The Life, Public Services and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes

by J. Q. Howard

In several counties of the State colored children are practically deprived of the privilege of attending public schools. The denial of education to any citizen of Ohio is so manifestly unjust that it is confidently believed that the legislature needs only to be informed that such a wrong exists to promptly provide a remedy.

The official reports of the penitentiary, the Reform School for Boys, the Reform School for Girls, and the benevolent institutions of the State, which will be laid before you, show that the work of these institutions has during the past year been well done. They will, without question, receive from you all needed encouragement and support. It seems proper, however, to direct your attention to the urgent necessity of such legislation as will empower the boards of trustees and directors charged with the erection of buildings for the insane and for the orphans of deceased soldiers, to complete them as soon as practicable.

By the census of 1870 the number of insane persons in the State was 3,414. The number of patients under treatment in the insane asylums of the State was, last year, only 1,346. The trustees of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home report that the number of orphans in Ohio needing care is about eight hundred, and that the number cared for is only about two hundred and fifty. These facts sufficiently demonstrate the importance of the suggestion here made.

I renew the recommendation heretofore made that the legislature provide for the erection of suitable monuments at the graves of General Harrison and General Hamer.

General Harrison has many titles to the grateful remembrance of the people of Ohio. He was one of the pioneers of the West, a soldier of honorable fame in two wars against the savages and in the war of 1812, a secretary and acting governor of the Northwest Territory before Ohio was organized, a law-maker of conspicuous usefulness at the State capital and at Washington, and was chief magistrate of the Nation at the time of his death. To honor him is to honor all who were eminent and useful in the early settlement of Ohio.

General Hamer served with distinction four times in the General Assembly; was the speaker of the house of representatives; was six years a member of Congress from the Brown county district, and died in Mexico in 1846, a volunteer from Ohio, in the service of his country, with the rank of brigadier-general. At the time of his death the General Assembly, with entire unanimity, "resolved that the body of the deceased be brought from Mexico and interred in the soil of Ohio, at the expense of the State." Having undertaken, as the duty of the State, to give the remains of General Hamer a fitting burial, the legislature can not regard that duty as completely performed until an appropriate monument has been built at his grave.

Since the adoption of the present constitution the governor's duties have compelled him to reside at the capital. If any change is made in respect to the powers and duties of the executive in the revision about to be made of the constitution, the change, it is probable, will increase rather than diminish his duties. The evident impropriety of subjecting each new incumbent of the office to the inconvenience and expense of procuring and furnishing a suitable residence for the short period of a governor's term of office has led, in many States, to the purchase of a governor's mansion. Three of the States adjoining Ohio have adopted this course. It can not be doubted that Ohio will, at no distant day, follow their example. The rapid increase in the value of real estate in Columbus in consequence of its present growth and its promise of continued prosperity in the future gives force to the suggestion that if the State is to purchase a governor's residence at all it would be well to do it promptly.

The importance of wise legislation on the subject of railroads, in a State having the geographical position which belongs to Ohio, can not be over-estimated. The greater part of the trade and travel between the commercial and manufacturing States of the East and the agricultural States of the West, and of the business of the continental railways which connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, passes over the railroads of this State. Fourteen years ago, Governor Chase, speaking of the railroads of Ohio, said: "This vast interest, affecting vitally so many other interests, has grown suddenly to its present dimensions without system, without general organization, and, in some important respects, without responsibility." Then the railroads of the State carried annually about a million of passengers, and their gross receipts were about six millions of dollars a year. Last year they carried twelve millions of passengers, and their gross receipts exceeded thirty million of dollars.

All of the just powers of the corporations which conduct this immense business are derived from the laws of the State. If these laws fail to guard adequately the rights and the interests of our citizens, it is the duty of the General Assembly to supply their defects. Serious and well-grounded apprehensions are felt that in the management of these companies, which are largely controlled by non-residents of Ohio, practices, not sanctioned by the law, nor by sound morality, have become common, which are prejudicial to the interests of the great body of the people, and which, if continued, will ultimately destroy the prosperity of the State.

Regarding railroads as the most useful instrumentality by which intercourse is carried on between different sections of the country, the people do not desire the adoption of a narrow or unfriendly policy toward them. But it should be remembered that these corporations were created, and their valuable franchises granted by the legislature to promote the interests of the people of the State. No railroad company can sacrifice those interests without violating the law of its origin. It is not to be doubted that the authority of the General Assembly is competent to correct whatever abuses have grown up in the management of the railroads of the State.