now devolved, with the increased fatigue and responsibility before mentioned, on only three men, whose salaries combined do not equal the compensation to many single judges elsewhere.

After due inquiry, should you conclude that our present system, among many excellences, possesses some defects, but that these are of a character which can be remedied by the addition of another judge and of other terms, where desirable to prevent cost and delay, and still leave its incidental expenses much less than those of any other system, no reasons of a public nature have occurred to me which would justify an abandonment of it.

As to a change in the compensation of the judges, the question should be settled on a reference to the facts above named, and on the broad principles of an enlightened policy. While a course vacillating and short-sighted, whether in public or private affairs, leads to waste and extravagance, care is at the same time necessary to prevent inroads on those frugal habits which form so strong a safeguard to the morals and prosperity of small States; and it will remain for you alone to decide whether a moderate increase in the salary of those officers would, under existing circumstances, tend to danger of this kind, or exceed the bounds of expediency and justice. To guard against misconstruction, it may be added, that if you impose a larger fee on the entry of actions, in order to meet any change without a burthen on the treasury, and if a part of this fee should be assigned to the clerks, who collect it, and whose very faithful services receive much less reward now than formerly, I am not aware that an additional compensation to any other officers in any department of our government is either needed or desired.

In connection with judicial concerns, I may be excused for one further suggestion. The cautious spirit of a republic seems to dictate that some limit should be fixed to the discretion of courts in awarding fines and imprisonment for contempts and offences at common law. Without such a limit, unless we are blessed upon the bench with angels in the form of men, no small danger of oppression must exist in periods of party violence, and in cases where the judges themselves may have been victims of wanton calumny.

It is a distinguishing feature in governments like ours, that the people are entitled to such information on all public business and expenditures as may conduce to economy, or throw light on the administration of the various trusts confided to their agents. I would therefore repeat, in substance, a remark of the vigilant statesman who retired from this chair in A. D. 1819, that the above ends would be promoted, a useful check imposed on mistakes, and, in time, a valuable body of statistical facts collected, if not only inspecting committees, but county treasurers, clerks of courts and registers of probate, were required to make to the Legislature annual reports of the quantity and character of the business connected with their respective offices.

The gradual increase of our small library at the seat of government

is another object of some public consequence. If confined to works on political economy, national law, State trials, and parliamentary debates, the necessary appropriation would be trifling, and, beside the credit of such a proceeding to the Legislature, the advantage to be derived from recourse to books of this kind, on questions of order, impeachment, addresses for removal of officers, and important measures of State policy or State rights, must be obvious to every intelligent politician. In the deficiency of surplus funds for this or the agricultural purposes before mentioned, permit me to inquire whether public expediency would not justify you in obtaining them by a small fee for licenses to retailers of spirituous liquors. In each town this fee might be paid to the selectmen, and by them to the State treasurer, and, in the end, to a considerable extent, it would prove a tax on intemperance. By indirect means the Legislature might thus promote that "sobriety" which the constitution urges them to "inculcate ;" and by employing the money to advance some useful industry, or the cause of literature, would contribute something to the interests of morality and piety.

Often as I have adverted to the constitution, it is hoped a sufficient apology may be found in the purity of those principles which pervade this solemn charter of our liberties, in the oaths of us all to support it, and in the impressive admonition of our bill of rights, that a "frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of the constitution" "is indispensably necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty and good government. In truth, gentlemen, it is our State constitution, State laws, State interests, and State resources, with which we, as State officers, are immediately concerned; and, without turning aside to discuss any prominent measures of our national government, the importance of which, however, cannot be too highly estimated, or to express at length what we all doubtless feel,- deep sympathy with struggling Greece, and the triumphs of Spanish freedom in either hemisphere,I have found leisure to invite your attention only to our own local affairs. The character and dignity, no less than the interests, of this State, as an independent sovereignty, seem to appeal to the Legislature to give a new impulse to her energies, and for all domestic purposes to take a lead in cherishing among our citizens a bold reliance on their own enterprise, and on the strength and excellence of their own institutions; and hereafter, as far as possible, to retain at home and perpetuate that hardy spirit of valor, adventure, and industry, which in war has always distinguished our soldiery, and in peace, beside giving fertility to our stubborn soil, has joined the advanced guard of civilization, both on the western and eastern frontiers of the Union. Another incentive to this policy may be derived from the reflection, that, however limited, in comparison with some States, may appear our present wealth and numbers, yet we are richer than many in a mild code of equal laws; richer in systems of education, literary and religious; richer in the frugality and morals of our yeomanry; richer in

improving roads, light taxes, and a healthy climate; and, if the sentinels of our interests persevere in a policy worthy the destinies of a free State, and the age in which we live, the tide of emigration must long be checked. Before the close of the present century, should our numbers multiply to a million, the increase would not be so rapid as has occurred here within the last hundred years, and we should not then exhibit so dense a population as now covers many countries of much less natural fertility in Europe and Asia.

