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The detention of another British subject, who, having come voluntarily into the county of Niagara, was held to answer an indictment for a murder committed at Schlosser in 1837, was made a cause of complaint by the British minister to the president of the United States, on the ground that the aggression was an act of public force committed under authority of her majesty's government. The then president having decided that the subject belonged to the judicial jurisdiction of this state, and that his interposition was not required by any principle of reason, justice, or international law, and having communicated that decision to me, I expressed my acquiescence, and assured him that the supposed offender should be brought to trial and have a legal acquittal if innocent, and suffer just punishment if guilty of so aggravated a crime. The government of Great Britain soon afterward formally avowed the aggression, and reiterated the demand for the discharge of the accused. The late executive of the United States,* on this new and more formal presentation of the case, conceded that, according to the laws of nations, the prisoner could not be held responsible for his supposed participation in the aggression. The president further declared, that he would direct the prosecution to be discontinued, if it were pending in a federal court, and intimated to me, that if for want of power or other cause, I should decline to enter a nolle prosequi, the general government would provide counsel for the accused, and suggest a removal of the proceedings into the supreme court at Washington, if a conviction should occur. These views were also adopted by the present chief-magistrate of the United States. After due consideration I informed the president that now, as before, the subject seemed to me to belong to the judicial tribunals of this state, and submitted that their proceedings ought not to be embarrassed by any interposition of either the federal or state authorities. The accused appeared on habeas corpus before the supreme court and challenged its jurisdiction, upon the grounds maintained by Great Britain and conceded by the executive of the United States; but the plea was overruled, and the prisoner having been remanded, was tried in Oneida county in September last, and having proved an alibi, was acquitted. Interesting as a capital trial, especially necessary to maintain the dignity of the state, the case had acquired additional importance + John Tyler.

*General Harrison.

from the grave questions of constitutional and international law which it involved. It became a subject of legislative debate in London and Washington, as well as in our own capitol, and popular feeling was intensely stimulated on both sides of the Atlantic. Thus a trial for felony seemed likely to involve in war two enlightened Christian nations, which had every motive to perpetuate peace and friendship. Agents of the Canadian authorities, and credulous persons among ourselves, alarmed the national executive and the representative of the British government, with reports of imaginary conspiracies to convict the accused by perjured testimony, and to render war inevitable by his assassination in prison. During these proceedings my action was guided by a desire to maintain-but not without proper deference to the government of the United States-the judicial jurisdiction of this state-to conduct the prosecution with energy, but with fairness toward the accused-to preserve order, and not merely to prevent any unlawful violence against the prisoner, but also to manifest a jealous care of the public honor in that respectto sustain the government of the United States in demanding redress for the aggression at Schlosser as a national indignity, and to co-operate in the execution of all necessary measures for public defence. The papers now submitted, together with those already before the legislature, will furnish a full history of these interesting events. Your authority is necessary for paying some expenses attending them, for which no provision was found in existing laws.

New York, like her sister states, and not less assiduously than they, pursues a policy of material improvement, commercial enterprise and virtuous refinement, to meliorate her social condition and recommend republican institutions to the favor of mankind. She deprecates war, therefore; and especially would she avoid incurring its calamities, for objects or from motives peculiar to herself. But recent occurrences admonish us, that pacific interests and dispositions are not always a guaranty of safety and peace. Although the American government rigidly observes neutrality, and especially so where British interests are involved, yet this is far from satisfying a distant monarchy that retains provincial colonies under the shadow of our republican institutions. It has not been enough that a military force was maintained to prevent our citizens from furnishing aid and supplies to

discontented subjects of those colonies, but the irrepressible sympathies of a free people have manifestly given offence. Although the misguided Americans who joined the standard of Canadian insurrection, were abandoned to the vengeance they provoked, yet the government of Great Britain denies our right to try its subjects who, having in time of peace committed crimes in this state, afterward come voluntarily within our jurisdiction. It is not enough that in such cases we award justice according to the principles, and in the forms of English jurisprudence, but we are expected to vary our constitutional distribution of judicial powers. We have experienced the inequality of diplomacy between a peace-loving and defenceless nation, and one that is belligerent and everywhere prepared for conflict; and it is to be hoped, that hereafter, and at least so long as questions affecting the integrity of our territory, the inviolability of our flag, and the honor of our country, remain unadjusted, the government of the United States will steadily persevere in the defensive policy it has so vigorously commenced. Having represented to the president, that the British government had established a naval armament upon the lakes adjoining this state, sufficient to sweep our unprotected commerce from those waters, I have much satisfaction in acknowledging the promptness with which he directed the adoption of an adequate system of defence.

