Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1855-01-05
OBJ 9aiIp spg,
FRIDAY, yANUARY 5, ls55.
"The LegisIature-Irs Duty.''

If the editor of the Worcester Journals not
permitted by the masses to participate in
the deliberations of the great and General
Court. he seems determined to watch with
paternal solicitude over that body and to guide
its trembling footsteps in the way he wishes
it to go. In an article headed /" The Legisla-
ture-its duty which appears in his issue of
"Wednesday, he talks to the members of that
body with remarkable kindness and eonde-
scension, mingled with great frmness. He
informs them concerning the things he ex-
poets of them, and he lels them know what
they are to expect, if they do not mind their
ps and qs, Like immortal Jove, he threatens
and commands and, Of course, the Legislature
must pay strict attention to him or it will be
attended to.
He says in his own peculiarly mild, clear,
aud dramatically correct way:
With victory, has come responsibility,
and with triumph, obligation, and with pow
er, almost perfect, there comes also, on the
part of the people expectations, which if full
filed, viii guarantee to the American Party
another year, a more entire subyersion and
humiliation, of their enemies than they have
witnessed this year, but which if disappoint-
ed, will hurl from the seat OF power the be-
trayers of the rights and interests of the peo-
pie
We had supposed that aaaidilation was not
comparative term. We did not know that
there Yves more entire " humiliation than
annihilation but, of course there is, if the
learned pundit of the Journal says so.
The logical Aristarchus whe sits enthroned
upon the tripod of the Journal labored very
strenuously some time ago, to prove that the
q masses elect men to Office who ape their
manners, initiate their vulgarisms, and keep
on level with their requirement." He as
serted that the masses love to elevate such
men because they hope to rise upon their ruins,
as ignorance elevates its brother in order that
itself may become the possessor of power"
Now, if the masses are SO corrupt and vile
as the Journal man says they are, their expect
Gtions, concerning the Legislature, cannot be
of a very elevated or vi<tuous character
And, if the Journal man is as pure and noble
being as he pretends to be, what does he
mean by urging the Legislature to fulfil the
expectations of those "mGsses" whose igno.
rance and lack of public virtue and honor he
has SO lately decriedi The Journal man
seems to be either a person of easy political
virtue, or person dreadfully destitute of the
power to draw logical conclusions. We should
not be surprised if he was both.
The Journal man tells the members of the
Legislature plainly what Is wanted of them.
He thus addresses them =
"We tell you plainly that good wholesome
morality, is to be guaranteed by your legsla.
tive acts and that law, supported and sns.
tanned by the people, is to DO made by you,
that will check in great degree the fruitful
ever flowing sources of crime
Now, believing as he does, that the "mass-
es' elevate ignorant, vulgar, bad men to office,
how can the Journal man expect that whole
some morality is to be guaranteed by the acts
of such a legislature so appointed? How
does he reconcile his doctrine that the f'mass-
es" are vulgar, low bred, selfish, mercenary
and NEAR, with his other statement, that they
want law to be enacted 'that will check in
a great degree the fruitful sources Of crime :"
Probably he may excuse himself from answer
ing these questions by telling us that it is his
vocation to talk, not to teach.
We have no doubt but the Legislature will
feel awed when the read the articles of this
literary Boanargis.