New-York tribune., 1869-01-06
COY. HOFFMAK'S MESSAGE.

We did not expect Gov. Hoffman TO remind
the Legislature that he would not have been
elected to the highest Office in the gift of the
"people" had not the Democratic party been
providcntially vouchsafed some thirty thousand
new voters in the City of New-Yorl more than
the natural laws of increase would have per
mitted. Nor was it to be expected that he
would sing the praises of those facile and
friendly judges who converted the Halls OF
Justice into citizen mills where perjury was the
grain and the votes which made Hoffman Gov
ernOr were the meal. Mr.. Hoffman refers his
election rather TO the blessing and favor of
A" Almighty God, who disposes all things"
Hereafter, therefore, the miraculous increase of
$4,000 votes, which elected Hoffman, must be
classed with the miraculous draft OF fishes"
and must be ascribcd with becoming reverence
to some nscrutabe but preternatural necessity
that New-Y York should be blessed in this year
of grace with a Democratic Governor
The Message is devoted mainly to resume
of the condition of the State, with no recon-
mendations of Importance except for the repeal
of the law creating Metropolitan Commissions
for the government of the Police, Health, Fire.
and other departments of certain cities, and
especially of NewYork and Brooklyn, and for
the repeal of the Excise law. He objects to
these laws on the ground that they create
zone law for the cities and another for the
" country But we have yet to learn that laws
vesting like powers in the Mayors and Councils
of the cities would not be open to the same objec-
ton. What laws are there providing for the
irradation of the benign influences OF Mayor
Hail. or Corporation Counselor OGorman. or
a Street Commissioner over the benighted dis-
trcts of the counties of Cattaraugus or Hamil
Ton 7 Are not tie veTdant hills and Gn the
season. howery meads of Orange destitute OF a
single alderman Does any such lovely stem
as a City Clerk, blOssOming into that fragrant
flower the Corporation Manual, waste its sweet
ness on the desert air of st. LawTencc Do
not the village Hampdens of Chautauqua return
to their graves unwept, unhonored, and unsuug,
for want of City Council in which
to expand their pent up energies at the period
of termination Would not our worshipful
Governor himself, if he had remained in
Sing Sing, have found it legal mpossibilty
to be Mayor for want of Mayorltyf And
might not these germain facts have suggested
that there have been certain good and valid
reasons why cities have at all times been gov
erned by one law and the rural districts by
other?
Gov. Hofrman's mode of stating the finances
of the State is such as to be perfectly clear to
all who already understand them. The
State debt amounted, on 30th September
1868, to $44,9GS,7 7S6 40, to which there are
sinking funds now applicable, reducing it
virtually to S38.s64, ,44S "a. And the
general receipts exceed expenditures at a rate
sufficient to extinguish the entire debt in nine
years-f Hoffmanslip and the Tammany' Ring
do not effect a revolution in the management
of our State finances. The Canals show SUI
plus of receipts over expenditures of $685.,
3O1 10 for the year. Out of this the Canal debt
of 1916 is extingushed, leaving residue ap-
plicable TO other purposes. The Governor com
mends the management of the Canals during
the year past and prudently makes no import
ant suggestions relative to "a subject with
which he is now for the first time brought in
contact. We thank the Governor for his
recommendation that the Prisons, whose earn
ngs for the past year have been only S499lT
90 and whose expenses have been $932,2l2 20,
should be rescued from the contract system,
80 corrupt Iand injurious in all its workings,
performed under the control of the Supern-
teDdent, for the benefit of the State and the
convict. Our prison system is more expensive,
demoralzing, and corrupt than that of any
other State. 1t is time for the manage
ment of our Prisons to be wrested from
politicians and contractors, and given to
those who have made prison management
specially in the interests of humanity and re-
FORM Our Banks are described as gradually
passing under the National Banking Law. 1t
Is an evidence Of progress or of oversight that
our Governor does not improve the occasion
to lament the increasing centralization of
powers in the National Government. We are
promised q reduction of the military expenses
of the State. from which we infer that the
militia arsenals in the rural districts are not to
be furnished, like those in our city, with
forty eight black walnut chairs, each worth
"S46" This slightly conflicts with the policy
announced of having "the same laws apply to
city and country but we shall not complain.
The increase of the School tax from three
quarters of a mill to It mills, so as to open the
schools to all of proper age without charge.
has largely Increased the attendance.
The new Capitol is briefly alluded to- as some
thing to be completed. We trust it's completion
will not be made the theater for such display
OF " Democratic economy" M has attended the
erection OF our new Court-H House. We are at
loss to conceive wherein Gov Hoffman can
see that the condition of political affairs" is
80 much more unsettled III 1868 than 1867 as TO