Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1860-01-18

FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE SENATE
AND House OF REPRESENTATIVES,
appear before you to t.ke the oath
which the Constitution prescribes. as nee
eSsary qualification to perform the dutie
of the chief Executive office of our State
to which have been called; and | avail
myself of the occasion now presented. T.
express my grateful thanks to my fellow
citizens, for the favor with which they hav,
been pleased to look toward me. and il
compliance with usage sanctioned by tn,
example of my predecessors, to declare
briefly, the principle that will guide mt
in the discharges of my official trust
My immediate predecessor has eommu
nicated to you the condition of the State
with the eminent ability and fidelity thai
have characterized all of his official acts.
1 may we'll congratulated you upon the
gratifying evidences he has furnished of the
growth and greatness of our State The
history of no other political community has
heen marked by more wonderful progress
in all the clements of a beneficient civiliza.
ton. Our condition is at once prosperous,
commanding. and happy.
Little more than half a century has
elapsed since we passed from territorial
to State government. The number OF
our inhabitants did not at that time exceed
fifty thousand. The State was an almost
unbrcken wilderness. What have We not
accomplished since?
We have created and reared up civil in
stitutions and monuments of public spirit
and social enterprise. which in other coun-
! tries have been the work of centuries Our
population has increased fifty fold. and we
rank among the first States of the Union
in wealth, and dignity, and power.
We have cleared the forest from many
millions of acres, reclaimed the soil from
the dominion Of nature and subjected it to
such a courses of profitable husbandry as to
supply an annual surplus of agricultural
products of not less that fifty millions of
dollars in value. We have erected nunler-
Gus and wealthy towns and cities. and
opened excellent thoroughfares in nearly
every part of the State When almost in
our infancy, comparatively poor. and with
an untried credit, we projected aud speedi-
ly completed the construction Of our exten-
siye system Of canals and slack-water nav
igation in our interior rivers, at cost of
over fifteen millions of dollars. We have
built. almost entirely by private capital,
more than three Thousand miles in length
of railroads at cost of over one hundred
millions of dollars, which have greatly aug
mented the public wealth. largely contribu-
ted to equalizing the value of lands in the
different parts Of the State, and vigorously
encourage the development of nearly every
branch of useful employment. We have
invested largely and proftably in mines and
mining. and in manufactures. all of which
branches of industry give promise of surh
steadily increasing prosperity. as will
permanently preserve to Ohio Lcr place in
the front rank of the mining and manufac-
turing States of tie Union. Our CONNER
cial and navigation interests have kept
equal pace with our agricultural, mining
and manufacturing.
We have done more. We have adopted
vigilant and humane confinement and dis
cipline for tie vicious; have erected asy-
lums for the unfortunate which challenge
the admiration of the world; have endowed
colleges and universities numcrously and
literally, and organized system of schools
for educating the youth of the State, which
is Justly our greatest pride.
Such are some of our triumphs. To
what causes are We. under the favor of
Providence, chiefly indebted for them?
Our geographical position, giving to US a
mild and healthy climate, equally removed
from the severe cold of the North, and the
intense heat of the South, and peculiarly
adapted to vigorous labor in every form;
the diversified character of the surface of
the State, divided into uplands and low
lands hill ranges, and intervening valleys,
heavily timbered tracts and naked prairies,
which alternate in a manner the most ia
vorable for the productive interests of life;
the extent and unsurpassed fertility of our
soil, yielding in perfection. nearly all the az
rieultural staples the most valued by civil
lized communities; our cxaustless mineral
treasures. and natural facilities for commerce
and navigation, which by the genius and
enterprise of the people have been so boun-
tifully tributary to our wealth and power
have been so potent and indispensable
agencies in the production of our marvellous
growth, as not to be overlooked in how
ever summary a review Of its causes.
But as inviting as they have been to
labor and capital and their multiplied
auxiliaries. they would have been compar-
Intellectual in pOpulating and enriching our
State, and in securing to us the social ad-
vantagcs for which we are so eminently
distinguished; but for the moral assistants
afforded in the wise provisions of the or
game act under whose benign auspices the
foundations of our territorial organization
were laid, and which incorI GRATED into our
State Constitution as fundamental prinei-
pies of government, have been most effect
i've in moulding our institutions, and by
furnishing the chart. in directing the pro-
gress Of our legislation.
1t was appropriate that the ordinance Of
1857 should have been the last, as it was
the crowning gift Of the Congress of the old
confederation of the country. NObly did
its trainers illustrate, in its matchless pro-
visions for guarding the rights and pro-
noting the happiness of the people, their
sagacious forecast and exalted patriotism. /!
1t established the fundamental principles
of civil and religious liberty as the basis
of all our laws, constitutions and govern
ments; provided for the freedom of person
under the protection of the habeas corpus
and trial by juries to bcimpartiaIly select
ed; made the encouragement of schools and
advancing the means Of education a high
and binding duty Of government, on the
plain reason, that religion, morality and
knowledge, are necessary to good govern
ment and to the happiness of mankind; es-
tablishcd the iuviOlability of contracts, and