red. I doubt the propriety of this course. The pupils reside at the institution several years. Unless they have some employment, they must spend many hours of the day in idleness or mischief. Habits are thus formed, difficult to overcome in after life. Nor does it seem a sufficient answer to say, that mechanical pursuits have not been found profitable in the institution. Children are not sent there as a matter of State speculation, but to rear them up, intelligent, virtuous, and industrious citizens.

I would, with due deference to the wisdom of the General Assembly and the riper experience of others, suggest the propriety of a more general introduction of manual employment into our Asylum for Lunatics. By the Report of Mr. CHAPIN, communicated to the Ohio Legislature on the 14th day of January, 1846, I find that a very large proportion of the Lunatics of Great Britain and France are thus employed, with the happiest results. See Documents, 1845-6, part 1, page 559. Mr. S. GASKILL, medical attendant at the Lancaster County Asylum, where five hundred out of six hundred are employed, speaks favorably of putting all the patients at work, who are able, both in doors and out, preferring out door labor, when practicable, in fair weather. He continues: "The benefits derivable from exercise and employment, being admitted on all sides to be of paramount importance in the treatment of a great majority of insane patients, the provision for the attainment of these advantages must always form a leading subject of consideration, if not the most essential point of all, in the economy of public hospitals for their reception. Whether regarded as an expedient for augmenting the means of recovery, or as being conducive to the mitigation of a permanent and irremovable affliction, this provision is alike absolutely indispensible."

The people of Ohio are mainly agriculturists. A large proportion of our Lunatics have led an active life in the open air. Confinement must be to them not merely irksome and unnatural, but an almost overwhelming calamity. Fortunately our noble Asylum for Lunatics is surrounded by ample grounds, one half of which is still covered with the primitive forest, the growth of centuries. The other institutions, though in this respect somewhat less fortunate, have spacious areas. By a proper application of the principles of Landscape Gardening these several institutions might, in a very few years, instead of naked walls, however architectural, present rural retreats, for such purposes unrivalled in any of the United States. Let there be appointed to take charge of all these grounds, one intelligent horticulturist, or, for the ornament of the city of Columbus, let a board of trustees volunteer their services, with power to plant out fruit and ornamental, deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubbery and vines, on a well digested plan. Let the forest trees now standing, of course be preserved, united with, and form a part of the whole. And let such of the inmates as may be trusted in the open air be employed in cultivating these grounds, and the vegetable garden, which of course should form an essential part. Let something like this plan be adopted, and at comparatively small expense, more would be ad

ded to the comfort, usefulness and elegance of these institution than by ten times the amount expended in walls of brick and mortar, exposed without ornament or protection to the bleak blasts of winter and the glaring sun of summer.

The "Friends' retreat in Great Britain for persons afflicted with disorders of the mind, has twenty-nine acres of ground attached, which are beautifully cultivated, with shady bowers and shrubbery, and gravelled walks and lawns." Mr. Chapin says in relation to it, "I visited no asylum for the insane abroad that impressed me so favorably as this. The quiet and social comfort that prevailed throughout the household, and the perfect neatness and cleanliness every where, had all the agreeable associations of a well ordered private family.”

WILLIAM BEBB.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

Having been officially informed that the people of the State have, by their voice constitutionally expressed, selected me as their chief magistrate, I now appear before you to take the necessary oath of office.

It seems to be required, in pursuance of established custom that I should, on this occasion, express some of the views which I deem of importance to the welfare and prosperity of the State. Before doing this, permit me to present my acknowledgments to you, and through you to our common constituents for the honor conferred upon me, and to express my abiding sense of the responsibilities which that honor brings with it.

The framers of our constitution were men deeply imbued with the spirit of liberty and jealous of arbitrary power. They felt that the will of the people as expressed through their immediate representatives, should prevail, uncontrolled by executive interference. They therefore conferred the law making power upon a General Assembly composed of two branches. The powers conferred upon the Governor were extremely limited and almost exclusively of an executive character. They neither entrusted him with power directly to check the action of the General Assembly by the veto, nor indirectly to influence it by the distribution of official patronage. This caution of the convention was doubtless induced by previous experience under the territorial government, during the existence of which the veto power had been freely exercised.

The wisdom of the convention in this distribution of powers has been proven by more than forty years experience, and it is fondly hoped that whatever changes may hereafter be made in that instrument, in these particulars it may remain unaltered. In one short paragraph in the preamble to our constitution, the object of that convention and the same object for which all governments should be formed, is explicitly set forth. That object as therein declared was, "to establish justice, promote the welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." That this object should be attained must be the earnest desire of every good citizen, and when attained it is all that can be required at the hands of any government. To secure this result of highest importance, the action of all the different branches of the government must be confined within the limits prescribed by the constitution; each carefully guarding its own, neither interfering with the rights and duties of the other, all

faithfully and impartially performed, and when so done, all cheerfully and promptly complied with.

