nicipal government, and that no person shall hold more than one office, at the same time, in or under the municipal government.

These suggestions, although made with especial reference to New York city, will apply generally to all large cities. City charters must, of necessity, according to population and circumstances, differ more or less in detail. What is needed in a city of a million of people, would not be required in one of fifty or a hundred thousand; and a general law aiming at entire uniformity in such charters is, in my judgment, not desirable. The people of any city, with a charter embracing the general provisions to which I have referred, can, if they choose, keep up a simple, honest and efficient local government; and under such a charter, if they will frown down corruption among the scekers as well as the holders of office; if they will condemn the lavish expenditure of money before election to secure office as earnestly as the stealing of it afterward; if they will make those who ask their suffrages understand that the condidate who by money demoralizes the elector is as much a criminal as the representative who takes a bribe; if they will bear in mind that spasmodie reform movements work no permanent good, but that a persistent attention to public affairs, on their part, is necessary to ensure a faithful administration by their representatives; they can secure all that is possible under any law or system of laws.

Simplicity is one great requisite in the charter of a city. Without it, responsibility can never be clearly and unmistakably defined and fixed. All complicated schemes which aim to secure to the minority an equal or unequal portion of the executive and administrative offices of a municipality, and so to make it share with the majority the responsibility of government will prove failures.

PURITY OF ELECTIONS.

At its last session, the Legislature adopted concurrent resolutions proposing an amendment of the Constitution relative to bribery. They have been duly published, and will, I trust, be favorably acted upon by you, so that they may be submitted to the people for their approval at the next general election. The proposed amendment relates to the corrupt expenditure of money to influence electors in voting, and, if it shall be adopted, laws may be enacted which will, if rigidly enforced, tend to check an evil which has assumed proportions of great magnitude. If I may believe current rumors, men of otherwise good repute are in the practice of standing at the polls in many portions of the State even in this city, the seat of government

with money carried openly in their hands, and of paying it, on the spot, to electors for their votes. No such open and shameless use of corrupt means has been charged in the city of New York, much as is said of election abuses there.

The fact that large sums of money are expended throughout the State at every election is well known. Much of it must be spent for corrupting the electors. In city and in country, men are nominated to office because they have been able to purchase a majority in nominating conventions in the first instance, and because it is known they can expend large sums, afterwards, to promote their own election and that of their associates on the same ticket. Men, not candidates, but who take an interest in public affairs, are called upon to contribute, and do contribute liberally toward party success. Individuals and parties are aided by moneyed corporations, who hope in this way to secure favorable legislation for their own interests, or to buy the countenance and support of the government from which they receive their privileges. In this way, the moneyed power of the country is brought in to control elections and secure to itself what it deems strength; but it does so at the risk of its own safety; for it thus debauches the moral sentiment of the community. The love of money, we are told, is the root of all evil. It is, assuredly, the root of all evil in free governments; and the lavish expenditure of money in elections is the chief cause of the corruption in our politics. A man who expends large sums of money to secure an office is apt to seek to make it up to himself when in office. I do not doubt that the multiplication of officers to be elected by the people has had much to do with introducing or increasing this corruption of our politics. The struggle between candidates for local offices is apt to be more intense than the competition for higher place before larger constituencies. It is easier, too, to calculate the influence of corrupt means; and it is easier, by them, to effect the election of candidates, when the constituency taking part in the election is limited in number. The amendment, submitted to you, will enable the Legislature to deprive of the right of suffrage every one who shall be convicted of receiving a bribe for his vote or of bribing an elector; and to pass laws providing that any candidate, guilty of bribing the electors, shall be deprived of the office to which, at any election where he was guilty of this offense, he may have been chosen.

The inconvenience occasioned to the electors, by registry laws, is not to be counted against them, if, by their means, we can ensure pure elections. I have little faith in them to prevent fraud at the polls.

They have been tried and have failed to prevent it. More frequent charges of fraud, and of frauds of a grosser character, have been made since registry laws were put in operation than before. Many who have watched their working insist that they can be easily made, and have been made, a convenient cover for frauds, which, without them, could not have been committed. They have this effect, certainly, that the vigilance necessary to detect illegal voting has to be extended over several days, instead of the one day of election, requiring more time for this purpose than men will spare from their private business; and so the watchfulness over the poll-list is, ordinarily, less general and probably less complete than under the system of challenging on the day of election.

