expense now bestowed upon it, products exceeding by one third in quantity and value its present fruits. The dissemination among the cultivators of the earth of the science belonging to their art would enlighten their minds, enlarge their views, elevate their motives, and refine their sentiments. Let it be well remembered, that all this is necessary if we would not see the power residing with them steal away to other classes, whose pursuits secure intellectual cultivation and superior wealth. Agriculture appeals to us as republicans, therefore, with peculiar earnestness, not only by our desire to increase the public wealth, enlarge the public intelligence, and elevate the standard of public virtue; but also by our solicitude to preserve the ascendency of that policy of peace and improvement which is identified with the existence of democratic institutions.

Among the plans of improvement which have been suggested is the formation of a Board of Agriculture. I respectfully commend it to your favorable attention. Such a board might be usefully employed in introducing new species and varieties of productions, and improved implements of husbandry, and in carrying on a general correspondence with a view to promote the interests of agricultnre. I submit, also, whether it would not be well to require that a popular treatise upon agriculture should be contained in the district school libraries; and whether legislative sanction and patronage could not be so extended as to encourage the organization of agricultural societies, free from the defects which have hitherto proved fatal to their permanency and success.

It is now eleven years since this state was suddenly called to mourn the death of a citizen, who illustrated her history by a life of eminent public usefulness. His death happened in the maturity of his manhood, and while the wisdom of his policy and the purity of his motives were yet loudly questioned. Experience has, more rapidly than the almost inspired enthusiasm of his genius anticipated, sanctioned the one, and posterity has made extraordinary haste to vindicate the other. His remains still rest in that vault of a private friend which hospitably received them, as a sacred trust, until an auspicious period for fitting obsequies should arrive. He is understood to have left to his children no inheritance but what they enjoy in common with all their fellowcitizens- his own fame and their abounding public prosperity.

The custom of honoring the dead commends itself to the natural sentiments of mankind; and although, in ignorant and depraved countries, it has been abused by the erection of pyramids, and temples, and tombs, to preserve the ashes of tyrants, it can not, among an enlightened people, be otherwise than right and expedient to perpetuate the memory of public benefactors, and thus to stimulate and encourage emulation of their deeds. Our state early followed the good example, by providing a tomb for the ashes of a gallant soldier who fell in her service in a foreign land.* It can not be too often remembered or practically illustrated, that worthy as military renown is of posthumous honors, civic virtues less frequently attain their just reward; that statesmen pass an ordeal more trying than the field of battle, and that the history of this state records the fame of many valiant generals, while it has witnessed only one such personification of genius and virtue as DE WITT CLINTON. I therefore respectfully recommend that the ashes of that illustrious citizen be deposited underneath a monument to be erected in this capital.

May the blessing of that Almighty Being, in contrast with whose power states and empires are but dust, and in the light of whose wisdom all human counsels are darkness, crown your deliberations for the public good.

* General Montgomery,

ANNUAL MESSAGE TO THE LEGISLATURE.

JANUARY 7, 1840.

FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY:

The experience of the past year teaches us that the most perfect form of government, and the most favored condition of society, can not exempt us from the vicissitudes of life. We have, nevertheless, great cause for thankfulness to the Universal Father. The seasons have been propitious; we have been free from the ravages of pestilence and the calamities of war; the earth has yielded abundant fruits, and notwithstanding embarrassments have been felt by every class of society, the comforts of life were never more equally or more profusely distributed. Industry has not been diverted from its pursuits, and mutual confidence, although temporarily shaken, has still a firm support in the prevalence of morality and the supremacy of the laws. The credit of the state remains unimpaired, and its currency has, in a great degree, escaped the evils which have elsewhere proved disastrous. Peaceful relations have been maintained with foreign countries, and the harmony of the states has not been disturbed. The great safeguards of our liberty remain; all the elements of our national prosperity have been preserved; and we are permitted to rejoice, with increased confidence, in the durability of the Union, and the perpetuity of republican institutions.

[The governor here gives a detailed statement of the fiscal affairs of the state, which, being of temporary interest, is omitted.-Ed.]

NOTE. The numerous important suggestions contained in this message, and the uniformity with which they have been adopted, are equally remarkable. The able and elaborate exposition of Governor Seward's views on internal improvements will also be found interesting and instructive. The whole message exhibits, in a strong light, the foresight and statesmanship of its author.-Ed.

The improvement which has taken place in all the revenues of the state, while it must be highly gratifying to our fellow-citizens, will, I hope, only conduce to greater economy in the management of public affairs.

The high reputation which this state had acquired from the improvement of its criminal code, and from its system of penitentiary discipline, has recently become impaired by very general complaints of inhumanity in the management of our prisons. While the punishment of offenders should always be enforced with firmness, the spirit of the age manifestly requires that discipline should be tempered with kindness, and that moral influences, rather than severe corporeal punishment, should be employed to secure the submission and promote the reformation of the convict. I trust that you will bestow early attention upon. the defects of the present system, and I respectfully suggest that provision be made by law for the instruction of convicts, and for supplying them with such books as shall conduce to their reformation.*

I also invite your attention to the condition of our county jails. The baleful influence of vicious association is too often promoted by the defects in their construction, and the experience they furnish is calculated to destroy whatever remains of generous spirit or virtuous motives. Their defects demand correction, not less upon the ground of economy than from considerations of humanity; and if we would not fall into a common error, we should seek to reclaim less-hardened offenders, by cultivating their moral feelings while we are dispensing the punishment awarded to their crimes.

You will learn from the report of the managers of the house of refuge that the responsibilities of that institution have been discharged with efficiency, and with the most salutary results. The establishment of a similar institution in the western part of the state is desired by a very large number of our fellow-citizens. This proposition derives weight from the consideration of the expense of transporting offenders from distant counties, and the cost of maintaining them in a populous city, and will doubtless

* A law was passed, May 4th, 1840, "for the better regulation of the stateprisons." The governor, also, during the same year, directed those penitentiaries to be supplied with the district school libraries. The benign operation of these measures is well known.-Ed.

receive at your hands the discriminating favor to which it is justly entitled.*

The institution for the instruction of the blind continues to dis

charge its responsibilities with good success. It has sixty-six pupils, of whom fifty-nine are state pupils, and there are sixtynine vacancies to be filled from the different counties, in pursuance of the law passed at the last session. The institution for the deaf and dumb administers its inestimable benefits to one hundred and seventy pupils, maintains its high reputation, and enjoys the unmeasured confidence and kindness of the community among whom it is located. One hundred and twenty of these pupils, being the full number of beneficiaries allowed by law, are supported at the expense of the state.

I transmit a report of the commissioners appointed to superintend the erection of the Lunatic Asylum, from which you will learn that they are prosecuting their important duties with efficiency.

Our scientific institutions continue to maintain their high repution. Twenty-five students were graduated at Columbia College within the year, and that institution has now one hundred and thirty-eight members. The number of graduates at the University of the city of New York was twenty-eight, and its present number of under-graduates is eighty. The grammar-school connected with that institution contains two hundred and sixty pupils. One hundred and six students received their first degree at Union College, and it has now two hundred and seventy-eight members. There are ninety-two students at Hamilton College, and seventeen were graduated within the year. Geneva College has sixty-three students.

I have great pleasure in transmitting to you a document containing a view of the rise, progress, and present condition of the New York University. The liberal principles upon which it was established, the munificent endowments granted by its founders and patrons, and the perseverance with which it has surmounted many and great embarrassments, as well as the promise of usefulness, guarantied by new and auspicious counsels, commend the

This suggestion has been carried out in the establishment of the Western House of Refuge, at Rochester.-Ed.