Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-10-20

month, and have shown q commenable attention
to military discipline, performing their various
duties in u creditable and solderly manner.
INTOXICATING DRINKS.
Our laws prohibiting the traffic in intoxlea-
ting liquors has become the settled and approx
ed policy OF the State lfany additional iegis-
ative provisions to increase their usefulness and
efficiency should be found necessary, | shall b.
very ready to concur in them.
JUVENILE OFFENDERS.
beg leave again to call your attention to
the subject of the establishment of Il reiOrma-
tory school for juvenile offenders. Vermont
alone of all the New England States is without
an institution of this character, and deem it
worthy of your serious consideration whether
legislation on this subject should longer be
delayed.
ATTACHMENT LAWS.
would also renew the recommendation made
in nv former annual message, that our laws
relating to the attachment Of property on mesne
process, be 50 modified as to provide for its equal
distribution among all attaching creditors.
LEGISLATION BY JOINT RESOLUTIONS.
deem it important that the boundaries of
the powers of the different branches Of tine
State government should be preserved inyiolate,
and therefore feel it my duty to call your atten-
ton to a class Of cases in which think an en-
enactment has sometimes been made by the
Senate and House of Representatives, upon t1e
authority of the Executive. | allude to at
tempted acts of Legislation, in form OF joint res
outlons of the two houses, without asking the
concurrence Of the Governor
The constitution (S,c. l5) prescribes the style
or form in which the laws of the State shall be
passed viz; by enactment; and provides (Sec.
IL Of amendments,) that every bill which
shall have passed the Senate and House of Rep
resentatives, shall, before it becomes Il law, &c
presented to the Governor for his approval.
The Constitution also provides (Sec. ~ that
" no money shall be drawn out of the Treasury,
unless first appropriated by acts of legislation"
These constitutional provisions, think, have
been dsregardel in several instances. Among
others, in case of joint resolution adopted by
the two Houses at the October session, 1857,
relating to the compensation to Henry Stevens
in which Commissioners are named to adjudicato
his claim against the State, their compensation
limited, the Secretary of State and also the
Governor instructed in their official duties, and
the Auditor of Accounts directed to appear be-
fore the Commissioners rs attorney for the
State, and to draw an order on the Treasury
for whatever balance the Commissioners may
find due from the State to said Stevens. These
resolutions do not appear to have been present
ed to tie Governor for his approval, and is re-
spectlully submitted that they were legally in
operative and void, inasmuch as they assume
the Office and authority Of law, by prescribing
rules of action for the government of those to
: whom they relate, and also undertake to draw
money from the Treasury without an act of
Legislation. Of like character, as | conceive,
is joint resolution Of the last session, relative
to the compensation of persons employed by the
Sergeant at Arms, and another relating to the
, figure on the StateHouse, both of which pro-
vide for drawing money from the Treasury with
out authority of law. do not object to these
resolutions that they propose improper meas
ures for legislation. II the provisions they con-
tain had been passed in the form of indictments,
it is very likely they would have met the ready
approval of the Executive. But if, AS joint
resolutions, they are to be considered as prece-
dents for the government OF future General AS
sembes it is difficult to conceive of any act of
legislation which may not be performed by the
two Houses alone; without the concurrence Of
the Governor.
: THE PARDoNING POWER.
a constitutional question has arisen in rell-
> ton to the pardoning power Of the Executive,
: to which deem it proper to call your attention
IN order to avoid any Misrepresentation on the
subject. 1t has been claimed that the exception
s in the Constitution of cases Of murder and
D treason from the pardoning power of the Gov
ernor is not absolute, but onry deprives him of
L the power until the end of next session of the
Assembly after the passing of the sentence.
y This construction would seem to be favored by
an act of the legislature of 1855, and another
: in 1856. | have been unable so to understand
the Constitution. | can conceive of no reason
D why the pardoning power of the Executive in
these cases should be absolutely prohibited for
the few months or weeks that might intervene
before the next session of the legislature, and
be left in full force forever afterwards. If the
a legislature, having had an opportunity to act
upon case should decline to interfere. there
: would, indeed, seem to be an additional reason
why the Governor should not. The object of
the trainers of the Constitution appears to Inc
to have been to place these two crimes beyond
! the pardoning power of the Governor, confer
d ring on him limited authority to repreve, in
' order to enable him, il he saw fit, to give to a
: party convicted, an opportunity of applying to
1 the legislature for relief. If the language of
4 the Constitution be read as printed in the first
: words " but not so pardon by commas from
4 the other parts Of the sentence, (see SHADES
: State Papers p. 250) | think such would be the
$ natural construction Of the language.
. SLAVERY.
The position of Vermont on the subject of
slavery, which has tor several years past So much
D agitated the public mind, remains unchanged
v While yielding due obedience to the provisions
' of the constitution of the general government,
v Vermont does not claim II right to interfere
r with slavery in the States where it exists by law
G SIZE protests IN strong and emphatic terms
n against its extension into the territories Of the
I union, which she insist shall be forever conse-
d Grated to freedom. And though she does not
!. deny her obligation by compact to surrender
r fugitves from service, when duly shown to be
such, she repudiatcs all pretenslons of right in
the STAKEHOLDER to bring his slave into this
State and hold him here in bondage and will
}, never, under any circumstances, permit her SOIL
d for single moment to be thus contaminated by
:, the curse of slavery.
u am sorry to feel under the necessity of say
% ing that new and most demoralizing manifest
n alton of the progressive and grasping power OIL
N slavery has been made during THE past year
IS Not only is the relation of master and slave
+ advocated at the South as the best and most
II desirable condition of society but the African
! slave trade, which u few years ago both the
South and North united in denouncing as rob
berry and piracy, is now openly proclaimed by
1t leading Southern politicians as a comm ndablt
st species of commerce, and Its re opening ever
r. urged as a measure of banevoence and christian
a philanthropy. 1t is unnecessary to say that
,e any attempt to legalize this horrid and abomna
If BILE traffic will receive the most decided condemn
IF alton of the people of this State
,e In closing this my last annual message can
not Withhold the expression of my grateful thanks
It to the lreemen of the State, for the confident
tbav bnvn On all occasions 40 ,ranar,,,,l,