State had been previously plighted, have all tended to swell the aggregate amount of appropriations, until it has become quite apparent that, irrespective of the aid proposed to be given to railroad companies, the State tax for the ensuing fiscal year will amount to nearly or quite ten millions of dollars. Before adding to this a heavy sum in aid of corporate enterprises, however meritorious, to which the public faith is not already pledged, we should consider whether it would be just to the great body of the people in a year when county as well as federal taxation will probably be higher than any future year of the present century, and when the monetary condition of the country is subject to changes between seed time and harvest, which may tax to the utmost the resources and energy of our citizens. The measures in question admit of postponement if they involve an addition to a burden which is already as great as the taxpayers should be required to bear. The road from Plattsburgh to Whitehall is to run along the shore of Lake Champlain, which we have heretofore regarded as a great natural highway of commerce, with existing outlets by canal and railway to tide water. The Albany and Susquehanna railroad was commenced on the eve of a great financial revolution; and, though those who projected the enterprise encountered obstacles from time to time which would have appalled ordinary ability and energy, the road is already in successful operation from Albany to Unadilla, and its value and importance has been so fully demonstrated, that I cannot but hope that even if you concur in my views, and the aid now asked from the State should not be granted, the progress of the road will not be retarded, but enlightened capitalists will be found to assist in bringing it to a speedy completion. But however this may be, I cannot believe it to be sound policy, at this juncture, to add to the State tax for the coming year a further sum for the purpose of expediting the completion of these roads. It is rarely wise to increase taxation in a period when there is an inflated currency and a falling market. The year after the close of a great war is always one of critical peril to individual interests. We all recognize the necessity of repairing the losses incident to the recent struggle by rigid retrenchment in our public expenditures in co-operation with private economy and energy. Any undue pressure on the industrial classes, retards the restoration of general prosperity, and no pressure is so discouraging to vigorous enterprise as the dead weight of inordinate taxation. It bears with especial severity on those who compose the largest portion of the community, whose means are moderate, whose resources have been diminished either by absence in the public service or by voluntary contributions for the war, who have no surplus accumulations upon which to draw, and who are compelled, in a period of enhanced prices, to apply a large portion of their annual earnings to meet the demands of successive tax-gatherers, when the whole is barely adequate to the expense of providing for themselves and their families. Taxes, in the end, fall mainly on the productive labor of the State, and it is always a grave misfortune when those energies in industrial pursuits are compelled to anticipate future earnings, and to become borrowers in order to meet the demand of government. Any addition to the popular burden, beyond the requirements of imperious necessity, would be a source of distress to many, and of ultimate regret to all. I entertain a firm conviction that if the question could be submitted to the people of the State, whether, in view of the considerations I have submitted, these bills should become laws at this time, the response in favor of postponement would be almost unanimous. Trusting that these views may meet the concurrence of the Legislature, I respectfully return the bills for your further considerations." The bills were not passed over the veto. April 20. The Legislature adjourned without day. TO THE LEGISLATURE.-I welcome the members of the two branches of the Legislature to the public councils. Questions of grave import, both State and National, await your deliberation. The auspicious circumstances which attend your meeting will cheer you in commencing the work before you; they will impart strength and unity to your counsels, and will confirm, by the authority of the public judgment, such action as you may take towards the settlement of our National difficulties, on the sure foundation of justice. The people look with undoubting confidence to you, as their representatives, to give expression to their ascertained will; and they rely on your wisdom and fidelity for such salutary and wholesome laws as shall advance our general welfare. The year that has just closed has been charged with great events, and has been rich in its blessings of peace, and its rewards to industry. We have occasion for mutual congratulation on the progress of almost every interest of the people, and the promise of yet greater achievements in the future, to be wrought out through a firm adherence to our traditional policy, and to those fundamental truths upon which our system of government depends. We emerged from the stormy night of war, to enter upon a hardly less trying period of political conflict; and in passing through each of these ordeals, there has been developed, on the part [741] of the people, a steadfastness of purpose, a depth of patriotism, and an enlightened appreciation of the principles of civil liberty, which not only attest the beneficent influence and strength of our form of government, but also give assurance of its rising greatness and perpetuity. Through the very process of our national trials, in both field and forum, the American Union has been subjected to a test more severe than any to which it can hereafter be exposed; and experience has demonstrated that its cohesion and strength depend, not on the pleasure or caprice of individual States or of geographical sections, but on the collective will of the people. That will has been declared in the forms prescribed by the Constitution. It has been maintained in war. It has been reasserted by the representatives of the People and of the State. It has prescribed its own guarantees for the future, and confirmed those guarantees by the reaffirmance at the polls of the popular will. There is no loyal man, who has not a clear and abiding confidence in the perpetuity of a government thus sustained, in peace as in war, by the sovereign power of the People. There is no foreign nation which does not recognize these as the achieved results of the conflict, and unite in respect for a people so true to the traditions of their early history, and to the liberties committed to them by the fathers; and who, having proved faithful and heroic amid carnage and battle, which filled the land with anguish; in victory seek only, yet firmly, the security of the Republic, and the supremacy of well-ordered and equal freedom. It will be your high privilege, in the name of the people of this State, to ratify the proposed constitutional amendment, which I have the honor to transmit upon this opening day of your session. I cannot too earnestly recommend your prompt action, in order that the judgment of New York on a proposition so moderate and so just, may be submitted at the earliest day to the unreconstructed States, and that, on our part there may be no delay in anchoring those fraternal guarantees in the Federal Constitution. I need not discuss the features of this amendment; they have undergone the ordeal of public consideration since the adjournment of Congress in July last, and they are understood, appreciated and approved. Never before in the history of the Government, upon any great question affecting our national interests, has there been such unanimity in the expression of the popular will. The proposed amendment seems to contain just the conditions of safety and justice indispensable to a permanent settlement. It spans the chasm which the rebellion opened between the loyal and the insurgent States; and if it shall be accepted in good faith, as frankly as it is tendered, the way is already opened for reconciliation and lasting peace. There is no other plan before the people, and the verdict of the ballot box implies that no other plan is desired. The claim that the revolting States could by their own act, and without the consent of Congress, restore their former relations to the Government against which they rebelled, and that an Executive officer of the Government could exercise the prerogative of Congress, and legalize illegal governments organized by armed and unpardoned rebels-have both been rejected and condemned. On full and deliberate consideration, the people have pronounced in favor of the authority of Congress over the whole subject of reconstruction, and have declared their purpose, that the rebel States shall not be restored to their former participation in the Government until suitable constitutional guarantees are provided for security against present disloyalty and future rebellion. I am not insensible of the obstacles to a cheerful acceptance of the amendment, by those who retain much of the bitterness which they cherished towards us through four years of wasting war; and who are still imbued with prejudice against equality of right for those whom they recently held in bondage, and who fought to uphold the govern |