The duties of librarian were other items of disbursement. transferred to the secretary of state. persed; the condition of the affairs of the state library was confused; it became necessary, at great extra labor, that those affairs should be regulated, and the books actually in the library, compared with the catalogues, &c. The duties of commissioner of the board of internal improvement, were, from the highly perplexed and important character of its concerns, such as to require severe labor and the utmost vigilance. These duties were transferred, also, to the secretary of state; and they were particularly pressing at a time when it became necessary to prepare the laws of the last session for the press, and when the other ordinary duties of the state department were pressing upon him. The laws of the land and the intentions of the legislature could not then be enforced, without the degree of aid stated, were extended to that officer. I am not aware that further explanation than that which will appear upon an examination of the vouchers in my possession, in relation to all the items of charge, would now be of use; and as to those vouchers, I would respectfully invite the house, by its committee or otherwise, to examine them at its pleasure, simply remarking that I have not yet received vouchers in form, for two items of charge, (to wit: that of Mr. Richmond, for aid furnished from the United States land office, relative to the university and state lands, and to whom, for want of private conveyance, I have not yet transmitted the amount ($5 00) of his charge; and that of Mr. Broadhead, for services in the library and state department, who is now absent from the state.) I have the honor to request, sir, that the inclosed statement and the foregoing explanations, be presented for the consideration of the house. And remain, very respectfully, WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. Executive Office, January 16, 1841. Statement of expenditures chargeable to the contingent fund. For a balance of postage chargeable to the last legislature of this state, and not otherwise provided for, $11 36 For clerk hire, upon contract entered into by the late auditor general, For clerk hire incurred during the incumbency of the present auditor general, 83 34 317 10 $411 80 Brought forward, For stationery for the office of auditor general, For advances made to the appraisers of the uni- For repairs on the yard, gates, &c., of the capitol, For copying sundry documents for the executive department, and for services rendered therein, For sundry services performed in the state library and in the state department, and for copying laws for the press, &c., while the secretary was in attendance upon the business of the board of internal improvement, sary $411 80 136 82 127 321 230 00 5 00 120 40 52 80 148 00 $1,232 14 The above (errors excepted,) constitute the disbursements made of the contingent fund. It will be further chargeable with a sum from $50 00 to $100 00, as rewards for the arrest of certain fugitives from justice, charged with aggravated crimes; and also, for the expense of chairs and table necesfor the executive office, but which for the better accommodation of the house, have been taken from it. I respectfully refer to senate document No. 22, in volume for 1838, (pages 319, 320,) of the volume of the senate documents, and also to document No. 2, (pages 288, 289, 290, 291,) of the volume of senate documents for 1840, for analogous expenditures, and as illustrative of the manner in which that fund has heretofore been applied. The amount of the fund unexpended appears on the public books, debited to the governor; and for its actual condition, I respectfully refer to the officers and books of the treasurer and auditor. WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. [No. 22.] Special message, in relation to the report of the committee appointed to investigate the different boards of internal improvement. To the Speaker of the House of Representatives: SIR-I have had the honor to receive, by the hands of one of the officers of the house of representatives, a verified copy of a resolution in the following terms, viz: Resolved, That his excellency the governor, be respectfully requested to transmit to this house, the report of the special committee appointed by the late house of representatives, to investigate the proceedings of the several boards of internal improvement. And also, how many copies of the same have been printed by order of his excellency, and what is the expense of printing, and if any part, or the whole has been paid; and if so, out of what fund. In answer to the inquiries in said resolution contained, I do myself the honor to state to you, for the information of the house, that at some time early in the month of September last, I was for the first time advised of the terms of the order of the house, in relation to the formation and duties of the committee appointed by the house, for the purposes above alluded to. The labors of the committee were then approaching to a close, and an application was made to me by one of the committee, to take order for the publication of their report; and on that occasion, there was shown to me the order of the house, in the terms following: "Be it further resolved, That the said committee have power to sit during the recess, at such place or places on the several lines of internal improvement as they shall deem necessary for the purposes of investigation, and report their proceedings to the governor for publication, at the earliest practicable period." (See page 465 of journals.) Feeling some reluctance, without further advice, to take definitive measures in a matter so entirely referable to the discretion and pleasure of the house, I immediately presented the matter for the consideration of the presiding officer and speaker of the house, the hon. Mr. Acker, and requested his advice as to the pleasure of the house. He concurred, fully