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Governor’s Message]

Most of our Statute Law, was framed during our connexion [connection] with the parent State, and has been re-enacted here after a careful revision. Wherever deficits have been discovered, they have been reminded; ambiguities have been explained, and its application illustrated by able jurists in both States. Having stood the test of time and received the sanction of those who are subject to its operation, it may be presumed to be generally as well adapted to the circumstances of the people as it is possible to make it. If however the existing laws have proved ineffectual, in any instance, for the security of the person, property or reputation of the citizen, or generally for preventing those offences [offenses] which endanger the good order of society, the attention of the Legislature will be directed to supplying the defect. Laws should be made so clear that every member of the community may understand them, so explicit as to leave no room for doubt as to their true interpretation, and after having been enforced for a lot time and approved by experience, should not be altered but with great caution.

By our Constitution it is made the duty of the Governor to take case that the laws be faithfully executed. This duty it is impossible for him to perform except through the agency of the Officers of Government resident in the various parts of the State. No law should remain a dead letter; it ought either to be enforced or expunged from the Statute book, lest the contempt with which it is viewed, be extended to the whole code. And are there not laws of high importance to the moral health and good order of the community, to the faithful execution of which too little attention is devoted. Who can say how many individuals may be saved from ruin, and families from