The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-07-27
Chr gailg genraal.
EVAnsVILlE. IND.
WEDNESDAY MORNING.,..-.-....~,..JuLY


ent instrument are or pre- not of sufficient
magnitude TO demand correction, but, grant
ing the affirmative of the proposition, which
is the best mode of correetion-the one
prescribed bv the instrument ITSELF or the
construction of new Constitution entire.
This is the real and only issue Mt present,
and all attempts to evade il or divert pop
Mar attention from it will certainly prove
futile.
The above is from the Mount Vernon i'd
rOcate. We will no longer avoid what it
states to be the real issue. We thought
the reasons so obvious, the subject did not
need discussion. Il
The members of the Legislature are
elected By excited political parties and local
factions; they are men of ultra views, aud,
usually, of narrow bigoted party prejudices.
They are selected at first as candidates to
carry out the extreme dogmas of party,
which, most of them believe, contain the
essence of political wisdom and truth. Too
often a majority are trading politicians, ready
at all times for an arrangement by which
n legislative object can be accomplished by
any indirect means.
The Legislature is body in wh:ci bust
ness is done by a system of log-rolling;
the people may endure to have one local
measure bartered for another of the same
sort but to place fundamental constitu-
tional principle upon the table of the House
to be engineered through, by compro-
misses, with dozen petty, doubtful, county
schemes, is revolving to every man who has
n proper sense of the moral dignity and sa
credness of principle of constitutional
law.
The Legislature is composed oftwo branches
"A wise division for the consideration of
Temporary policy and the enactment of To-
cal measures whose wisdom anu benefits are
to be determined by local facts and the pass
ing events and circumstances of the times
but in the application of great fundamental
and undisputed truths, unity of council is
essential. Wisdom, political and legal learn
ing-calm Judgment, unbiased by the crude
dogmas of party and the heeting popular
passions, ought to be the attributes of
Constitutional Convention. To rs there is
gross and repulsive improperly in mineling
the consideration OF sacred Constitutional
rights with the base passions and mercenary
schemes for securing the elections of parti-
Fans and the passage of partizan measures,
n of tha
Legislative business. Men who arc mix
ed up in such corrupting labors are unified
for the time, at least, to consider and deter
mine the fundamental questions that Are to
form the basis of ssthe peoples rights for:
generations. The circumstances are so uu-
favorable, the labors SO irreconciliable that n
proper discharge of the duty, by Lcgisla-
ture, at its ordinary session, seems to US q
moral impracticability. The difference in
the qualifications of members for Conven-
ton and Legislature, are so obvious, that
the people, if left to their own selection
will choose men of very different character
for the two stations.
Beside being the most unfit body to DELHI
crate upon constitutional amendments. the
Legislature, limited to 4 session of sixty
days, onrs in two years, has not time 10 de-
vote TO Ich subject, without negecting
and leaving undone its necessary, Legitimate
work. But if, by unU ,ual devotion to public
duty, it should at onC session adopt one only
Of the amendments demanded, it could not
enter upon the consideration of second
amendment under four or six years, and to
obtain the reforms now pressingly demand
ed would require the space of twenty-five
or thirty years, the life Of a generation. If,
by attending to Constitutional amendments,
the Legislature should neglect their ordna-
II duties so as to make an extra session ne
cessary, the State would incur, for such a
session, twice the cost of a Convention that
would do the whole work at once, and in a
much better manner.
The members of the Legislature are elect
ed upon various issues, and their minds are
engrossed by a variety of absorbing inter-
ests. The amendment Of the Constitution to a
member is a contingent question; it may
arise or not; it may be for the reform o.
one evil, or quite an opposite one. He does
not therefore specially prepare himself fol
the discussion; he has no clearly expressed
judgment Of his constituents TO guide him
and amid the pressure of business, he ha:
no time to learn from them, nor deliberate
upon it himself, after its introduction. But
the member of a Convention goes for a spe.
cial duty, and with due preparation. He
canvasseS the subject before the people: BIZ
forms fixed views upon every change pro.
posed to be made. His election is an Ell
dorsement by the people of his propositions
He is better prepared TO act than legislator
who may be called upon at an unexpected
moment to discuss and vote upon the ones
ton.
Every consideration that can be imaginet
.