in Europe, taught that America is no less irresistible in arms than just and conciliatory in peace.

The business that will engage your attention, the present session, relates principally to the internal affairs of this State; the election of the civil officers of Government; the necessary alteration of existing Laws and ordinances; the encouragement of schools and other seminaries of learning; the improvement of our Militia establishment, and whatever can promote the interest of agriculture, manufactures, public and private tranquility and happiness.

The selection of those Officers, on whose judgment, virtue and impartiality, all that has relation to life, liberty and property may depend, is a weighty and serious transaction. Instead of being a matter of intrigue, party, or selfish policy, it ought to be conducted with all the calmness of wisdom, and disinterestedness of virtue. You will, I have no doubt, meet this part of your duty with a fixed purpose of regarding only the public good, and promoting the honor and welfare of the State.

Of the laws, now in force, that may require amendment, I particularly invite your attention to that, which authorizes the Supreme Court to grant Bills of Divorce. One of the necessary qualities and conditious that constitute a good law, is, that it be adequate to its end, and shall prevent the evil against which it is directed. As the existing Law on the subject of Divorce, dissolves the bonds of matrimony on the real or implied criminality of either party, it is justly to be apprehended, indeed experience hath proved the fact, that it includes a temptation to commit the offence, for the sake of separation. Marriage being, of all human institutions, that in which Society is most interested, I have no doubt, the Legislature will give it an attention, commensurate with its moral and political consequences; and duly consider, that as families are the elementary forms of society, their distinct connexion ought not to be dissolved on slight grounds, nor the dissolute furnished with an opportunity to free himself from restraint by the commission of a crime.

The business particularly intrusted to me, by the Legislature at their last session, relative to the boundary line, between this State and the Province of Canada, has been strictly attended to; and will be the subject of a future message.1

I have the honor to lay before you, certain Resolutions of the Legislatures of Kentucky, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Massachusetts, transmitted by their respective Governors, to receive your concurrence and adoption. The Amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed by the States of Kentucky and Pennsylvania, which has for its object, the abridgement of the judiciary power of the Courts of the United States, and to confine their jurisdiction to certain cases, therein mentioned, will necessarily attract your most serious and careful consideration. Whatever may have a tendency to weaken any part of the conventional obligation of the confederate States, or to diminish that expectation of an impartial administration of Justice, which maintains an unsuspicious intercourse, between the Citizens of the different States, and on which mutual confidence and credit are founded; whatever can open a door for the admission of jealousy and distrust, will, certainly, not be adopted by you, without the most urgent and indispensable necessity.

The amendment proposed by North Carolina and adopted by Massa

See Appendix E.

See Appendix B.

chusetts, for putting a stop to the importation of Slaves into the United States, will, likewise, call for your legislative decision. It cannot, I flatter myself, be necessary that I should impress on your minds, that the Genius of universal Emancipation ought to be cherished by Americans; that there is no complexion incompatible with Freedom; and that we owe to the Character of our Country, in the abstract, and the laws of humanity, our best endeavors, to repress that impious and immoral traffic.'

It cannot too often be repeated, that union and moderation are the principal constituents of national felicity and happiness. Altho' you may have left in your respective towns many individuals, heated with political zeal, and in the eagerness of emulation, contending merely for pre-eminence, I trust this deliberative body will be influenced by a candid, tolerant spirit, which will justly command the attention of the wise and good, and the approbation of your Constituents.

In every attempt of this kind, I shall be happy to co-operate with you, and as far as in me lies, render that assistance which the Constitution has made part of my official duty. ISAAC TICHENOR.

12th October 1805.

Lewis R. Morris [Federalist,] Dudley Chase and John White jr. [both Jeffersonians,] were appointed to draft an answer to the foregoing speech. An address, echoing the speech in nearly every particular, was reported and agreed to without division.-See printed Assembly Journal of 1805, p. 34.

SPEECH OF GOV. TICHENOR-1806.2

Gentlemen of the Council, and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives. As the science of forming and administering a good government furnishes the means of procuring to mankind the greatest possible degree of happiness, I confidently hope we shall enter on the peformance of the great and solemn duties, assigned to us by our Constituents, with corresponding sentiments of candor and solicitude. And, as a Republican Government is, for an enlightened and virtuous community, the best which human wisdom has yet devised, it necessarily follows, that its ministers and legislators should consider themselves as the Guardians and Trustees of the People, to promote whose happiness they should, on all occasions, exercise their most mature judgment and unbiassed opinion. It is a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which we are highly responsible.

