THE STATE MILITIA.
Attention is called with pleasure to the energetic and successful efforts of the Adjutant General to increase the numbers and improve the discipline of our active militia. The encampment held at Indianapolis last summer, at which some of the most prominent militia companies of the country engaged in a competition for prizes with our own companies, and with one another, drew to it a vast number of interested spectators, gave a renewed impulse to the martial spirit, and has been productive of excellent results. I take this occasion to render acknowledgements to the gentlemen composing my staff for their arduous and disinterested services on that occasion. Since the encampment broke up, many new companies have been formed, and a disposition to elevate the standard of attainment in all military exercises has been manifest. The recommendations contained in the Adjutant General's report are commended to your careful consideration. I particularly urge upon you the importance of passing a law, in conformity to his recommendation, to provide for copying into record books, to be procured for that purpose, the muster-in ar.d muster-out rolls of the Indiana soldiers. These contain an account of the service of each soldier. When this record shall have been made, a frequent handling of original papers will be unnecessary. and the papers will thus be preserved from injury. It will be a reproach to the State if a performance of this duty shall be longer neglected. There is a necessity also that you shall provide, without delay, a fire-proof vault for the purpose of securing these papers against the hazards of fire. Their destruction would do incalculable injustice to persons having the strongest Claims to grateful recognition by the State.
