of the people to enforce measures of prohibition, nor do I believe the total prohibition of the use of intoxicating agencies possible. But if I am mistaken in this opinion, and the time shall hereafter arrive when the men who believe the total prohibition of the use of intoxicating liquors judicious or possible, will come to consider that object of enough importance to induce them to prefer its success to that of political par ties, and vote according to their convictions, and succeed in giving effect to their views, it is not so near at hand that the General Assembly should, on account of its approach, delay to make provision to relieve society from the almost unendurable evils that drunkenness now produce.

Nor would it, in my judgment, greatly affect the duty of the General Assembly to make provision to protect society against the form of danger now under consideration, to express a concurrence with those who believe that intoxication is only a crime that merits punishment-and that is the light in which it is regarded under existing laws. As a crime none of the modes of punishment heretofore employed have been found sufficient to suppress it. As a social vice it is scarcely reproved; if, from the character or station of the guilty party, it is thought proper to punish the offender, it is done by the infliction and collection of fines, that only impoverish without reforming him, and the only effect of the fre quent imposition of fines is to deprive him of his property and reduce his family to want.

To me the theories upon which the laws respecting drunkenness de pend are as manifestly absurd as they are oppressive and unjust. If it is a mere habit, that inflicts no public injury, all the laws that treat it as a crime are unjust, and should be at once repealed. If it is a crime it should be punished whenever committed. The laws should be en forced impartially and without respect to the social standing of the offender, and if a crime, persons who become intoxicated ought to b subjected to the laws that authorize dangerous persons to be restrained If drunkenness is a disease or habit that produces physical alteration that assume the form of diseased mental or nervous action, so that th subject becomes an object of danger to individuals or to the publi peace, punishments that assume his legal responsibility are unwarrante and unjust, though his confinement may be justified upon grounds tha are consistent with proper regard for the safety of the public and with the real interests of the unhappy victim.

Accepting what I conceive to be the most enlightened as well as th most humane view of the subject, I recommend to the General Assembl the establishment of an asylum or retreat for inebriates, to which al persons conscious of their unhappy condition may voluntarily resor upon consenting to such conditions and regulations for the governmen of their conduct as may be prescribed under the authority of law, an to which all habitual drunkards and persons who become dangeron when intoxicated may be committed, and, if need be, confined until cured

The safety of individuals and of society is involved in the success of the measure proposed.

Under the criminal laws, all persons who break the peace or threaten to injure the person or property of another may be committed to jail or required to give bail. Intoxicated persons, from their condition, menace the safety of others, and if intoxication is a crime, as I think it is improperly supposed to be, society has a right to demand that preventive means be employed for its protection; if a disease, as I suppose it to be, the victim of social errors and vicious legislation ought to be provided with a retreat, and if possible a cure.

REVISION OF THE LAWS.

In 1869 a commission was appointed, in pursuance of an act providing therefor, to revise the general statutes of the State. At the subsequent session, a portion of the work was reported to the General Assembly and adopted. So far as the work of the revisors has come to my attention, in view of the difficulties they had to encounter, it has been well performed and shows that it has been entrusted to faithful and skillful hands. There having been no revision or codification of the general statutes since 1845, a period of nearly thirty years, and there having occurred, during the time, two several revisions of the Constitution of the State, it requires no extensive argument to show the necessity of completing this work of revision at an early day, that the law may he supplied to public officers and citizens at reasonable cost, and in proper and intelligible form.

If obedience to the law is expected, it seems as if ample provision should be made by the law making power to bring its provisions to the knowledge of those for whose government it is intended, and that, too in methodical and intelligible form, addressed to the common understanding. It is therefore to be hoped that this subject may receive at your hands that early and favorable attention which the public interest would seem to demand.

THE JUDICIARY.

It will be the duty of the General Assembly at its present session to divide the State anew into Judicial Circuits, as directed by the 13th section of the 6th article of the Constitution. The duty to be performed is one of much delicacy, and will no doubt be accomplished in the just and impartial spirit contemplated by the Constitution.

REPORTS OF STATE OFFICERS.

The reports of the Secretary of State, the Auditor, the Treasurer and Superintendent of Public Instruction will be laid before the General Asembly. I cannot permit myself to separate from these officers without testifying to the faithfulness with which all of them have discharged their duties to the State.

These reports present a clear and full statement of the condition of the business in their respective offices, and contain much information of great value to the people of the State.

The State of Illinois is now substantially free from debt, and the time is not distant when it will occupy the proud position amongst the States of having discharged all its obligations, and of imposing no bur dens upon its citizens except such as may be required to carry on its government.

STATE CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

The excellent and exhaustive report of the Board of State Charities contains information of the financial condition and wants of the various charitable institutions, and at the same time affords evidence of the wis dom of the policy that suggested the creation of that Board.

No circumstance connected with my official life affords me more pleasure than to bear witness to the earnest devotion of the members of the Board to their interesting and sometimes perplexing duties. They receive no salaries for their services, though nothing, in my judgment, would be more proper than that they should be allowed hereafter such compensation as will at least partially indemnify them for the loss of their time. The report of the trustees and officers of the Hospital for the Insane, the institutions for the Blind, and the Deaf and Dumb, show that they are well managed, and no doubt appropriations will be made adequate to their wants.

