The union Democrat., 1871-12-16
GOV. HAIGHT.s MESSAGE.


The following is the larger portion of the
Annual Message of Governor Haight to the
Nineteenth Legislature of this State:
To the Senate and assembly oftie State Of
California In obedience to the constitu-
tional requirements, proceed to give you
such information concerning the condition of
the State and the operations of its govern
ment during the past two years as may tend
to facilitate your labors. ~
While the State has suffered fcfShe lack
of copious rains the last and preceding VIM
tiers, we may yet felicitate ourselves upon ex-
emption from any great calamities and upon
the healthful condition of our mining and ag-
ricultural interests
Despite the depression Of some of our indus
tries, the future of California never seemed
more promising than it does to-day.
FINANCIAL CONDITION.
The reports of the Controller and Treasur-
er, which are transmitted herewith, exhibit
the financial condition of the State on the LIST
day of November last, and the transactions
of their Offices during the 2lst and 22d fiscal
years.
The total funded debt on the lst day of De-
eember, A. D. 1867, was stated by my pre-
decessor at So, l26, 500. This statement how
ever, overlooked an item of $4,000, which
would have made the total funded debt ST.
l46, 500, Independently of Indian war bonds,
of which S66S,IS have been paid since that
date. Bonds to the amount of $3.50, 900 were
issued for the completion of the State Capt.
tol, under the Act of the last session. The
present funded debt is So, 462 900, and of
this amount 81. 1873 500 are held by the State
in the School Fund, and S57, 500 in the Uni
versity Fund. The amount of bonds redeem
ed since the first day of July, A. D. 1869, is
1856, 600.
EQUALIZATION OF ASSESSMENTS.
The law Of last session upon the subject of
equalizing assessments was passed in haste,
and was designated rather as preliminary to
a more perfect system. There is an evil and
an injustice here, arising from the different
standards either ignorantly or willfully adopt
ed in the different counties which call for
remedy. The system will doubles be inn
proved by your honorable bodies at this SEES
sion. | take the liberty, however, of urging
great care and caution to avoid sudden and
radical changes in valuations, which would
fall oppressively upon taxpayers, and espe-
cially upon farmers.
The object to be attained is to secure uni
form valuation in the different counties, and
on which approaches more nearly the market
value of the property.
The report of the Commissioners discloses
some gross inequalities, and at least one case
of an extensive fraud upon the revenues of
the State by the Supervisors of one of the
counties. Your attention is especially invit-
ed to the report of the Board, which shows
the necessity of reform in the system.
PURITY OF ELECTIONS.
The Attorney General refers to the para
mount Importance of preserving the purity
of the ballot-box, and adverts in terms of
merited censure to the course pursued by
Government officers at Vallejo in the recent
elections.
The essence of free government consists in
the free and voluntary choice Of officers by
the electors. If this freedom is destroyed,
and men are coerced into voting particular
ticket by threatof discharge and fear Of starv-
alton, the act of depositing ballots is mock
cry and o fraud.
When officers marshal | 400 or 500 la
borers to the polls, destroy the secrecy of the
bollot by compelling the use of strips Of paste
board fve-eighths of an inch wide, printed
closely in diamond type, so that alteration
is impossible, they aim blow at the exist
ence of free government, and virtually direct
the machinery of republican institutions to
defeat the popular will upon which they are
avowedly based. No partisan or personal
considerations should prevent prompt and
effectual remedy for this abuse.
There is another evil which menaces the
perpetuity of our institutions, and it is the
open practice of bribery at elections Laws
of the most stringent character ought to be
enacted to arrest this growing evil.
THE LAND GRANT POLICY.
In my first biennial message this paragraph
occurs
"Our land system seems to be mainly
framed to facilitate the acquisition of large
bodies of land by capitalists or corporations,
either as donations or at nominal prices"
In the same message the regret was ex-
pressed that any portion of the public lands
had ever been disposed of except to actual
settlers.
Posterity would hardly credit, without con-
elusive evidence, that at this age, under q
republican government, the largest part of
public lands would be granted in fee to rail
road corporations without condition as to
price and terms of sale. A body of public
lands, comprising over 50,000,000 of acres
and embracing nearly the whole OF Washing
ton Territory, destined one day to be great
State, has been granted in this manner to
one corporation composed of few capitalists.
The public lands belong to the people, and it
is not improbable that such legislation as
this, if no other remedy avails, will in the
future provoke revolutionary resistance on
their part, defrauded as they are of their
rightful patrimony.
If the lands had been held for settlement,
and only the proceeds at Government price
donated, no great objection would have been
made but the system tends directly to re-
duce the people to servitude and erect over
them a despotism.
These grants ought to be revoked by Con-
gress, and in lieu Of the land the proceeds
granted when sales are made to actual set
tiers. No vested rights worthy of respect
can grow out of such transactions as these,
so long, at allevents. as the land is not sold
by the donees to bona fide purchasers.
AGRICULTURAL TOPICS.
have before recommended legislation to
prevent the sharing and killing of small
birds and singing birds. as measure of great
inv, 81 T. AL