It is the duty of the General Assembly from time to time to enact such laws as the necessities of the people require and of such character as will secure the rights, and redress the injuries of all equally and alike. And that these laws may be well understood and operate most beneficially, they should be generally permanent. Frequent changes, or changes for slight causes, should not be made.

Laws, while they remain in force, should be implicitly obeyed; and he who knowingly violates them, disregards his first duty as a good citizen, and a patriot. Without law there is no rational liberty. Unrestrained individual action is only anarchy, and anarchy is a despotism more to be dreaded than the arbitrary rule of a single despot. Under its reign there is no security of life, person or property. It is our boast that our government is a government of law, and no one can, in any way, more effectually show his attachment to our free institutions, than by his cheerful obedience to, and his faithful execution of the law; thus giving stability to individual rights and interests, and permanency to our institutions.

The people of Ohio have been a law-abiding people, and as a consequence, our prosperity has been almost, if not entirely unexampled. It is now less than fifty years since the formation of our constitution and the admission of this State into the Union. At the time of its formation the population of the State was less than fifty thousand, scattered sparsely over its surface, then an almost unbroken wilderness. The productions of the soil scarcely sufficient to supply the wants of the people, together with the wants of those who were constantly coming within our borders. Since that period our population has increased to nearly or quite two millions, engaged in all the various employments of life, furnishing annually from the productions of Agriculture alone, above the wants of home consumption, but little if any less than fifty millions of dollars.

The natural result of the increase of population is a division of labor, by the increase of the different varieties of business to which labor is applied, each benefitting the other. But after all, the great source of wealth to the people of this State generally, is and will continue to to be, its agricultural productions. It will therefore be readily seen that the promotion of the interests of the farming class of our community, requires the particular attention of the General Assembly. That interest is always fully represented in this body, and will, I trust, receive a full share of its consideration.

History and example teach that a republican government, depending as it does upon the will of the people, can only be maintained where information and knowledge are generally diffused. Impressed with this truth, the framers of the constitution declare in that instrument that," Schools and the means of instruction shall forever be encouraged by legislative provision."

Considering the age of our State, much has already been done in obedience to this requirement of the constitution. But much more remains to be done before our system of education will become as

perfect as its importance demands. In the administration of our school law, a greater number of persons are engaged than in the administration of any other law upon our statute book; it should therefore be plain, explicit and easy to be understood. The acts now constituting our system of common schools are scattered through the different volumes of the statute, sections and parts of sections changed, altered and repealed, until it is no easy matter even for a skillful lawyer to ascertain what the law is. I would therefore recommend to the Legislature a revision of these laws, so that the whole subject of common school education may be embraced in a single statute.

Within the last twenty-five years a system of internal improvements has been commenced and completed at the public expense. That these works have added much to individual and general wealth there can be no doubt; since by their construction every portion of the community is brought within a reasonable distance of a market for all its surplus productions, thus having developed the resources of the State and given an impetus to every variety of business transactions. To procure the means of constructing these works, a State debt of considerable magnitude has been contracted, which at one time seemed to threaten our prosperity and our credit. But by the energy of our officers and the fidelity of our people, both have been preserved, and our obligations will be faithfully adhered to until that debt shall be paid to the last farthing.

By the operation of our present system of revenue, a system believed to be as equal as any that could be devised, the interest of our State debt is punctually paid, and already since its adoption, a large amount of the principal of that debt has been discharged. The new banking system has restored confidence in our currency by the facilities afforded to business and its security to bill holders, and is yet all that was expected of it. These two systems, I doubt not, will be sustained while their beneficial effects remain so clearly manifest.

From a consideration of the laws themselves, as well as from the agitation of the subject in all parts of the State, I invite the attention of the General Assembly to the act of Jan. 5th, 1804, entitled "an act to regulate black and mulatto persons," and the act amendatory. thereto, passed Jan. 25th, 1807. These acts, which are in common parlance, denominated the "black laws," are of long standing; the first having been enacted soon after the organization of the State government. From the first they have met with a decided opposition from a portion of the people of the State. Of late years, and on a more full investigation, this opposition has become more determined and more extended.

There has sometimes been manifested, a disposition to impute improper motives to those who enacted these laws. In this attack upon the memory of those who have gone before us, I am not disposed to participate. These acts were undoubtedly intended by those who passed them, for good-they were legislating for a State which had just been organized. On its southern boundary, and separated from it by the Ohio river, were States in which the colored man was enslaved. But in their own State, both by its constitution and the ordi