Page images
PDF
EPUB

stitution of man, with firmness, gentleness, and devotedness, as that of the cure of diseased minds.

The geological examination of the state will be completed on the first day of June next. The public offices of the several state departments will be transferred during the spring to the new state-hall; and the building now occupied by those offices will, in pursuance of the law passed at the last session of the legislature, be fitted for the reception of the geological, botanical, mineral, and zoological specimens procured during the survey. The final report of the geologists will be submitted at the next session of the legislature; and inasmuch as it will exhibit a full view of the zoology, botany, mineralogy, and geology, of the state of New York, it will be a nobler tribute to science than any which has yet been offered in our country.

The law passed last year concerning the redemption of banknotes has had a beneficial operation. The currency issued by the several banking institutions and associations has maintained its credit and circulation. The bills of the City Bank of Buffalo have been redeemed by applying for that purpose $262,333 83 of the safety-fund and $52,795 17 received from the contributing banks. The Wayne County Bank at Palmyra has recently been placed under an injunction at the instance of the bank commissioners; but the holders of its bills will sustain no loss. There remains of the capital of the safety-fund the sum of $556,486 76.

The number of convicts in the stateprison at Auburn on the thirtieth day of September last was six hundred and sixty-seven; of whom two hundred and fifteen were received during the year ending with that day. In the same period twelve died, thirtyfive were discharged by pardon, and one hundred and fifty-four by expiration of their sentences. The amount received for the labor of the convicts during the fiscal year was $61,355 35; and the amount expended for general support and necessary improvements, and in the payment of previous debts, was $57,928 10. The excess of the earnings of the convicts over the ordinary expenses of the prison was $6,917 39. The number of convicts in the stateprison at Mount Pleasant at the close of the fiscal year was eight hundred and thirty-two. The number received during the year was three hundred and fifty-six; sixteen died, twenty were discharged by pardon, and one hundred and ninety-two by

expiration of sentence, within the same period. The amount of earnings was $83,504 14, and the expenses of the prison were $77,460 00. The fiscal condition of the prisons is highly satisfactory, and their discipline has been improved. The complaints of cruelty which heretofore engaged public sympathy, and brought our penitentiary system into disrepute, have altogether ceased. Sunday-schools have been maintained; and, in pursuance of my recommendation, the cell of each prisoner is always supplied with a volume of the school-district library. This measure was followed by a gratifying improvement in the conduct of the prisoners. Many wearisome hours of solitary confinement are beguiled, resolutions of repentance and reformation are formed, and the minds of the unhappy convicts, accustomed to the contemplation of virtue, and expanded by knowledge, are gradually prepared to resist the temptations which await them on their return to society.

The efficacy of the administration of justice must necessarily be impaired by a too-frequent exercise of the pardoning power. Inconsiderate clemency operates as an encouragement to crime, and produces more misery than it alleviates. I have deemed it my duty to restrict the exercise of the pardoning power, within narrower limits than have been heretofore observed. It has been confined to those cases where the conviction was erroneous; where the punishment adjudged was manifestly too severe; where important disclosures conducive to public justice were made; where the insanity of the prisoner showed that a higher than any human power had interposed between society and the offender against its laws; where diseases threatening life might be removed by a restoration to liberty; and a small number in which the appeal for mercy was commended by the sex, the tender youth or extreme age of the prisoner, or by the temptations which prompted, or the mitigating circumstances which attended, the commission of crime, and was supported by evidences of penitence and reformation. The whole number of persons discharged from the stateprisons by pardon, during the last year, was fiftyfour. The number pardoned in 1839 was thirty-three. Of those pardoned in the two years, the rights of citizenship were restored to those only, six in number, who were found to have been unjustly convicted.

The whole number of persons pardoned for every description

of offence, including misdemeanors, in 1820, was three hundred and fifty-four; in 1821, three hundred and eleven; in 1822, two hundred and nine; in 1823, one hundred; in 1824, one hundred and eighty; in 1825, one hundred and seventy-three; in 1826, two hundred and eighty-five; in 1827, one hundred and ninety; in 1828, two hundred and thirty-one; in 1829, eighty-eight; in 1830, one hundred and thirty-eight; in 1831, one hundred and fifteen; in 1832, one hundred and seven; in 1833, one hundred and sixty; in 1834, one hundred and forty-nine; in 1835, one hundred and thirty-one; in 1836, ninety-three; in 1837, one hundred and eight; in 1838, one hundred and fifty-eight; in 1839, sixty-four; and in 1840, eighty-five. Sixteen convictions for murder have been reported to me within the last two years. Of these, one conviction was reversed by the court for the correction of errors; one convict was pardoned because, although he pleaded guilty to the charge, it was certified by the court that he was insane when the crime was committed; the sentences of three were commuted to confinement in the stateprison for life, upon the ground of doubts of the justice of their conviction, or of mitigating circumstances; nine have suffered the penalty prescribed by law; and two are now awaiting the same fearful punishment. While many citizens deny the absolute right of government to inflict capital punishment, all agree that its too great frequency operates as an encouragement rather than a preventive of crime. It is an interesting and important inquiry whether that frequency does not now exist among us.*

