You are entrusted with the legislative authority of the people of this State, at an auspicious period in their affairs. Whatever is essential to the full enjoyment of civil and political rights, is placed within their reach by the free principles of their government. In the dealings of a kind Providence, with them, they are permitted at this time to enjoy, in a liberal measure, the blessings which contribute to individual comfort and public prosperity. To our admirable form of government, to the wisdom of past legislation, and especially to the favorable regards of the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, ought we, in humble gratitude to Him, to ascribe our happy condition. Until within a few days, wherever we directed our view throughout this flourishing commonwealth, we saw only gratifying evidences of unexampled prosperity; but we have now to lament that a portion of our constituents have been recently visited by a severe calamity. A conflagration, unprecedented in the history of this continent, and rarely exceeded in the past ages of the world, has consumed many millions of property, and laid in ruins an extensive district of our commercial metropolis. Destructive as this calamity has been to the fortunes of individuals, and extensive as its influence may be upon the general prosperity of the State, let us not yield to the desponding belief that we shall not soon recover from its effects. Though the sufferers have lost their property, [Senate No. 1.] A 1 |