.MTUyNw.MTE2MzI

24

[message]

on the part of the Legislature to economize the public expenditures, cannot fail to be satisfactory to the people. I cannot however, omit suggesting for your consideration, that the amount paid to salary officers by the State, constitutes but a comparatively minor portion of the state expenses. It is in other and more expensive branches of the government, with their numerous appendages & ramifications, where the want of economy operates most extensively and severely upon the public Treasury, and through the treasury upon the people. A reduced compensation, where it can be made consistently with a reasonable allowance for services rendered, considering the present reduced price of almost every necessary article, seems not only just and in due proportion, but is almost imperiously required by the state of our finances.

To perform the duties assigned me in accordance with the principles of the Constitution, is most particularly my desire. In appointments to the several offices my great object has been to select men who would discharge the duties of their stations with fidelity to the people & credit to the state. In doing this I have not considered myself at liberty to consult so much my own personal feelings, as what should appear to be the public sentiment. Nor have I thought it would be consistent with the harmony that so happily prevails, or just in itself to confine the selection exclusively to those of a particular sect or party. The people of Maine have had too much reason to deplore the violence of a party administration, which for a series of years selected all its officers from a minority. This mode of disposing of the public employments exclusively with