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GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE

DELIVERED TO THE

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

OF THE

STATE OF INDIANA,

DECEMBER 4, 1849.

INDIANAPOLIS:

JOHN D. DEFREES, STATE PRINTER.

1849.

גיין

MESSAGE.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the

House of Representatives :

Having assembled as the Representatives of the people, in obedience to the requirements of the constitution, for the purpose of deliberating upon such measures of public policy as are best calculated to maintain and advance the political and social prosperity of the people of Indiana, the acknowledgment of our gratitude is due to Almighty God for the manifold blessings with which he has crowned the year.

This assembling of the people's Representatives, devolves upon me the performance of a constitutional duty, which I discharge with cheerfulness, yet I trust with becoming diffidence.

A retrospective view of the affairs of our State, presents as many substantial causes for congratulation, as at any former period of her history. Agricultural industry-the great and reliable source of the prosperity of our people-has met with its merited reward, and the enterprising spirit of our citizens has been crowned with that success which it so richly deserves. The people of our own, in common with those of many of the other States of our beloved country, have been, during the past year, severely afflicted by the cholera, that desolating scourge of mankind; yet it is gratifying to know that the melancholy reminiscences of its fearful march through our midst, are being obliterated by the smiles of returning health.

The general prosperity of our beloved country, is a just source of pride and congratulation to every American citizen. Whilst some of the oldest governments of the world are tottering to their fall, by the revolutionary spirit of their citizens, our Republican institutions -simple, yet sublime in their structure-based in the affectionsidentified with the interests-incorporated with the feelings-and sustained by the will of a free and intelligent people are diffusing over their citizens the benign influences of domestic quiet, wholesome laws, and the preservation of their civil and religious rights and privileges.

The permanent and continued prosperity of our country in every department of business, especially in the agricultural portion of it, upon which we must mainly rely for the great bulk of our national

wealth, I can but think is mainly attributable to the healthful influence of the national revenue system adopted by the Congress of the United States in 1846.

It is a political axiom too obvious to be controverted, that the ability of the people of one nation to buy the produce of another, is limited by the ability to pay for the same by the surplus products of their own industry. The adoption of a low rate of tariff duties in 1846 at home, and a corresponding relaxation of the stringent restrictions upon commerce abroad, have not only had the effect to bring into the treasury of the United States a greater amount of revenue, but also to increase greatly the profits of the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial classes of community.

Should this benificent system, by which the millions engaged in agriculture are enabled to procure a wider and more favorable market for the surplus products of their labor, be suffered to continue, it is confidently believed that the permanent prosperity of the toiling millions of our population will be placed upon a durable basis.

By a treaty of peace recently entered into between the United States and the Republic of Mexico, our Government has acquired a large extent of territory which must, at no distant day, be erected into separate state governments, and provided with organic laws. The public mind has become too much agitated upon a question of vital importance connected with the character of those organic laws, to be passed over in silence upon the present occasion. There is but little diversity of sentiment amongst the people of Indiana upon the question of human slavery; yet, as decidedly as are the opinions of our people opposed to this institution, we have ever manifested an unwillingness to interfere with the constitutional rights of our brethren of the slave States upon this very delicate subject. The territory thus acquired has come to us free. The question is now presented to the American people, whether this territory shall remain free. It cannot be doubted that the response of the people of Indiana to this momentous question, will be in favor of freedom. Whilst we are in favor of freedom, let us exercise that forbearance towards our political brethren of the slave States of this Union, which characterizes the conduct of the patriot and statesman. Nevertheless, it is our imperative duty to assert our rights as members of the same great family, and manfully resist, by all legal and constitutional means, the further advancement of slavery into territory belonging to the General Government. That Congress possesses this power does not admit of a doubt, and the only remaining question to be determined is, whether it is expedient to exercise that right. To decide this question affirmatively, the reflecting mind need only glance over the history of our beloved country-the rise and progress in the arts and sciences-in manufactures, mechanics, internal improvements, and every other great element of social and political happiness in the States of this Union, but too plainly admonish us that bounds should be prescribed to the

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