The amount of cash received by the Agent for the year 1853, was

The expenses for the same period were as follows:

Leaving a balance in the hands of the Agent Nov. 30th, 1853, of

$445 73.

The number of convicts in the prison Nov. 30th, was

There were received during the year 1853, on sentence,

Retaken,

Total,...

206

71

1

281

During the same period, there were discharged as follows:

The daily average number of convicts was 210; 170 of the convicts were employed on contract, 6 in building and repairing, 24 about the prison, 4 were confined in solitary cells, and 11 were unemployed, by reason of sickness and infirmity.

The amount of cash received by the Agent, in the year 1854, was as follows:

The expenses for the same period, were as follows:

For ordinary support of the prison,

For building and repairs,

Total,

$25,229 69

3,502 84

$28,732 53

Leaving a balance in the hands of the Agent, Nov. 30th, 1854, of $481 02.

The number of convicts in the State Prison Nov. 30th, 1853, was 205 Number received during the year 1854, on sentence, -

Total,

During the same period there were discharged, as follows: By expiration of sentence,.

103

308

49

.246

Leaving in the Prison, Nov. 30th, 1854,

The daily average number of convicts was 219; of this number 199 were employed on contracts: 34 by the State, in building and repairs, and about the Prison; 6 were confined in solitary cells, and 7 were unemployed by reason of sickness and infirmity.

Included in the expenditures for this year, is the sum of $571 24 for provisions on hand Nov. 30th.

The building, (for which the sum of $5,000 was appropriated in 1853,) for the imprisonment of convicts sentenced to solitary confinement for life, was not commenced until September last, for the reason that the Board of Inspectors deemed that sum entirely insufficient to accomplish the purpose, unless a much greater number of convicts should be employed on the work than could be obtained at any time during the last two years. A plan of the building has been prepared, and the appropriation is now being expended for materials, preparatory to commencing its erection the ensuing spring, when it is thought by the Board, that a sufficient number of convicts may be reserved for the work, to carry it forward to an early completion.

Crime in the State seems to keep pace with its rapid increase of population.

On the 30th day of Nov., 1850, there were only 131 convicts

in the State Prison; on the 30th day of November, 1854, the number was 246, having nearly doubled in four years. The Board of Inspectors report that there are only 246 cells in the Prison, and that should the number increase as anticipated, it will be necessary to lodge many convicts in the hall occupied by the guards at night. This would be unsafe and dangerous; and necessity, therefore, requires the immediate construction of more cells.

Doubts have arisen as to the authority of the Board of Inspectors, to draw money from the Treasury on their certificate, for the purpose of building. An appropriation for this purpose, of about $4,000 will therefore be necessary.

I respectfully refer you to the Reports of the Board of Inspectors and Agent of the Prison, for the years 1853 and '54, for a detailed statement of the Prison affairs.

I believe it to be the duty of the Legislature to establish a House of Correction for juvenile offenders. There are many children of tender age, when they are easily tempted and cannot estimate the enormity of crime, who are induced to commit offences, which send them to the County Jails or State Prison, among hardened offenders, where they are likely to learn more iniquity than good. Many of these, if confined in a proper place-trained to habits of industry, and properly taught the error of their way and their duties, while yet young, would come out prepared to shun temptation, and to make good and useful citizens. It is enjoined upon the parent, that he train up his children in the way they should go. If the State assumes to take the chargeof children away from their parents, or to take charge of orphan children it should not treat them as men of understanding, and hardened in iniquity, but as a parent train them up in the way they should go, in the hope and trust that when not depart from it.

they become old, many of them wilk

The Constitution requires the Executive to communicate to the Legislature at each session, information of each pardon granted, and the reasons therefor. It is, I think, a wise provision, calculated to place a proper check upon the Executive on the one hand, and on the other to protect him from misrepresentation and unjust censure. Accompanying this message is a communication in pursuance of that Constitution

al provision. The number of applications for pardon since the duties of Executive devolved upon me, has been seventy-five. Three were granted by my predecessor before his resignation, the reasons for which also accompany this message.

The duty of deciding upon applications for pardon is perhaps the most delicate and trying of any which is imposed upon the Executive. I have observed a wide difference among people as to the principle which should govern the Executive in deciding these applications. Some would extend the hand of mercy and forgiveness where there was only a probability of reformation; and characterize a different principle with austerity and cruelty. Others, differently constituted, make little or no allowance for the frailty of human nature, and would exact stern justice, untempered with mercy; and reproach a less rigid principle of action with imbecility.

Discarding the notion, that justice blended with mercy was cruelty, or that austerity was firmness and wisdom, it has been my aim to examine each application with care, and due reference to the great objects of punishment. These objects I have deemed to be, 1st. The reformation of the convict. 2d. That he may be placed, when imprisoned, beyond the power of doing harm until reformed; and 3d. That others may be deterred by the example of punishment, from becoming its subject. If it were certain in any case that the 1st object was accomplished, it is then clear, that the second would be; and indeed, were this certainly known to all, the example of punishment would scarcely be necessary. It would be inconsistent and impossible for the Executive to make a personal examination of all the facts of each case; he must to a considerable extent depend upon the representations and recommendations of others who are more or less acquainted with the character of the convict, the peculiar circumstances of the offence, the degree of guilt which attaches to it, with the trial, or with his conduct after trial. It is doubtless as much the duty of the executive to grant a pardon when, from careful investigation, he is satisfied that the ends of justice have been fully met, as to refuse it when he is not. By an examination of the reasons for granting these pardons, it is confidently believed, that the official or personal character of the persons, generally, who have recommended them, will be a sufficient guaranty that their representations and recommendations have not been made in a thought

less or careless manner, but that they were entitled to consideration. Of the thirty-five pardons granted by me, it will be seen that eleven have been recommended by both the Judge who tried and sentenced the convict, and the Prosecuting Attorney who conducted the trial; that seventeen have been recommended by either the Judge or Prosecuting Attorney; three others by most or all of the Jurors who tried the conviets, and that the term of sentence of two had nearly expired; leaving but two not included in one or the other of the above classes. In all cases I have had evidence from the officers of the prison of the uniform good conduct of the convict while in prison.

An enumeration of the inhabitants of the State has been taken for the year 1854, in pursuance of the act of 1853, providing for taking the Census. By the returns received, the population of the State amounts to 509,374.

It will be your duty, under the Constitution, to re-arrange the Senate districts, and apportion anew the Representatives among the counties and districts."

Under the present Constitution, the pay of members of the Legislature is limited to forty days, and the regular sessions to biennial periods. I think it is generally conceded that this time is insufficient to enable the Legislature to carefully consider and perform the legislation required in this rapidly growing State. The time required to set in motion the machinery of a legislative body, composed of two houses, and of members who are strangers to each other, will necessarily consume a considerable portion of forty days. Under the old Constitution, the regular sessions were annual and unlimited, and usually continued about ninety days thus employing about four and one-half times the period for which members are allowed pay under the present Constitution. That a reformation of the former Constitution was requisite in this respect, is doubtless true-but the reformation went too far. It is true, that the Governor may convene the Legislature on extraordinary occasions; but if the occasion is rendered extraordinary by reason that the Constitution does not allow sufficient time at the regular sessions to perform the requisite legislation, then it is clear that it is the duty of the people to amend the Constitution, and not throw the responsibility upon the Executive of supplying its defects. I recommend that the proper steps be taken to amend the Constitution in this respect, so as to provide for