people of Michigan may again act untrammeled, as the interests, condition and claims of the whole state may dictate or require.

The resolutions/of Calhoun county and the proposition of Mr. Seymour for Ingham county, expressly bring before the legislature the question of state buildings, involving an expenditure of a very large amount of public money. It is obvious that the expectation of gain and advantage to the successful one among the competing villages, by means of such outlays of the public funds, enters largely into the interest which attends this question among the friends and advocates of the several places. The committee believe that such expectation should be distinctly expressed and the subject of building clearly settled in the act of this legislature, so that the location of the capitol shall not pledge the state directly or constructively to enter upon such expenditure or be a basis or pretence upon which frequent or annual applications may be urged by the parties interested for appropriations for such purposes.

The convention of 1835, actuated by reasons growing out of the then condition of the population and settlement of the state-the extensive unsettled regions then in the centre, rapidly filling up and becoming occupied, deferred the establishment of the seat of government-and instead thereof provided that it should "be at Detroit or such other place or places as may be prescribed by law, until the year 1847, when it shall be permanently located by the legislature." This disposition of this grave question showed the wisdom, economy and foresight of the members of that body, was approved by the public of that day, and has been since satisfactory to the state. It would have been unjust to the people then and thereafter inhabiting this state, if the representatives of a population which, in 1830, five years before, was, by their census, only 31,639, and in 1837, only 174,600-had fixed permanently at that time, the seat of government of this state, having a territory little less in extent, as it then existed, than the empire state of the Union, and capable of containing and sustaining a population equal to that state. Such an act, by forcing a conformity to it in the after settlements, would have tended to retard the inrolling and increasing population, and repress the fair prospects annually realizing of an early, rapidly increasing and extending settlement and improvement

of the uncultivated regions of the state. These regions in the range from south to north, comprized almost the entire of nine counties, of 24 miles square each, while the inhabitants of the state in the same range were settled and principally found in the three remaining southern counties. The committee will not maintain that the representatives of the people of that day were actuated in their decision of this question by reasons of economy, or of inability of the state, to encounter the expense of a permanent location and buildings—so abundant and obvious to us at this day--for while the history of the times, and our own sad experience prove that such reasons ought to have prevailed, yet they also prove the folly and infatuations entertained by some men, and sometimes by communities-that money facilities or a facility for borrowing money, is individual and national wealth itself. This state has earned through toil and tribulation, amid wide spread bankruptcy and desolation-experience on this subject, precious it ought to be for the wisdom it teaches to guide our future course and actions-precious it has been and is yet for its blighting influence upon our affairs, and the poverty and want of our people and public treasury. With this experience, looking to one point only, in the condition of our finances—or that we are assured and know that a further imposition of a tax of from three to five fifths as much as now is raised for state purposes, is incumbent upon this legislature, to maintain the credit of the state, and pay annually the interest only of our public debt— the committee believe that the disposition of this subject as proposed by their amendment, will be received with satisfaction by the people and their representatives, and is imperiously required at the hands of this legislature. We ought not to encounter the expense of erecting public buildings at this time, nor leave it in doubt for hereafter; and we apprehend that no one would think of doing it, but from the supposition that the mandatory clause of the constitution requiring the location at this session necessarily involved it. And in acting upon it we ought not to leave any pretence or ground of claim on the part of the friends of the successful place, for such expenditure-and we ought not to have any fear or ground of fear among our people, that continual applications and importunity to the legislature, with all the appliances and influences of the locali

ty, may induce at an early or a late day the undertaking to erect the state buildings. Under the provisions of the constitution, we have passed more than eleven years, with no considerable disquietude, and much general satisfaction, under an arrangement for temporary occupations, such as the committee recommend-and the committee entertain no doubt that there may be a full compliance with the mandate of the constitution by the enactment of the law as proposed by them to be amended.

