The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-01-06
MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR OF NEW



Gov Morgan transmitted his first message to both
Houses of the Legislature on the 4th The funded
debt of the State is $50, 9l3, 25s.77, of which S24
40 is the general debt. The entire receipts
from the canals for the year has been So 072 2O4
from which, after deducting the payments for SUI
perlntendeuce and other charges, there is balance
OF surplus revenue amounting to 1898, 435.97.
There are claims exceeding in amount this sur
plus revenue, and there is an actual deficiency of
5000, .O3 of the interest upon the general fund
debt added to that accruing the Canal Fund
Drafts have likewise been issued BY the Canal Com
missioners amounting on the 3Oth of September,
1858, to 81, 34O, 80 beyond the ability of the
State Treasury, and by this time these drafts have
probably augmented to S1,70O,000 or So, 900, 600
To meet the claims upon the treasury, actual and
estimated, which relate to the canals alone 81 $685.,
ooO, VIII be required, equivalent to State tax of
nearly two mills on the dollar of the valuation
of 1857.
Obligations have been incurred amounting to
over 81 00OOO regardless of the constitutional pro
visions specifying that debt shall be contracted
unless authorized by law, which shall impose an
annual tax to pay the interest such debt and
providing for the payment of the principal within
eighteen years from the date of its being con-
tracted
The Importance of the early completion of the
canal enlargement is urged, which can be COM
pleted by the spring of 1860, if the small amount
required (when compared with that already expen-
ded) is provided for.
Governor Morgan expresses the opinion that I'M
til the canals are completed and the present float
ing debt is paid the appropriations should be con-
lined to the most economical necessities of Govern
ment. He also says, that resort to direct taxa
ton has become necessary to meet the payment of
interest on the public funds and the expenses of
government.
Upon the Slavery question he saws:
The State of New York has consistently main
tanned conservative attitude with regard to those
OF her sister States which cherish systems of labor
differing from her own. Disclaiming all right or
wish to interfere with the domestic concerns of any
pnp1 two nfci6 Of ha,o L.
her right to maintain, wherever the issue shall be
legitimately presented, the superiority of liberty
over slavery, whether as condition of personal
enjoyment of intellectual and moral developments
or OF social and general well being.
While herself slavehoding, she voted to prohibit
by act of Congress the extension of slavery into
Federal territory as, thirty years later she voted
to exclude 1t from Missouri and from the Federal
territory stretching northward and westward from
that State.
Nearly twenty years later, the question required
with reference to territories then about to be ac-
quired from Mexico, and her voice was raised dis
tnctly and emphaGcally the side of civilization
and humanity. Throughout the struggle which
preceded and attended the organization and settle
ment of Kansas, her devotion to the cause of free
labor was never doubtful or lukewarm No So
phistry has sufced to blind her to the fact that the
establishment of slavery upon territory hitherto
free, would be calamity and wrong, for which,
not only the handful of settlers who had already
drfted upon the soil of such territory, but the
whole American people who had permitted such
establishment would be justly held responsible
To conravene the settled policy of our Revolution
airy statesmen, and remit the question of slavery
no slavery in a Territory to the unchecked voltion
OF majority of the first hundred or thousand per-
sons who might happen to halt upon its soil is
to concede the fundamental assumption of those
who entertain different opinions upon the subject,
that no national, moral considerations, are in
volved in the issue between free and slave labor
but that the preference of one the other is to be
determined by climate, adaptation to tropical or
non-tropical products, or by some other purely
physical condition. 1t is to refer grave question,
vitality affecting the reputation and welfare of TWEEN
ty-ive millions of people, joint owners of vast ma
honal domain, any of whom may be, and some of
whom, with the descendants of nearly all, in the
nature of things must be, among the future inhabi-
tants of that domain to the decisions of less than
thousandth part of their number.
This is not genuine popular sovereignty, but the
sovereignty of chance, of accident of heetness in
reaching the dexterity in appropriating the Ter
ritory in questionable sovereignty of few per-
sons over the destinies and happiness of millions
New York has never assented and cannot now as
sent to theory which thus divests her of all con-
troll over the common heritage of her sons with
those of her sister States, which declares her an
alien, and an intruder on the patrimony acquired
by the common blood and treasure of the whole
American people; and which virtually proclaims
to the world that she cares not whether her chill
dren who migrate westward, shall thenceforth live