VERSITY OF CHICAGO JOURNAL OF THE SENATE. STATE OF NEW YORK: SENATE CHAMBER, IN THE CITY OF ALBANY, TUESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1867. Pursuant to the sixth section of the tenth article of the Constitution of the State of New York, designating the first Tuesday of January, in each year, for the time of meeting of the Legislature, the Hon. Stewart L. Woodford, Lieutenant Governor, and the following Senators from the several districts, appeared in the Senate, to wit: District Number One District Number Two. District Number Three... NICHOLAS B. LA BAU. District Number Four. District Number Five. District Number Six .. .... ... District Number Seven. ... Number Thirty .... ... Hon. John I. Nicks, Senator elect from the Twenty-seventh District, in place of Stephen T. Hayt, resigned, took and subscribed the Constitutional oath of office. The Lieutenant Governor then arose and addressed the Senate as follows: SENATORS-I Congratulate you on the happy auspices under which you reassemble. Industry, quiet and plenty have blessed our State, while peace returns slowly but still surely to our nation. We sorrow over the suffering and loss which rebellion caused. We hail with joy the returning peace. We rest in the faith that it shall be enduring; for the loyalty which compelled it by the sword, is now establishing it upon the firm foundations of liberty and equal justice. Trusting that the pleasant friendships which have knit your circle together may be still more strengthened during the session on which we enter, and relying upon your generous forbearance and support in the discharge of the unaccustomed duties to which I have been called, I bid you, Senators, a happy New Year welcome. Mr. Gibson offered the following resolution: Resolved, That until otherwise ordered, the Senate will go into executive session on Wednesday of each week, at 12 o'clock M. The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative. Mr. Low offered the following resolution: Resolved, That until otherwise ordered, the Senate will meet at 11 o'clock A. M. The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative. Mr. La Bau offered the following resolution: Resolved, That a committee of two be appointed by the President to wait upon His Excellency the Governor, and inform him that the Senate is organized and ready to proceed to business. The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative. The President appointed as such committee, Messrs. La Bau and Low. Mr. Godard offered the following resolution: Resolved, That a committee of two be appointed to wait upon the Hon. the Assembly, and inform that body that the Senate is organized and ready to proceed to business. The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative. The President appointed as such committee, Messrs. Godard and Sutherland. Mr. Barnett offered the following resolution: Resolved, That the Clerk of the Senate be directed to invite the clergymen of the city of Albany, having charge of religious congregations, to open the daily sittings of the Senate with prayer, and to attend in such order as shall best suit their convenience. The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative. Mr. Williams offered the following concurrent resolution: Resolved, (if the Assembly concur,) That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be instructed to use their best exertions to promote the passage of a bill imposing a suitable tariff on wool and other domestic products and manufactures. Ordered, That said resolution be laid on the table. Also, the following: Whereas, At a session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, it was resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the said Constitution, namely: "ARTICLE 14. "SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. "SEC. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and VicePresident of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridge, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. "SEC. 3. No person shall be a Senator or representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability. "SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations. and claims shall be held illegal and void. "SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article." Therefore, Resolved, (if the Assembly concur,) That the said proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, be and the same is hereby ratified by the Legislature of the State of New York. Ordered, That said preamble and resolution be laid on the table. Mr. Folger offered the following resolution: Resolved, That the Senate will on the day of January, instant, at o'clock in the afternoon, commence the hearing of the arguments in the case of the County Judge of Oneida county, and will continue such session from day to day, at that hour, until the matter is disposed of, or until otherwise ordered. Mr. Folger moved to lay the resolution upon the table. The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said motion to lay on the table, and it was decided in the affirmative. Messrs. La Bau and Low, from the committee appointed to wait upon His Excellency the Governor, reported that they had discharged that duty, and that His Excellency informed them that he would communicate with the Senate to-morrow. On motion of Mr. Low, the Senate adjourned. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1867. The Senate met pursuant to adjournment. Prayer by Rev. Dr. Wyckoff. The journal of yesterday was read and approved. Mr. Godard, from the committee appointed to wait upon the Hon. the Assembly to inform that body that the Senate was organized and ready to proceed to business, reported that they had discharged that duty. George S. Hastings, Private Secretary of His Excellency the Governor, appeared in the chamber and presented the annual message of the Governor, which was read by the Clerk, as follows: To the Legislature: STATE OF NEW YORK-EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, I welcome the members of the two branches of the Legislature to the public councils. Questions of grave import, both State and National, await your deliberation. The auspicious circumstances which attend your meeting will cheer you in commencing the work before you; they will impart strength and unity to your counsels, and will confirm, by the authority of the public judgment, such action as you may take towards the settlement of our National difficulties, on the sure foundation of justice. The people look with undoubting confidence to you, as their representatives, to give expression to their ascertained will; and they rely on your wisdom and fidelity for such salutary and wholesome laws as shall advance our general welfare. The year that has just closed has been charged with great events, and has been rich in its blessings of peace, and in its rewards to industry. We have occasion for mutual congratulation on the progress of almost every interest of the people, and the promise of yet greater achievements in the future, to be wrought out through a firm adherence to our traditional policy, and to those fundamental truths upon which our system of government depends. We emerged from the stormy night of war, to enter upon a hardly less trying period of political conflict; and in passing through each of these ordeals, there has been developed, on the part of the people, a steadfastness of purpose, a depth of patriotism, and an enlightened appreciation of the principles of civil liberty, which not only attest the beneficent influence and strength of our form of government, but also give assurance of its rising greatness and perpetuity. Through the very process of our national trials, in both field and forum, the American Union has been subjected to a test more severe |