout the State, and suggesting whether the time has not come when, in parts of the State much denuded of timber and where the expense of maintaining fences is necessarily great, it would not be good policy to dispense with them altogether. This Bureau ought to be liberally supported, and the scope of its duties in relation to collection of statistics gradually enlarged.
The collection of authentic facts upon subjects relating to the public health, public morality, and the wealth and development of the State is very important, and has in this State, until recently, been too much neglected. It has been said at the progress of a people in civilization may be traced in the improvements made from age to age in their public thoroughfares. It might be correctly said that the progress of a State, after it has reached a certain stage of advancement, may be accurately measured by the zeal and care with which it collects and co-ordinates facts in relation to all matters which concern the health, morality and material welfare of its citizens.
Great progress is being made in some of the States in preventing the development and arresting the progress of particular maladies by a careful compilation of facts tending to show the conditions under which they arise, or are propagated, and physicians are beginning to be employed in highly-educated communities to bring their learning and experience to bear more in preventing the development of diseaes than in curring them after they have developed. Facts industriously collected with respect to local causes of disease, or conditions under which diseases arise, will contribute greatly to a knowledge of the means of preventing suffering and of prolonging life; and the expense of collecting them will be far more than compensated by the saving effected in the cost of remedies.
Millions of dollars, it is believed, now withheld, would be generously and ungrudgingly given in great benefactions, could it be clearly shown that they might not, in the long run, produce harm rather than good by removing incentives to industry and frugality, and by thus occasioning in the end more suffering than they cure. In England it has been ascertained by a careful collection and observation of statistics, that not a few benevolent undertakings founded in the tenderest motives of private charity have practically operated as handmaids of vice. Accurate knowledge, founded on carefully collated facts relating to the best means of bestowing private benefactions, would be of inestimable service, and so far from lessening these beneficent gifts, would increase them to an indefinite extent.
It is not creditable too civilization that while the means for supporting life and enhancing its comforts have, in recent years, increased in far greater proportion that the increase of population, and when periods of widespread want are known to recur with a periodic regularity almost as certain as the reappearance of planets at particular points in their orbits, our several States have made no endeavor, by well-considered legislation, to collect facts which might enable them greatly to reduce the conditions under which such want arises, and to mitigate the suffering which is unavoidable.
To solve the difficult social problems which from age to age arise, without revolutionary violence or a disturbance of public order, a careful collection of facts which have a relation to these problems is of the highest possible value.
Without submitting specific recommendations, I commend to you the importance of the Bureau above mentioned, with particular reference to the collection of statistics, and urge the passage of such further enactments as may seem to you to be proper, to increase its scope and efficiency, and more and more insure, by the adoption of a wise system of comparative tests, the accuracy of all facts concerning the truth of which there might from the nature of the case, be fair grounds of question.
MARRIED WOMEN.
I can not omit a brief reference to the liberal and wise legislation of this State with respect to married women. Ours was one of the earliest States to abolish the old law of dower-an estate merely for life, and fettered in various ways with respect to the means of enjoyment-and substituting for it an absolute fee-simple right in the wife to a third of the estate. Along with this legislation many of the other harsher features of the common law with respect to the inheritance of estates were changed to her advantage by bing made to follow the course of the more refined affections. Following this legislation, though after a considerable lapse of time, came a repeal of that odious provision of the common law which gave to the husband absolutely all the wife's personal estate which came to her before or after the marriage. At last, though0not until after many years, came legislation conferring upon her the right, with scarcely any limitation, to enter into private contracts and to bind her estate thereby.
All these ameliorations,so just and wise, which have affected society far more than many measures that have divided parties and excited party frenzy, have been accomplished without having once, it is believed, been accompanied by a party division, or by party strife, or by any public excitement. They have been merely the reflections
page: 32[View Page 32]of a more and more enlightened public opinion. Contemporaneously with these ameliorations, women have been admitted to a part in the management of education, benevolent and penal institutions. The intelligence, fidelity and feminine delicacy with which generally they have performed their duties, are universally acknowledged.
The art of organization, of working with unity and efficiency in considerable numbers, has landed by them, and this is one of the elements fitted to prepare them, in the fullness of time, for the higher and more important public duties which may well be expected to be devolved upon them. I am informed that certain ladies of high mental endowments and large culture, whose lives and example, as wives and mothers, have won for them in the communities in which they live the greatest possible respect, will ask to be heard by you in person in an application to have an amendment of the Constitution submitted to the people which shall provide for conferring upon women the right of suffrage. Without desiring to obtrude an opinion upon you concerning the wisdom of such a provision, I trust that the most worthy and respectable ladies who will present the application will be received by you with the gallant and generous hospitality to which their lives and characters so justly entitle them.
