honorable and sympathetic remembrances accorded by the State to citizens in other corps. I respectfully suggest an inquiry into the condition of these bodies; and if no objections shall be found to exist, that the provisions of the Act be extended to their families, also, without delay.

I am informed by the State Auditor that he cannot state the amount of aid given to families of volunteers, which the State is liable to refund, any further than the sum thus expended by the city of Boston, which he reports to be $60,000, and he estimates that sum as not likely to be less than one-fourth of the total similar disbursement of all the cities and towns. It will be necessary for you to make special legislative provision for means to refund these disbursements.

Service of Process on Volunteers.

I beg to call to your attention the present condition of the laws with regard to the service of process in civil suits, in its relation to our volunteer forces. Each of the soldiers and sailors whom we have contributed to the armies and navies of the United States, is liable to be prosecuted to final judgment in a suit, the only notice of which to the defendant may have been by leaving a summons at his last and usual place of abode. It is, in my opinion, a legislative duty to provide further safeguards of notice to these men; and I respectfully present the subject for the consideration of the General Court, with the suggestion

also to consider the expediency of providing that certain actions of tort shall not be brought against any volunteer, either in the military or naval service of the United States, during his absence from the Commonwealth on duty, under his present enlistment, and of modifying the statute of limitations for such

cases.

Congressional Districts.

It will be necessary for additional legislation to be had relative to the election of Representatives in Congress. By the result of the last national census, it appears that for the next decennial period this Commonwealth will be entitled to but ten members of the lower House, losing one member from its present proportion. To this inevitable result of the increase of the great Western States in population, Massachusetts yields a cheerful acquiescence. She recognized from the beginning that her narrow limits and less fertile soil would prevent successful competition with her younger sisters in the great race for material strength; but she still trusts to the intelligence and enterprise of her people to retain that degree of political power, which once she wielded by right also of predominance of population.

I respectfully suggest the expediency of no longer insisting by statute that each representative in Congress shall be an inhabitant of the District from which he is elected. This is simply a restriction upon the

freedom of choice to be exercised by the various constituencies, who ought all to be treated by the law of Massachusetts as capable of selecting from among the citizens of the Commonwealth their best representatives. Our limited territory, and the homogeneous character and interests of our people, their intimacy of relations, their nearness to each other by means of their network of railways, the numbers whose legal habitations are in a town or city, while their daily business is from five to fifty or more miles remote therefrom, all tend to render it desirable that each constituency shall be unfettered in its freedom to select the wisest and ablest citizen at its command to sit in the National Council, especially in this grave emergency of our public affairs.

And the law, as it stands, is subject to the grave objection of unconstitutionality. The eligibility of a person to an office must be determined by the constitution or the law under which the office was created, and by which its jurisdiction and functions are prescribed. The office of Representative in Congress is created by the constitution of the United States, by which also its powers, duties and incidents are determined. And the constitution fixes the conditions of eligibility by requiring that "No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen."

The question of the right of a State to add new conditions to those of the constitution, was examined in the thirty-fourth Congress by both houses, in the exercise of their respective powers to judge of the elections and qualifications of their own members. It was elaborately discussed and with great ability, and was settled in the negative by both houses, by decisive majorities; and a senator and a representative whose elections were contested on the ground that they were ineligible by the constitution of the State from which they were elected, though not so by the constitution of the United States, retained their seats. Conspicuous instances have occurred in which members of Congress have served without objection, notwithstanding limitations of State law. It seems, therefore, well settled both by precedent and principle, that a State has no power to fix or define the qualifications of a senator or a representative in the Congress of the Union.

Direct National Tax.

By the Act of Congress of August fifth, in the past year, a direct annual tax of $20,000,000 was laid upon the United States, to be assessed upon "the value of all lands and lots of ground, with their improvements and dwelling-houses." The proportion assigned to Massachusetts, of this tax, is $824,581.33. By the same Act it is provided that any State may assume and collect its quota, and pay the same into the National Treasury, it being lawful to use for this

purpose the last or any subsequent valuation list made by authority of such State, for purposes of its own taxation; and that any State which shall, on or before the second Tuesday of February of each year, give notice through its Governor or other proper officer, to the Secretary of the Federal Treasury, of its intention so to assume, collect, and pay its quota, shall, by way of compensation for the expenses of collection, be entitled to a deduction of fifteen per cent., according to the amount paid by it into the Federal Treasury "on or before the last day of June in the year to which such payment relates," "such year being regarded as commencing on the first day of April." Under date of November 29th last, a communication was addressed to me by the Secretary of the Treasury, making inquiry "whether the authorities of Massachusetts will assume and pay the amount of direct tax apportioned to that State by the existing law, and also whether in case of any change in the law, by which a different and perhaps larger amount shall be apportioned to the State, the authorities will probably assume and pay it." To this communication I had the honor to reply, giving personal assurances in the affirmative; and I now respectfully refer the subject to the immediate attention of the General Court, with the recommendation that at the earliest day I may be empowered officially to notify the Secretary of the intention of Massachusetts to assume the collection of her quota of this tax for the present