penalties. During the following year, New York passed a law of retaliatory character, but not so penal in its inflictions. Our act of 1798, was not intended to refer to New Jersey. It was passed during the administration of the venerable and highly respected Governor Jay, and a long time before the agitation of this controversy. Its object was to bear on a title derived from another state, absurd in itself, indefensible in all respects; injurious to the increase of our population, and perplexing to our citizens; and the law had the contemplated effect. In 1825 an attempt was made to adjust this controversy, by instituting a new board of commissioners, clothed with authority to negotiate subject to ratification, and a law was enacted for the purpose by New Jersey; a correspondent bill passed the senate unanimously, which owing to an inexplicable opposition, was so long procrastinated in the Assembly that it was merged in unfinished business; since which period, this controversy has assumed a more serious aspect. A ministerial officer of this state has been arrested in New Jersey, for serving process within the disputed jurisdiction; and he is liable to incarceration in a state prison. I consider it due to the comity that ought to exist between independent communities, to the amity which ought to be cherished by bordering and confederate states, to a sense of justice, magnanimity and self-respect, to allay the exasperated feelings which prevail, and to close with a negotiation again agreed to by our sister republic. I shall transmit to you, in due time, the documents which relate to this subject."

The precarious and uncertain condition of the elective franchise, depending more on the volition and agency of assessors, collectors, militia officers, and road masters, than on a fixed and certain tenure, rendered it necessary that defects so glaring and dangerous should be removed by

2 By chapter 299, passed April 16, commissioners were appointed to act with New Jersey commissioners appointed for the same purpose in ncgotiating a settlement of the boundary dispute.

constitutional amendment. In 1825 I called the attention of the legislature to this subject, and I now have the satisfaction to announce that the right of election has been established on a firm and certain basis, the amendment for that purpose having received the sanction of the two last legislatures, and the almost unanimous vote of the people. As the right of suffrage composes the essence of freedom, and is the vital and characteristic principle of representative government, it ought to be fortified against corruption, illuminated by knowledge and shielded by moral and political virtue. Our elections, which have occupied three days, and occasioned much contention, many irregularities and some flagrant violations of rectitude, may now be compressed within a shorter period and conducted with more regularity and purity. Lists of the qualified voters in each town may be periodically compiled, and resorted to as conclusive evidence of a right to exercise the elective franchise in a particular place, by which means partiality, fraud and perjury may be prevented. Severe restraints ought also to be established against the pernicious practices of employing hirelings to bring up votes of beleaguering the polls to the annoyance or exclusion of aged, infirm and orderly citizens of dispensing donatives or largesses of any kind to influence votes, or of employing any means of intimidation or corruption that may affect the purity and independence of the elective franchise.3

But after all, the great bulwark of republican government is the cultivation of education, for the right of

a Const. 1821, art. 2, § 1; Am. 1826.

3 The first part of the Revised Statutes, which was passed in December, 1827, contained detailed provisions regulating elections, including the qualifications of voters as prescribed by the amendment of 1826. General elections might still be continued three days, but special elections were limited to two days.

At the regular session, by chapter 179, passed April 7, the existing election law was amended by adding provisions for the election of justices of the peace to comply with the constitutional amendment of 1826.

suffrage cannot be exercised in a salutary manner without intelligence. It is gratifying to find that education continues to flourish. We may safely estimate the number of our common schools at eight thousand, the number of children taught during the last year, on an average of eight months at four hundred and thirty thousand, and the sum expended in education at two hundred thousand dollars. It is however too palpable that our system is surrounded by imperfections which demand the wise consideration and improving interposition of the legislature. In the first place there is no provision made for the education of competent instructors; of the eight thousand now employed in this state too many are destitute of the requisite qualifications, and perhaps no considerable number are able to teach beyond rudimental instruction. Ten years of a child's life from five to fifteen may be spent in a common school, and ought this immense portion of time to be absorbed in learning what can be acquired in a short period? Perhaps one fourth of our population is annually instructed in our common schools, and ought the minds and morals of the rising and perhaps the destinies of all future generations to be entrusted to the guardianship of incompetence? The scale of instruction must be elevated; the standard of education ought to be raised—and a central school on the monitorial plan ought to be established in each county for the education of teachers, and as exemplars for other momentous purposes connected with the improvement of the human mind. The trustees of the public school society of New York, have issued a prospectus for the establishment of a central school in that city, wherein are to be taught for the

4 Chapter 228, passed April 13, which regulated and increased the common school fund and the literature fund, made additional provision for classical instruction in academic institutions. The persons for whose instruction academies and seminaries were entitled to an extra allowance were not classified as teachers, but the required degree of proficiency was prescribed by the act, which according to its title was especially designed to improve the qualifications of teachers.

education of teachers, natural philosophy, practical mathematics, mercantile arithmetic, bookkeeping, and the outlines of natural science. A school on a similar plan, and embracing a variety of important objects, has been founded by some enlightened and public spirited citizens in Livingston county, and there is reason to hope that these meritorious exertions will be crowned with complete success. I cannot speak in terms of sufficient praise of these most laudable attempts nor recommend them too emphatically to public patronage and general imitation. Small and suitable collections of books and maps attached to our common schools and periodical examinations to test the proficiency of the scholars, and the merits of the teachers, are worthy of attention; when it is understood that objects of this description, enter into the very formation of our characters, control our destinies through life, protect the freedom and advance the glory of our country; and when it is considered that seminaries for general education are either not provided in the old world or but imperfectly supplied by charity and sunday schools, and that this is the appropriate soil of liberty and education, let it be our pride, as it is our duty, to spare no exertion and to shrink from no expense, in the promotion of a cause consecrated by religion and enjoined by patriotism. Nor let us be regardless of ample encouragement of the higher institutions devoted to literature and science. Independently of their intrinsic merits and their diffusive and enduring benefits, in reference to their appropriate objects, they have, in a special manner, a most auspicious influence on all subordinate institutions. They give to society men of improved and enlarged minds, who feeling the importance of information in their own experience, will naturally cherish an ardent desire to extend its blessings. Science delights in expansion as well as in concentration; and after having flourished within the precincts of academies and universities, will spread itself over the land, enlightening society and

ameliorating the condition of men. The more elevated the tree of knowledge and the more expanded its branches, the greater will be its trunk and the deeper its root. Simultaneously with the improvement of the constitution relative to the elective franchise, another amendment was adopted, committing the choice of justices of the peace to the people." These appointments have been considered as intimately connected with political influence from the earliest periods of our history. Under the colonial governors, they were made not so much with a view to fitness as to the support dispensed to friendly members of the Assembly. Under the council of appointment these offices depended on the fluctuations of party ascendency; and under the new constitution a complex system was established, which ostensibly created an appointing power in every county, but in reality brought the substance of it home to the seat of government; and it was attended with the political solecism of not only converting the county judges into a co-ordinate appointing power, but of investing them with authority to remove their associates in the general sessions from office, while sitting on the same bench. The people are at last possessed of the right of choosing their own local magistrates, and the appointment of nearly three thousand offices is thus placed in the proper depository. The common place objection of the dangers of an elective judiciary can have no weight in its application to this case. The aldermen of New York and Albany who are ex officii judges of the county courts, have been elected from the first foundation of those cities, and no just imputation has been made on that account against the honest and independent exercise of their functions. Your attention will of course be afforded to such legislation as may be requisite to carry these important improvements into full effect.

b Const. 1821, art. 4, § 7; Am. 1826.

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