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[Governor's Message] institutions have felt the fostering hand of government, at least to the extent of the expectations of their warmest friends; and the general laws of the State, after an able and thorough revision have been reenacted without innovation. All this has been done by our predecessors in a manner satisfactory to their constituents, and honorable to the State and to themselves.

Collected as you are from every portion of the State, and representing the interests of each district and town as well as the whole, you must be possessed of much local knowledge, which when brought into Legislation will be of essential service. Our great care should be to enact laws mild in their character, plain in their construction and equal in their operation. It is of high importance that the general laws be such as to provide for the exigencies, for which they are enacted; and to my mind it is of almost equal consequence, that when well matured and passed with due deliberation, they remain without change unless necessary for remedying some material defect. The principles of laws that have been long in operation become familiar to the people; they have been expounded by the Courts, and decisions have taken place under them, so that whatever might originally have been ambiguous has thus become certain.

The Constitution of this State having provided that the Governor "shall from time to time give the Legislature information of the condition of the State, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he may judge expedient; I now proceed to discharge that part of my official duty. On examining the Statute Book, I find, by the Act of June 27, 1820, in cases of the condemnation of convicts to punishment by solitary imprisonment, and confinement to hard labor, the sentence was ordered to be executed in the the county gaols; and the counties were required, under the direction of the Court of Sessions, to provide enclosed yards, connected with the prisons, where convicts might be kept at labor. It is presumed that the execution of the law was formed