San Andreas independent., 1858-02-20
Mr.. Lees Ladder.

i"'o uonSotic uiscoTu Had calmly SuDSl-
ded, and on the heels of new admins
tration IN which the people reposed great
confidence, and to which they looked for
a healthy and wise administration of the
government, Mr. Lee, of Ell Dorado, ex-
plodes bomb-shell in the House of Repre-
sentatives in the shape of Gan Act for
thesuppression of Vigilance Committees"
&c. We had hoped the last of this mat
ter had been heard long time since !;
and, indeed, save among bar-room poll
ticians, and some few others who had
reason to believe themselves or their
friends injured by the San Francisco Com
mittee of '56, we have not heard SEN
tencc, pro or con, for many MONTHS
Every body had enough of it, and socie
ty was congratulating itself upon the de-
mise of an excitement which had pro-
duced violent differences of opinion.
angry discussion, alienation of friendships,
and interruption of business throughout
the entire State. Why, then, re-kindle
the flame in the Legislative halls? Was
it for this miserable end that members
were delegated to exercise legislative
powers? Is the State forever to be the
football of angry factions, and can the
money of the people be applied to no bet
ter uses than in fruitless attempts to graft
fy the vengeance or malignity of few
malcontents?
If there was any extraordinary prepa-
ration being made in any portion of the
State to call for such action, patriotism
might be inferred but such is not the
case. The Country is safe"-neyer was
freer from mobs, nor from those enor-
nous crimes which in times past have
called them into existence. But ambi-
tion must have ladder, and if it cannot
be manufactured out of that rare mate.
rial-genius- that excellent fabric
talent-it must needs ascend upon the
meaner rounds of cunning arti6ce. Many
a man with abilities below dull medioc-
rity, has managed in few years to ac-
eumulate decent modicum of political
reputation, by adroitly addressing him.
self to the prejudices of mankind. Per
haps some of those gentlemen who have
been amusing the ladies on "crowded
galleries" for the past fortnight in the
House at Sacramento, are trailing on this
scent. If so, what mistake! The
hound that mistook the skunk trail for
fox's, was not more sadly disappointed
than they will be. The prejudices of the
people run in another direction; and if
these eloquent representatives had taken
half the pains to study the sense of their
constituents that they exhausted in the
preparation of their phillipics, they would
have run longer and treed nobler game
than their present wild route will lead
them to. We speak this in all kindness
for the time has passed when it is either
wise or profitable to measure an adversary
with violence, in this argument.
Whilst the people of America are as
strong in their attachment to their Consti-
tutions and laws as any people upon the
earth; slow to move towards the violation
or suspension of either, whether in spirit
or letter, they are as radical as the Giron-
dins in their Interpretation of liberty,
and their right to rise superior to all law,
when an extraordinary emergency de-
mands it for the good of the whole
And we do not indite this as an apology
for anv miserable band of wretches, who,
urged on by blood-thirsty nature, be-
come their own judges, jurors and exc
cutioners, merely because the weak and
defenceless are their victims. Not at all
but because the history of the nation
the history of the race proves it. We
need not refer to particulars; but. we
would humbly suggest to Legislators who
may be little wrong now and then, as
well as other men, in their ideas upon
government, the perusal of that part Of
English history which dates from the be-
ginning of Charles /, to the Protectorate
and, also, that portion of our own which
begins with the destruction of cargo of
tea in Boston harbor and ends at York
town. If the perusal results in no other
good, it may at least serve to convince
them that the Anglo Saxon race, however
humbly they may bear with abuse and
tyranny, when the eliminating point is
reached, well know where the real soyer-
eighty lies. 1t is to this bold character
istic of the race that the English of to-day
are indebted for their Bill of Rights -
and America for her Independence.-I
We might grant you, without detriment
II Il