lars 87 cts; which has been paid into the public Treasury, the most conclusive proof of their value to the State, and during which period the receipts from all other sources of taxation in the State amounts to three hundred and four thousand three hundred and 63 dollars 69 cts.; showing the advantages of a small active capital over heavy landed and personal property. That the stock in the present bank is good, requires no better demonstration than that it continues at or above par, while all other property has been greatly reduced. Borrowers generally, so far as I have been enabled to discover. prefer an accommodation from banks to any other source, and note holders find abundant indemnity in the penalty of 12 per cent. if specie is refused. I can then discover no sensible reason to doubt their utility or to circumscribe their operations.

lina, and for every dollar actually paid in, two may be issued when prudent to do so, by the banks in their notes. At this time their issues amount to about one half of their capitals. The interest they receive on loans is limited to six per cent. per annum. Should they refuse to pay specie when demanded, the holder of their notes is entitled to 12 per cent. interest. Every six months they are required to pay to the stockholders whatever profit may have been made; and if the individual stockholders derive any unusual advantages, it should be recollected that the State—the people, participate in about one-third of the profits-that being the proportion of her stock-and also a tax on the individual stock. This is pretty much the sum and substance of these much abused institutions, which, like every thing else under the management of human heads and hands, are capable of doing good or evil, according to the influences which are made to This State participated less in speculations of the day than operate on them. In a country like ours, of moral honesty, any other in the Union. We felt for a while the influence the keen eye of interest will, in all probability, insure their of the general prosperity of the country, from the Institutions able and correct management in the selection of Directors of and means of other States more than from our own. Bank good character, skill and integrity. There are persons whose capital has increased but little for many years, and except opinions are entitled to the highest respect, who contend that what funds were devoted to the construction of railroads we have a sufficiency of bank capital. This I consider clear- from the surplus, a small amount on loans and the credit of ly erroneous. The present stockholders might fear further the State, the active capital has decreased by investments in competition in the money market if all the natural capacities the stocks of railroads and manufacturing companies; but of the State had been improved, or if improvements were surely furnishing a basis abundantly justifying its restora worthless. But the reverse is the fact, and an immense tion and increase commensurately with our wants. And amount is required for that purpose, independent of the defi- until some general arrangement can be made to put the ciency for trade and commerce. Our most convenient lands State Banks of the country on higher ground, and capable of are cleared, worked, exhausted and deserted; our dwellings more solid and useful purposes, or the establishment of a are mostly of a poor and temporary kind; our water power National Bank, I would respectfully recommend the increase only occasionally occupied by small manufacturing establish- of the capital of the banks of the State and Cape Fear, one ments; our boundless mines and orcs almost entirely neglect-million of dollars cach, and that the State hand over to them ed; and why are these things so? Because we have not in equally, as her subscription of stock, all the Cherokee bonds, our State those facilities which banking capital abundantly and the bonds and notes belonging to the Boards of the Liteaffords elsewhere. rary Fund of North Carolina, and Internal Improvements, convertible as collected, with such other funds as can be spared from other purposes; provided the banks will loan to the Wilmington and Raleigh, and Raleigh and Gaston Railroad Companies $300,000 to $490,000, on the bonds of said companies, guaranteed by the State, on the property of which companies the State being already secured by mortgage, at a rate of interest not exceeding 6 per cent. per annum, for the period of ten years, unless these companies are enabled soon. er to pay the same.

We need more, not only to develope the vast resources of our State, but to keep off the notes of other States, and supply our entire circulation. I have been well situated to learn these facts. Many applications have been made to this of fice to borrow the funds of the Literary and Internal Improve ment Boards. Those who contend that we have capital enough, I am pursuaded, must have confounded capital with bank issues, and were induced to say so because the banks had suspended specie payments. I have ever understood that the more capital, either bank or individual, a country The higher the grounds upon which the State can place possessed-the stronger and richer it was considered. If our these banks, by protection and strict supervision the more banks had more capital, I am satisfied they could the sooner she will inspire public confidence, fill the subscription, and resume specie payments and discounts. Can there be a enable them the sooner to resume specie payments and exquestion of a large floating debt in the country, subjected to tend their usefulness. For the recommendation of increas the shaving process? In the place of paying six per centing the capital of our banks and requiring their aid to the per annum at the banks, many debts are made at 10, 15 and railroads, I would endeavor briefly to assign you my reasons. 25 per cent. between individual debtors and creditors. To obviate such an usurious shaving process, more banking capital would be valuable to the State. Our merchants un. able to obtain discounts at home, to make their purchases in New York with cash, are compelled to submit to credit, and if not paid when due, have to pay seven per cent., making a loss to the State in the regulation of the balance of trade of

