"several enterprises since undertaken, had been hard-won triumphs over the prevalent convictions of the legislature." That his views should be more fully understood in the detail, his Excellency referred us to the celebrated report of Mr. Ruggles, in the following unequivocal strain:

"I respectfully refer you to a report of a committee of the last House of Assembly, in which this subject is discussed with eminent ability, and which results in shewing that the canals are a property substantially unencumbered; that their productiveness would warrant the State in expending in internal improvements, $4,000,000 ANNUALLY DURING A PERIOD OF TEN YEARS; and that the revenues of the canals would reimburse this expenditure previous to the year 1865. This sum far exceeds any estimate of the expense required to complete the entire system, while it is not to be doubted that the parts yet to be constructed will eventually be productive of revenue. The conclusions of this report, although of vast interest to the State, and, I trust, decisive of its policy, have not been questioned."

If, then, the condition of the State was one year since as represented by his Excellency, and the report of Mr. Ruggles unquestionable, and decisive of the then policy of the State, whence this change-this retrogade-this sudden spiking of the artillery?

His Excellency informs us in his message, that he last year recommended the New York and Erie Railroad, the Ogdeusburgh and Champlain Railroad, and the speedy enlargement of the Erie Canal. Sir, he did more; the half is not told us. He recommended, if recommend it was, "three great lines of communication by railroad between the Hudson River and the borders of the State," one of which was to "keep the vicinity of the Erie Canal, and unite Albany with Buffalo." Besides his Excellency recommended "other projects both of railroads and canals," without designating where, which, or how many. Anywhere, and every where any number and every number. But the apology for this sudden change in the tone of his Excellency is, the discovery of the errors of his predecessorsthat his former recommendations proceeded upon the assumption of the correctness of the various estimates of the Canal Commissioners, which are discovered, as he says, to have been so very erroneous, and which valuable discovery, his Excellency informs us, was reserved for the Assembly of 1839.

This form of excuse is no new-fangled theory. His Excellency has a better precedent for this than for most of his positions. Our common father was beguiled into his lamentable error by a woman, and our Governor, though uniting the patriotism of a Tompkins with the wisdom of a Clinton, has been beguiled and led astray by the Canal Commissioners! All the high-sounding assertions of the last year's messagethe triumphant report of Mr. Ruggles--the patriotic maledictions of the embryo State printer that the State was governed by mere politicians, and upon the subject of internal improvements "remained in her shell losing rank and caste❞—the report of the Whig Assembly of 1838, that New York had done nothing-comparatively nothing, upon the subject of internal improvement-that she had been supine and indifferent to her own interests, and had been reposing in a long, deep and destructive slumber; all are given to the winds, and we are now told that the late Administration had been extravagant in expenditures for improvements; had already done too much, and committed the State to the extent of its capacity, before it came under the judicious influences of Whig management and Whig control.

His Excellency dates his conversion from the workings of the Assembly of 1839. From his own relation it would almost seem, that upon this subject he was born blind, and was restored to sight by the application of Clay to his vision, performed by that enlightened and more enlightening body. He now attempts to raise a smoke about the Canal Commissioners, under which he doubtless expects to escape from his position. They are to be the scapegoats to bear off all the sins of the Whig Administration of omission or commission-past, present, and future. His Excellency stood in imminent need of somebody upon whom he could charge all his inconsistencies in gross, which he could not otherwise dispose of, and for that purpose, it seemed, he selected the Canal Commissioners. I have somewhere read that when the children of men became so numerous that surnames were necessary, after every variety of name which could be devised was given out, still a large class remained unprovided for. This, at first, produced some embarrassment, but was finally obviated by calling them all Smith. It seemed his Excellency had proceeded by a similar

method. He has set down a portion of his erroneous positions to his predecessor; a portion to the President; a portion to the Senate, and a portion to the dissemination of pernicious principles generally; but there was a large balance yet left against his Excellency, and this he has charged to the Canal Commissioners.