The canals were navigable from the twentieth of April until the fourth of December; and the navigation has been less hindered than in any previous year. An increased depth of water has been maintained, permitting greater burden in the boats used, and materially reducing the expense of transportation. Thirty thousand dollars were expended in repairing the dam across the Hudson river at Troy, which was carried away by a flood in February last. It was also found necessary to substitute new structures for several decayed locks and aqueducts, in order to maintain the navigation of the Erie and Champlain ca

* During this session of the legislature, a bill abolishing capital punishment entirely was unanimously reported to the assembly by a committee of five, of which Hon. J. L. O'Sullivan was chairman. The bill was lost by a vote of 47 to 52. For report of committee, vide Assembly Documents, 1841, April 14.—Ed.

nals. The expenditures for repairs have thus been somewhat increased.

The enlargement of the Erie canal has been prosecuted with all the diligence permitted by the appropriations for that object. Various portions of the work have been finished, and others will be completed during the winter. The amount expended for the enlargement, prior to the 1st of January, 1840, was $4,669,661. The appropriations for that object during the last year were $2,500,000; and the surplus revenues of the canals applied to the same purpose were $369,171. Thus, between the first day of January, 1840, and the first day of March next, the sum of $2,869,171 will have been expended, making the aggregate sum which will then have been applied to this great work, $7,538,832. The experience of the present commissioners justifies the belief that the cost of the enlargement will not exceed the corrected estimate submitted by their predecessors in 1839, viz., $23,112,766. Deducting the amount which will have been expended on the first of March next ($7,538,832), there will be required to finish the enlargement the sum of $15,573,934. That portion lying between Albany and Rome might be completed in the spring of 1843; the part extending from Rome to Rochester might be finished by the spring of 1845; and the residue, from Rochester to Buffalo, by the spring of 1847.

The legislature, at its last session, appropriated $100,000 for rebuilding the locks on the Chemung canal. The work has been commenced, and will be efficiently prosecuted. Fourteen of the new locks will be ready for use when the navigation is resumed.

A section of the feeder of this canal, one mile in length, was left in an unfinished state, and the navigation has been much hindered. The inconvenience has been felt more severely since the business of the canal has been increased by the transportation of coal.

The construction of the Black River canal has been continued. The portion of it from the Black river to Rome, about thirty miles in length, required as a feeder, may and ought to be completed as soon as an additional supply of water shall be required for the enlarged Erie canal. According to the corrected estimate of the former canal commissioners, the cost of the Black River canal and feeder will be $2,431,699 29. There was appropriated in 1836 the sum of $800,000, and in 1840 the sum of $250,000, to which

is to be added the expense of a feeder from the Black river to the Erie canal, estimated by the canal board at $290,097 66, which has been transferred to the credit of the Black River canal, making an aggregate of $1,340,097 66; all of which, except about $160,000, had, at the close of the fiscal year, been devoted to the construction of that work.

That part of the Genesee Valley canal lying between Rochester and Mount Morris, thirty-six miles in length, was opened for navigation on the first of September last. The branch canal to Dansville will be finished and connected with the main canal during the present winter. The cost of the entire improvement was estimated by the former canal commissioners at 4,900,122 79. The sum of $2,000,000 was appropriated in 1836, and $500,000 in 1840, the whole of which will have been expended by the first of March next.

Forty-five miles of the New York and Erie railroad, extending from its eastern termination at Piermont on the Hudson river to Goshen, in the county of Orange, will be brought into operation within the present month. The entire length of the road will be four hundred and forty-six miles. Various portions, seventy-two miles in the whole, are graded, and ready to receive the superstructure. Ninety-one miles, chiefly in the valley of the Susquehannah, are under contract, and the company represent that they are about closing contracts for one hundred and eightyeight miles. They represent further that their road will, in its capacity for business, and the cheapness and safety with which it can be used, be second to none in the United States, and, with the exception of its higher grades, equal to any in England. The company also communicate their expectation of completing the work within the period of two years. The cost of the road, as estimated by the company, will be about nine millions of dollars. The amount which has been expended is one million, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The credit of the state was granted, by the law of 1838, to the extent of three millions of dollars, of which four hundred thousand dollars were issued prior to 1840, and four hundred thousand dollars within that year.

The construction of the Auburn and Rochester railroad has been successfully prosecuted. That portion of the road which extends from Canandaigua to Rochester, and connects with the railroad from the latter place to Batavia, was put into operation

« PreviousContinue »