DEATH OF HON. JAMES D. WILLIAMS.
On the 20th day of November last, Hon. James D. William, while Governor of te State, was removed by death from the responsible official trust which had been confided to him by the people. He died full of years, in complete possession of his faculties, and cheered by the animating consciousness of having led a spotless life. Deprived in youth of any but the most limited education, and having availed himself but little of the advantages of travel, a certain narrowness of views may have been occasionally evident in his life; but he had a sound and healthy mind. Within his own range of vision his perceptions were clear, and there was a simple uprightness and rectitude in his conduct that always kept him in the straight path of duty, as he understood that duty to be. With the history of the State, and especially with its legislation , he had long been familiar, and this knowledge was of service to him in the office from which death released him. That office he ministered with conscientious integrity. He was an honest pubic servant, and believed and dealt uprightly with his fellow men. His memory is held in respect by the people, and he has left to his children the precious legacy of an unsullied name. Let it be said to his honor that he was heartily in favor of the recently submitted constitutional amendments; that he regretted the decision by which they were held not to have been adopted, and that he thought that, in cases of doubt, it was better even for the judicial tribunals to strain a point to uphold than to subvert the will of the people.
THE REVISION OF LAWS.
The compilation and revision of the laws which have been in course of preparation by a Commission composed of Messrs. Frazer, Turpie and Stotsenburg, is a matter of great importance, and should receive the special attention of the legislature. It should be provided that the laws of a general nature enacted during the present session incorporated, according to the plan of compilation adopted by the Commission. Provisions should also be made for preparing the work for publication. Until this is done, and an index prepared,the proper labors of the Commission will not be completed; and for that purpose the Commission (or at least some member of it appointed for the execution of that task) should be continued. The Commission, or some member of it, should also be charged with the duty of superintending the printing of the book. The publication of all edition large enough to supply the wants of the State and the people should also be provided for.
In this connection attention is called to the fact that no provision whatever has been made for the compensation of the Commissioners, and that even their necessary expenses have, in part, been borne by themselves.
BOARD OF PARDONS.
The Commissioners, along with other new legislation favored by them, have proposed the establishment of the Board of Pardons, without whose advice and consent the Governor shall not have authority to grant pardons in any case, except such as may, by law, be left to his sole power.
I concur with my immediate predecessor in the belief that there is no necessity for the establishment of such a Board. The power to grant pardons without any restraint but his own honest and intelligent discretion, has been confided to the Governor ever since the State was organized. While in a few instances this power may have been unwisely exercised, it can not be said that it has been abused. It is believed that, as a rule, the Governor will exercise this power more carefully and deliberately where the responsibility of granting the pardon is not shared with others. Remedial legislation is generally unwise when supposed mischief meant to be cured has not become clear and obvious. It is believed that in this State the exercise of the power to pardon offenders has been governed, with very rare exceptions, by thoughtful and sober judgement. For one upon whom this responsibility is about to be cast, I can say that I am willing to accept it, as my predecessors have done, and trust for my vindication to the judgement of the people.
THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP.
The late Presidential election contained a renewed expression of the determination of the people that the provisions of the fundamental law of the land, with respect to the rights of citizenship, shall not be lightly disregarded. No party can justly claim to be National that would countenance the deprivation of any particular class of citizens of this highest Constitutional right. For 200 years a class of citizens now invested with this just Constitutional prerogative produced bread which they were not allowed to eat. The fruits of their hard and painful toil went to others, and not to themselves. Those who took it, let us charitably suppose, did not believe they did wrong; those who were to weak not to suffer humble patience. A war came, which, they believed, was being fought under the Providence of God, to set them free. They were willing, if need should be, to fight in the open field, and to die for that cause, but they would not be assassins or incendiaries, and they took care of defenseless women and children, when those who were their natural protectors were fighting against the cause which they loved, and for which, in battle, they were ready to offer, if need were, their blood. Their right now to vote is guaranteed by the Constitution, and it is as complete as the right of those who formerly held rule over them. If,in education, or whatever else is desirable, they do not come up to the standard of those who once ruled them, it is not their fault. The fault is with those who now strive to deprive them of this inestimable franchise.
There can be no fraternal peace as long as this right is willfully withheld. The party under whose administrative policy the war for the Union was conducted has never shown hostility to anything that would really help the section where this wrong is practice. It bears no malice toward the South. For the improvement of the harbors and rivers of that section of the country its representatives vote without sectional prejudice. and the industrial laws which it has passed
page: 33[View Page 33]would, if welcomed by the South, foster the conditions which have filled the Northern States with varied pursuits and the advantages of largely accumulated wealth.