with me in the opinion, that it was due to the house and to the country, that a competent number of copies of the report should be printed, in the usual form, and as speaker of the house, he gave his unqualified sanction to the measure. During this period of time, and for a long time after, the journals of the house were not published, were not accessible by me, and I was in no wise advised of any further action of the house in the premises. On the eleventh of September, the journal being then, I believe, in the hands of the printers, I received a note from Mr. Bates, (of the firm of Dawson & Bates,) of which the following is an extract: "Mr. Backus, (chairman of the committee,) suggested to me the propriety of calling upon your excellency for an order to print three hundred copies of the report of the select committee appointed to investigate the affairs of the board of internal improvement, &c. Will your excellency send the order by the bearer?" In accordance with that request, I immediately requested, in writing, the state printer to print the report, and to cause such numbers of the same to be struck off, "as the house of representatives usually ordered to be printed, of the important reports made to the house during its late session." The journal of the house remained unpublished, but in the process of publication, I believe, in the hands of the state printer. After the publication of the report, I obtained access to so much of the unfinished journal as is contained on the 691st and 692d pages of it, and as fast as the copies of the report could be obtained, I caused a partial distribution to be made of them, according to the direction contained in that part of the journal. And the secretary of state informs me, that as rapidly as he could do so, without hiring special messengers or incurring an enormous expense for postage, he has continued to distribute them according to those directions. It will be observed, that in my order for the printing, I authorized the striking off of no particular number of copies, but presumed, after I discovered the special order of the house for publishing four hundred copies of it, that the state printer had confined himself within the limitations contained in that order, until after I was advised of the late resolution of inquiry recently adopted by the house. I now find that the state printer has charged for the printing of one thousand copies, and that a charge therefor has been passed upon and audited by the auditor general, and paid, out of the general fund, (paper included,) to the amount of $1,523 20. WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. Executive Office, January 19, 1841. P. S. I herewith send, according to the direction of the house, the original report and documents put into my hands, properly arranged, by the clerk of the late committee of investigation. WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. To His Excellency the Governor of the State of Michigan: The committee appointed under a resolution of the house of representatives of the state of Michigan, of the date of the 18th day of March, A. D. 1840, to investigate all the accounts, contracts and proceedings of the board of internal improvement, from the organization of the first board, in pursuance of said resolution, would respectfully report: That in discharge of the duties devolved upon them immediately on the adjournment of the legislature, they met at the seat of government and organized, and then adjourned until the first Monday of May-first having made provisions for the collection and arrangement of the various papers, documents and other materials, in the several public offices, that must necessarily form the ground work of all their future operations. Impressed with a deep sense of their obligation to probe to the bottom the branch of the public service submitted to their investigation, with all practicable regard for economy, the committee deemed it most advisable for them, as a body, to adjourn, until the diffuse materials for their future labor could, in part at least, be collected and arranged in a manner to enable them, with the least possible delay, to pursue their inquiries into all the various detail requisite to present to the public a clear and succinct view of the proceedings of the several boards of internal improvement, in the disbursement and application of the public moneys. This branch of duty was intrusted to the clerk of the committee, Mr. A. E. Hathon, of whose indefatigable industry and fidelity, the committee cannot speak in too high terms, in conjunction with and under the direction of one of their own number, who procured and collected from the public offices and other sources, at home and abroad, the vouchers and other necessary papers and documents, and made such general arrangement of these as the committee had deemed necessary for the successful and economical prosecution of their work. The committee again met, at the city of Detroit, on the first Monday of May, for the purpose of entering on the active discharge of their duties. On meeting, the questions that presented themselves for the consideration of the committee, were, 1st, the mode to be adopted in pursuing their investigation; and 2d, the manner in which the results of their labor should be presented to the public. In the view taken by the committee, these questions pressed with peculiar force, and presented considerations of the deepest interest, that not only involved the successful prosecution of their work, but the benefits to be expected and derived from its completion. The diffuse and complicated mass of matter to be investigated, embracing as they did, all the relations of the several commissioners and their subordinates, with the state, in their accounts, contracts and proceedings relative to the various public works under their direction-to arrange and systematize these in such a manner as to enable the committee themselves to gain a full |