taxable property of
the State was $136,142,666. With a disordered currency, with
business prostrated, with labor often insufficiently rewarded, the
burden of this debt was severely felt, and questions in regard to
it naturally entered into the partisan struggles of the time. Now
the State debt is $11,031,941.56; the taxable property of the State
amounts to $1,138,754,779; and there is no substantial difference
of opinion among the people as to the proper mode of dealing with
this subject.

State taxation was formerly the occasion of violent party contests.
Now men of all parties concur in the opinion that, as a general
rule, every citizen ought to be taxed in proportion to the actual
value of his property, without regard to the form in which he
prefers to invest it; and differences as to the measures by which
the principle is practically applied rarely enter into political
struggles in Ohio.

Party conflicts and debates as to State laws in relation to banking
and the currency constitute a large part of the political history
of the State. But the events of the last few years have convinced
those who are in favor of a paper currency that in the present
condition of the country it can best be furnished by the National
Government, either by means of National banks or in the form of
legal tender treasury notes. State legislatures are therefore
relieved from the consideration of this difficult and perplexing
subject.

Internal improvements made by State authority, so essential to
growth and prosperity in the early history of the State, no longer
require much consideration by the General Assembly. Works of a
magnitude too great to be undertaken by individual enterprise will
hereafter be, for the most part, accomplished by the government of
the Nation.

The part which patriotism required Ohio to take in the war to
suppress rebellion demanded important and frequent acts of
legislation. Fortunately the transactions of the State growing out
of the war have been, or probably can be, closed under existing
laws, with very little, if any, additional legislation.

If not mistaken as to the result of this brief reference to a few
of the principal subjects of the legislation of the past, the
present General Assembly has probably a better opport