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with the Constitution of the United States, in denying to colored men the right of suffrage. This is a relic of barbarism, and should long since have been expunged from the Constitution. Our State, which was in the front rank in the fight for equal rights for all, should not have in its Constitution or upon its statute books any provision favoring any class, race or nationality.

Section 2, article 5, as amended, prohibits persons who have borne arms against the government from exercising the right of suffrage. This amendment was adopted by a very small majority, but the arguments then used in favor of proscriptive legislation have ceased to have any force in this State, and the restriction should be removed.

Section 2, of article 2, provides that the legislature shall never exceed one hundred members of the House and thirty-three members of the Senate.

Section 1, article 10, provides that in the future apportionment of the State each organized county shall have at least one representative, while section 2 of the same article provides that in 1866, and every five years thereafter, there shall be an apportionment of the State into senatorial and representative districts. In 1871, the legislature, in pursuance of the last mentioned provision, in apportioning the State into representative districts, established ninety districts. Since the passage of that law twelve new counties have been organized, and the limit of one hundred members has been reached and passed.

Every county in the State should be entitled to at least one representative in the House, and such amendments as may be necessary to harmonize the provisions of the Constitution, and to secure a just representation to every locality, should be made without delay. In my judgment this can best be done by an increase of the number of members of the legislature. Experience elsewhere has proved that the States which have the largest popular representation in the legislature have been the freest from charges of corruption. That the populous counties of the State may have a fair

representation, it is also necessary that the legislature be increased. Section 2, article 2, of the Constitution should be so amended as to effect this result, and, to make it immediately effective, section 2, article 10, should be so amended as to provide for a re-apportionment of the State.

Section 25, article 2, provides that the sessions of the legislature shall be held annually. In sixteen of the States, namely: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, California, Michigan, Vermont, Maryland, Delaware, Georgia, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon and Tennessee, the legislatures meet in regular session only once in two years. These States seem to be as well governed as the remaining States. In our own State we have had too much legislation. Constant changes of laws lead to confusion and promote litigation. The expenses attending an annual session of the legislature are heavy, and might be diminished one-half by biennial sessions.

The Constitution provides that only three amendments shall be submitted to the people in any one year. Attention here has been called to five necessary changes in that instrument, and these, if adopted, would necessitate others. Other defects have been frequently alluded to by my predecessors. As a remedy for these evils it seems to me that the time has arrived for holding a constitutional convention.

When the present Constitution was adopted the territory had less than one hundred thousand people. On its submission to the people, more than thirteen years ago, only 10,326 voters favored its adoption, and it was adopted by a majority of but 4,805. Thirty-nine of the present organized eounties of the State had no voice in making the Constitution, and the whole vote cast in its favor when it was ratified was only about one-tenth of our present voting population. It will not be claimed that that small number of persons in that day understood our wants as fully as they are known by the present inhabitants of the State The Constitution may have served its purpose, but we have completely outgrown it. You can only provide for the sub

mission of this question to the people at the next general election, and two years will have elapsed, should the people endorse the measure, before the new constitution would go into operation.

THE SENATORIAL ELECTION.

One of your important duties will be the election of a United States Senator. While I would not be understood as sanctioning the reports that have been so generally circulated of the wholesale purchase of legislatures, in our former elections it would be idle to deny the existence of such reports, or the injury they have done to the good name of our commonwealth. Would it not be wise for you, in the language of scripture, to "abstain from all appearance of evil?" Your actions should be governed by such a high sense of public duty that no man would dare risk his reputatition by intimating that you had been controlled by improper motives.

It is hoped that the day is not far distant when Senators in Congress will be chosen by a direct vote of the people.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The tax laws will demand much of your time and attention. Our revenue system is, in many respects, very faulty. The burden of taxation is unequally and unjustly distributed, and the facility with which the law is evaded makes its execution extremely difficult and defective. The Legislature at its last session, provided for the appointment of a Commission to revise the tax laws. The Report of this Commission will be laid before you, and I ask for it that consideration which its importance demands.

The reports of the Supreme Court have never been stereotyped. Some of the early volumes are already nearly exhausted, and it will soon be necessary to reprint them. Had a due regard been paid to economy, these reports would have been stereotyped and the plates owned by the State. New editions could then have been obtained at a comparatively small expense. You should see that in the future this error is remedied.

Section 52 of the act defining the duties of State officers, makes the Governor, Secretary of State and Auditor, a Board of Examiners, and requires them, at least once a month, to make a thorough and complete examination of all the books, vouchers, accounts, records, bonds, securities, claims, assets and effects which are, or should be, in the treasury, and to count all the moneys in the treasury, and compare the books, vouchers, accounts and records. Hitherto this law has been a dead letter. The amount of labor required for a thorough performance of this duty would, it has been claimed, occupy all the time of the officers named. Judging from the past, and from the published opinions of State officers, this provision should be repealed. Should the safeguards thrown around the treasury be insufficient, it will be your duty to provide others.

CONCLUSION.

In what has been briefly submitted in the foregoing suggestions, we have abundant proofs of the progress and prosperity of this great central State, ere long to be the keystone of the augmented and completed Union, as Pennsylvania was of the original thirteen colonies. Before 1876, our State will have one-third of the combined population of the colonies that made the Declaration of Independence and won the victory in the war of the Revolution. With our soil and climate; with our central and commanding position; with a State freed at last from invasions from sister States and from incursions by Indians; with great lines of railway through its whole length and breadth; with a people alive with the spirit and enterprise which distinguishes the present from all past eras, eager for education, obedient to law, and humbly acknowledging its gratitude to God for His manifold blessings, there can be no limit to its career of beneficent growth. Let us be proud to be the servants of such a people; the instruments of such a destiny-and so discharge our public duties as to gain the approbation of our fellow-citizens, the approval of conscience, and the "Well done good and faithful servant" of Him who controls the destinies of men and of States. THOMAS A. OSBORN.

Mr. Crichton offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed, whose duty it shall be to refer the different recommendations of the Governor's message to the appropriate Standing Committees.

Which was adopted.

The President appointed as the Committee on the apportionment of the Governor's message,

Messrs. Crichton, Price and Edwards.

Mr. J. C. Wilson offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That the Standing Committees of the Senate

shall consist of thirty-three, and be as follows:

1. Judiciary.

2. Ways and Means.

3. Elections.

4. Federal Relations.

5. Railroads.

6. Finance & Taxation.

7. Apportionment.

8. Appropriation.

9. Corporations.

10. Counties & Co. Lines.

11. Mines and Mining.
12. Immigration.

13. Printing.

17. Banks and Banking.

18. Manufactures.

19. Enrolled Bills.

20. Unfinished Business.
21. Engrossed Bills.

22. Accounts.

23. Education.
24. Public Lands.
25. Public Buildings.
26. Military Affairs.
27. Claims.

28. State Library.

29. Retrenchment.

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Mr. Winter moved to amend number 16, by inserting

Horticulture and Pomology.

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