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GOVERNOR CONNOR'S ADDRESS.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

The year upon which we are entering is of the deepest significance to every American. It marks the completion of the first grand cycle of the Republic. A century has passed away and The Government of the People stands free, great and beneficent, to vindicate the wisdom that called it into being, to answer the prayers and hopes that attended its birth, and still to guard for us and for the future the blessings it was formed to secure. A hundred years ago it existed but in the solemn declaration and the firm resolve of the men who fashioned it, as an instrument of justice. To-day it lives in mature development, fresh in all the aims and impulses with which it set out, strong in a self confidence inspired by long years of varied trial and the successful withstanding of all forms of assault.

The far-stretching retrospect excites emotions of pride and exultation, and yields impressive lessons for our guidance as a people in the new century at hand. We perceive by what devotion to principle and by how great civic virtues the Fathers of the Republic were enabled to establish the sure foundations of our country; by what steadfastness and heroism its independence was accomplished; and by what majestic progress it grew to greatness under the stimulus of freedom. Regarding the years not yet far removed from us, the great struggle through which the crisis of the country's fate had happy issue, presents itself as a stern school of citizenship ministering to the stability and prosperity of the new nation. It brings the mutual dependence of government and people home to every man with a strength of conviction no reasoning could convey. The price paid for nationality when its value was put to the test, measures our need of it; and every battle-torn flag and smoke-begrimed musket-relic or trophy of the contest-every national note betokening the zeal and confidence of patriotism, admonishes that the welfare of their country is in the people's own keeping.

A little more than half a century ago the people of Maine, in ordaining the constitution upon which they founded the new State, acknowledged with grateful hearts the goodness of the

Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording them an opportunity so favorable to the design they had in view. We, of this day, recalling anew the moulding of our common country under the auspices of the new and grand belief in the high average of human worth; the dedication of it to that principle, and the subsequent prosperity and happiness which have justified the idea of liberty and the theory of equal rights, can but feel in our hearts to own our obligations for the favor acknowledged by the fathers of the State; and, with the perils of the recent past vividly before us, to remember with renewed gratitude the Goodness that has been constant to us. Within a short space of time the State has grown from infancy to maturity, and has become a mother of States.

While we deplore the plain fact that the increase of our population suffered a check prior to the war, and failed altogether in the war decade, we are not prepared to admit any injurious inference from it. The causes of the misfortune are well understood and involve no discredit. The great farming region of the West not only became our overpowering rival as a field of immigration, but also attracted our own people. The golden shore of the Pacific lured from us hosts of young men whose accumulated earnings were the smallest part of the loss sustained by their departure. Every fresh land of promise of the many that followed in quick succession, was pioneered by the hardy and adventurous sons of Maine. It is generally conceded that they abandoned the substance for the shadow; that if their energy, experience and capital had been employed at home, and if their example had fostered a spirit of contentment, they would, as a whole, have enlarged their own success in life, as well as advanced the importance and prosperity of their State.

Maine had thus been sorely drained when the war swept away many of her sons, and the influences consequent upon it induced a restless impulse, driving many more to wander or seek homes elsewhere. The comparatively isolated position of the State, and the non-existence of large cities within its borders, have stood in the way of the compensating influx it might otherwise have received. But though weakened in numbers, we are not dispirited. A hopeful consciousness prevails that the elements of a great State are here, and will eventually combine to form one commensurate in all respects with the extent of our territory.

Our State is now involved in the depression of business, and cessation of enterprise every where prevalent. The shadow of the everywhere war is still upon us. Some of its incidents are yet remaining. Prominent among them is the continual employment of the substitute for sound money which is imposed. While the States have returned their old-time relations to the country, and the army and

navy of the Union have been re-established upon a peace footing, the currency of the country continues to retain its war character. The people of the State are substantially of one mind in demanding relief from the fickle medium of exchange which has been tolerated solely for the sake of the great good it was created to subserve, and in desiring the recall of the banished currency, the only one adapted to the uses of peace. They look to the National Government to effect this as speedily as is consistent with any sacrifice not absolutely unendurable. It would be far better to pay directly in taxes the certain interest of the bonded debt in which the government notes may be funded, than to bear the uncertainties and suffer from the discouragements to enterprise caused by the fictitious importance they are now invested with.