But I will endeavor to strip him of this poor excuse, farfetched and empty as I regard it. In his message of 1838, his Excellency said that the productiveness of the canals would warrant the State in expending in internal improvements four millions of dollars annually, during a period of ten years; and that the revenues of the canals alone would reimburse this expenditure previous to the year 1865. This conclusion of his Excellency is not based upon the estimates of the Canal Commissioners, but upon the "triumphant " report of Mr. Ruggles. Then, four millions for ten years-forty millions in the wholecould safely be expended, and the interest be paid and the principal reimbursed previous to 1865. Now, without taking into account the increased tolls, his Excellency informs us that a debt of only about $10,000,000 can be upheld-but a little more than one-fourth of the amount which he last year assured us could be sustained from the same income. But let us see what the pretended erroneous estimates of the Canal Commissioners as to the outlay, have to do with the amount of debt which the State is capable of sustaining from its income. The amount of debt which the State can sustain must depend upon its income. The estimated cost of a work, however erroneous, does not diminish the income of the State, although it may add to its obligations; and if a debt of forty millions could have been sustained last year, it can be sustained this, if the income is not less, although the estimates upon public works may have been ever so erroneous. The assertion in the last year's message, which his Excellency is so ambitious to transfer to other shoulders, was not how much were the liabilities of the State, but how much debt it could sustain; and since there has been already an increase of canal tolls, and his Excellency expresses the opinion that the increase will continue, he would have escaped from his position with more propriety through some other avenue.

His Excellency has deemed it necessary to advise the Peo

CYTOKMY

ple, that only one act appropriating the public moneys for internal improvement was passed at the session of 1839, and that for only $75,000. As if to say: "You see, good People, how very prudently and economically affairs have been conducted since you have had a Whig Governor." In speaking of the session of 1838, his Excellency has been very careful to speak of the separate action of each body upon a single bill, but evidently intended to take credit to his administration for the prudent legislation of 1839, without regard to the branch of the Legislature which produced it. A witness is bound not only to tell the truth, but the whole truth, and he who withholds a material part is as guilty as he who wantonly fabricates. If it was material for the People to know the action of the separate branches of the Legislature of 1838, it was equally so in 1839; and yet his Excellency has, in writing the history of the last session, omitted some matters which might be of service to the public. His Excellency has well said, that but one internal improvement act passed at the session of 1839; and that appropriating only $75,000; but if there was any merit in this economy, why did he not also say that the Whig Assembly of that year passed in addition, the following bills, which were lost in the Senate;-bills contemplating an immediate outlay of the amounts specified, and eventually a very large amount.

Bills which passed the Assembly at the session of 1839, and were lost in the Senate:

The whole truth upon that subject would then have been told, and the respective branches placed fairly before their

constituents for approval or condemnation. By reference to the organ of the State Administration, at the close of the last session in May, it will be seen who then took the credit of passing only one internal improvement bill. That paper declared that the great cause of internal improvement stood still, and that a recusant Senate, obedient to the Argus, which croaked incessantly about a forty million debt, strangled every improvement bill which had passed the Assembly, and that if the Empire State was disposed to go back into its shell, it must attach itself to the Van Buren car, &c.

His Excellency especially assigns as a reason why he does not recommend the great southern railroad, even as favorably as he did last year, the erroneous estimates of the Canal Commissioners.

But let it be remembered that the pretended marvellous discovery of previous errors was made by the Assembly of 1839, about the first of April last. This was not far from the time when the Secretary of State, by the direction of his Excellency, informed the public through the columns of the Argus, that the Governor was at that time still in favor of his own message, particularly as it respected the enlargement of the Erie canal, and that whenever his opinion should be in the least changed the People should be officially advised of it. As this is the first official communication upon that subject from his Excellency, we have a right to infer that his change of views has been very recent. Let it be further remembered that most of the appropriations made by the Assembly were after they had obtained all their information about the cost of the canals-that after that period, the learned report of the Senator from the First,* upon the subject of improvements, was submitted to the Senate, which it was understood at the time was high authority with the Governor and the party now in power, and that the vociferations of the party organ after the adjournment, because a "recusant Senate had defeated the internal improvement bills passed by the Assembly, showed that the discovery made by the Assembly of 1839 had very little influence with either the Governor or his friends in shaping their policy, but that this was to all intents and purposes

*MR. VERPLANCK.