Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1855-05-23
G be 51aiIg SPY,
WEDNESDAY, MAY %, 1855.

THE Legislature closed up its business and
adjourned, on Monday. 1t has been one hundred
and tAirty-nine days in session; has bled the
Treasury to the amount of 900; has secured
one good law; has committed many folies; has
exhausted the patience of the whole Common
wealth; and, has gone home,
No other Legislature wac ever inaugurated in
this State, with such prestige and appearance
of power as the late Legislature. None other
was ever so destitute of moral and intellectual
strength. No preceding General Court made such
professions of economy as this one did; no other
one was ever half so expensive The long session
of 1858 extended to one hundred and forty-one
days, and the payroll, in the House, amounted
to SS4, $50. The present session comes within
two days of that of 1885, and the payroll of the
House, this year. instead of being less than that
Of 1858, is nearly double, being Sl6l,60S.
If the Legislature had possessed more expert
ence more talent, and more modesty, it, proba-
bly, would have been more economical; but the
whole session presented succession of unrarlia-
mentary blunders, the absence of administrative
ability, and the prominence of few impudent
ranters. Resolves were passed without delibera-
ton recousidered without consideration, and final
ly disposed of with undignifed passion. But we
cannot do anything we'll unless we are educated
to do it; and the late Legislature has this excuse
for its blunders, that it brought little or no expe-
rience to aid itin perfecting the laws of the mod
Ell Commonwealth Of the nineteenth century" -
Want of experience was not Moderated by the
presence of comprehensive ability or all the
new Representatives to the General Court only
one or two obtained an enviable reputation. They
conducted themselves with dignity and ability,
and we may add, with manly liberality. There
may have been Others equally able, but If
taere were, they were net visible, being
eclipsed by creatures who were determined to at
tract attentions and who could only hope to do SO
by making noise. That self consciousness,
which SO soon enables us to estimate ourselves,
by comparison with those around us, and which
makes US modest in our general department. did
not seem to prevail in the Legislature. The
wind-bags of that body, inflated by their indiyid-
ual consequence took possession of the tribune,
only to expose their own shallow minds, and low
er the character of the assembly of which they
were members Long before they ceased to be
ridiculous the Legislature had ceased to be truly
respectable. Doctrines were broached by these
subversiye of the first principles of liberty. The
grand democratic apothegm, that of "the suprem-
acy of man over his accidents" was fippantly
denied by those ephemeral politicians; and the
idea that birthplace, not manhood, is the basis of
political rights, dug up from the tombto
which our fathers had consignedit it, when they pro-
mulgated the Declaration of Independence.
But, although the late Legislature was remark
able for its want of ability, its want of dignity,
and its want Of faith in democracy, it was also
markable for its sympathy with freedom 1t en-
phatcally condemned Judge Loring, for sending
Anthony Burns back to bondage; and it passed
law interposng the whole power of Massachusetts
between the kidnapper and his victim
The late Legislature will be remembered for
its follies-for the crimes of some of its members
for the popularity of its organization-for its
bigotry--for its want of interior sympathy-for
its indecision, and for its expensiyeness. twill
be favorably remembered for its condemnation of
Loring, and for the passage of the Personal Lib
erty Bill.