I submit to your consideration the importance of providing for a thorough and comprehensive geological survey of the State. Many years ago a partial survey was prosecuted under many difficulties and embarrassments, which was fruitful of valuable results. It is, beyond doubt, that such a work as it is now practicable to carry out will, by making known the mining, manufacturing, and agricultural resources of the State, lead to their development to an extent which will, within a few years, amply reimburse the State for its cost.
The annual report of pardons granted and the commutations of the sentences of convicts required by law; a statement in detail of the expenditure of the governor's contingent fund; the semi-annual report of the commissioners of the sinking fund, for May; copies of proclamations issued during the last year; and an acknowledgment of the presentation to the State of several of the portraits of former governors of Ohio, are transmitted herewith.
The most important subject of legislation which, in my judgment, requires the attention of the General Assembly at its present session, relates to the prevention of frauds upon the elective franchise. Intelligent men of all parties are persuaded that at the recent important State and National elections great abuses of the right of suffrage were practiced. I am not prepared to admit that the reports commonly circulated and believed in regard to such abuses, would, so far as the elections in Ohio are concerned, be fully sustained by a thorough investigation of the facts. But it is not doubted that even at the elections in our own State frauds were perpetrated to such an extent that all good citizens earnestly desire that effective measures may be adopted by you to prevent their repetition. No elaborate attempt to portray the consequences of this evil is required. If it is allowed to increase, the confidence of the people in the purity of elections will be lost, and the exercise of the right of suffrage will be neglected. To corrupt the ballot box is to destroy our free institutions. Let all good citizens, therefore, unite in enacting and enforcing laws which will secure honest elections.
I submit to your judgment the propriety of such amendments to the election laws as will provide, first, for the representation of minorities in the boards of the judges and clerks of the elections; and second, for the registration of all the lawful voters in each township, ward, and election precinct, prior to the election.