not the lowest salary that is always cheapest to the public; it is the most faithful, able, and efficient discharge of the public duties, that is cheapest in the end; it is this the public are willing to pay for; and any thing short of this, no matter at what price, in dollars and cents, it may be obtained, so far as the public is concerned, is the most extravagant salary that is paid.
The true policy for you to pursue, is to affix to each office such salary, or perquisite, as will command high qualifications, pure character and business habits, and to hold all officers to the most rigid discharge of duty, under suitable penalties and disabilities.
This done, and you will have laid the foundation of a system, which, if carried out in all its ramifications, must be productive of happy results in elevating the character of our State and people, by lessening, if not entirely arresting, the scramble for office known to exist in some sections of the Union, and the germ of which may take root in our own soil, if it has not already done so. The salaries of the Judges of the Supreme and Circuit Courts, the State House officers and especially the Secretaries of the Executive Department, the officers of the State Road, as well as some of the officers connected with the Penitentiary, may well claim your attention. They should, at least be equalized, so as to bear some just proportion to the character of the labor, both mental and physical, performed. No officers engaged in the public service are entitled to more consideration at your hands, than the Secretaries of the Executive Department; their duties are not only onerous, but often complicated, and none but men of mind and business habits, can discharge them with safety to the public or satisfaction to the Executive; and yet their salaries are six hundred dollars less than those of the other officers connected with the State House. For this inequality there can be no sufficient reason assigned.
By law no salary is fixed for messenger to this Department, and yet such an officer has been found necessary by my predecessors, and paid out of the contingent fund. For this officer provision should be made, and his salary fixed by law; as it cannot be regarded expedient for the Executive to be charged with the expenditure of money, except in cases not foreseen, and for which, therefore, no provision can be made.
In recurring to the sources of our improvement, none is more striking than the establishment of a Supreme Court for the correction of errors in law. While its present organization may in some respects be defective, the ability and integrity of the Court is a sure guarantee of its future usefulness. Uniformity and certainty in the administration of the law produce, in the breast of the good citizen, a strong confidence that the rights of all will be protected, and justice