It seems to be my especial duty to ask the favorable consideration of the Legislature to the condition and wants of the institution for the care of the Feeble-minded. Until lately, this institution was regarded as an experiment; it is now an established success, and is effecting an amount of good for the unfortunates under its care that fully justifies its increased demands upon the treasury. It appears to me that a competent board (and I know of none more competent than the present trustees of the institution, and the superintendent,) should be appointed to select a location that affords all the requisite facilities, and erect thereon a building suitable to its wants. Such buildings as should be provided need not be expensive, but should be adequate to the wants of the class intended to be aided.

INTERNATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS.

I also have the honor to submit to the General Assembly the able report of Rev. Nehemiah Pierce, one of the delegates appointed by me, under the authority of a joint resolution adopted at the last session of the General Assembly, to attend the meeting of the International Prison Reform Congress which assembled at Middle Temple Hall, in the city of London, in July last.

Mr. Pierce attended the deliberations of the congress, and the report made by him embodies much highly valuable information upon the interesting subjects that claimed the attention of the congress.

The services rendered by Mr. Pierce in attending the congress were entirely gratuitous, and I submit that it would be worthy of the liberality of the General Assembly to appropriate a sufficient sum to repay him for the expenses incurred in preparing his most valuable report.

The reports relating to the Industrial University and the Normal institutions will show the condition of those institutions, and I commend them to the favorable consideration of the General Assembly.

NEW STATE HOUSE.

The commissioners for the erection of the new State House, as will appear by their report, have made considerable progress in the work, and have discharged their duties with fidelity to the State. I cannot doubt but that appropriations will be made and the building pushed forward to completion.

There are other subjects that will demand the attention of the General Assembly, and that might with propriety be mentioned, but as the distinguished citizen who will succeed me has large experience in the affairs of the State, I cannot doubt but that they have already secured his attention, and that his views and recommendations will be submitted to you at an early day.

CONCLUSION.

I am not willing to close this communication and my official connection with the government without expressing something of my gratitude to the people for the honor they conferred upon me with the chief magistracy of the State. No one is more conscious than I am, that in the necessarily active share I have taken in the varied affairs of this great commonwealth, I have, in the judgment of some, committed mistakes; but I have, in all my important official acts, been governed by my own convictions of duty, only anxious that the free people of the State, to whose candid judgment alone I am responsible, should fully understand my conduct and its reasons and motives, and then decide to approve or relieve themselves from the consequences of what they may regard as my mistakes, by selecting a citizen for my successor who will avoid any error they may think I have committed.

During my administration of the government of the State I have steadily acted upon political principles that I have always cherished as being essential to the well being of my countrymen. I have never faltered in the assertion of the rights of all men to liberty.. Habitually distrustful of power, I have insisted upon subjecting all claims of a

right to govern the people or to exercise any authority over them to the test of the Constitution, and I have never willingly submitted to any pretension of any person claiming power to act under the authority of the government of the United States, unless the power claimed was found to have been expressly granted or was necessarily implied in some grant of power contained in the Federal Constitution. And when the authority sought to be exercised has been claimed under a State, I have as earnestly sought to know that it was not comprehended within some power the people of the State have by their constitution reserved to themselves or forbidden to be exercised by others. I have at all times regarded it as amongst my solemn duties to obey the Constitution of the United States, and to aid in defending the government created by that instrument, in the exercise of all its just powers, nor have I felt that my duty to support the Constitution of the United States originated in my official oath to do so.

My duties to the government of the United States began with my birth, and have never been forgotten nor neglected, and my unalterable purpose to discharge those duties has the support of my judgment and my affections, and I have felt under the most solemn of earthly obligations to obey and defend and support the Constitution and laws of the State of Illinois, and to enforce the laws of the State against all who might offend against them. I need not say that the duty of obeying and defending the laws of the State has the support of my most earnest convictions--for the preservation of the just authority of the States is essential to the perpetuity and usefulness of the government of the United States, and the maintenance of both is essential to that which is more precious than either-the liberties of the people.

The Constitution of the United States and that of the State of Illinois, alike admit of amendment and alteration; that of the United States in one of its modes, by the action of three-fourths of the States, and the Constitution of the State of Illinois by the consent of its people; but neither the one nor the other, nor the powers created, or the restrictions imposed by either, can be enlarged, expanded or restricted or limited, by mere construction. I do not believe that the civil war or its results altered or changed the Constitution of the United States, or that the war or its results enlarged or expanded the powers of the federal government, or contracted. or diminished the powers of the States; nor did the war, either in its origin or history or its results, prove that according to the just theory of the government, the Federal and State systems are rivals for power, or that their powers, when rightly understood and wisely exercised, can be brought into collision. On the contrary, they are mere agencies and trustees of the people, who have assigned to the federal system certain well-defined duties, reserving to themselves in express terms all other powers of government; and then, that the es