est to propitiate the favor rather than the hostility of the people in pushing forward their several enterprises. The counties deeply feel the want of railroads, and many of them would be willing to give or subscribe their swamp lands to attain so desirable an object, but they are not thus willing to be deprived of them, without their consent, or subjected to the other alternative of proving them up a second time at great cost and trouble. The rail road grants were made to the State in trust for certain rail road companies. The State as I read the act has already made a declaration of this trust in favor of the companies in question, subject however to the conditions and restrictions contained in the act of Congress granting them. One of these conditions is, that the lands shall only be sold as the construction of the road progress, that is, after one hundred and twenty sections have been sold another like quantity shall not be sold until the Governor of the State shall certify to the Secretary of the Interior that twenty continuous miles of any of said roads have been completed. Now in order to put an end to this unhappy controversy which has been the source of so much complaint in the State, I cannot but feel that it is my duty to recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your bodies instructing the Governor to sign no more certificates of the description spoken of to any of said companies until they shall file in his office a written relinquishment of their supposed right to contest the swamp land selections that may fall within the limits of their grants, and a consent on their part that the Commissioner of the General Land office may proceed to patent them to the State as other swamp lands, &c.

STATE PRISON.-Ths institution merits a distinct notice. The facts and suggestions contained in the reports of the Board of Inspectors and Warden should attract your special consideration. Since the last General Assembly some eighty five have been added to the number of convicts. On account of this unexampled increase the appropriation made for the general support of the Prison proved wholly inadequate. It did not indeed hold out a year. The price of provisions kept up, and being scarce and commanding a ready cash market, could not be obtained on so long a credit except upon terms at once exorbitant and inadmissible. An attempt on the part of the Inspectors to effect a loan of money for this purpose proved unsuccessful. I was forced to the necessity of opening the prison doors or furnishing the requisite supply.

This latter alternative was adopted, but only accomplished through the co operation and indulgence of the Auditor and Treasurer of the State, who permitted me to take some six or seven thousand dollars of the revenue whilst intransitu from the county collectors to the State Treasury upon my personal receipt. It will be necessary for you to legalize this transaction, I apprehend, and have the treasury credited with the requisite amount, and this I ask may be done. Whereby oversight or miscalculation the appropriation has failed to meet any emergency of this discription, I submit whether it would not be well to authorize the census Board or some other agency or power to supply the deficiency until the sitting of the ensuing General Assembly. I regret to make known the fact that there has been some misunderstanding and disagreement among the officers of this institution and between them and Prison contractors which have led to much irritation of feeling, complaint and finally litigation. It is unnecessary for me to express any opinion upon the character of these difficulties with a view of determining where the blame lies. But it does appear to me that if the Warden was not dependent upon the Board of Inspectors for the term of his office, and the duties and powers of each were clearly defined by law, it would seem to check abuses, and tend to secure both harmony and independence of action.

Representations made to me last May touching the discipline and condition of the Prison accounts, and of abuses in the financial management of the same, satisfied me that the interest of the State demanded an investigation with a view of ascertaining the condition of the one and the manner and system observed in conducting the other. I accordingly commissioned Thomas S. Espy, Robert A. Russell and H. Q. Jennison, to make an examination of the affairs of this institution, and report as contemplated and required by "An act to authorize the Governor to appoint Commissioners to examine the accounts of State officers, and to define the duties of the Governor in certain cases." The very thorough and satisfactory report made by these commissioners is submitted to you and should be considered in connection with that of the Board of Inspectors.

You will not fail to perceive from a careful inspection of their report that the affairs of the institution have been conducted carelessly and without system. That the books of accounts were in a confused condition and could not be balanced; that $1,700 had

been traced as a deposite into the hands of bankers, and had been lost sight of by the officers, and would in all probability have been lost to the State but for this investigation. Much of this irregu larity and confusion in the accounts, undoubtedly is attributable to the acts of an incompetent book keeper-which demonstrates. the importance of having a professional accountant to keep the books in an institution where large sums of money are to be disbursed for various purposes under distinct appropriations.

