portioned to that county for the said years of eighteen hundred and thirty-three and eighteen hundred and thirty-four. Agreed to, Dec. 10th, 1834. THOMAS GLASCOCK, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Attest-JOSEPH STURGIS, Clerk. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be, and he is hereby authorized and requested to cause to be paid to the several academies which have reported from the county of Monroe, for the year eighteen hundred and thirty-four, all such sums as may be due said county by distributions made of the fund appropriated for county academies previous to the year eighteen hundred and thirty-two, to be appropriated to said academies, agreeable to the number of pupils respectively taught therein. Agreed to, Dec. 17th, 1834. THOMAS GLASCOCK, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Attest-JOSEPH STURGIS, Clerk. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor for the time. being, shall appoint one commissioner, who shall be authorized to draw for the fund appropriated annually, as it may be needed for the purposes of the trust, for the support of the indigent deaf and dumb of this State;-and whose duty shall be to receive applications for the benefit of said appropriation, and to judge of their claims, to be placed on the list of beneficiaries according to the intention and meaning of these resolutions. Resolved, That said commissioner shall, and he is hereby required to keep a list of all such persons that he may receive as beneficiaries, designating the names, places of residences, and age of each; and also to keep a fair and correct account of his receipts and expenditures, together with all the vouches for his expenditures, and to make a full and particular report of the same. together with all such information as may be called for by the Legislature from time to time touching his trust. Resolved, That it shall be the duty of the said commissioner to make all necessary arrangements for conveying such of the indigent deaf and dumb of this State, to the American Asylum at Hartford, Connecticut, and for their expenses at said institution, having at the same time watchful care that they be placed on the most economical scale. Resolved, That said commissioner be required to give bond, with good and sufficient security, to be made payable to the Governor and his successors in office; and which bond his Excellency is hereby required to take for the faithful performance of the duties of said commissioner during his continuance in office, and which commissioner shall be entitled to and receive such compensation for his services as each. Legislature may judge to be reasonable and right. Agreed to, 20th Dec. 1834. THOMAS GLASCOCK, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Attest-JOSEPH STURGIS, Clerk. In Senate, concurred in, Dec. 20th, 1834. President of the Senate. Attest-JOHN A. CUTHBERT, Secretary. Approved, Dec. 20th, 1834. WILSON LUMPKIN, Governor. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The select committee to whom was referred the Gov. ernor's message communicating the information that the small-por had made its appearance in Coweta county, and the claim of the corporation of Savannah for disbursements made under the quarantine laws of this State, have had the same under consideration; and on the first branch of the communication beg leave to report:-'That from the respectable source from which the information emanates, no doubt is entertained by the committee of the appearance of this dreadful pestilence in Coweta county; and that unless prompt and efficient measures be taken to prevent its spread, it will soon be so disseminated through the country as to defy the possibility of arrest; that the only measure which this committee can consider adequate to the exigency is to authorize the Inferior Court of that county to provide, at the expense of the State, a temporary hospital in some isolated house, to which to remove all who have been or may be affected, and to employ a competent nurse and physician, and a guard to prevent communication of the sick and their attendants with others; and further to authorize and request his Excellency the Governor to procure vaccine matter, to be by him distributed in Coweta county and its neighbourhood. On the second branch of the subject submitted, the committee has examined the fourteenth section of the act of 1793, and is satisfied that the claim of the corporation of Savannah to reimbursement of the money expended by it, amounting to the sum of $1511, 16 is just, and ought to be paid out of the funds of the State. By a reference to the quarantine laws it will be obvious that those laws are not intended for the particular protection of any section of the State, but to prevent the entrance in or spread of any malignant or contagious disease over the State; and power to enforce these laws is given to particular bodies, not because those bodies are instructed with the safety of any particular section, but because of the necessity of vesting this power where the exercise of it may first be required, and where that exercise may smother and extinguish the evil on its first appearance: the power to enforce these laws is vested in the Governor, but if it were confined to him the ravages of disease might be great, and the country generally infested before he could be informed of the necessity of action: those powers have been