Evansville weekly journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 184?-18??, 1848-01-20
r rIEssAGE.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of
tbs Halse of REPRESENTATIVES.

important duties committed to your charge, by
the people of the Senate, it becomes my duty
Ia duty which it is regretted / was prevented
from performing previous to your late adjourn
ment, by severe bodily injury, the result Of a
recent accident, to communicate to you the
condition of the commonwealth, and to sug-
gest such measures as may seem to be demap-
I dedfor the preservation and increase of the pub
&c welfare. In doing so, it affords mt a heartfelt
pleasure to congratulate you upon the general
prosperity which has prevailed within our bor-
ders during the past year. We have enjoyed
the blessings of health in an unusual degree,
the supremacy of the laws has been maintain
ed, and the labor of the ~husbandman has been
beautifully rewarded by luxuriantcrops, which
he had been enabled to dispose of at liberal
prices, thus giving a renewed impulse to bus
mess of every description. Evidences OF great
improvement in the condition of the people
are everywhere visible. Our cities and towns
steadily increasing in wealth and population,
and the primeval forests which still covera large
portion of the country are rapidly disappearing,
to give place to the rich products which are
drawn by the hand of industry from a generous
and fertile soil. For these, and the number
less other advantages We enjoy we owe un7
bounded gratitude to God. in whose hands are
the destines of nations, who has placed us in
a land of religion, liberty and plenty; thus en-
Il dDlluS us W dOtduCS OuI IlOIdl duu oOClol COu-
dition, and to acquire that political and physi-
cal independence, from which so large a por-
ton of the human family is debarred. 1t be-
comes us, therefore, to acknowledge His good
ness with suitable reverence, and to invoke a
continuance of His blessings upon our below
/ ed country and npon our efforts to discharge
with fidelity the trusts which have been COM
mitted to US.
The increased prosperity of the country, /
cannot but think, is, under Divine Providence,
5 in a great measure to be attributed to the wise
change in the policy of the general government
| of the Union, with regard to our
e with foreign nations. The repeal of the high
tariff of 1912, and the adoption of a more lib
r eral system of duties by the act of 1916, has
not only had the effect ofproducing an lncreas-
e ed revenue to the national treasury, but an in
crease of profits to the agriculturists. This
# class of our fellow citizens, constituting the
main foundation of our national wealth and
e prosperity, has, by means OF diminished duties
on at home and abroad, been ena-
bled to find a market for a greater proportion
of their surplus products than they could 9TH
erwise have disposed of TO advantage. Ma
e king every allowance for any influence on pri-
n ces which may have been produced by a sea-
son of unusual scarcity in Europe, yet when
we consider that how great soever may be the
e necessity of the people of other countries, their
ability to purchase food from us is limited BY
Il their ability to pay for it by the produce OF
their own labor, it is evident that every restrlc-
Il ton which prevents us from receiving such
/. produce in return, must reduce the quantity OF
a value of that which they receive from u.s.
! Happily for all parties-the overproducer of
our own country as well as the starving con-
i sumner abroad-upon the occurrence of a gen.
eral failure of the crops in Europe in 1916, the
n restriction which had formerly existed, were
in a great measure removed, and we were pre-
= pared to reap the full benefit of the increased
demand thus created. 1t is to be remarked al
, so, that while those engagedin the cultivation
of our soil have been SO greatly benefited blythe
opening OF a foreign market, the manutactu-
ring and commercial classes have enjoyed at
least their full share of the common prosper
ity. The great increase of manufactures, and
of manufacturing and commercial capital, since
the passage of the comparatively low tarlffot 46
S proves that these interests are in a most flour
fishing condition. In fact, the agricultural III
is terest SO greatly p~redominates in this country.
lg that most Others are in a great degree depend
ent upon 1t, and must, to some extent, flour
re ish or languish as that becomes prosperous Oh
n depressed. Indiana is especially an agricultu-
Il raj State, and it is of the Utmost importance
to our citizens that the sound and enlightened
ne policy of low duties or a revenue tariff-o
y. striking off all restrictions upon trade not re-
Id quired by the wants of the public treasury econ
o. omically NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. continue to b.
re maintained. Many Of our fellow citizens, wh'
tn entertained serious apprehensions that the es
nd adjustment of this policy would be fraugh
10 with great evil, if not ruin to most of GU
of leading interests, are doubtless gratified to fin
as at length that their apprehensions were no
ed only without foundation, but that the very re
or verse is true.
les 1t affords me- still greater pleasure to be abb
Is to remark that the present increase OF prosper
nd ity appears to be founded, at least to a far grea
&C. ter extent than heretofore, upon a solid an
Or substantial basis. 1t was not brought about a
formerly by a wild and extra VACANT spirit {
rye speculation, nor by a similar expansion of tn
ICY currency, but mainly by the gradual and whole
lty some operations ola profitable trade, contne
his within its legitimate channels. There is no.
de- no great banking institutions under nationi
e authority, overshadowing all the other none
tary institutions of the country, capable
re- welding an almost irresistible political powe
,sts and able, by means of a vast capital and tt
control of the national treasury itself, to COZ
ate tract Or expand the amount of currency i'll CT
the ~culation throughout the entire country, an
her consequently to cause the prices OF every klr
lis of property to rise or fall, as it might supp
rye or withdraw the means OF payment. Since tt
of existence of the last institution of the kind
mn the United States, more than ten years ha'
use elapsed, and more than six since its gigant
ion substitute under the. same name, created by Il
and legislature of a sister State, ceased its oper
of tons as a bank of circulation. The who
de- country, since their extinction has been stea
ute lily advancing from adversely to prosperit
and our subsequent experience has, it is b
the lieved, been long enough to settle the SO mu'
agitated question, how far such an institute
is necessary to the trade, the productivene:
the enterprise, or the general welfare of t
oe- country. "a
ade The constitutional treasury by which t
collection and disbursement of the nation
revenue are entirely disconnected from ban
ing operations, has been in full operation mo
than twelve months. Yet the inconvenienc
which many no doubt honestly apprehend
from the absence of a National Bank, and t
' establishment of an independent treasul
have not been experienced. On the contral
during the time which has elapsed since its
Enlistment, the largely increased disbur:
monte rendered necessary nv the existing w;