The older citizens of the South, who held this class in bondage, can not easily surrender the dice which they feel against investing the freedmen with a prerogative so high as the ballot; but there are hundreds of thousands of young men in the South, now of the age to vote, who can hardly remember when slavery existed, who have but a faint remembrance of the war, who look upon it as fortunate for the South that slavery has fallen; who, as time has passed, have plainly seen that what they have often upheld as error proved to be the highest truth, yet who cling with immovable tenacity to antiquated prejudices, and never share in the satisfaction of those who move in the vanguard for right. To such might we not well say: You are brave; you are gallant. To be brave and gallant is much, but to be just is more. And what more glorious than to see all these high qualities shedding their luster upon one another? Shall prejudices which narrow the mind and extinguish the sparks which kindle a generous ardor in the soul, keep those great qualities apart that nature always strives to bring together? Because, under more favorable conditions, the Northern people first saw the right, shall you refuse to see it at all? Your generous natures, if once allowed to be released from bondage to a degrading prejudice, would embrace, with delighted zeal, the opportunity to right the great wrong inflicted by slavery by conceding with generous alacrity to those who were oppressed, and to their descendants, every Constitutional right with which the Nation has invested them.
THE CORNER-STONE OF THE CAPITOL.
It is an occasion of regret that I have to feel myself constrained to refer to a most disagreeable topic. In placing in the corner-stone of the new Capitol memorials of this history and progress of the State, none was placed in it referring to the deeds of valor of her soldiers, who went forth to battle to preserve the Union, and to save Indiana from becoming a State upon the border, subject to hostile raids and incursions, and exposed, at the first approach of war, to the invasion of hostile armies. In the address delivered on the occasion of laying the corner-stone, many minor incidents in the history of the State were dwelt upon with eloquent copiousness, but no reference was made to the illustrious dead, whose lives were offered as a sacrifice for the welfare of their State and the preservation of their country. Nor was mention made of the no less illustrious living, whose grateful presence among us in a continued rememberancer of the immortal cause for which they fought. If memorials of their services had been placed in this repository, the omission in the address would have been unimportant, but none having been placed there, the address seems to emphasize the supposition that no recognition was to be made of their services, their sacrifices, or their heroism.
It will not detract from the renown of the dead and the honorable fame of the living soldier that this was not done. Their place in history is secure. In less than half a generation it has come to be confessed by the most intelligent of those who were their enemies, that it was best even for them that the intrepid deeds which they performed were done. As age shall follow age, the cause for which they fought, their sacrifices and their prowess, will become more and more illustrious. When, perhaps, a century hence, the new edifice now ascending shall be razed to the ground, to make room for some still more imposing structure, and the fame of thse heroes shall shine with the luster of the sun, what will be said of the generation who, in placing in the corner-stone of its chief temple the memorials of its history, could find no room for any record or mention of them? It has been suggested that this omission may be redressed by placing some statue or other object in the dome commemorative of their services, and thus show that, while we could not remember them while laying the base of the Capitol, we were constrained to remember them when rearing its pinnacles.
I have no hesitation in saying that if it can be done without releasing the sureties upon bonds of the contractors this corner-stone should be laid bare, the repository of its treasures should be opened, and here should be placed therein a careful record in relation to the war, of whatever a great and patriotic State might deem best worth preserving in a record of its most illustrious citizens.
Nor should omission be made to leave there some mention of the great Governor, who was not less a soldier because he never drew a sword; who braved dangers as great as those did who fell in battle: and whose care and vigilance and in exhaustible energy in anticipating and providing for every want of our soldiers, in every field, seemed to invest him with the property of ubiquity.
I am sure, gentlemen, that no one will be so uncandid as to suspect that in saying what I have said on this theme, I have sought to revive any old animosities. Surely it can not be a party question that we shall honor the heroes of our great civil strife, whether they wore epaulettes or a knapsack. We can all now do justice even to the mistaken braves who crossed swords with them in that strife.
SESSIONS OF THE LEGISLATURE.
The long retention in the Constitution, without an effort to change it, of the clause limiting the sessions of the Legislature to sixty days, shows that the sense of the people is that all needed measures of legislation can be properly considered within that time, except under extraordinary circumstances. This popular conviction ought to be treated with honest respect, and that respect ought to be exhibited by a diligent and faithful effort to get through with the business which will be before you within the period limited for a regular session. This can be done most effectually be husbanding at the early part of the session the valuable time often lost by procrastination and by not proceeding at once strenuously to the task in hand. It would give me great pleasure to see this Legislature honorably distinguished by the zealous promptitude with which it shall enter upon its work, and I particularly urge members who have had previous legislative experience to use their best efforts to get the machinery necessary for the world of legislation in effective order as soon as possible.
