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Fellow citizens of the Senate and of the house of
Representatives.

The circumstance of your assembling together, clothed
with authority by a free people, to deliberate and decide
on their dearest interests, is a spectacle calculated to excite
the most pleasing emotions in the breast of every real
patriot. This high privilege is only enjoyed to the same
extnet by the citizens of our great Republic; and if it furnishes
a happy illusstration of the principle that the people do in
fact govern themselves.

In your deliberations you may rely upon my cordial
support in all measures that are calculated to advance
the happiness and prosperity of our beloved country. And
the opinions which I entertain upon the subjects which
I shall bring to your consideration, shall be offered briefly,
but with candor. It will be for you to determine
upon their correctness, and to sustain or oppose them
as your better Judgements may direct.

In the communication which I made of the last
sessions of the commencement of the last session of the
General Assembly, I urged the propriety of a strict examina
-tion of the affairs of the State bank, from a conviction
that many of its officers and agents, had disregarded
the trust reposed in them, by using the public funds
for their own private advantage. The Joint committee
to whom was refered [sic] the duty of enquiring [sic] into the condition
of the bank discovered that the officers of the principal
institution at Nashville were defaulters to a large
amount; but the near approach of the termination