No. 137. IN ASSEMBLY, JUNE 10, 1851. GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the Assembly: The abrupt termination of the recent annual session of the Legislature, imposed upon me the responsibility of convening the two Houses in extra session, and of ordering special elections to fill the vacancies created by the resignation of members. While I felt reluctant to burthen the treasury with an extraordinary expenditure, and to subject you to the inconvenience of re-assembling at the Capital at this unusual season, the cordition of the public business at the time of your adjournment in April, was such as to render further legislation indispensable to the ordinary administration of the Government; and in this posture of affairs, a sense of duty constrained me to act with promptness in adopting the only mode of proceeding which seemed adequate to the occasion. The annual appropriation bills and many general measures affecting the public welfare, which were left unfinished, should receive final action as early as practicable; and in the discharge of this duty, your own wishes, no less than the interests of your constituents, will prompt the utmost dispatch which you may deem consistent with prudent and judicious deliberation. [Assembly, No. 187.] 1 [u.n.] It is a subject of gratifying reflection, that, in the elections recently held, so large a portion of the people of the State, rising above all party divisions, should have proclaimed their adherence to the vital principle of our institutions, which clothes a constitutional majority with the power to decide public questions and control the action of our representative bodies. The temporary prostration of the legislative power, by the secession of a minority, was an event which could hardly fail to produce a deep impression upon the public mind. A proceeding of this character had never before occurred since the formation of a republican government in this State. It was not the first time in the course of our State and national progress that wide differences of opinion had arisen in our legislative bodies respecting the expediency of public measures and the legitimate construction of constitutional provisions. But hitherto, in seasons of high popular excitement, when the violence of party spirit seemed to defy control, and when political divisions were most equally balanced, the encounters of debate have ceased, and the gravest conflicts of opinion have yielded to the deliberate judgment of the majority. The diversities of sentiment which arise in the administration of a popular system, are to be viewed as a necessary incident of self-government. Our past experience has shown that the utmost freedom of discussion is not inconsistent with the restraints of the Constitution, and that the controversies produced by opposing views of public questions are not hostile to the stability of democratic institutions. The cheerful acquiescence of the whole people in the ascertained will of the majority, has ever constituted the brightest feature of our history, furnishing indisputable proof of the wisdom of our republican theory, and the capacity of our citizens for the exercise of political responsibility. This principle of submission to the voice of the majority, expressed through the forms of the Constitution, is fundamental and organic; it pervades and animates our admirable system of regulated liberty, and constitutes our only shield against the disorders of faction. Its practical recognition has thus far happily distinguised our country from those ill-fated democracies, ancient and modern, which have sunk beneath the violence of popular strife and insubordination. |