I congratulate you upon the favorable auspices under which you are assembled. the excitements incident to the late animated State and National canvasses have subsided, and the better feelings which prevailed before they began haven returned. Differences of political opinion exist between you, but these ought not to be allowed to effect the cordiality of your personal relations, or to obstruct or retard the work you have in hand. For my own part I salute you all, without respect to party, with unaffected good feeling, and it will give me plasure to render to you, without reserve, whatever facilities the Executive Department can furnish you in aid of any contemplated legislation. Let us, therefore, gentlemen, enter with diligence and with hearty good will once another, upon the tasks which have been assigned to us by the people.
After music by the Band-
The President pro tem. of the Senate said: "Gentleman, I have the honor of presenting to you Hon. Thomas Hanna, Lieutenant Governor of the State of Indiana, who will not address you."
page: 34[View Page 34]The Lieutenant Governor, when the cheering ceased, read the following address:
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS:
SENATORS-I enter upon the discharge of the duties of the office to which I have been elected with a keen appreciation of the responsibility intrusted to me by the people of our State. I am not able to bring with me the legislative experience which many of you have already gathered. As your presiding officer many acts of omission and commission on my part may tend to mar the harmony of your proceedings; yet I earnestly ask your cooperation and forbearance, and I now assure you that any failure on my part will be the result of a misdirected understanding. You are to be congratulated upon having been chosen to the legislative branch of our State government as this period, and that your official responsibility has come upon you in these auspicious times. To be chosen Senators in a great State like Indiana is a mark of no ordinary preferment. You are considered fortunate, inasmuch as your official duties have fallen to your lot in this, the most peaceful and prosperous era known to our Commonwealth. You look abroad and you see the Nation at peace with the world. Recovering from the paralysis of "hard times," her mills and factories have again begun their joyful music; and fields have laughed in bountiful harvests, and the blessings of prosperity are fast settling down upon her. The people of our Government, both State and National, are now more intelligent, prosperous, happy, and better able to deal with the great questions of the day than at any other period of our history. The obligations resting upon you are therefore greater than the duties which fell to the lot of your predecessors. You commence where they left off, and you are to legislate in the interest of a more advanced civilization. We have just passed through a heated political campaign; the officers of our State and Nation have been chosen according to the form of our Constitution and laws, without any menance to our free institutions, and the people have turned from the excitement incident to the elections, to the peaceful avenues of their various pursuits. For this happy result we should congratulate ourselves as a people, a State, and a Nation. While your body is composed of members from different political parties, and each of you represent separate constituencies, and are, to a certain extent, held accountable to your respective separate parties and Districts, yet you are legislators for the Whole State for which you make laws, and to which you will be required to render a full account of your stewardship. It should be the highest aim of every member to advocate and enact such laws as will tend to promote the general welfare of all the people, and meet the exigencies of the times and the demands of our advancing civilization. You should not with poorly digested legislation break up the old established laws, precedents, and customs which not govern our people. It would be far better to adjourn without any legislation whatever, than to enact new laws which poorly understood, will require the interpretation of the courts to determine the rights of persons under them. A few plain laws, well-digested and easily understood, are expected and demanded by the people at your hands. It will not be expected of me on this occasion to recommend to your consideration the various subjects to which your attention should be devoted. Upon these, I have no doubt, you will, in your wisdom, legislate. You will however, permit me to say that you should not fail to guard with patriotic devotion the interests of our Common Schools, for I consider our Common Schools the anchor of the State, the corner-stone of our free institutions and the chief motor of our civilization. You should not neglect to do whatever is needful or necessary for the more efficient management of our Benevolent Institutions. Our State charities should not fail to accomplish the purpose designed by the Constitution and laws. There are other matters which I might mention, but in conclusion let me say that you should so legislate as to lighten the burden of taxation; to make our Government strong without the rigor of royalty; to give every person the largest liberty without tyrannical license, to give every person, whatever his creed or color, equal protection and liberty before the law. By accomplishing these ends you will have done your whole duty as the Representatives of a free and intelligent constituency. Then the purposes of our Government will not have been a failure. Your reward will be the consciousness of having performed your part well-unflinchingly done your duty.
Senators, it will be my purpose to do all in my power to facilitate the business of the session, and I shall expect like assistance at your hands. I wish you to remember that on the floor of the Senate your rights are in all respects equal, and I indulge the hope that when our deliberations have ended, nothing will have occurred which will mar the pleasant memory of the friendships and associations here formed, or which you may wish were left undone. I trust we will have a pleasant and profitable session and that the results will be such as to honor yourselves, reflect credit on the State, and meet the approval of the people whom you represent.
When the Lieutenant Governor had concluded his address-
The President pro tem. of the Senate declared the Joint Convention adjourned sine die, it having completed the business for which it assembled.