therefore wisely confided also to other bodies, and more especially to the corporations of our seaboard towns, where the entrance of pestilence is most likely to be made; but it was never contemplated that the expense of this protection, intended for all, should fall on and be exclusively bound by that particular spot, which, unfortunately for itself, should be the point first attacked; if this were the case, a general quarantine law would be unnecessary, if not entirely inefficient; for no corporation or town would feel under obligation to do more than expel from its limits the subjects of the disease; the principles of humanity would be outraged, and the safety of the State would not be secured. The act of 1793 and subsequent acts show the views entertained by preceding Legislatures, and therefore the appropriation from the contingent fund by that law for the payment of any such disbursements. This committee have learned from another source, and feel bound to communicate the fact, that the small-pox now in Coweta county was taken from Savannah to that county, and that it was introduced into the city of Savannah under circumstances that ought to be known to the Legislature. A ship from New-York arrived at Savannah with a number of passengers on board; in a few hours after her arrival it was dis covered that there was or had been a case of small-pox on board; the passengers were immediately compelled to return on board of the ship; and then it became a matter of serious consideration with the corporate authorities what disposition were to be made of the passengers and crew of this vessel. They could not be sent to the poor-house and hospital without danger of infection to the patients, then the occupants of that building; the objections of confining them on board of the ship at the most unhealthy season of the year was as strong, as it exposed them to almost certain death; and the fear of infection made it difficult to provide suitable accommodation for them in the country. Under those circumstances the committee is informed that the corporation adopted the only course in its power, consistent with a due regard to humanity, to prevent the spread of the disease. Isolated buildings at a distance from the city were hired; those infected or believed to be liable to the disease were removed; nurses, physicians, and guards were employed, and the rest of the passengers were discharged, as that corporation had no suitable receptacle for them; and it is believed that the disease was conveyed to Coweta county by one of the passengers so discharged. The committee has felt itself obliged to go into this detail to show how this disease was introduced into the State, how its introduction might have been prevented, or in what manner it might have been prevented, or in what manner it might at least have been confined to the spot where it first made its appearance. Had there been a lazarretto in or near the city of Savannah to receive the passengers and crew, the disease must have been arrested then; and the great expense now incurred, and probably to be increased before we shall be rid of the disease, would have been avoided. This committee is informed that the ordinary expenses of the city of Savannah, in the enforcement of the health and quarantine laws, are heavy; and that as these expenses are borne by the citizens, it is but reasonable that a lazarretto for the reception of such cases for the future protection of the State, should be built at the expense of the State, to be afterward maintained and kept up at the expense of said corporation. So indespensable is such a receptacle considered, that the health officer of Savannah, Dr. Habersham, as this committee is informed, resigned his office, declaring that the enforcement of the quarantine laws was utterly impraticable without it, and that he would not hold an office, the duties of which, for the want of this receptacle, he could not discharge. The committee is informed that such a receptacle would increase the expenses of the corporation, as the employment of a resident physician, nurses, and domestics would ensue; but that that corporation, with the means thus afforded of rendering effectual protection to her citizens and the State, would not object to such additional expense. This committee have taken into consideration the probable cost of such a building and the necessary out-buildings, and having regard to the object to be attained, believe that the sum of $15,000 would not be too large a sum for the purpose; and therefore beg leave to offer for adoption the following resolutions : 1st. Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia in General Assembly met, That his Excellency the Governor be authorized and requested to procure a sufficient quantity of vaccine matter to be distributed among such physicians of Coweta and the neighbouring counties as will use it gratuitously. 2d. Be it further resolved, That the Justices of the Inferior Court of Coweta, and also of any other county in which the disease may appear, be, and they are hereby authorized and empowered to provide a temporary hospital, to which to remove all who have been or may be infected by small pox, and to employ suitable attendants and a guard to prevent the communication of the sick and their attendants with others, the expense of which shall be paid from the treasury of the State on the warrant of the Gov ernor. |