Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

The Gazette.
PHILADELPHIA,
WEDNESDAY EVENING, August 30.

Yesterday, at 11 o'clock, his Excellency the Governor met both houses of the Legislature in the Chamber of the Senate, and addressed them as follows:

Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives

THE object for which the present session was appointed, being confined, I believe, to the completion of such business as was depending at the period of your adjournment, it will be proper to avoid pressing upon your attention any subject that does not require an immediate interposition of the legislative authority. I enjoy indeed, a sincere satisfaction in being able, on this occasion, to repeat, that experience has disclosed but few important defects in the general institutions of our municipal policy; while even those subordinate regulations which are necessary to accommodate the progress of population and settlement in a young country, have, in a great degree, been anticipated by the wisdom and liberality of your predecessors. It is another interesting source of pleasure and congratulation, that, notwithstanding every recent symptom of dissatisfaction and hostility, the conciliatory conduct which the Federal government has pursued, promises effectually to restore the harmony of our foreign relations, and to preserve the peace and prosperity of the Union.

In order, however, gentlemen, to provide against a disappointment in this hope, Congress have directed, among other cautionary measures, that a corps of 80,000 militia shall be organized, of which 10,696 men are to be furnished by Pennsylvania.—The necessary instructions have been issued for complying with the requisition; but permit me to observe, that the imperfections of our militia law, (which have often been the subject of remark in my communications to the Legislature) forbid the expectation of certainty or expedition, in embodying a competent force, upon the present or upon any future emergency. In carrying the act for procuring a supply of arms into effect, time has been allowed for transmitting proposals from the most distant part of the Union; and the delay has enabled me to obtain the aid of the President for facilitating an exportation from Europe; to ascertain under a late law of Congress, an exemption from duty on the importation into Pennsylvania; and, in consequence of the sudden prospect of a general peace, to insist upon more advantageous terms, than could have been contemplated in an earlier purchase. The contracts will nevertheless, I trust, be formed, so as to insure the delivery of 10,000 stand of arms in the course of the ensuing spring: But still, it is obvious, that the establishment of an arsenal can be of little importance, unless the regulations for mustering and training the militia shall also be efficient; and therefore, you will excuse the renewed expression of my solicitude, that a reform, may be speedily introduced, on points so essential to the national honor and defence.

As the state of the unfortunate controversy at Wyoming has not been materially changed during the recess, I presume this subject will, likewise, be revived in the deliberations of the present session. The hope was entertained, that a judicial determination in the Supreme Court of the United States would, before now, have obviated every ground of litigation, even upon the question of private property; but as the issue of the suits involving that question, can have no direct influence upon the obligation of the government to assert its right of jurisdiction, I again submit to your consideration, the expediency of adopting, in that respect, a prompt and decisive course of proceeding, whether it shall lead to an equitable commutation of either of the contending claims, or to a coercive establishment of the public authority. The additional documents that I have directed to be presented to you, evince the continuance of that spirit of resistance to our laws, which any appearances of supineness or of irresolution, on the part of the state, would, I apprehend, fatally extend and embolden.

From the many other subjects which your records will exhibit, allow me, Gentlemen, to select, as deserving of peculiar attention, the institution, of public schools, and the system for regulating bankruptcy: the former is recommended with all the force of a constitutional injunction, and the latter, by those considerations of policy and humanity which will naturally occur, at this crisis, to every mind of feeling and reflection. Some further provisions might likewise be advantageously made, respecting the interior management of the prisons for debtors; particularly in the articles of lodging and subsistence; and, it is thought, that the authority of a law is wanting, for a removal from the debtor's apartment to the criminal jail, when a person in custody, upon civil process, shall afterwards be convicted of a crime.

The representations which have been made by the officers of the Land Office, point out the necessity of an early appropriation for paying the arrearages due for past services, and for compensating, in future, a competent number of clerks to perform the duties of that department. The allowance has hitherto been so insufficient, that the Records, for a series of years, have been, unavoidably, left imperfect, and even the expense of transacting the indispensable current business, has been partially defrayed, as I am informed, out of the private funds of the officers. You will likewise be pleased Gentlemen, to prescribe the mode for distributing 546 copies of the new edition of the Acts of Congress, which the Secretary of State has transmitted to me, for the benefit of the Commonwealth; and some use should immediately be designated for the house originally intended to accommodate the President of the United States, as, in its present unoccupied situation, it is greatly exposed to dilapidation and injury.

It is proper to take this opportunity of stating, that the controversy relative to the prize sloop Active, which was captured from the British in the year 1780, has been revived in a suit brought by certain claimants against the then marshal of Pennsylvania, who paid the proceeds of the prize into the court of admiralty, under an order of the judge, and with the sanction of the legislative and executive authority of the commonwealth, as appears from the records of that period. It being incumbent on the state, under these circumstances, to indemnify the marshal, I have directed the suit to be defended on account of the public, and the documents will be laid before you, that such further steps may taken upon the occasion as your wisdom and justice shall devise and approve.