To the report of the Commissioners is appended a general balance sheet, obtained only by re-journalizing the books and correcting the errors, and supplying the omissions, and which comes down from the commencement of our State organization to the 1st of June, 1859, exhibiting the following result:

It will be ascertained from the details in this balance sheet that the amount $109,641 86 is the whole amount expended by the State on account of the Penitentiary. The other sums on the credit side, may need explanation. The amount $634 42 is for cash advanced by the Warden during the month of May last, in payment of bills for supplies, &c. The amount $12,676 03 is the aggregate of all notes outstanding against the institution, on the 1st of June last, and the amount $6,169 64 is the sum of all amounts due individuals on book account. The different amounts on the debtor side will be readily understood. The labors of this Commission must result in great good to the institution as well as the State, besides exhibiting the precise condition of its financial affairs; it has exposed abuses, rectified mistakes, and made up

and systematized the entire Penitentiary account, so as to render it intelligible.

Honorable mention should be made of S. Guthrie, Esq., who is a most competent book keeper, rendered to the Commission valuable assistance in the discharge of their duties, and who is now employed by the present Warden as chief Clerk and book keeper of the establishment-which at once guarantees accuracy and system in the keeping of the accounts. It is believed, however, that he cannot be retained for the compensation now given that officer. True economy requires that the Clerk in this institution should be a first class book keeper with rates of pay which he could get in our larger mercantile establishments. It is proper that I should state that the Commissioners reported a deficit in the accounts of the late Warden, amounting to $2,278 11. This deficit was discovered by the examiners, after a final settlement of the Warden's accounts, which settlement the Inspectors now ask may be opened up. The attention of the Attorney General has been called to this subject with the necessary instructions.

The north line of the Prison enclosure is protected with a board fence, rendering the confinement of so large a number of convicts exceedingly unsafe and dangerous, and should be replaced with a stone wall at as early day as possible. The cell-room accommodations are inadequate and should be enlarged. I recommend as large appropriations for these objects as the revenue resources of the State will justify.

The Inspectors have procured a plan for the enlargement of the Penitentiary, through the assistance of a competent architect, which embraces all the modern improvements, and would accommodate some 300 or 400 convicts, and ought, in my judgment, to be adopted and carried out, if the financial condition of the State will admit of it.

PARDONING POWER.-It is made my duty, under the Constitution of this State, to communicate to the General Assembly all cases. of pardon, reprieves or commutations granted by me during my term of office, which I have the honor of doing in a separate paper accompanying this message, in which is shown the name and crime of each convict, the sentence, its date, and the date of the pardon, and the reason therefor.

The whole number of pardons in two years from January 10th, 1858, to January 9th, 1860, for Penitentiary offences, was fifteen.

Of these only three were pardoned before their imprisonment-the remaining twelve had suffered imprisonment a greater or less time -some of them sufficiently long to satisfy the ends of justice, independent of the other causes which operated upon my mind in their discharge. The number pardoned for offences punished by fines and by imprisonment in the county jail, was six. There was one case of commutation, and none of reprieves.

The applications for pardons were numerous-often informal and loosely made; to secure an intelligent consideration of these applications, as well as greater certainty and uniformity in their presentation, and to guard against imposition and an abuse of an important trust, when required to be exercised, I proposed a series of rules, which, together with that provision of the Constitution which relates to the subject, I caused to be published and sent to all the counties for the information of those whom it might concern. A copy of the rules presenting the mode of applying for pardons, is appended to the report alluded to, and to which your attention is called. It will be perceived that the Constitution clearly contemplates the enactment of a law regulating the exercise of the pardoning power. This, as yet, has not been done. I now recommend the passage of such a law, and that it shall in its provisions embrace the substance of the rules which I have established, and which I have found from experience to work well, and adequately to guard against an improper use of this high prerogative power, whilst under them the rights of the convict are also duly protected.

STATE REFORM SопооL.-Many States of the Union have established these institutions. They are regarded as tokens of an advancing civilization, and have proved a success. From 70 to 80 per cent. of the juvenile offenders who have entered them have been reformed and given back to society useful and honorable members. They are placed in an institution where the requisite means are employed to transform their moral constitution, where they are compelled to listen to the appeals of virtue and right action, instead of incarceration in the Penitentiary, where they are sujected to the malign influence of the vicious and depraved. I learn from the records of our Penitentiary exhibit the remarkable fact that fifty juvenile convicts, between the ages of 14 and 21, have been imprisoned within its walls during the last three years, and that three eighths of our convicts have, from the beginning,