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ADDRESS.

GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

Called by the election of the People of Massachusetts, we are assembled at the Capitol of the Commonwealth to inaugurate a year of momentous duties and cares. By the favor of our fathers' GOD-whose blessing we most humbly implore, from whom cometh down all strength and wisdom, and who alone can give the victory,this people, fortunate in all the circumstances of their history, and in the opportunities of patriotism, rising to the height of the great occasion, girding up their loins, and stretching out their hands to grasp and encounter the future, are summoned to a new consecration to the cause of Him, of their country, and the rights of mankind.

You, as lawgivers of the State, will know how best to assist and guide them, by devoting an hour to an estimate of our present condition, prospects, and

wants.

Finances.

The ordinary expenses of the Commonwealth for the year ending December 31, 1861, payable from the ordinary revenue, amount so far as now ascertained by the Auditor, to $922,208.08, to which there should be added about $100,000 more, on account of expenses incurred, of which no returns have yet been made, making the total ordinary expenses properly belonging to the year about a million dollars. And to this is to be added an expenditure of $24,360.98, incurred in the equipment of troops under the provisions of chapter 67 of the Acts of 1861, by the provision of which equipment in advance, our militia regiments were somewhat prepared for the prompt movement which they made to the defence of Washington in April.

The total payments for the year, from the treasury, on account of ordinary expenses, were $1,180,408.69, being in part chargeable to liabilities incurred during the former year, the expenses properly chargeable to the present year being as stated above. The ordinary revenue receipts of the treasury, for the year were, in the aggregate, $1,127,166.62, exhibiting when compared with the payments, a deficiency of $53,242.07, for which provision needs to be made by legislation.

The following tabular statement exhibits the accounts to which the payments of the Treasurer during the year are chargeable:

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The floating debt of $300,000 has been funded during the year, agreeably to the Act of the last Legislature, thereby increasing our permanent liabilities by that amount. They have also been increased during the year 1861, on account of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, $297,208.

The total expenditure for military purposes on account of the existing war, as authorized by chapter 216 of the Acts of 1861, amounts, so far as rendered at the close of business in the Auditor's Department, December 31, 1861, to $3,384,644.88, classified in the accompanying recapitulation,-which includes also one warrant drawn on January 1st, 1862:

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Miscellaneous,

Arms and Equipments, including camp equipage, horses, harnesses, baggage and ambulance wagons,

Pay,
Clothing,

$263,047 47

$1,668,649 94

93,631 38

1,015,931 49

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209,489 36

Transportation,

Medical and Hospital,

Total,

101,602 26

32,292 98

$3,384,644 88

Excluding that warrant, the total amount of payments on account of military expenses, under chapter 216, was $3,343,694.41, and the total amount of receipts on account of those expenses has been $987,263.54, which receipts are briefly recapitulated in the following table, and have so accrued to the treasury that at no time has the net liability of the Commonwealth on account of such expenses reached $3,000,000:

Receipt in cash from the United States of 40 per cent.

of military expenditures, to close of August, Amount returned on account of certain commissary disbursements,

Duties refunded on importations of arms,

Sale of steamer Cambridge,

$775,000 00

2,877 39

35,340 00

37,500 00

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On account of supplies paid for three months troops,

33,657 26

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There is also due to the Commonwealth, on account

of sales of ordnance and ordnance stores:

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