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Governors Message Gentlemen of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives

The new & responsible relation in which I stand to you and to the people, cannot but bring with it the associations which have accompanied the performance of the duties of another, in the executive department of the Government for the political year which has just expired.

The sudden removal by death of my predecessor, in the first Executive off of the State, from the service and honors of the public, has excited the deepest sensibilities of his immediate associates, and should impress upon us, not only a recollection of the transient and evanescent tenure of public and official station, but of life itself; and that the results and consequences of our councils and our acts as public agents, will, in all probability, in a greater or lesser degree, affect the public interest, when we shall also have passed from the scenes of present life. No selfish views aside from the public good, can properly enter into the administration of a Government instituted, maintained and preserved to aid and promote true happiness of the whole society for which that government has been ordained. The legitimate ends to be obtained by Government are few and simple, and are presented by the common Ruler of human affairs, to the perception of all minds, in a form too tangible and plain to be misunderstood, or to escape the powers of any comprehension common to all men, and might be readily anticipated even without the benefit of experience. The very nature of man is adapted to the social condition; and the end of Government must be the correction of natural and moral evil incident to that nature and to that condition. Although the end of Government is thus simple and