Upon principle, a registry law, if any be passed, should apply to all parts of the State alike. Yet I am satisfied that intelligent public opinion in the rural districts, among men of all parties, does not favor one there. The inconvenience and expense to the electors in such districts, from such a law, are very great, with no adequate good result in compensation. The conviction, however, prevails extensively among intelligent men that, in large cities, registry laws can be made useful in securing the purity of the ballot; and this conviction is so strong that the continuance of the system in the larger cities may be advisable. All laws requiring a registry of the electors, previous to an election, should be made as little vexatious and oppressive to honest voters as is possible, consistently with securing proper identification of the person claiming the right to vote and due examination of his right. It must be borne in mind that it is not the province of a registry law to define the qualifications of voters, or to confer or restrict the right of voting. That right is conferred by the Constitution, and cannot be taken away by act of the Legislature, except in the few cases specified in the Constitution. Any law which you may pass, therefore, ought not to be framed so as to work the actual disfranchisement on the day of election of any elector who, for good reasons, such as sickness or absence from home, or his not having arrived at full age until after the last day of registry, was unable to have his name registered.

The complaints with regard to the late election in New York and Brooklyn, made through the press, are chiefly of false counting of ballots and false returns by inspectors of election. The general suspicion of the existence of such an evil is almost as injurious as the practice itself; our people, if led to believe that it is carried on extensively, will neglect to vote, and will lose their habit of submitting

quietly to the result of an election. The crime is, under our form of government, one of the worst, in its nature and in its effects, and should be punished accordingly. It is a practice which, persisted in, is more likely to overturn our government than any open war that can be levied against it. We have wisely, in our statutes, restricted the definition of the crime of treason to acts of open war against the State government, and to combinations of one or more persons to overturn it by force. The crime of making false returns of votes cast at an election is, nevertheless, of the nature of treason; for it seeks to take away the lawful power and destroy the rights of the true sovereign in our government, the people.

You have the power to attach what penalty you think necessary to any species of offense against the laws; and those imposed should be sufficiently severe to deter men from committing crimes, yet not so extreme as to be likely to protect them from conviction.

Effectual laws against bribery of the electors and to take away an office obtained by bribery, through protection of the right of challenge on election day, severe penalties against miscounting of votes and against illegal voting, ought to suffice for the protection of the ballot, and will suffice, if citizens, juries and public officers will do their duty.

PURITY OF LEGISLATION.

The people cannot be too fully awakened to the dangers inseparable from the growth of moneyed power in this country, whether wielded by individuals or corporations. It makes itself felt everywhere in our politics, and aims to control, and too often does control legislation in Federal and State capitals. We cannot directly strike at it in other States, or at Washington, but we can begin at the capital of our own State, and set an example to others. There is a popular belief that much important legislation, in past years, here, has been influenced by the direct use of money. This belief is so general and wide-spread, that is is due to the people that there should be a prompt and thorough legislative inquiry to ascertain whether it is well founded. If it be so, guilty men should be brought to justice under existing laws, if that is possible. If not, then proper laws should be passed to meet cases which may hereafter arise. The people will be slow to obey laws which, they believe, are enacted by a corrupt Legislature. Their demand to-day is not for municipal reform only, but for reform in every department of government,

Au

State and Federal, in which abuses may be shown to exist. thority, whether executive or legislative, to be cheerfully obeyed, must be respected and honored.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM.

A few years ago the people of this State voted in favor of holding a convention to frame a new Constitution; thus expressing their dissatisfaction with the existing Constitution. The convention was held; but, on the result of its deliberations being submitted to a vote, the people rejected the proposed new instrument, with the exception of one article, to wit, that relating to the judiciary. It is not a fair inference from this action of the people that they desired a convention for the single end of amending the judicial system of the State. That could have been done by the simple process of submitting, after due consideration by the Legislature, a single amendment, covering the one subject. The vote of the people calling a convention indicated that they recognized many defects in our existing Constitution. The vote rejecting the substitute proposed by the convention indicated that, in the popular judgment, the remedies suggested for these defects were not sufficient or satisfactory.

In my opinion, the present Constitution of the State is very defect ive as a frame work of efficient Republican Government. In considering this subject, it must be borne in mind that the population of this State is now larger than that of the whole Union when the Constitution of the United States was put into operation, and that our State has, in fact, in the number of its people and the great interests protected by its laws, the proportions of a nation. It must also be remembered that the comfort, welfare, and happiness of the people are affected in a very much greater degree by the laws of the State, and the manner of their enforcement, than by the operations of the general government The title to property and the rights of, and the restraints upon the owners of property, are regulated by State laws. The enforcement of business contracts of every nature are, in the main, in the hands of the State courts. The detection and repression of crime are dependent, except in a few rare instances upon the enactment of proper criminal laws by the State Legisla ture and their due enforcement. The order of the community is under the guardianship of State laws, and dependent upon State authorities for its preservation. The powers of our municipal govern