Should the sanguine also anticipate that by such a policy the character of this population for every human excellence may surpass that of the purest republics of antiquity, their hopes will not appear altogether delusive, if we look to the advantages just enumerated, to the flood of light pouring upon the world from modern science, and to those benefits from the diffusion of Christianity which exceed all ordinary calculation; or if we reflect, that within two centuries since the axe of the husbandman was first heard in the forests of this State, she has risen from a few huts on her sea-board, and from foreign and feudal subjection, to the full enjoyment of independence; and, after converting her wildernesses into fruitful fields, has animated them with a people equally able to understand and defend their inestimable rights. Nor is there danger that such a people will ever cease to love their laws and institutions, so long as these continue worthy of their love, by keeping pace with the progress of freedom and knowledge.

Gentlemen of the Senate, and

House of Representatives:

I trust that you will not misinterpret my readiness to meet every responsibility belonging to the executive department, and my use, in all communications with you, of that plainness and frankness which early habits and opinions teach me should be cultivated between the free agents of a free people.

To expect unanimity of sentiment on topics so diversified, would not be warranted by experience; and so far as my private wishes are concerned, they aspire merely to obtain credit for industry and fidelity, leaving the usefulness of every suggestion to the scrutiny of temperate discussion, and believing that a temporary difference of views on subjects of legislation may be entertained with honesty, and will often tend to elicit new light, and promote the triumph of correct principles.

The pressure of those judicial duties which have engrossed my attention till the present week may be some excuse for various errors and omissions in the foregoing remarks; and my regret on account of them is much lessened by the reflection, that every deficiency can be supplied by the variety of talent, the experience, and wide extent of observation, collected in the Legislature.

Suffer me only to add, that it will be my pride to imitate, without presuming to hope I can equal, the judicious example of my immedi

ate predecessors in their general course of administration, and in their conciliatory deportment towards the different sections, sects, parties, and interests, of the State. A broad motive for the latter part of this policy springs from the fact, that liberality, when it can be indulged with no sacrifice of principle, proves the great source of harmony and strength in popular governments; and, under a conviction of this truth, the venerable author of the Declaration of our Independence long since inculcated upon the whole of his countrymen, that, as 66 every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle," it becomes the duty of all good citizens to unite in common efforts for the common good." LEVI WOODBURY.

66

Concord, June 5, 1823.

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives for the State of New Hampshire, in General Court convened.

THE Committee appointed at your last session to report concerning the Pauper Laws of this State would respectfully represent, that they have endeavored to devote such attention to the subject as its acknowledged importance deserves. But it is not believed necessary to detail, with minuteness, all the circumstances which have influenced them in favor of the changes hereafter recommended. Many of those circumstances appear among the facts collected by the last Legislature, from the several towns in the State; many of them exist in the recorded experience of other governments under similar systems of poor laws and many of them, we trust, are so manifest in the first elements of political economy, as to occur, without enumeration, to the recollection of all. To illustrate the views of your committee, however, it may not be improper to mention a few general considerations derived from the above sources.

Our laws for the relief of paupers are evidently founded on an idea that all civil associations are bound to furnish protection and mainten

* A Report made to the Legislature of New Hampshire, June 9, 1821.

ance to the individuals of such associations. This idea, in a limited

sense, is correct. But experience has evinced, that though govern

ment can, in most cases, provide more effectual protection than separate individuals, yet, on the contrary, it has no less clearly evinced, that each separate individual can, better than government, provide for his own maintenance. As a general principle, therefore, government should furnish only that indirect aid towards the support of individuals, which consists in the protection of them while acquiring and enjoying the means of subsistence.

The support of those persons who, through debility of body or mind, are unable to earn a livelihood, forms no exception to this general principle, unless experience justifies the belief that, without the interposition of government, such persons will be left to perish by individuals interested in their fate from consanguinity, or friendship, or humanity. Because the nature and character of man are so constituted, that if this interposition be made when not necessary, that very circumstance will create and perpetuate an apology for the continuance of such interpositions. How many are tempted to refrain from exertion to support themselves and their indigent dependants, from a consciousness that, without such exertion, they are secure of a maintenance by the public! On the contrary, how few, who are not entitled to a support by the public, will endure hunger and nakedness, rather than labor, provided they possess physical ability to labor! Such, also, is the mysterious construction of the human heart, that, in a civilized and Christian community, only a small number can be found so destitute of the sympathies of our race, so regardless of their kindred, or so dead to the religious duty of charity, as to see perish with want their offspring, parents or friends, if those connections are really impotent, and by law entitled to no relief from the prodigal hand of government.

Thus it happened in modern Europe, till about the middle of the sixteenth century, that the aid of government in support of paupers, was neither offered nor invoked. That class of persons received no regular assistance, except from monasteries; and though this assistance was voluntary, from mere religious charity, yet, instead of being too limited, in its profusion was often a temptation to indolence. Most of the continent of Europe is still without any civil laws for the maintenance of paupers. Ought a supposition to be indulged so derogatory to this reformed section of the world, as that the obligations of the Gospel are now less felt, and the proper objects of private charity cannot be selected with as much intelligence, and with even better effects on community, than were exhibited in ages of comparative barbarism?

It can hardly be questioned, then, that our present system of poor laws, furnishing, as it does, public and permanent relief to every description of paupers, must be deemed a departure from some of the first principles of political economy. In one respect, it violates, also,