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231.

Appendix

Message of the Governor.

[See page 14.]

It is fortunate that the order of nature, which usually require the agents of private business once in the revolution of the seasons to revise their concerns and prepare for the demands of an advancing period, should have been imitated in our political institutions. The effect is that the wisdom of the Legislature is called to review only such brief terms of experience that the connexion [connection] between causes & consequences is easily traced, remedy can be applied to evil almost at its commencement, and the great check of responsibility is rendered in the highest possible degree effectual. The Constitution having rendered the field of ambition tenable only for so short a term, it may, if for no other reason, be expected that the public spirit and pure motive usually carried to the threshhold [threshold] of office, will be preserved, that the obligations created by patriotism will not be abandoned to party, the felicity we enjoy be immolated to prejudice, or our true State policy abandoned for any purposes of inferior importance. Looking first to the administration of this government, allow me to place these questions before you. What has been the official conduct of every public agent, each of whom is directly or indirectly amenable to you? Have the members of the Executive department been diligent, faithful, & discreet? Have the judiciary correctly expounded the laws, and preserved inviolate the rights of jurors, parties and witnesses? Has every citizen received from all the public functionaries the attention and respect due his wants and his character as a man, and