The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1852-06-10
From the KeUsfORe.
enabers of the Legislature.

The Democratic papers of the State are very
generally urging upon the party the great i'm
portance of electing men of enlarged capacity
and integrity to the Legislature The subject
| is well worthy the serious attention of the
people. Their rights and their interests are
deeply involved in the issue. What are legisla-
tors elected for except to protect these Ger
tainly for no other purpose. Can incompetent
| legislators attain this object? The counties Of
the State which have uniformly elected men Of
capacity and integrity to the Legislature have
in every case profted largely, while those which
have sent the incompetent and corrupt are com
PEELED in the same proportion to bear an extra
share of the burden. 1t is indeed, high time
for the people to look to their interest in this
regard Vast schemes of internal improve
ments, through private interpretations, so cum
ningly devised that their character cannot be
detected, except by men of good capacity, gen
eral intelligence, and habits of business have OF
late been, and will continue to be pressed upon
the Legislature-schemes designed, and which
will have the effect to destroy the state improve
ments as source of revenue. Some Of these
have already crept through the Legislature by
stealth, and more of them would now be laws
except for the interpositon of the Executive Ueto
that great preservator of the peoples rights.
The people have seen Bank charters and incor-
poration acts of various hue crowded through
the Legislature by the gross, through the in
competency and dishonesty of their legislators,
while their true interests were neglected !; and
they have also Banks coming boldly to the
legislature and demanding to be relieved from
the same taxation with which the people are
burthened and they have seen this unwarrant-
able demand sustained by majorities in both hou-
ses. The people yearly see bills passed which
rob their treasury of the onerous taxes wrung
from themselves, and public money bestowed
upon objects and persons who have never rend-
cred value for it. The yearly see private prop
erty legislated out of one persons hands into
those of another the legitimate business of our
Courts transferred (often stealthily) to the Leg
islature, divorces granted which outrage every
sense of morality and justce-they see their
representatives surrounded and besieged by
hordes of borers, professional, hired vampires,
who sell their services to the highest bidder, for
any purpose however Infamous they see mon
ey freely used to obtain the passage of most IN
warrantable measures, varying in character and
enormity to almost every extreme-(but hold
We have no wish to continue chapter so morti-
flying to the pride and honor Of our great, noble
honored old Commonwealth y
All these things and much more have been
witnessed by our people. There is plain, sim
pie, certain remedy for these evils-that RENE
dy will suggest itself 10 every rejecting man-it
is to ELECT NONE But HONEST AND COMPETENT
THE LEGIsLATURE. The disease is appa-
rent the cure is no less so.
In contests before the Legislature between the
State and corporations or individuals, in refer
ence to projects by which the former is to be
teeced and the two latter well feathercd, we hear
the remark thousand times made that ''t1e
State has no friends ~ Though not literally true,
there is even more than a deep shade of truth in
claims TO press upon the Legislature which are
adverse to the interests of the state, always
represented outside by men of decided capacity
and skill, the State inside has but few men who
really thoroughly understand her interests, her
duty or her obligations. The intelligent are
sure to triumph over the ignorant, and hence
the saying ''the State has no friends" Do not
the people see a strong necessity for applying
remedy in this regard?
But there is something more than capacity
needed-hOResty, too, should be well looked to.
And above all let men who, whether ignorantly
or dishonestly,) have given improper votes be
defeated in their re-electiou-in denominations
chats the point and much evil will be cured.
The denomination of one such, encourages do
zen others to do likewise. Upon this point the
editor of the Carlisle Volunteer, well says:
''It is no difficult matter for the experienced
and adroit ''borer'' to ascertain who can be Sc
duced from duty by the power of the almighty
dollar, and the convincing argument is accord
ingly used. Thus do we witness, every winter,
the passage of bills that shock the moral sense
of the people from one end of the State to the
other. And yet, strange as it may appear, the
very members who voted for these bills, and
who were paid for doing so, are often sustained
by their constituents, and are again returned to
the Legislature, 10 cOntaminate and corrupt it.
This but emboldens corrupt member, and in
duces him to plunge deeper and deeper into in
fanny and villainy. 1t is rewarding dishonesty,
and honoring a rascal, whose proper place would
be the Penitentiary.
As,we intend to keep this subject ''before the
people" we conclude this article with another
extract from the Volunteer which we also fully
endorse: