The report of the superintendent and trustees of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home will engage your earnest attention. The duty of providing for the education and support of the children of the soldiers of Ohio who fell in the war for the Union was fully recognized by the resolutions and acts of your last session. It is not doubted that your action was in accordance with the will of the people of the State, and they earnestly desire that the duty of caring for the soldiers' orphans shall be performed in a manner that will worthily express the affection and gratitude with which these wards of the State must ever be regarded by a just and patriotic community. I therefore respectfully recommend that the legislation deemed necessary by the board and officers in charge of the institution be enacted as promptly as practicable.
The report of the geological survey, to be laid before you, exhibits the encouraging progress of that work. The future growth of Ohio in wealth and population will depend largely on the development of the mining and manufacturing resources of the State. Heretofore, our increase in capital and numbers has been chiefly due to agriculture. Important as that great interest will always be in Ohio, the recent census shows that we may not reasonably anticipate, in future, rapid growth in population or wealth from agriculture alone. Without calling in question the great and immediate benefit to accrue to agriculture from the geological survey, it is yet true that the tendency of its exhibition of our vast mineral wealth is to encourage the employment of labor and capital in mining and manufacturing enterprises. Let the work be continued and sustained by ample appropriations.
It is necessary that the General Assembly, at its present session, should adopt the requisite legislation to carry into effect the following requirement of the constitution: Sec. 3, article 16, of the constitution, provides that "at the general election to be held in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and in each twentieth year thereafter, the question, 'Shall there be a convention to revise, alter, or amend the constitution?' shall be submitted to the electors of the State, and in case a majority of all the electors voting at such election shall decide in favor of such a convention, the General Assembly, at its next session, shall provide by law for the election of delegates and the assembling of such convention."
In conclusion, I feel warranted in congratulating you on the favorable judgment of your constituents upon your action on the important subjects which were considered at your last session, and in expressing a confident hope that what remains to be done will, under Providence, be so wisely ordered that the true interests of all the people of the State will be greatly and permanently advanced.
Without comments of our own, we will simply give the opinions of Democratic journals concerning this message.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, of January 4, 1871, said:
"The message of Governor Hayes is a plain, straightforward, and sensible document, and in every respect is creditable to him."
The Columbus Crisis said:
"The annual message of Governor R. B. Hayes, printed in this issue, is a very fair and plain statement of the condition of the affairs of the State, and is especially commendable for its brevity and practical purport."
The Steubenville Gazette characterized this message as—