It is a gratifying indication of the patriotism of our citizens, that notwithstanding the diminution of the penalties for omissions of military duty, the efficient militia force has not materially decreased, while a just impatience for a reform of the system is every where expressed.

Agricultural associations have been formed under the auspices of the State Agricultural Society and the patronage of the legislature, in the counties of Albany, Cayuga, Columbia, Cortland, Delaware, Dutchess, Genesee, Greene, Jefferson, Kings, Livingston, Madison, Montgomery, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Orleans, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Suffolk, Tioga, Tompkins, Washington, Wayne, Yates, Monroe, Orange, and Fulton and Hamilton; and I commend to your favorable consideration the appeals that will be made for more liberal encouragement of the arts of husbandry.

The praiseworthy efforts of the agent of the stateprison at

Auburn to introduce the manufacture of silk in the workhouses of that institution, have not been altogether unsuccessful. Citizens in the counties of Monroe, Genesee, Tompkins, Cayuga, Jefferson, Dutchess, Tioga, Wyoming, Niagara, Suffolk, Otsego, Orange, Lewis, Erie, and Yates, have responded to the desire of the legislature to engraft the production of silk upon our agri- ́ culture, and the sum of nine hundred and sixty-four dollars has been paid by way of bounty for that object. It is worthy of remark, that this very productive branch of industry has never flourished in any country without first enjoying some such especial favor. England was repaid (by the introduction of the silk manufacture) for religious tolerance toward exiled French artisans; France acquired it by munificent patronage of Italian manufacturers; and China received from Italy a large tribute until the culture in the latter country became an object of imperial protection. The necessity for revising the revenue laws occurs under circumstances so propitious to the establishment of a system which would not only encourage this important object, but which would also stimulate agriculture generally and revive the manufacturing interests, that I hope you may think it proper to instruct our representatives in Congress concerning the views and wishes of the people of this state on that deeply interesting question.*

The Literature Fund, devoted to the improvement of the higher branches of learning in colleges and academies, has a capital of $268,990, and including what is received from the United States deposites, an income of $47,165. The value of the endowments of our colleges and academies is $2,175,731. The productive capital of the Common School Fund is $2,036,625, and its whole income is $261,073. If we should include lands valued at $200,000, and so much of the United States deposite moneys as yield revenue to this fund, its value would be $5,819,959. There are 10,886 school district libraries, containing 630,000 volumes. The whole capital permanently invested for the support of education, including the two funds, the endowments of colleges and the value of school edifices, is ten and a half millions of dollars. There is a happy contrast between this munificent foundation,

The experiment of manufacturing silk in the stateprison was subsequently abandoned without a thorough trial.-Ed.

VOL. II.-20

and a resolution of the colonial assembly not long before the Revolution, declaring that a report that they intended to levy by tax five hundred pounds, to be expended in the promotion of learning, was groundless, false, and malicious.

It was among my earliest duties to bring to the notice of the legislature the neglected condition of many thousand children, including a very large proportion of those of immigrant parentage in our great commercial city; a misfortune then supposed to result from groundless prejudices and omissions of parental duty. Especially desirous, at the same time, not to disturb in any manner the public schools which seemed to be efficiently conducted, although so many for whom they were established were unwilling to receive their instructions, I suggested, as I thought, in a spirit not inharmonious with our civil and religious institutions, that, if necessary, it might be expedient to bring those so excluded from such privileges into schools rendered especially attractive by the sympathies of those to whom the task of instruction should be confided. It has since been discovered that the magnitude of the evil was not fully known, and that its causes were very imperfectly understood. It will be shown you in the proper report, that twenty thousand children in the city of New York, of suitable age, are not at all instructed in any of the public schools, while the whole number in all the residue of the state, not taught in common schools, does not exceed nine thousand. What had been regarded as individual, occasional, and accidental prejudices, have proved to be opinions pervading a large mass, including at least one religious communion equally with all others entitled to civil tolerance-opinions cherished through a period of sixteen years, and ripened into a permanent conscientious distrust of the impartiality of the education given in the public schools. This distrust has been rendered still deeper, and more alienating, by a subversion of precious civil rights of those whose consciences are thus offended.

Happily in this, as in other instances, the evil is discovered to have had its origin no deeper than in a departure from the equality of general laws. In our general system of common schools, trustees chosen by tax-paying citizens, levy taxes, build school-houses, employ and pay teachers, and govern schools which are subject to visitation by similarly-elected inspectors, who certify the qualifications of teachers; and all schools thus consti

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