one per cent.

A difficulty is apprehended in obtaining subscribers, which may be so. Capitalists have had such good reason to be alarmed for the safety of their funds, by the constant senseless attacks on these institutions, and the instability of our laws, that they will part with the management of their money, doubtless, with some apprehension and reluctance. But I hope those acts of usurpation, violence and detraction, have passed never to return; and that confidence and liberality will again take their places, and that offering fair inducements, capital will be drawn to the State, and from its hiding places again to afford the poor, but honest and enterprising man, the means to benefit himself and his country. What ever might be the result to the owner of capital, whether in the hands of individuals or stored away in Banks, its presence could not possibly do the country any injury.

The four years I have been in office the banks, in dividends and taxes, have yielded to the state the sum of two hundred and fifty-three thousand two hundred and one dol

Railroads in our States.

And although I have the pleasure of congratulating you on the completion of two railroads in our State, which, for cheapness, length and rapidity of construction, are comparable to any in the world; yet it is attended with the regret of having to inform you that their cost and extra expenses have exceeded their means. In short they are in debt, and turn to you for assistance; for there is no other source whence they can and should so rightfully seek it. No doubt they do so with reluctance, yet this but proves the urgency of their necessities.

Whatever reports may be made now by their officers of the prospects of profits to the stockholders, the advantages to the State, to the farmer, the land holder near them, to the mechanics and laborers, and their great utility for the diffusion of knowledge and for the concentration of troops in cases of emergency, cannot now be questioned. Their destinies seem now more or less identified with the character and pros. perity of the State. Many patriotic persons have nobly put their shoulders to the wheels, invested their money in the stocks of these works, and will for some time receive less compensation than they might have done by other investments. If a few months operation of a railroad had given evidence of great profit and the road needed immediate as

sistance; would it be the policy of the State to withhold it?
Then how much more the necessity of
I should say not.
exerting this policy in granting assistance to establish these
roads on such a footing that they may freely and fully test
their utility.

The advantages from such improvements, to the State, are of higher and loftier importance than can possibly accrue to her from any pecuniary profits, which her investment could yield. She is above all risk. But the stockholders can derive or receive no other advantages but those arising from dividends, and while these are devoted to the payment of the debts and yielding no remuneration, cannot reasonably be expected to enlarge their investments.

It is generally admitted, and, I believe, cannot be denied, that one half at least of the travel has been arrested by the disastrous times brought upon the country, as I have endeavored to show, by the acts of the Federal Government. We may now trust that more prosperous times will, ere long, be restored, and the travel resumed.

On the "let us alone" principle, the recuperative power of this new country would soon restore prosperity. But we may expect, in addition, the hearty co-operation of the fostering powers of the General Government in bringing about the highest state of national prosperity, rather assisting and relieving, than reviling and distressing all the institutions of the country. As the country becomes more thickly settled, travel must increase on the roads and enhance the income in proportion. In proof of this, I have seen no report of the operations of railroads in this country or Europe, which does not show an increase of receipts; and their operations in our country will yield a greater increase on account of our disposition for travel.

It would be idle, gentlemen, to talk to you relative to the many advantages resulting to the country from the establish ment of railroads. They have ceased to be experiments. Their facility in expedition afforded to travellers in connection with steamboats and steamships, will ensure their construction where the current of trade and travel require. They may be subject to mutations in profits, like all other property; but if correctly located, economically constructed, and well managed, they must be good property to the stockholders; and if not, their utility to the other interests of the country cannot be questioned.

