Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-06-25
coBBEsp0NDkH0E.


M sprfoa.-As The people Under our Slate
Constitution are the electors Of the Legislature and
as they will soon be summoned again to exercise
their sovereign right viii you be so Obliging as to
open your columns to brief statement of facts con-
neced with the history of the last Legislature, and
involved, as l apprehend, to a considerable extent,
in the present canvass. To the people then, it may
not be improper to suggest that the last was Know
Nothing legislature majority of It's members be-
longing to or setting with that organization. In the
Senate there was Know Nothing majority Of g.
in the House they elected the Speaker, which deci-
ded the complexion Of that branch. And it is not,
perhaps, hazzarding too much to assert that more
trading intrigueing huckstering impotent for good
powerful for evil Legislature never essembledat the
metropolis Of the State Dressed in a little brief
authority, it played fantastic tricks before high
heaven" It is hardly necessary to remind the peo-
pie, for j. dWells fresh in their memory that it was
the last Legislature thus constituted and governed,
that enacted the new revenue Law, creating the Office
Of assessor, and also that kindred measure creating
the Office Of county judge measure which palmed
upon the people Of the State an auxiliary force of
eighty odd judicial officers.
word as 70 the expediency and operation Of
these measures, and how they came to pass Under
the old revenue system two ma gstrates in each civil
district assessed the landed aud other taxable prop
erty Of their respective districts. They were &c.
quanted with the condition of things in their dis
tricts better than any one assessor in the county
could be, and just as honest and much disposed to
deal fairly and uniformly. They were paid by the
County Court small for their services as rev
enue commissioners; which, when it is considered
that as magistrates they are more poorly compensa
ted than any class Of officers under the State gov
ernment is a strong reason why this source Of
emolument should not have been withdrawn from
them. Although as revenue commissioners they re-
ceved but small pittanee in comparison to what is
paid the assessor, yet it went far towards
nerating them for their public services The opera
ton Of the law has only tended to increase the taxes
Of the people, without approaching any greater de-
gree Of uniformity than obtained under the old sys
TEN. Would it not, then, have been more expedient
just and economical to let the old law alone? We
are altogether content to leave the decision Of this
| question t, the people.
The County Court, as formerly constituted while
it may at times have been attended with more con
AtloLOh L4oA JUN Will Seusb u
nity did its business in its peculiar way-the people
had become accustomed to it it was a cheap sys-
TEN, and they were satisfied. The new law, like its
kindred of the revenue, is more expensive, and
greater drain upon the pockets of the people.
But as to how that measure passed. The vote on
the revenue bill in the Senate, third reading stood
Rno0 Nothhgs. Democrats
Ayes, u
hayes, 2
[See Senate Journal page $40.
In the House the measure received its main sup
port from the Know NOthings, among whom was Mr..
HattOn, the Know Nothing candidate for Governor.
[See House Journal, page 1921 The vote on the
County Judge bill in the Senatewas-
KHoo NOthigs Democrats.
A AySs. u
See Senate Journal page 583.l
In the House it drew its main support from the
K. n. party-and conspicuous amOngits friends fg-
ured Mr. HattOn. House Journal, page $50.
Hence it viii be seen that this train of measures
prolific in officers and 50 prOdigs in expenditure,
were the favOrite paintings of the Know Nothing
| party; that they were passed by Know Nothing
votes, and without their support they coudnot have
passed at all. In the Senate where their majority
was at all times controlling, they carried them
against the united vote of the Democrats, with
solitary exception in either case Methinks hear
the Democratic voice coming up in deep, earnest,
potential accents demanding repeal of such iniqu-
tous measures. Let asprants to seats in the Legis
lature not mistake the sentiments of the party but
take at once bold decided constitutional ground for
repeal.
But it may be said the law creating the Office Of
County Judge is not so Observation-Disclosures it has
dignifed some very clever men with the title Of
Judge. This, no doubt is true. We strike not at
the men, but the measure and its tendency. Already
one or more counties have established a fixed salary
to the Office of their County Judge, and other coun-
ties will seek to follow the example We would ad
monish the people totake thematter in hand at once
and before the new army of judicial functionaries
is established in Office, with a good fat salary
What is easy of accomplishment now, may be diff
cult then. Repeated attempts have been made in
the Legislature of late years. to abolish the Chan
Gerry Court, but such has been the influence welded
Dy judicial incumbents and their friends that the
arm Of the representative has been unnerved, and
the voice of the people unheeded. Install them
judge in each county of the State, with permanent
the popular will would be pOwerless to repeal
We would admOnish the toiling many, who ask no
favors of government State or National only not to
be governed too much, we would admonish this most
numerous and useful class, the great body of the
people, to hurl at once and forever the yoke from
their neck, and arrest in embryo nay even in ad-
vance, prospective burdens Are they the camels
to labor mutely under any load that may be heaped
upon them? Rather let them rise in the calm maj
esty of their strength and say to those who would
shackle them, thus far and farther. Let not the
dark picture of people submitting with IMMUNITY
to the exactiOns of tyranny, so strongly drawn by
Bolingbroke ever be realized in this country
When free people crouch like camels, to be load
ed, the next at hand, no matter who, mounts them
and they soon feel the whip and spur of the tyrant
whether prince minister who resembles the devil
in many respects particularly in this-he is often
both the tempter and tormentor. He makes the
criminal, and he Furnishes the crime"
ONE OF THE PEOPLE.
RS7' The editor of the Huntsville AdU0eats, old
line Wing, was, goes into estacies over the
defeat of the DisHioHists in Virginia Mem. Eagle
And don't the Eagle rejoice that the 'disunionst"