Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1867-02-07
8tadfntd Repottet.
Towanda, Thursday, Feb. z, 1867.
LEGISLATIVE REFORM.

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islative co rruption," declaring that
its loathsome pollution has spread
over the entire body polite of Penn
sylvania," and that indifference
must henceforth be criminal"
Col. A. K. M'CLuRE, a prominent
actor in the politics of the State, and
a man of talents, is the editor of the
Franklin Repository, and probably the
author of this TRADE against the leg
islative character of the State and
the immediate cause of this attack
upon the Legislature, is the fact,
that that body elected SIMON CAMERON
to the United States Senate, against
whom Col. M'CLURE holds a bitter
grudge. Had this same Legislature
elected A. G. CURTIN to the Senate, it
would have been, in the eyes of the
Colonel, one of the purest public
bodies ever convened in the State, no
matter how, or by what instrument
tality, the election of CURTIN had
been effected. Such is the effect pro-
duced on some minds by prejudice
and partiality.
We should not notice this assault
upon the Legislature, if made by any
organ, or man, of less position and
influence. But M'CLURE and his pa
ger, assume to control, and have
commanding influence over the re.
publicans of the State; and to allow
such wholesale charges of bribery
and corruption against republican
Legislature, merely because defeated
in contest for Senator, and without
the least foundation for such charges
would be criminal. Already the cop
perhead press of the State has pick
ed up this slang of M'CLURE's and
circulated it far and near, with the
assurance that it must be true be-
cause it comes from one of the re-
publican leaders, and one of its Sc
cret manipulators This, too, on the
face of the fact, that FoRNEY, NJ
CLURE, and every other man in the
State, who has been known to make
charges Of corruption against the
Legislature, has been required to
come before its Committee of Inyes-
tigation, and testify of the bribery
and corruption of which he speaks,
and in each case, thus far, it has been
admitted that no particular facts
were known to exist, upon which to
found such accusations. So that it
has been established beyond contra
dlctlon, that these charges of bribery
and corruption come from the friends
of the defeated candidates for Sena-
tor, without shadow of truth upon
which to found them.
And this positive disproval of these
charges of bribery and corruption
against the Legislature might rest
here, but Col. Mcclure is so incensed
at his defeat, that he, very foolishly,
as we think, proposes to call Con-
stitutional Convention for the pur-
pose of so altering our State Legis-
lature, as to make it consist of fUe
hundred members anStead of one hun-
dred and thirty, after the model of
Massachusetts, This would involve
an expense of millions of dollars. A
convention, Judging from the last
one, would costenormously, and then
new State House would have to be
built, for we have no place that would
hold the half of such a body, and
this would make millions of itself.
All because Col. MCLURE's candidate
for Senator was defeated The chief
arguments made in favor of this
change, is, that we would then have
an honest Legislature, that such
large body of men could not be cor.
rupted. The Colonel forgets the
charges that were made by the oppo-
sition against the manner of Mr..
SUMMERS last election to the United
States Senate. Charges of corrup-
ton were as freely indulged in against
the Massachusetts, Legislature then,
as now against our own, and alike
untruthfully i'll both cases. But is it
not queer that Col. M'CLURE, should
suppose that we can find fre hundred
honest men to send to the Legislature,
out Of the same population, where,
he alleges, we cannot find one ham
dTed and thirty annually. Surely, the
more we send of such men to the leg
islature, the worse we will be off :;
and if we send four for every one we
have heretofore sent, will we not de-
grade the Office, and send still poor
er material ? 1t has long been COM
planned, that our best men would not
go to the legislature, owing the re-
sponsibility and the slightness of the
remuneration and the Franklin Re
pository would institute descending
scale. so that the little responsibility
we now have in the Legislature,
rU,uld Soor c1;Jo o,,4 d. ,r,oL =;