Year: 1870

To Geverus<ss nGe~ass-A Presidential


Move on the Money Question.


The Governors Message 10 before our read
ers II is an exhibit of the workings Of our State
government and Of the Governors views upon
our local and national affairs, upon which he
has evidently devoted much care and deliber-
alton. There is nothing however, very star
Ting in his recommendations or protests, and
upon the whole he Is rather conservative than
revolutionary, feeling that power involves
responsibility, and that responsibility teaches
moderation.


His report on the condition of the finances
and debt of the Commonwealth Is not discour-
aging; he pleads earnestly for liberal policy
in support Of the State canals he Is firm be-
lever in our common schools, and has no dan
gerous experiments In regard to the Bible, or
sectarian division Of the funds to recommend
he calls attention to the necessity of some spe-
cial legislation for the government Of the State
prisons; he suggests law authorizing per-
sonal examination of the banks; he proposes
some measure for the better equipment and
training Of our State militia he fayors help
ing hand to our charities and asylums; he
recommends some further appropriation to the
West Bank Quarantine Hospital; he submits
quite a budget Of recommendations In the way
Of general laws, including general power to
construct new roads and avenues into the in
terror from New York and Brooklyn; he urges
a repeal of the conspiracy law, and with con-
siderable force, too; he suggests the passage
of law against injunctions or receivers on er
parte application, the revision Of the apprentice
laws, and of the Revised Statutes, and the
needful laws for carrying out the new Judiciary
article of the State constitution.


He gets then into deeper water on the Regis
try law, but broadly adopts the general demo-
cratic idea that registration Is an abomination
and ought to be abolished. On the criminal
laws he submits that some amendment is
needed in more distinct classification Of the
different degrees Of murder. On the excise
question he prefers the good old democratic
free and easy system to the rigid taxations and
pains and penalties of radicalism. He pleads
for general reconstruction of our municipal
affairs, and the merging of the independent
commissions into consolidated establishment
under the Mayor and, finally, on our local
concerns, for the sake OF economy and to pre-
vent swindling in the job, he pleads for the
consideration of the city and county tax levies
early in the session. nice little tub for the
amusement of the public whale.


Having thus disposed of State matters, the
Governor takes long breath, stretches him
self, takes a turn or two around his room, and
then, like man whose eye ranges from his
present spent up Utica" to the ''whole bound
less continent" he proceeds to the discussion
of our federal affairs. State affairs have
already become to him a sort Of humdrum
drudgery which must be attended to; but
having disposed of it, he launches upon the
broad sea Of our national affairs as ii he were
already writing his first annual exhibit to Con-
gress. His message upon these affairs may
not inaptly be styled his pronunciamento for
the next Presidency. For instance, he thus
opens with broadside against the ''powers
that be" at Washington on the tariff go pro-
test against the favoritism of our present tariff
laws, which have virtually destroyed American
shipping, and which bear oppressively upon the
masses Of the people, and especially upon the
agricultural States" A good democratic shot
this, for the East and for the West, followed
as it is by handsome little stump speech on
the subject.


The Governor likewise protests against sthe
revolutionary course Of Congress with refer
ence to amendments of the constitution Of the
United States, by which, among their other
efforts at Capitalization, they seek the absolute
control Of elections in the States" This means
the resembling Of the resolution of our last
Legislature ratifying the fifteenth amendment
on negro suffrage. He next protests against
the action of Congress and the President in
another reconstruction of Georgia after her
restoration to the Union, and he protests
against the longer exclusion from representa-
ton of any Of the States. These protests will
meet the general concurrence of the demo-
cratic party, though they are becoming thread
bare But the Governor, on s'federal affairs"
1t must be understood, is defining his position,
not to the Legislature, but to the democracy
at large-the immediate business portion Of his
message being off his hands.


1t is, however, upon the general finances of
the United States that the Governor lays him
self out. Upon this important subject Horatio
Seymour desired to fight the battle of 1868.
and he did his best to keep it in the foreground
and the niger and the war in the background;
but General Frank Blair and General Wade
Hampton were too much for him, and 30 the
niger and the war were again made the issues
Of the campaign, as in 1864, and with the same
results The Governor now, however, foresees
that the nigger is substantially settled, that
few democratic generalities will do on the war
and reconstruction questions, but that on
specie payments he has broad field, upon