Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1853-12-30
lOec1ln erec Dress.
BURLIN GTON, FRIDAY, DEC. 20, 1858.
Our Last Legislature.

existence under most unpropitious influences
to form a healthy and vigorous body For
eight weeks it exhibited the inpongruous
actions to be looked for when things OF con-
trary nature are blended together and
struggled out of life just in time to allow the
people chance to be publicly thankful for
its deceasc, We believe all were glad that its
troubles were ended, and that il was no longer !
to be Il source of anxiety to others. ita ,
room really worth more to the world /
than it's presence in it and if the world shall ,
never look upon its like again, who will there +
be to gricvc or to complain
In matters not here what causes wrought /
together to change, at the last election, tho
political constitution of cur Legislature from I.
what it had recn for many years. Sufficient
to say the change was made, and Il sound was
sent forth over the land that the allied forces
had beaten the Wings How the shouts and
hats did go up,---how the victQrg shook hands
and mingled congratulations over the glorious
victory which had crowned their combined ef-
forts How they proclaimed that the Wing star
of Vermont had set, that the glorious light of
Il new political dispensation was now to shine
on our hill-tops,-thatt the oppressive incubus
Of whig rule was at last shaken off that the
rank corruptions ofthe Wing party fVermont,
were at last to be cleared away, and that the
unprinciplcd waste of the public treasure by
Wing managers WAS stopped Off forever
We care not to 80 over the ground which
our readers were made familiar with while
the session was in progress The huck stcr-
inSs and Gatherings which were actively kept
up through nearly it's entire length for the
Offices a the disposal Of the General Assem-
I blythe splits and contentious of the party
which claimed to hold the balance Of power
the farcical balotings for [ 5. Senator, kept
up to the last day,-thc occupying nearly
double the usual time at nearly double the
usual expense to the State, when there were
/ fewer subjects Of Legislative interest than
common, when in fact, but one law WAC
enacted CHAT amending the liquor law .ofl,,s.
ycar,) which called for amy prolonged debate,
all these We let 90 by Neither shall we stop
here to discuss the merits Of the liquor law as
| it now stands, nor the means whereof, it re-
cci'cd its present improved shape. We Will
DO that ere long, but not n9H.
| But though the session far exceeded any one
known before in this State for its length and
cost, and the proportional" snallness Of its
work, it has given tho people lcsron or
two which we trust they will profit
! by. They know now, that tive clamorous
accusations against whis misma"H cement.
whiG extravaganza, whiS corruption, 'hjc
old iogyncss, wing oppression, wing pro-sa,r-
~ Tenderness. wing clannislm"ss. whig narrow
mindcdncSs accusations, which had been
- long AMI So res1lutely drulnmcd Oh the
public ear by thu4e who had access to il,
that some, even of the wings, began to fear
that there must be something to max them
oat of,-all thcs,, they now know were
without the shadow of a foundation. and were
not really believed by those who had made
them.
The power whieh the opponents of the
Wing party So readily used to place their own
men into office, WIS used for nothing c'se
Nothing was done, nothing was attempted to
he done, to chGck any extravaganza, nothing
To unvcil or do away with an. corruutious,- -
nothing to advance free principles or free
practices,-nothing to reverse or to amcnu
any peculiar state policy,-nothing to loosen
the hide Of any old iogy crustncss, nothing
to help forward any liberal tendencies -
nothing in fact, which could point to any
rI,,Iu,rn irnIn thp lnp,r nI J.,
the wings while in power. Why not, il the
question. and that question can hr answ cred
onl, one way bccauSe there ic0S Nothing ot
all that Ia b. donc. Whatever faults OF de-
tccts there had been in Wing management in
the state affairs, stood i'll no special relation
to the Wig party. They grew out Of the
general character Of the people, and SO far
they were uphcld by men of all political par
ties, and they affected all such parties alike
If then any short sighted individuals in the
parties antagonistic to the Wings, supposed
before the Legislature assembled, that thcr,
would be some wonderful thing done to get rio
of those Grightful evils of Wing management
which they had heard SO much Of, no sooner
did they apply their wits to find them, thar
the Wing mischiels could not be found. They
We're less real than the Paddy's flea. They
put their fingers where the wrong was and il
was mt there They asked their prophets
and their wise men to point it out with then
. fingers, and each one could do no more than
slyy to put his finger against the side of hi,
nose
Those old tunes will not he quite sc Inucl
in vogue hereafter, Here and there. apparent
ly from the mere force OF habit, we still hcal
AN old piper family running over broker
snatchc, Of his former song but for the mos
pare tho music has ccas,d The strife fo
, political asccndency, it is to be hoped will he
/ based ON trucr and laircr grounds hereafter
{ One other lesson may he got from the tex
. rrricncc of the last session, viz, that no leg
= i.latiyc body can be wholcsomcly made "
Of three nominal parties, 90 proportional