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At other times, the wordy warfare of party, the strifes of faction might be tolerated and endured, if not encouraged and applauded.
Such is not the present hour.
Higher and greater thoughts occupy us now. I confidently believe that you, gentlemen, will prove yourselves equal to the emergency; that you will rise to the height of your duties; and that, taking the Constitution for your loadstar and your guide through the troubles of the times, you will dedicate yourselves to the single object of contributing, with heart and soul, to uphold, to re-establish, and to perpetuate our sacred and beloved Union.
That we resolve and determine to do, with the good help of God.
The
House then made choice of
Hon. Alexander H. Bullock, of
Worcester,
Speaker of the
House: he received every vote cast.
William S. Robinson, of
Malden, was elected clerk.
On taking the chair,
Mr. Bullock also referred to the existing war, and to the duty of
Massachusetts in regard thereto.
More than thirty thousand of the men of Massachusetts are at this moment far from home, in arms, to preserve the public liberties along the Upper and Lower Potomac, among the islands and deltas of the Gulf, or wherever else they have been called to follow that imperilled but still radiant flag.
He closed with these words: ‘In the service of the
State at all times, but especially at the present, the least of duties is a part of the impressive whole.’
On Friday, Jan. 3, the two branches met in convention to administer the oath of office to the
Governor and
Lieutenant-Governor elect, and to listen to the annual address.
The Governor, in his address, made a broad survey of the military field of observation, and the part which
Massachusetts had taken in the war during the year preceding.
The amount of money expended by the
State, for war purposes, was $3,384,--649.88, of which there had been reimbursed, by the
United States, the sum of $987,263.54; leaving an unpaid balance of about $2,500,000. This was exclusive of the amount paid by the several cities and towns of the
Commonwealth for the support of the families of soldiers, under the act passed at the extra session of 1861, which amounted, in the aggregate, to about $250,000, which was to be reimbursed from the treasury of