The attack of the President of the United States on railroads, is exceedingly strange and unjustifiable. In the transportation of the mails, diffusion of knowledge and intercommunication, the easy and quick conveyance of armies to points where the country may be assailed, must be decidedly important and necessary to the Government, and favorable to the liberty of the citizen.

Where, then, can be the sense or propriety of these attacks of spleen and enmity? I am satisfied your honorable body can entertain no such feelings; but that you will afford such relief and succor as is commensurate with the means and character of the State and the wants and merits of the work. It may be contended that our railroads have been injudiciously located, too expensively constructed, and even badly managed. But we should bear in mind, that they are our first experiments, and made at a period when the country was in more prosperous circumstances, and every thing of higher value. That both mistakes and unnecessary expense are the usual results of new works; but it should also be held in remembrance that many individuals backed their favorable opinions of these enterprises freely with their own money, and that they could not have practiced any intentional deception on the public, when it would fall so heavily on themselves.

Suppose we should admit the fact that our roads have not, so far, met public expectation, or even of the individual stock holders to the full extent; yet should we shut our eyes to the cause? Should we not remember that the general prostration of all other branches of business may have reached the works on the roads; that few extensive works immediately prove profitable; and that they have been only a few months in operation-certainly not long enough to test their worth to the stockholders? To all other interests, their utility can be of no doubt. We see every species of property greatly

sunk in value; slaves, our most tangible and active property, depreciated at least 50 per cent.; land yet more; and lots in our most favored places, scarcely selling for the cost of improvements; very few farms yield legal interest, and, in the aggregate, probably not 2 per cent. on their value; yet who so bold as to say that we should abandon the farm or neglect to build houses and improve town lots?

What, it may be asked, is the cause of such a state of things? The President of the United States informed us, in his message at the extra session in 1837, that it was over. trading, sumptuous living, and the issue of too much bank paper. But such reasons, however, apt for other places, are totally inapplicable to North Carolina. There has been no over trading here, no extravagant living, and less bunk issues than we had twenty years ago; and although our bank capital was increased a small amount four years since, we have about the same now we had 10 years ago, exclusive of the capital of the branch Bank of the United States, which was employed in this State; during which time our demand has certainly greatly increased. It is the want of Bank or other active capital which has been the cause of sacrificing real estate and every other large amount of property, when forced into market for cash. More is actually required, not only to save property already existing from changing hands at great and ruinous sacrifices, but to assist the manufacturer, trader, mechanic and laborer, in the various branches of business, and the improvement of the natural advantages of the State.

Penitentiaries, Lunatic and Orphan Asylums, and
House of Refuge.

Under a resolution of your honorable body, at its last
session, I addressed a communication to the Governors of
the several States, requesting information on the subject of
Penitentiaries, Lunatic and Orphan Asylums, and Houses
of Refuge; from whom several interesting replies have been
received, but not sufficient to enable me to give you much
light on those subjects. I hand you herewith marked B, the
information obtained, and submit the following general re-
marks: That all seem to concur in their usefulness; that
by the establishment of a Penitentiary the punishment of
crime may be more correctly graduated to its atrocity. Under
our present code of criminal law, many punishments are
fixed, and others left to the capricious estimate of the Judge;
and to many cases neither the one nor the other appears so
fitted as to give satisfaction to public feeling. The result is,
that in almost every case, a petition for pardon is preferred
to the Executive, with whom it is idle to say that the peti-
tion of many respectable persons should have no weight.
Although he may be satisfied that petitions are generally
drawn by partial or prejudiced hands, in the absence of all
information which no law provides for his guide, he is not
enabled to act satisfactorily to himself or justly to the State
or petitioner; but where a doubt is raised, he feels impelled
to act on the side of mercy.

In the establishment of Penitentiaries and Laws for their government, punishments could be better graduated to the crime and leave less room for complaint and petition. As they are generally used in all Christian countries, to avoid shedding human blood and the exposure of punishments, in obedience to the more advanced state of civilization and refinement, profit and loss should not be a matter of consider ation in providing the means of saving human life and obtaining a mode of punishment adapted to the crime. Regarding them, however, in an economical point of view, it would probably be less burthensome to the country than the present mode of confinement in the jails of the counties.