The committee agree in the views presented above, and they now proceed to state such facts and suggestions as have come before them bearing upon the subject. They perceive and have stated that the location of the capitol affords a glittering prospect of individual and sectional advantage to the inhabitants and advocates of the several places, from the seeming necessity on the part of the state to proceed at once, or with no considerable delay, to the erection of the required and suitable state buildings. They must be laid out to accommodate the sessions of the legislature-and the state library-the offices of the governor and state officers, the secretary of state, the auditor general and treasurer, the superintendent of public instruction, the commissioner of the land office, the attorney general, the adjutant general, &c., the supreme court and its officers-with all the fixtures and conveniences which the state will necessarily provide when they build the state buildings permanently, at the seat of government. This involves a draft upon the public treasury, (more aptly now described as the pockets of the people) and a consequent expenditure in the locality, of not less than two hundred thousand dollars, upon the most contracted and economical plan and estimate suitable to the state of Michigan, to say nothing of the various assylums which the unfortunate of our race will some day hereafter enjoy in Michigan as they do already in nearly all of the older, and many of the new states of this Union.

The proposition of the supervisors of the county of Calhoun is ' this: "that should the Legislature locate the seat of government at Marshall, the county of Calhoun will furnish suitable buildings for the meetings of the Legislature during the time the State buildings are being built, and also furnish suitable building grounds whereon

to locate the buildings, free of expense." This proposition naturally brought up various questions which have been debated and cons idered by the committee. One is, do the words "free of expense attach to the first offer to "furnish suitable buildings," &c., or only to the second offer to "furnish suitable building grounds?" The committee would not be warranted in considering this material portion of the proposition as attaching to the first offer, or extending beyond the village lot for the capitol. Hence the provision in the amendment proposed, that the State shall pay a rent and not principal, as the Legislature may from time to time allow and direct, seemed to be important to meet the offer from the county of Calhoun. Another question raised by this proposition was, "is the location of the capital to be determined by bids of the several competing places, and in favor of the one making the best bid?" If so, a better bid than a lot in Marshall ought to be obtained, and publication for bids should have been made so that all places might have had the opportunity of entering into the auction; and especially the places north of the Central rail road ought to know of the chance afloat, to build up a capital city in their region, by disbursement of large amounts of public money at the place, " during the time the public buildings are being built." The amendment recommended by the committee seems to them to dispose of the grand question, by placing the several competing towns upon a like footing, and cutting off all claim by the place, and all pledge by the State, direct or constructive, that any such expenditure will be made for such a purpose under the act of the Legislature.

The committee have had presented for their consideration, the four locations, Marshall, Jackson, Ann Arbor and Detroit, and various places have been named north of the line of the Central rail road; among others the salt spring lands in the county of Gratiot. The four places named have their advocates among the members of the committee, while it is believed that no member seriously maintains the proposition that the Central rail road runs through or near to the centre of the State, or furnishes along its line any place which is now or can hereafter be the centre of the State. Consequently, if it be the purpose of the Legislature to establish the seat of government for the State, and not for the town or coun

ty, or in a central position, that location must be sought for and found away from that line, and from the four principal places named, which have found supporters among the members of the committee.

The committee have deemed it their duty to so mould their bill, and advise such action of the Legislature upon this subject as will meet the requirement of the constitution, and be also prudent and just, in reference to the future as well as the present condition of our State, its settlement, population and finances. They advise a course which looks to the true interests of the State, and the whole State, now and hereafter, and not to that of a village or town. When large sums of money shall have been expended by the State for the State buildings, no removal can thereafter be made of the seat of government without great waste and loss of the public treasIre; and no reason is apparent to the committee why such an expenditure should be made in this State, except such as is derived from the desire and expectation of the inhabitants of these places. They deem the thing self evident, that any one of the places named, if selected by this Legislature, will not and can not continue to be the seat of government for any great number of years. So glaring will the injustice bccome in the progress of years, and of the settlement of the uncultivated regions of our State now going on, that a constitutional amendment for its removal would be forced upon us. But a location simply involves the building by the State; it is sought for, for this reason, by the competing places; and money laid out, as expected, is permanently gone from the treasury, and must remain in the place, to whatever other point the capitol shall hereafter be removed or located by the people themselves, in convention again. A present expenditure, they repeat, would inevitably lead to a waste of money, aud to the committee it appears neither wisdom at present nor justice in the future, by simply locating the capitol, without the provision recommended, to place the State under pledge, direct or constructive, to incur such expendi

ture.

In regard to the present time designated in the constitution, the condition of our finances, settlements, individual and sectional wealth and population, this question varies in no material point