A due regard to considerations of this nature, will secure us against the influence of faction, the rage of party, and the undue exercise of the power committed to our charge. As Freedom lies between the extremes of anarchy and despotism, it has, in every country, been impelled in the one or the other direction, by the prejudices and passions of the inconsiderate and ignorant, or the cupidity of the base and unprincipled. If we calmly and impartially recur to the struggles, which have been made in the old world, to introduce and maintain free governments, and the successive changes through which they have passed,

owing to the perpetual conflicts between wisdom and folly, between patriotism and unwarrantable ambition, we shall resolve them all into the lust of power, and a disposition "studious of change and pleased with novelty." From all these, we may derive lessons of practical instruction; and realize the truth of that important political maxim, that "no free government can continue long to exist, unless the utmost harmony and most conciliatory spirit pervades its councils." Rivalship for power produces an abandonment of principle, and ought to be guarded against, by the Representatives of a Free People, as the cause of every species of mischief and misery.

In our local relations, no part of the Globe seems to be better fitted for the establishment and preservation of rational liberty, than that in which a kind Providence has placed us. Blessed with a fruitful soil, which rewards with abundance the industry of the husbandman; and engaged in commerce, only so far as it furnishes the conveniences and elegancies of life, and increases the value of our productive labor, we may live independent of the national policy of Europe, and successfully cultivate the arts of peace and domestic happiness.

To adopt measures the least burdensome and invidious for the support of government; to provide for an adequate and impartial administration of Justice; the support of Schools and Colleges; the defence of the State, by a well organized and well armed Militia; to promote the interests of religion and morality, and secure to industry its lawful acquisitions, comprize your principal duties.

While the path of duty is thus plain, and the Public Good the great object to which, as virtuous Citizens and enlightened Statesmen, you will refer all your actions; I may reasonably draw the pleasing conclusion, that the civil officers for the ensuing year will be appointed without any regard to the wishes or jealousies of men who seek only their own advancement; or the combinations of individuals, which are the prolific sources of much mischief and general discontent. In the most improved state of society, there will always exist a diversity of opinion on speculative subjects; and every good government will adopt such general regulations as will ensure, as far as possible, individuals of every shade of opinion against even the fear of injustice or oppression. It is, therefore, highly just and expedient that the civil offices of the State should be filled with men eminent for wisdom, virtue and impartiality.

I have the satisfaction to announce, that the measures taken by the Legislature, at their last session, to ascertain the Northern boundary of this State, promise a very valuable acquisition. Conformably with the power vested in me, by the act for that purpose, I appointed Dr. [Samuel] Williams to ascertain the true divisional line between this State and the Province of lower Canada; which by a course of Astronomical observations, made near the ancient monument at Connecticut River, he found to be nearly fourteen miles South of the latitude of Forty five degrees. At the Lake Memphremagog the present divisional line was found to be more than seven Miles South of what it ought to be. From these observations, the result is, that the State has been out of possession, owing to the error in establishing the divisional liue, of a tract of land equal to Eighteen Townships. The acknowledged experience and profound science of the person employed for that purpose warrants the

1 Possibly Gov. Tichenor had in mind the caucus system, which had been introduced into Vermont in 1804.

"Secure" in the printed speech.

belief, that his observations and calculations are without material error. The report which has been made to me, on this subject. together with the map that accompanied it, shall be laid before you. So large a tract of land, which on the settlement of the line would probably fall within the Jurisdiction of this State, appears to me to be an object worthy of your attention. The object can only be effected by an application to the Executive of our national Government.'

I shall cheerfully and cordially concur in the adoption of every measure, which the wisdom of the Legislature may suggest, for advancing the happiness of the people, and the dignity and Character of the State. ISAAC TICHENOR.

October 11th, 1806.

Titus Hutchinson, William C. Bradley, and Nathaniel Chipman, being two Jeffersonians and one Federalist, were appointed to draft an answer to the foregoing speech, one of whom drafted one, which, while touching all the topics of the speech, ingeniously turned the most of them to the advantage of the political party represented by a majority of the committee. See printed Assembly Journal of 1806, p. 39.