The appearance of a malignant and contagious fever in Penn-street and its vicinity, as the time of your assembling approached, induced me, gentlemen, to convene such of the members as could conveniently attend, that they might be apprised from the best sources of information of the facts relating to the subject: but a variety of reasons occurred to render it improper on the part of the executive alone to pursue any step, that might prevent your meeting at all, or even change the ordinary seat of the legislature, without the previous authority of a law. I anxiously hope, however, that the precautions which have been taken; and the favorable temperature of the season, will enable us speedily to remove every cause of apprehension: And that you may, from time to time, possess authentic accounts upon the subject, I shall direct the reports of the health-office, and the communications of the college of physicians, to be regularly laid before you.

But, under the impressions made by the calamity which threatens, you will naturally be disposed, gentlemen, to invigorate, by every possible means, the police, for restoring and preserving the health of the city and its suburbs. The existing law has empowered the inspectors to prohibit an indiscriminate intercourse with the infected quarter, to remove the sick, and to provide for their accommodation: and you will, doubtless, concur in thinking, that the emergency justifies me in having made arrangements for establishing camps on the neighboring commons, as an asylum for such of the citizens as may wish to fly from the immediate sphere of contagion. For the outlines of a permanent plan, however, permit me to refer to the report, with which I have been favored by the college of physicians; a plan which will, I am confident, be digested and matured by your wisdom, upon liberal and enlightened principles, adapted to an object so deeply affecting the tranquility, opulence and prosperity of our metropolis.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,

By the report from the department of accounts, of which copies will be presented to the legislature, it appears, that to a balance of 94,718 dollars and 5 cents, which was in the treasury on the 1st day of January last, there has been since added a sum of 178,205 dollars and 51 cents, the accumulative result of various sources of our revenue. During the same period, the disbursements for the public service, including the expense of the late session of the general assembly, and the grant for the relief of our fellow-citizens in Savannah, have amounted to the sum of 176,439 dollars and 1 cent; so that there remained a specie balance of 96,485 dollars and 35 cents in the treasury, on the first day of the present month. It should be recollected, however, that this sum, and the growing revenues of the state, are subjected to very heavy appropriations, independent of the current charges for the support of government; and I trust that the next general assembly (should your other avocations prevent an immediate investigation) will judge it proper to review the state of our finances, and to take the necessary precautions for preventing the public expenditure exceeding the public income.

The officers of accounts will submit to your consideration the ordinary objects for appropriation, which have occurred during the recess; but permit me particularly to suggest, that it may be proper to make a provisional grant for the use of the health-office, lest the progress of the disease, which at present excites an alarm, should call for pecuniary aid more suddenly and more extensively than the powers of the inspectors could supply.

It will likewise, I conceive, be an act of true policy, as well as of benevolence, to provide some means for employing and paying in the public service the indigent and industrious citizens, who may be deprived of the ordinary resources for the maintenance of themselves and their families, during the continuance of the calamity.

Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,

The general information, which has been received, will not indeed permit me to flatter you with the hope, that the malignant and contagious fever to which I have just alluded, has ceased to exist. It is, I fear, a melancholy truth, that the number of victims in the neighbourhood of Penn street, in Southwark, and in that part of the Northern Liberties, which is called Kensington, has undoubtedly increased in the course of the last week; and some cases, it is said, have occurred even in the interior of the City. I am aware gentlemen, of the painful consequences of these public communications; but I have thought it an indispensable duty, in a matter of such moment, that every individual should have an opportunity to judge for himself, and to pursue the measures which his own ideas of security might suggest.

To the Inspectors of the Health-Office, however, as more intimately acquainted with the state of the various parts of the city and its suburbs, I have implicitly confined the task of devising regulations, to check and prevent the progress of the contagion'; and you will perceive by the Proclamation which I have issued at their earnest request, that whenever they have thought it necessary, to ask my aid; their plans have received the full support of the Executive Authority. Those plans (which in most points coincide with the opinion with the College of Physicians) certainly contain arrangements that will affect the feelings and the interests of individuals; but our Fellow Citizens will perceive with their usual candor and good sense, that on occasions like the present, personal considerations must be superseded, by an attention to the welfare of the whole community; and it is great consolation to reflect, that the power is exercised by men chosen by themselves for the purpose; by men whose duties expose them to extraordinary dangers without the exemption from the operation of the rules they establish; and by men whose vigilance, judgment, and humanity, entitle them to public confidence and esteem.

THOMAS MIFFLIN.
Philadelphia, August 29th, 1797.