osition to the enactment of a registry law.
Without yielding my own settled convictions in favor of such a law,
I content myself, in this communication, with urging upon your
attention a measure of reform in the manner of conducting
elections, the importance and justice of which no one ventures to
deny. The conduct of the officers whose duty at elections it is to
receive and count the ballots, and to make returns of the result,
ought to be above suspicion. This can rarely be the case where they
all belong to the same political party. A fair representation of
the minority will go far, not only to prevent fraud, but, what is
almost of equal importance, remove the suspicion of fraud. I do not
express any preference for any particular plan of securing minority
representation in the boards of judges and clerks of elections.
Various modes have been suggested, and it will not be difficult to
adopt a means of attaining the desired result which will harmonize
with our system of election law.

The re-enactment of the law securing to the disabled volunteer
soldiers who are inmates of the National asylum, near Dayton, the
right of suffrage in the county and township in which said asylum
is located, which was repealed April 17, 1868, and the repeal of
the legislation of the last General Assembly, imposing special
restrictions upon the exercise of the right of suffrage by students
and by citizens having a visible admixture of African blood, are
measures so clearly demanded by impartial justice and public
sentiment that no argument in their support is deemed necessary.

I transmit herewith the report required by law of the pardons
granted during the year ending November 15, 1869, a report of the
expenditures of the Governor's contingent fund, copies of
proclamations issued during the year, and several communications
accompanying gifts to the State of portraits of former Governors.

The most important measure which it will be your duty to consider
at your present session is the proposed amendment to the
constitution of the United States. I do not feel called upon to
discuss its merits. The great body of that part of the people of
Ohio who sustain the laws for the reconstruction of the States
lately in rebellion believe that the fifteenth amendment is just
a