Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-01-05

Regular Session Commencing jan
uary 4, 1854.
Gentlemen of me Senate and Houso Of Repressn
In compliance with the provision of our
Constitution, which requires the Governor
to communicate to the General Assembly
the condition of the State, and recommend
such measures as he may deem eXpedient,' y
address you. !
The condition of my health for the past
few weeks, and my present indisposition,
will account for the brevity Of the commu-
nication. -.s..r'. ra.
Your well known character for intelli-
gence and experience as legislators makes
It necessary, only, that you be put in pos
session of the true condition of the affairs
of the State, to enable you to adopt such
legislation as the welfare of our common
constituents demands.
The past year has been one of severe Ia
Dor to all concerned in the administration
of the government; and take pleasure in
bearing testimony to the faithful and vigil
liant manner in which the Auditor of State,
Treasurer of State, Secretary of State, Comp
troiler of the Treasury, Superintendent of
the State House, Superintendent of Public
Printing, and the Librarian, have severally
performed their respective duties. l regret
that cannot include the Attorney-Ge
and the former Commissioner of Common
Schools in this commendation. The School
Commissioner fortunately for the State, re-
signed his office on the 1lth day of Novem-
Der last, and the place is now filled by a
highly competent and worthy man.
The duties of the Executive are so ardu-
GUS as to command every moment ofhiS time.
To demonstrate this, it is sufficient to refer
you to the note of Private Secretary Hotf-
man, herewith, giving somewhat detailed
statement of the labors of the office. In
view of the increased labor thrown upon
this department, also upon the departments
of the Auditor and Treasurer of State, con-
sequent upon the war, added to the fact
that the expenses of fliving in this city have
greatly increased within the past two years,
recommend an increase of the salaries of
these officers. This increase should not be
less than fifty per cent; and to secure the
benefit of such increase to the incoming
officers, immediate action, during the first
week of your session, Is necessary, as the
Constitution forbids the increase of Ia
ries of any of the State officers during the
term for which they are elected. | am
aware that the people of Ohio have never
favored high salaries to their public Off
GERS; but | also well know that they will
cheerfully sustain us in fixing such rate of
compensation as will enable those in mod
crate pecuniary circumstances to accept po-
sitions of high trust and confidence. / also
renew my recommendation of last year, for
q proper increase of the salary of the SUI
perintendent of Public Printing. The du-
ties of this office are highly important to
the State, and have materially increased
within the past year. The present rate of
compensation is entirely inadequate to the
duties.
invite your special attention to the Au-
ditors views on the subject of abolishing
the office of Comptroller Of the Treasury.
and urge that your Finance committees
thoroughly investigate the matter. So far
as am able to discover, / can see no prac-
tical good result from maintaining this OF
flee.
During the early part of the past year,
an unusual degree of excitement, disorder
and violence prevailed in many parts of
the State; to such an extent did this state
of lawlessness exist, as to make it necessary
to send an armed force to several points in
the State, to maintain the peace. The points
of greatest alarm and apprehension in
the counties of Holmes and Montgomery.
To great extent, the causes of this unhap-
DIV condition of affairs may be attributed to
political excitement and party strife. am
most happy to announce, however, that, as
and prejudices of the people became allay-,
ed; and reason and judgment thus left free
to act quiet.and order throughout the State
was the happy consequence: we have sell
dom, if ever, had more quiet and orderly
election. Copies of the several orders, and
other correspondence relating to this i'm
portant matter will be found among the
documents herewith, No. 10.
sa 1t will be seen that the main or principal
cause of the difficulty referred to, grew out
of the effort on the part of the officers and
agents of the National Government, to en-
force upon our citizens the military orders
of the President Of the United States; or
'ders deemed necessary by him to crush out
and nut down the rebellion. 1t was claim
ed, or pretended to be claimed, by those
who resisted or copnseled resistance to the
enforcement of these orders, that they were
unconstitutional and void. Happily for us
as nation and people, we bad enjoyed so
many years of peace, that heHquestions
arising, touching the powers of the Presi-
dent when the nslti0n is in war, bad been
but little discussed by the present genera
,tion of people, and therefore were not thor
,oughly understood by them. The Constitu-
tionhad simply declared that ''the President
shall be commander-in-chiefof the army and
navy of the United States" What COM
mander-in-chief of the army and navy Of a
nation might do, or might not do, whenthat
nation was at war to maintain its very ex-
istence, the trainers of our Constitution
wisely omitted to attempt to define. l say
wisely, for it is not in the province of any
one nation on earth to define the authority
of the commander-in-chief of its army anC
navy: this is the combined work of all the
civilized nations; we must therefore study
the laws of nations to find out the limit ant
extent of this officers authority. Thu
viewing this question, and believing, as
did that the several military orders issuet
by the President, or under his authority
which in any way affected our State or 1t
citizens, were clearly within his power AM
discretion and were highly necessary an