Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1844-12-12
The sum which is thus recommended to be
= 4. mad h1r tho State 10 the comnany fallino

l
advanced by the State TO the company, falling
presump,iyely within It's ability to repay, is TO
all inst interests lean, expedient under the
circumstances for the State TO make, and for
| the company TO receive. Within tins limit
The limit Of ability-where the relations OF len
der and borrower are maintained and acted up
on by both parties-the advances of the State,
and upon calculations both fiscal and economi
cal, are advisable and legitimate. But when
this limit is Passed, and advances are made,
without ability OF expectation Of ability to pay
back, the company becomes from that point and
that moment not the borrower, but the agent ct
the State, for the expenditure and adminlstra-
ton Of its funds; and " hen this relation arises,
the advances, IN my Judgment, would cease to
be advisable. Whenever the money with
which this work is to be conducted, comes to-
be furnished exclusively by the State, there is
no sound reason why it should be given up to
the management OF an agency, such as that of
This company, where the authority of the State
is the least, and where her partners, bound by
no direct responsibility to her, are at the same
time bound 10 no particular prudence in their
acts, by sharing in the money which they man
age.
This company, composed in part of corpora
tons, who practically hold and exercise plu-
ra1lty power in the management of its concerns,
is not only most peculiar in its organization.
but is wanting in some of the indispensable re-
quisltes which would qualify it TO act as agent
for the State, were an agent desired in the con-
troll and management of Its funds; it wants the
adaptedness and the responsibility which such
E a purpose eminently needs. 1t is not, howev-
er, in this supposable character of agent, but in
that of borrower. that have regarded and re-
commended it to your assistance
The admitted importance OF providing by
law for well supported, well regulated and
adapted system Of common education, will jus
tify, it is hoped, my recurrence for the third
time to that subject. | should rejoice to be
spared the necessity of this duty, but neither
nor any other Executive ever can be, as long as
the legislative and statictical history of this
subject remains as it is; as long as our provs-
ion for it is SO painfully inadequate to cur
wants, and so painfully contrasted, too, with
the manner in which generation after genera
ton, for more Than fifty years, our public ac-
tors have made it the official and popular theme
for euogy and patriotic aspiration 1t is hu-
initiating, after this, to look upon its history
now, and to see that, whilst laws have been
; accumulated upon laws to advance it, so little
comparatively has been actually done-so lit
tie, indeed, that not only is there one in every
twelve of our grown up and governing popula-
ton who can neither read nor write. but at this
very moment there are growing up in the
midst Of US thirty thousand ''indigent chill
dren' to whom, for the past year, not solita-
ry hour of instruction has been afforded at any
school in the State. At this day, when the
human mind is, perhaps, more thoroughly and
profoundly reused than it has ever been before
when 1t is every where reducing, by irwin
chile power, the transactions of Governments
and men to the standard of its own enlightened
and intrepid judgment, and is making knowl-
edge, like bread, necessary of life; at this
day. and especially in our country, where the
i will of all is the government of all, such fact
as this is dshonoring and reproachfhl, if in
deed, it be not appalling; | call upon you,
therefore, who have the whole control of this
matter in your own hands, so to legislate upon
it that this fact shall continue no longer-that
the evil of it and the stain of it shall be blotted
out at once, and, if it be possible, forever. IT.
is the shame of Great Britain, that, in the
midst of her power, and of that civilization
which she is extending, far and wide, to man
kind, a fifteenth part of her entire number is
pauper population. 1t would be deeper shame
for US, whose freedom is so much greater than
hers, and whose prosperity drives pauperism
away, that an almost equal portion Of our own
|
| phabet Of their mother tongue had never been
taught.
But this we shall suffer, bitterly and long,
if nothing energetic is done to arrest it, Let !
the subject, then, be taken in your counsels as
one OF the worthiest amongst all the worthy !
that could engage them, and be it your honor |
to unite In generous effort with each other to |
build up system of common schools which !
shall secure the rudments of learning to every
child In the State, and thus associate the in
telllgence and sovereignty of the State itself in
early and perpetual union with each other
Having submitted the general basis of plan
upon this subject to the last Legislature, which
have seen no reason to disapprove of, res
pecttully submit it anew for your deliberations
| In reporting upon the general condition of
the public interests, as it is my duty to do
should be greatly neglectfnl if | did not direct
your attention particularly to the state of bust
ness in the Court of Appeals. 1t is such, Ire
greet to say, and has been for some wears. as to
require that early and effectual measures be ia
ken by your body to protect the public from the
recurrence Of any similar state for the future.
BY referring to the abstracts which have been
made from the reports of the clerks of the
| Court OF Appeals, by the clerk of the House of
Delegates, and annually submitted by him to
me Legislature, IL appears, that from 1887 to
September, l843 seven hundred and ninety
eight suits were instituted in the Court of APP
peals, and SIX hundred and fifty-seven decided
thus showing an aggregate of suits institu-
! ted over those decided, of one hundred and for
ty-one, or an increase at the rate of twenty an
nually. Let this one hundred and forty-one be
added to the four hundred and forty seven.
which stood undecided upon the docket in 1897.
and the five hundred and eighty eight which
they make, will show the number REMAINING on
hand in September, l843.
From this statement it is evident. that if no
change is made for the more rapid disposal off
It's business by that Court, its docket can never
be cleared, but must go on increasing at reg
ular and alarming rate. 1t is evident also. this ,
rate of decision continuing, that no new case
can reach to adjudication under less than six {
or seven years. delay. In either point Of view. |
much more in both, this accumulation and de.