SPEECH OF GOV. ISRAEL SMITH-1807.2

Gentlemen of the Council, and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,― Permit me to express to you, and through you to the freemen at large, the high sense I entertain of the honor done me by their suffrages which have conferred on me this seat. No circumstance can be more flattering than after a long course of public life to meet this new and unequivocal evidence of the public confidence and esteem. It demands of me, in whatever station I may be called to act, a faithful, diligent and unremitting discharge of the duties belonging to it. Impressed with sentiments of gratitude for honors conferred, I feel a species of enthusiasm in commencing the fulfilment of the duties before me. When I reflect, however, upon the trust reposed in the chief executive magistrate, the arduous, but more especially the critical nature of the duties belonging to that station, at a time also when the public mind is uncommonly awake to its rights and privileges; when this watchfulness has produced discussions and a train of thought which in different minds has produced very different results; when I bear in mind also the urbanity and the unassuming administration of my predecessor in office, I am almost led to despair of ever being able to quit the office I am now called to fill with the same happy auspices in which I enter upon it. In the discharge of official duties, however, I shall place my greatest hopes of success in the candor, assistance and indulgence of this honorable Assembly.

The constitution makes it the duty of the Governor and Council "to correspond with other States, to transact business with the officers of Government, civil and military, and prepare such business as may appear to them necessary to lay before the General Assembly;" also "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," and to "expedite the ex

1 See Appendix E.

Council Journal, Vol. 5, p. 316.

ecution of such measures as may be resolved upon by the General Assembly." I have not had opportunity to consult my predecessor in office whether any correspondence has taken place between the executive of this and any other State, or the United States, on subjects the nature of which requires to be submitted to the General Assembly, or whether any business has been transacted by the executive with the officers of our own government of a similar nature; should there be any, they must be made the subject of some future communication.

Again the Constitution makes it the duty of the Governor and Council to prepare such business as may appear to them necessary to lay before the General Assembly." Under this clause of the Constitution must be inferred the duty of the Governor and Council to recommend to the General Assembly subjects for legislative consideration, such as in their opinion the good of community requires to be adopted. Among the most important of those subjects which have been presented to my mind is that of a variation of [in] the modes of punishment established in our criminal code; to substitute generally, for corporal punishments, confinement for the purpose of initiating the culprit into a habit of useful industry, or in more common phraseology, confinement to hard labor. I am not insensible of the insufficiency of theoretical reasoning on abstract principles, when opposed to inveterate custom and habit. It will not be denied that corporal punishments may have had a good effect in the prevention of crimes, but this concession does not admit the inference that no other mode of punishment would be preferable. That mode of punishment, which is worse than none, must be vile indeed. Confinement and hard labor is a mode of punishment peculiarly suited to an advanced state of society, and where the arts abound. In the infancy of government, where the arts do not exist, it is found too difficult and expensive to provide an asylum for the safe keeping of culprits, and to furnish the means and materials for their employment; but in a society and government where the arts abound, these difficulties vanish and leave the arguments drawn from feelings and humanity and the nature of man in their full force. By substituting the punishment proposed, a government may not only prevent the expence to which other modes of punishment must subject it; but may make it, if thought advisable, a source of revenue to the State. A more intimate acquaintance with the effect produced on the conduct of culprits, in States where this mode of punishinent is adopted, would no doubt strongly recommend the measure. And in States where it has been the longest in operation, there exists the most indubitable and unshaken conviction of its utility. This honorable Assembly will permit me to bring to their remembrance the thirty seventh section of the constitution of this State; it is in the following words: "To deter more effectually from the commission of crimes, by continued visible punishments of long duration, and to make sanguinary punishments less necessary, means ought to be provided for punishing by hard labor those who shall be convicted of crimes not capital, whereby the criminal shall be employed for the benefit of the public, or for the reparation of injuries done to private persons; and all persons at proper times ought to be permitted to see them at their labor." To the forcible language of the Constitution I can add nothing. It is sincerely hoped the General Assembly will not permit the present session to pass away without making the necessary provisions on this subject.

The constitution further enjoins it on the Governor and Council "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and to expedite the execution of such measures as may be resolved upon by the General Assembly." Very few of the executive powers of our government are