Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1850-02-15
EeaIsIs,Ion---Ths Legislature.


formally adjourned.
There has been but little general legislation,
and what there has been, so far as our informa- |
ton extends, has been decidedly for Che better.
law recognising the right of married women
to hold property owned by them before marriage
or acquired after either by their own labor or by
gift from others, except the husband, ilidepend-
ent of the husband. We are gratfed that this
measure which has long been agitatcd in this
State, has at lie lgth passed into law.
The law in relation to the sale of ardent spir-
| its, was repealed, and substitute enacted. We
have not seen the substitute, but the friends of
the old law are satisfied with it. and hence it is
probably all right.
The law relative to taxation has been matcri-
ally altered. We are not aware of the details of
the law, bat understand that debts owing are al
lowed to be Offset against assets, and $500 worth
of improvements on land is exempt from taxa
ton. We suppose the design of this latter fea
ture is to relieve the farmer from taxation and
throw the burthen elsewhere. The effort re-
minds usof the chap who thought 10 relieve his
horse of the additional weight of bag of meal,
by taking it on his own shoulders after he had
got comfortably fixed in the saddle. Lay the tax
where you please, those who produce the wealth
must pay the taxes, and the interest of the far
mcr is much more i'll the amount of the tax, than
the manner In which it is assessed
There have been some other alterations of
the Revised Statutes, comparatively unimportant,
which do not now occur to us.
The proposition to revive the interest law fail
cd, and we think approximations need not be en-
tertained that such law will ever again find
place on our statute book.
The effort to change the law relative to the
sale Of school lands, in respect to the mode of
loaning the money, failed, and the law remains
unchanged.
There was in both houses an expression i'll ia
vor of the abolition of capital punishment but no
law to that effect passed.
I We shall publish all laws ola general charac-
ter, as soon as we get copies, which we have
made arrangements TO get.
Whether the legislature has been as happy in
its acts Of more local and personal nature, is
question. AS is generally known, whether
Shoes should be paid for the statutes, was
main question among this character Members
felt so keen 4 sense of their responsibility under
the constitution, that, although they had one and
all possessed themselves of a copy in the early
part of the session-had been thumbng them du-
ring the sesson-had been proposing and voting
upon amendments to them, and recognising them
in all respects as legal and valid, it was Il very
grave question whether they should be paid for
and when it come to the s6le sbhte six Or seven
in the Senate and twcnty-eight in the house, re-
corded as their solemn verdict, that they should
not De. The legislature had passed solemn
act and the Governor sanctioned it, the property
was received by the proper authority, the state
was using it and the members themselves were
using it, and yet portion Of these same MEM
bors, representatives of the state, thought it
would be perfectly proper for the state to steal
the work. We leave them to all the glory they
can acquire by such conduct. They will be ap.
preciaed as they deserve.
twill be our duty, if not our pleasure to show
up some of these men in their true light to show
that their pretended regard for the constitution
and the interests of the people was all sham and
humbuggcry. We will do it by showing their
votes in favor of papable and fragrant violations
of that Observation-Disclosures which can neither
be disputed, excused nor got round; and also in
favor of the allowance of claims unjust and cx-
trayagant. Ii was thought a cunning thing to
take Sholea' property, when they had got him
where he could not help himself for less than it
cost him, whilst at the same time accounts for
printing from others, palpubly unconstitutional,
and outrageous in their magnitude were allowed
without question. We shall show all these
things clearly.
We shall show TOO, that whilst the Wisconsin
Argus was pretending much love for the in
tercss of the people, in denouncing our contract
with the state, which was really economical and
advantageous to the state, it was deliberately en-
gagged, in the manner it was, doing portion of
the public work, in fching from the state trea-
sury, hand over hand. We think we can show
too that their account of four thousand dollars
for the incidental printing of this 80 days session.
put in and rushed through at the last hour, with
out examination was from one lird to one halt
ovcrcharge
We shall do this to show the motives which
animate some men and the reliance to be placed
upon them, so that the people interested in these
matters may be led to look beneath the surface
of this swagger of loeches and demngogucs, TO
the reality of things.
IL The Racine Advocate intmates that the
consttutionaty of the division of Racine county
will be speedily tested in the Supreme Court.
To this no person can have any reasonable OBJ
lection. The boundaries OF Racine county have
been long defined, and if it can by any possibility
be shown that the area included within those
boundaries is not greater than the constitutional
requisition on the subject, we are quite willing to
submit to a verdict against us. If the bounda-
ries OF Racine county are not the boundaries of
that county, and the area within them is not with
in them, it is time it was known.