As regards Lunatic and Orphan Asylums, I presume there can be but one opinion.

The returns of the Clerks and Sheriffs of thirty-six counties show the number of Lunatics to be two hundred and forty-nine of poor, wretched creatures, most of whom call strongly on our charity and philanthropy for shelter, food and nursing; and no doubt if the number and condition of the orphans could be ascertained, the appeal to our sympa. thies would be equally strong.

The State is abundantly able to construct the necessary

buildings, and it only requires the action of your body to establish the principle and place, upon which they shall be erected; the appointment of a competent superintendent to visit the various establishments of the kind and collect the necessary information, both of Penitentiaries and Lunatic and Orphan Asylums, and to commence the work as soon as the plan should be approved by the Governor or a Board of Commissioners raised for that purpose an appropriation to meet the expenditures, placed subject to the Governor's warrant. In the meanwhile the necessary code of laws might be prepared under a commission granted by your honorable body for that purpose.

Common School System.

Most of the counties have adopted the common school system, and a few have received the State's quota of money to aid them in this most estimable object. The want of school-masters is the only complaint which has reached me, and will, in all probability, be the most formidable obstacle to further success. By applying the proper corrective, that and all other difficulties, I hope, may be overcome. The several counties which refused the adoption of the system, no doubt acted on mistaken views, or wrong information; and their participation should, in justice, be provided for by law.

It is with the most unfeigned gratification that I congratulate the General Assembly on this work of their own, which has placed in reach of poor parents the opportunity of obtaining for their children what will so eminently improve their moral and mental condition, to make them better and more valuable citizens, and inspire them with grateful feelings to their country, which will never be forgotten in the hour of danger.

Survey of Nag's Head and Internal Improvement.

It is with great pleasure I have to inform you that, in obedience to the direction of the last session of your honorable body, a survey of Nag's Head has been procured. Under their resolution, directing a report to be made by some able and experienced Engineer, the Board of Internal Improvements appointed Major Walter Gwynn, who commenced operations in may last, and reported to the Board in June. This able and lucid report amply sustains the propriety and importance of your inviting the attention of Congress to the opening an Inlet at that point as a national work of the highest importance. The resolutions claiming the attention of our Representatives and Senators in Congress, were forwarded to them. The Representative from the first district, in which Nag's Head is situated, gave the subject his prompt and unremitting attention. A copy of the report and map of the survey were also forwarded to the representative from that district; but it reached him at too late a period of the session to be acted on.

Would it not be well again to urge this work on Congress? I am decidedly of the opinion that the enterprise is among the most important of any in the United States-in a national point of view, in the saving of lives and vessels, and the increase of the revenue; and to the State, in enhancing immensely the value of the lands and their products, and securing a mart to a large section of country, which, has now to seek one elsewhere at a greatly increased expense and hazard. No principle has been better established by practice, than the right and propriety of the Federal Government to execute works of national importance; and none, in my opinion, is more clearly so in the United States, than opening an inlet at Nag's Head. If we turn to the estimates of the War Department for improvements, we shall find many vastly inferior, under the patronage of the General Govern ment. It is, then, due to the State, and particularly to that section, to urge the execution of this work on the Government?

The very able report, on this subject, by Major Gwynn, will be submitted by the Board of Internal Improvements; to which I beg to invite your especial attention.

are now being cut, and some 15,000 acres nearly prepared for market. I see no reason to doubt the wisdom of this improvement.

I am very clearly of the opinion that opening an inlet at Nag's Head-reclaiming the swamp lands-improving the Neuse river as far as practicable, and thence the construction of a railroad to Raleigh and turnpike to the mountainsand the construction of a railroad and turnpike, flanking South Carolina, from the head of tide water, on the Cape Fear, to the West-form the system of improvements alike demanded by the character and interest of the State, to be accomplished whenever her means will permit.

