Arkansas true Democrat., 1860-11-10

March ?. 1927. Your attentionis is respect fully invite to the suggestions of the so licitor general in regar.i to the rropriety of applying to Congress for the passage of an act to authorize the location of. these semi nary lands in small subdivisions, and to authorize the state to locate oue hundred and sixty acres of land, to complete the .,u4ntity of one thousand acres granted to the late territory of Arkansas by. the act of Congress of 10th June, 1892 for the erection of cpuft-fou-e an7 jail at i4ittln Rock The t granel me thousand acres contiguous to and adjoining Little Rock; but it appears that the United States hal dispose,i of all the land. so situated, except eight hundred and forty acres, which leaves an unsatisfel claim of one hundrea and sixty acres, for which the state should be allowed an equivalent by the United States
 Your attention and consideration are re- spectfully invited to the report of the sec retary of state, as commissioner of public buildings. It is hoped that the General Assembly will not permit these buildings to go to ruin for the want of repairs. For the interests and honor of the state, and, as a measure of true economy, the state house, and the rooms in which the offices of the state are kept, ought to be thoroughly re- paired, and properly furnished. The state library is very valuable, but there is no suitable place for keeping it. There is not room to arrange, in order, the books, or to have them so kept as to preserve themfrom
 injury. It wonld be well to provide for
 erecting a building for the accommodation
 of the state library. This building should
 be sufficiently large to insure abundance ot
 room, in all the future. It would also be
 well to provide for making complete cata.
 L,e,ue of the library; Inc Iit'rs.
 make and keep in his office regi-
 ster of every book or, work sdded to the
 library. Some system of accountability
 for the certain preservation of the books
 which belonged to the state, might then be
 adopted. The state ought, also, to pro
 vide and furnish, in the best manner, an
 executive mansion, and have 1t supplied
 with necessary lights and fuel. Toprovide
 house, and leave the governor to pay fol
 suitable furniture for the executive mansion
 of the state, would impose upon him a considerable tax for the use of the building.
 Our state is just as able as any other state
 in the Union to provide for all three oi
 the departments of the government what
 ever is necessary and proper for promoting the public service, and without extrava- gance, can now afford to evince little state pride by having everything we'll done that she has done, at all
 Our state i ra idly increasing n popu- latlon and wea,>l, and the business ill the circuit courts, as a consequence, is increas- ing. There are now but six judicial cir cults, and, as there are fifty five counties in the state, each judge of the circuit court has large circuit and so many causes to adjudicate, that for the want of time io try all of them, it frequently happens that some of them have to be continued. It is, therefore, recommended that three addi- tional circuits be created, and that proyi- sion be made for the election of judge of the circuit court and prosecuting attor- ney for each of the newly created circuits
 It seems to the executive that 1t would be we'll to have three terms of the circuit court held in every county, every year, as convenience to litigants, and in order that every criminal might have his consti- tutional right of a speedy trial before wit nesses, in his case, would get out of the way. 1t costs the counties so much to keep criminals in jail six and often twelve months. before they are tried, that if the prisoners all break jail, and get away, there IS but one consolation left to the people, which is. if the law cannot be properly vindicated, the cost of keeping the crimi nals often ceases by their escape from prison. By proper legislation, the law can be vindieated, and the people of the coun- ties relieved of considerable expense.
 The Ganaral A .s..r..il,l y at tls@ l.4t 4a4- sion, passed some resolutions, AS proposed amendments to the constitution of this state. to provide for the election, by the qualified voters of this state, of d secretary of state, an auditor and treasurer, and also an attorney general for the state As governor, l approved these leso utions on the 21st February. 1859, and it de- volved upon the secretary of state to have them "published in all the newspapers published Tn this state. three several tim IS, at least twelve months before the next gen eral election" Major David B. Greer was secretary of state, anl had held that offire for more than nineteen years. He had al- ways attended so faithfully and promptly to having proposed amendments to the con Stitution published, that 1 was under the impression that those proposed at the last session had been duly published, until l ascertained, after 1t was too late to have them published, that they had not been published by authority of the secretary of state at all, but only, perhaps, by some few newspapers, as matter of information with regard to the proceedings of the General Assembly. A gentleman who was then deputy secretary of state is now a member of the senate of this state, and from him the executive learned that the failure, on the part of the secretary of state, to have published the proposed amendments to the was purel y accidental.
 On or about the 18th day of August 1859, Major David B, Greer, secretary of state, of this state, died; and, on the 3d day of September, 1859, Alexander Boileau was appointed to fill the vacancy ill the of flee. Mr. Boileau held the office of se.re tary of state but four months and half from the date of his appointment until he died on the 18th day of January, 1s6O,- Our state has, therefore, been so ,mfortu- nate as to lose, by death, two able and faithful public servants from the same office, during the last two years.
 On the Fist day of Januarv, 1860, Sam uel NJ. Weaver was appointed secretary of state to fill the vacancy that had occurred in the office by the death of Alexander Boileau.
 The executive and the people of Arkan- as are indebted to the courtesy of Brevet T James Honry, Ca. ls.,.- aF si.- rr--:.-.- States army, for copy of that part of an able eport made by him, relative to the horri- ,le massacre at the Mountain Meadows, in Utah territory, in September, 1857, of one hundred and twenty men, women and chll- }ren who were from the State of A rkan-