Iowa capitol reporter. [volume] (Iowa City, Iowa) 1841-1855, 1847-06-02
The General a Observation-Disclosures
of the Laws..Whig Testimony

r. 4
The General NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
or the Laws--Whig Testimony
We have had frequent occasion to speak o.
the feelings Of disappointment, modification and
shame occasioned to the people Of Iowa, by the
failure Of their first State Legislature to adopt
many Of the most important measures which
were expected. That a most serions injury
has been inflicted, as well as lasting disgrace
entailed, upon our young State, BY the ruthless
and unprincipled majority who, as the result,
partially Of accident, partially Of federal fraud
and imposition, and partially of adverse section
Il influences and unfortunate discussions among
the friends Of equal rights, bore sway in one
branch ofoar General Assembly,no one pretends
to deny.
In looking over the positive enactments OF
that body, in detail, those which strike the on,
server n calculated to affect most seriously ana
iniuriously the public welfare, are the bad ana
defective revenue system and the mlserably IN
Efficient and abortive system ofschool laws 10
these we have before alluded. Iney loim'
however, but small portion Of the iess'a'ise'
eaactments which, either by their deiective' OF
positively bad features, are calculated to exert
most deliterious influence upon the prosperity o.
our State, and which will stand in all time 10
come a. monuments of the folly and shame Of q
law making Assembly, (the lower house, which
disreearded all conventional rules, tempered with
the rights of the people for the sole purpose OF
agrrandizing themselves, trampled upon the Jun
dsmental law with immunity, and then refused to
resign their power, that the people might have
an opportunity Of electing in their stead men who
would regard their interests and carry out their
will.
But. however bad or deficient may be the new
laws which they enacted, the refusal ct the low
or. or FEDERAL branch of the General Assembly
to concur in the action of the Senate, the DEMO-
CRATIC branch, in appointing a commission to
revise the existing code, so as to render inteli-
gible, and bring into vigorous and beneficial OPP
Grafton, the laws by which we have heretofore
been, and are still to be, governed, is an instance
of such bold and glazing contempt for the popu-
lar will, on the part Of the branch which was
under federal rule, or MIs-rule, as to cast all
their other high handed acts far in the shade.
The federal prints are now endeaverIng to d.
versify the issues, so as to divert public atten-
ton from the gross misconduct of their leaders
while clothed with little brief authority
They should not be permitted to succeed in this.
The people should hold them to strict accounts
ability. We are determined that they shall not
escape the fearful responsibility which they
have incurred; and, for the purpose of establish
ing, beyond their power to controvert, the fact
Of their responsibility for the failure to revise
the laws, which was so imperiously demanded
BY the public interest and SO universally ex-
pected by the people, we copy from the Stand
ard, the organ of the wing party at the Capital,
the following paragraph which appeared in that
pa:er few days subsequent to the adjourn
,aent, when the subject was fresh in the public
mind:
"REvIsloN OF THE LAws.-Amongst
the many things which the legislature Ell
Their neglected or refused TO do, was to
provide for the revision Of the laws. A
bill constituting commission OF revis-
ion passed the democra,ic] Senate, and
was rejected by the [whig] House of
Representatives. The reason why we can
no, tell. We suppose, however, that after
session Of near three months, the mem
bers were ashamed to acknowledge ,indi-
rectly, by the appointment Of a committee
Of revision, that they 'had done those
things which they ought not to have done,
and lett undone those things which they
ought to have done and that there was
ITO health in them
There i, much and deep significance in the
Standards remark, applied to the federal House
Of Representatives, that srHEY HAD DONE
THOSE THINGS WHICH THEY OUGHT NOT TO
HAVE DONE, AND LEFT UNDoSE THOSE THINGS
WHICH THEY OUGHT TO HAVE DONE, AND
THERE WAS NO HEALTH IN THEM" Coming
from the source it does, it has world of mean
ing, and applies with peculiar force TO all the
needless sins Of omission, and all the black and
damning sins Of commission, perpetratec by those
federal mountebanks who had succeeded in the
NfoN AMI o'Eh' " WHICH tHey
spun out their session, in covering themselves
with eternal infamy.
We do not envy the editors of the Standard
their feelings-the ken computations of a lac
Grated conscieuce-by which they were impeled
to make this candid, though reluctant admission
ofthe baseness and corruption of their party, and
thus, in mild but positive terms, to denounce
those whom they had deferred in their headlong
mad career in the abuse of power, and who,
after marring most of the Legislative enactments
with the polluting touch of federal principles.
and thwarting tie will of the people in the most
important measures of the session-the election
ofU. S. Senator'S and Supreme Judges, and the
revision of the code Of laws-RErusEp TO RE-
SIGN THEIR ILL GOTTEN POWER, that the people
might, next fall or winter, by new election in
August, remedy, in a great measure, the crying
evils resulting from their high handed course
Here we have WHO authority as to the real
source Of the evils which the people Of Iowa are
now suffering, and likely to suffer to still
greater extent, before they can be remedied, as
the bitter fruits ola temporary federal misrue
in our General Assembly; for the ruthless major
'tg in the House not only controlled the action Of
that body, but held an absolute negative control,
when they chose to exercise it, over the action