Year: 1874

AOV0FnOT . WSSS0S0s

 !M-. President and Gentlemen ofthe Gen

 erat Assembly:

 the duties of the office of Governor of this state, to the best of my abilities, with a profound sense of it's responsibility, and a sincere desire to so maintain 1t as not to forfeit the confidence so generously re- posed in me by the people of Connecticut.

 CURRENCY.

 Since the adjournment of the last Gen. eral Assembly, financial revulsion, sud denly occurring and rapidly extending over the non-specie paying portion of tn e country, has seriously affected the indust- rial and commercial interests of our state, and would have resulted in widespread individual suffering but for the spirit of mutual forbearance and and assistance so commendably exhibited by all portions of our community. Occurring, as it did, in the midst of an abundant harvest and in the absence of any general pestilence or other calamity, it's causes must be looked for in human action alone, and 1t is not, in my judgment, difficult to discover them there. They lie in that abnormal condi- ton produced by the great expansion of credits growing out of our civil war, of which the present prostration of bus1ness Is the natural reaction. The enormous public expenditures required for that con- test, and the consequent creation of pub- lie indebtedness in every possible shape to win the favor of the people and prom ote the circulation of its evidences through the channels of business, would alone hov haon JoY1f& &a 6uI spirit of commercial adventure, as to sub- ject the country to the hazards of a dis astrous reaction. But when, in further ance of this policy or impelled by this ne- cecssity, 1t was determined to discard, as the measure of our commercial values, the only standard recognized by the commer- cial world, and to substitute therefor, for our peculiar use, one of those very evil dences of public indebtedness, with a value depending, at it's best, upon the variableness of public credit and, at all times, subject to the chances of govern mental interference, the consequences We now deplore were reasonably to be expect ed. The operation of such a stimulus was the same as it has invariably been under every circumstance of human his- tory: Regular industry became distaste- ful, and daring speculation, finding It's highest expression in stock gambling, be- came the passion of the country. It brought in it's train over-action in all de partments of business-the straining of credit to its utmost limit extravaganza of living prohigate expenditure, public and parade ofmeretricious wealth and demoralization that has shown it. self conspicuously in the public service. It was through the instinctive conscious ness that this condition was an unhealthy one, that the first alarm so rapidly spread into a general panic. And all human ex- perience attests what the reason of man 30 clearly perceives, that neither commer- cial soundness nor social health can be as- surd to that people, whose measure of ex- values is not itself of such in trinsic value that it cannot be varied by legislative enactment And, for this req son, simply. 1t is that the prolonged use of government bills of credit and all other aayices of paper money, not at once con- .snaaSis snusa into com. has anifa5mlx besn at ally ending in commercial disaster. The of our government, schooled by 3 hard experience, undoubtedly supposed that they had guarded us from this peril by constitutional provisions. And even when our present legal tender act was passed, the pretence of any other justlfica- ton for it than the overruling necessity of war was hardly made. And when the war closed, the danger of the step that had been taken was most clearly seen, aad the necessity for retracing it almost uni acknowledged. The government was solemnly pledged, by its delarations through every. department. to restora- ton of the constitutional currency, as a measure demanded alike by morality and reason, ard financial policy was in fact which, if adhered to, would be- fore this have extricated the country from the peril that now impends. It is a sad upon our public virtue that the courage has failed us to carry that policy out, and that we should be to-day, in the tenth year since the proclamation of peace, confronted by the question whether we shall now attempt a policy looking to the fulfllment of the public pledge to restore the currency to condi- tion of health by coin redemption, or shall continue in a course which, unless human science Is all at fault, can only drift into further degradation of the cur rency, with all the wrong and injustice to involved in such a measure, and, whatever may be the temporary stim- ulus, sure to end in disaster. The recent defeat of the congressional currency bill by the action of the executive. is subject for congratulation- we shall greatly err if we suppose that this question can be so easily removed from our path. It still remains, and will and necessarily must remain so long as government note remains dishonored by the failure to re- deem 1t.

 In addressing you thus at length upon this subject. I am not of course, uncon- scious that, as the evil have deplored is not due to state legislation, so there are no means in your power to meet it, So far as it may be met, by legislative remedy. But still the question so intimately con- cerns every individual in our state. and my convictions areso firm that without 8 fixed, proclaimed financial policy, adapted to the resortation of specie payments, we shall never be free from the evils that have so unsettled the business concerns of our busyfpeople, that have felt it to by my duty to call your attention to the subject, in the hope that you may in some degree be able, by whatever action may be practicable, to influence the legis- lation of Congress to that end.

 REVISION OF CONSTITUTION.

 In accordance with the act of the last General Assembly, the proposed amend ment to the constitution of the state, pro- viding for the holding of all sessions of the General Assembly at Hartford, after the present official year, was. on the first Monday of October last, submitted to the electors of the state. and by them approv- ed; and proclamation has been made de claring it to be part of the constitution.

 This important organic change, break in through usage strengthened by the observance of nearly two cnturies evi- dences most strongly the altered circum. stances of our state, since the adoption of the present constitution, and gives renewed force, it seems to me, to the considers