Year: 1876

suited IN the constitutional amendment pro-
hlbiting an increase Of the public debt and
providing sinking fund for the payment
of the interest, and an annual reduction of
the principal. How different and crafty
ing is the spectacle to-day. With yearly
income scarcely exceeding S6,000,000, and
State with 100000 inhabitants, the
taxes have recently been decreased and an
nually large portion of the debts paid off,
so that now the Indebtedness amounts to
but S23 100000. Of the revenues for
some years past, S2,5OO,OOO have been al
lotted to the payment of interest and the
reduction of the public debt, leaving So
100000 to be devoted to the payment of
the expenses of the Government, which in
clude provision for our magnificent system
of charities and schools, upon the latter of
which alone, common and soldiers orphans,
81 100000 are expended each year The
debts Of our municipalities, On the con-
trary, have been increasing enormously, and
apart from the public improvements, for
which large bonded Indebtedness has been
created, the expenses Of our cities and towns
have been growing annually with pace
that seems out of all proportion with their
necessities. One source of this additional
expense is the increased number of officials
The powers Of government arc too diversi-
fed and require too much machinery. That
mechanism is the best which contains the
fewcst parts, and governments are not ex-
empt from this law. The deplorable condi-
ton of some cities that are overburdenet
with debt and with public improvements
unfinished, that must be completed is the
result largely of the undue and strained as
sistance accorded to these municipalities by
the State governments. Legislatures voted
them the largest possible grants of power,
Executives approved them, and the judi
ciary in some of the States have sustained
every grant of power to tax, where the
amount to be raised was to be dedicated to
j public improvement, even if the benefit
was remote and contigent, as in the con-
strcution of railways at distance from 4
like projects.


LAwLEssNEss.


1t again becomes my painful duty to direct
your attention to the lawless disposition that
exists in portions of the Commonwealth,
where tumult and riot at times have been
so formidable, that the Executive power
of the State had to be invoked to quell the
disturbances These turbulent manifetsta-
tions are becoming alarmingly frequent,
and to repress them some remedy must be
devised That the attitude Of the Executive
towards the participants therein, may not
be mistaken, the following plain and easily
comprehended principles are grouped to-
gether to show what will be the rule of his
conduct on the occasion of every outbreak
of kindred nature. No disobedience of
regularly constituted authority will be
permitted whether on the part of individuals,
corporations or combinations of men. No
sense of wrong, however grievous, will or
shall justify violence in seeking indemnity
therefor. The rights of property must be
respected, and no interference with its
legitimate use will be tolerated. Every
man must be allowed to sell his own labor
at his own price, and his working must not
be interrupted either by force or intimida-
ton. For grievances, fancied or real,
redress mus. BE- sought in the manner the
law provides, and no one must attempt to
override its process. If citizens will re-
cognize these principles as binding upon
their consciences and actions, there can be
no necessity for Executive interference to
preserve the peace, and it must be under
stood, once for all, that any violation of
private rights or resistance to public officers
when in the discharge Of their duty, will be
summarily dealt with, and if the civil
authorities and the power of the county
cannot maintain the supremacy of the law,
then the whole power of the Common
wealth shall be employed, if necessary, to
compel respect for authority.


The local officers likewise allege their
inability to repress this turbulent spirit,
because citizens when summoned refuse to
assist them. Citizens fear to incur the
cnmity of the rioters, and unless the
penalties that attach to their failure to
assist the officers arc inflicted it is idle to
expect them to perform this ungracious and
it may be perilous duty. Thus we have
in these communities where this mob rule
most prevails an unhealthy moral public
sentiment, that in the event of dlstur-
bance permits the officer to neglect his
duty, refuses itself to uphold the law, and
when an offender is arrested, connives at
the fraud that packs the jury-box with his
sympathizers and friends, making mockery
of Justice, and bringing the State and its
authority into merited reproach. Through
what agency can we prevent return of
these disorders, make the local officers and
citizens more vigilant and active, and dis
suade them from looking and applying to
the Executive upon every occasion OF an
alarm or tumult are questions to which l
have given patient and anxious thought,
and the following plan will, believe, afford
a practical test of the disposition and ability
of county to enforce the law and maintain
order within its limits. | recommend the
enactment of law empowering the sheriff,
whenever a riot or disoder is imminent, to
apply to the court of his county, and upon