The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1850-03-28
Correspondence of the Mountain Sentinel.
STATE CAPITOL.
HARRISBURG, March l6, 1850.

providing for an amendment to the Con-
stitution, so as to make the judiciary eIec-
tive. The question. n..will therefore be sub
mitted to the people at the coming Octo-
ber election, who are to say at the ballot
box, whether the Constitution shall be so
amended or not.
If the vote in the Legislature is any
indication of the feelings of the masses on
this important question, the majority of the
popular vote, will be very large.
In the Senate this bill passed by vote
of 80 to 3, and in the House of Represen-
tatives, by vote of 81 to 3.
Judge Porter made the last speech on
the question, and good speech it was
His arguments were SOUND and logical,
whilst the bold flights of eloquence. with
which his argument abounded electrified
every one who heard him. The Judge
was opposed to the amended Constitution
when member of the Convention, so far
as related to the Judiciary question. His
opposition to the present bill only shows
his consistency, for which | commend him,
although he appears to be in the minority.
The spirit of inordinate innovation, which
appears to have taken possession of the
people Of our State, fear, BODIES evil,
rather than good, to the institutions of our
country. AS Judge Porter most beautiful
ly expressed it in his speech, when he
said-'sIt is not by one blow, that you can
PROSTATE republican form of government.
No Republic has ever been overthrown at
once. You must first sap the foundation
by little and little, prop after prop must
give way, until at last, the whole fabric
like some mighty avalanche, will come
down with irresistible impetuosity, bury
ing in one heterogeneous mass everything
that opposes its descent" The above''ex-
tract is as true in sentiment, as it is beau
tiful and graphic in description. Make
the judiciary the arena for demagogues &
gladiators-take from it its independence,
and make 1t subject to the whims and ca
prices of the giddy crowd, led on by .ap-
peals to partisan feelings, or partisan pre-
judices, or what is worse, religious bigot-
ry and intolerance, make the Judge poli-
tician per force, (and this latter must be
the case, because it becomes a question of
breadD and he will carry party rancour TO
the bench with him. The same feelings
will find their way into the jury box
Then will justice be blind, in deed and in
tru uth-then, and not till then, the people |
will find that the sheet anchor of their
hopes of freedom is gone-that the palla-
dunn Of their liberties, of which the just
ly oasted hath been stricken down, and
they have become prey to sycophants
and heartless demagogues. But alas! it
may be "too late 1.-The altar and the
gods may have sank together In the DUST
people strive to remedy the evil which
their own credulity has brought upon
themselves and their cou ntry, but they
may be met by the memorable words, that
sounded like death knell on the ears of
the French dynasty in the Chamber, 'It
is too late.''
One by one the old landmarks of re-
publicanism are passing away, and new
tangled notions are taking their places
The glory of the past, that shone so long
and so brightly, in the political canopy of
our good old Commonwealth, is being
over shadowed and obscured by the por-
tentious clouds of innovation, that hang
like death pail over the land.
So true is this, that the old men who
still live amongst us, and who are the con-
meeting links between the past and the
present generations, are lost in amazement
to find, that though they look upon the pic
ture, they cannot recognize the likeness.
| must confess that have my fears on this
subject. This everlasting change, change,
for the sake of change-this political in
consistency, which is unhappily the order
of the day, is becoming SO common dis
ease of the body polite, that if some spe-
ciic is not soon discovered to stop the
gangrene, it must spread, and that same
body polite must inevitably perish. From
the bottom of my heart l pray God FORE
fend. But it is for the people to say