The depressed state of the pecuniary affairs of the country at home, and its impaired credit abroad, would not justify undertaking, at present, improvements of very great extent and magnitude; but as far as the means which the State can command will go, there never was a more appropriate period. The disbursements in the construction would benefit every branch of business in its vicinity, by giving employment to laborers, mechanics, and a market to the farmer; and the work could be executed more readily, and at less cost, than in more prosperous times. In what could the surplus money and credit of the State be better employed, than by relieving the distresses of her people, and the improvement of her natural advantages?

As an improvement particularly called for by the wants of the State, entirely within her means, and important as the connecting links between her existing railroads, the seaboard and the interior, I would call your attention to the improvement of the Neuse river from Newbern as far up as practicable and useful; thence by railroad from the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad to this place, for which the country and material are best adapted; and thence to the mountains by turnpike, as best suited to the use and material of construction of the country. This chain of improved communication and intercourse, is due to the State, and especially to the northern tier of counties, the trade of which has been diverted from our own markets to one in a neighboring State. This improvement would place at the pleasure of the farmer one or many markets, in or out of the State, with equal facility, and regain their lost relative position; and as it may be presumed that most would prefer those in the State, it would secure the profits which might otherwise accrue to our neighboring States, and assist in obtaining the balance of trade in our favor. At least, a fair competition would be afforded. The advantages to be derived in the purchase of West India produce in Wilmington and Newbern, and their better facility for shipping, will more than equal any advantages their competitors abroad can offer.

It is probable the stock would be readily taken by individuals, if companies should be incorporated for that purpose, for the two-fifths or one-half of the amount, with proper privileges of payinent.

The railroads in our State have not had, as yet, sufficient opportunity to test the value of such stock; and as for investments in turnpikes, we have but few data on which to base an estimate. The Buncomee road yields a handsome profit, and it appears to me that a turnpike from this place to the West would be still more profitable, if the value of the stock were the only object of the State in constructing it.

The Board of Internal Improvements, agreeably to law, caused books to be opened, under the superintendence of active agents, to obtain the pre-requisite subscriptions before the Fayetteville and Western Railroad Company could receive the State's subscription and organize, and, I regret to inform you, without success. This appeared to be the favorite scheme of the State and I was anxious to see it executed. To the poverty of the country through which the greater part of the road would pass, and the depression of the monetary affairs of the country, may this failure be attributed.

Resignations.

Soon after the adjournment of the last session of your The work for draining the swamp lands has progressed honorable body, Daniel W. Courts, Esq. resigned his apconsiderably. The Pungo Canal is finished, and the Alliga-pointment as Public Treasurer of the State; the vacancy tor about half completed. The lateral ditches on Pungo Canal VOL. IV.-2

occasioned by which was temporarily filled by the appoint

product of all the mines in any previous year. If the experiments continue as successful as they have began, there cannot be a doubt that the ease with which this ore is procured, the facility with which it is smelted, must eventually make a great change in the supply of the article and its cost. One of the most singular features of this matter is that the value of this ore should have remained so long unknown. We understand that millions of pounds of it have, at different times and places been dug up and thrown aside as of no value. Geologists and scientific men have frequently traversed the mining country, and particularly the Mine La Motte track, and yet it remained for a common laborer to develope its real worth. A gentleman who is familiar with the country says that there is no power of estimating the quantity. This discovery developes another important fact, that the real value of the mineral deposits in this State is not yet half told; in fact, we have not began to see a tythe of their intrinsic value.

We further learn, that upon the Mine La Motte track, a miner has lately discovered a new vein of copper ore, measuring about three feet in thickness, and which has been traced to a considerable distance without any indication of its giving out. On the contrary, every appearance is that it will improve as it penetrates deeper into the earth. St. Louis Republican.

It affords me pleasure, gentlemen, to congratulate you on the completion of the Capitol, and the occupancy of more commodious and comfortable apartments for the transaction of business to all branches of the Government. It is a noble building and honorable to the State, and will descend to posterity as a proud monument of the spirit of the age. The completion of this structure, two Railroads, the establishment of Common Schools, and the reclamation of the Swamp Operations on the Danville & Pottsville Lands, will form a new and honorable era in the history of our State, to which her citizens may point with pleasure and pride.