The year upon which we now look back has been a fairly prosperous one. At least, it has not been one of unusual hardship. That it has not been such is due to the unfailing bounty of our soil, and largely to the admirable spirit and patience with which the adversities of this period of transition, as it is by common consent regarded, have been met. Manufacturing has been carried on with but little prospect of remunerative returns in many cases, and thus willing hands have been enabled to earn daily bread. A general decrease of profits has not been attended by general want and suffering.

The affairs of the State, with which you are immediately concerned, have been well conducted in all departments, and all its institutions have faithfully fulfilled their appropriate purposes.

THE TREASURY.

The ordinary routine of the Treasury has been more difficult than usual, and special and important duties have devolved upon it. The cash on hand at the close of 1874 was $322,185.84. The receipts during 1875 were $1,568,775.43. The payments from the Treasury during the year were $1,513,866.43, thus leaving a balance of cash on hand December 31, 1875, of $377,093.84.

THE STATE DEBT.

The bonded debt of the State on the first of January, 1875, was $7,088,400. It has been reduced the past year by the payment of matured bonds to the amount of $29,000, and by the cancellation of bonds in the abolished sinking fund, and is now $5,949,400. The payment of the matured bonds and additions to the sinking funds to the amount of $272,689.72, constitute an actual reduction of the debt the past year of $301,689.72. The present net indebtedness, after deducting the amount of the sinking fund, is $5,272,688.28.

SINKING FUNDS.

An act of the Legislature approved February 24, 1875, provided for the extinction of the sinking fund of 1865, by the cancellation of the bonds of the State of Maine contained therein, and the transfer of the remaining portion of the fund to the sinking fund of 1868.

In execution of this law the Treasurer has cancelled bonds to the amount of $1,112,900, and transferred bonds and cash to the amount of $101,524.05, thereby entirely extinguishing the fund which was established for the payment, at maturity, of bonds falling due August 15, 1880, March 1, 1883, and June 1, 1889. Therefore there is now no actual provision for the payment of these bonds. They rest entirely upon the credit of the State. The act referred to contemplates their renewal and extension; it authorizes the issue of new bonds, payable to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars in 1890, and to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars each succeeding year, which bonds, the act declares, “shall be executed and issued only as they can be substituted for at least an equal amount" of the bonds they are intended to renew and extend.

No effort has been made under this authority to issue new bonds in substitution for those proposed to be renewed, although the language of the act seems to imply a direction to execute and issue them whenever the substitution should be found to be practicable. There is at least such room for doubt, whether it lies in the discretion of the Treasurer to defer action looking to the substitution until it shall appear to him to be for the interests of the State to effect the exchange, as to render it advisable, in justice to that officer, to define his duty in this respect more explicitly.

The only action necessary, however, if my suggestion should recommend itself to you, would be the repeal of so much of the act referred to-that of February 24, 1875-as relates to the execution and issue of new bonds. The Legislature would then retain control of the matter and be left to provide for the payment of the loans in question, or for their renewal and extension, as they severally approach maturity, or whenever it may suit its own. pleasure. The report of the Treasurer will present to you the elaboration of a suggestion for the payment of the loans maturing in 1880 and 1883, the former of which amounts to $307,000, and the latter to $385,000, and demonstrates that, since the State has no other liability to meet within the period from 1878 to 1889, such payment can be provided for at a future date by means of a comparatively light tax and temporary loans.

The extinction of the sinking fund of 1865 effects a relief from annual taxation to the extent of about $190,000, and is a measure

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