The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1867-04-26
THE LATE LEGISLATURE.
Radical Opinions orthe Same.
sAnOther Such a Legislature Will Sink
u.s.
The saving Grace of the church Needed

nunciations of the late Legislature
The members are denounced by the
very papers which urged their election,
as having been corrupt and venal be-
yond parallel. Yet, we doubt not,
these same papers will urge the re-elec-
tion of the very men whom they de-
nounce. Weput the testimony of these
papers before the public and ask that
it be carefully conned and preserved
for use during the coming campaign
For the present, the evidence is as fol-
lows:
From the Delaware Republican
Among the items in the State Ap-
preparation bill, passed by the last Leg
islature, are six hundred dollars, paid
the clergy for prayers for the members.
If ever body of men needed the saw
ing grace of the Church, it was those
assembled in the late State Council at
Harrisburg. They oughtto be ashamed
of their meannesS in this particular,
compared with their liberality in other
expenditures. All the presents ofsilver
sets, gold watches, clocks, gold headed
canes, and other costly articles, willnOt
save them from the wrath to come.
From the Franklin Repository.
All hail, Pennsylvania! Day has
broken in on the starless midnight that
has encircled our venerable Common
wealth. The people can breathe again.
The Legislature of 1867 is no more. 1t
has fought its last fight-it has won
its last stake it has brought gladness
to over three million hearts by its adj
journment. The gallant roosters have
closed their legislative auction, and
gone home with heavy hearts to settle
their accounts with the people who in
an evil hour entrusted them with brief
authority. They have passed sixteen
hundred laws, "pinched" others by the
score and finally, after over three
months of legislative rioting, rotating,
pinching, plundering and pocketing,
their time has come, and they go out,
as a rule, to return no more forever.
Public bills were not considered. A
few, perhaps dozen in all, unimportant
in their character, were passed, but
1900 private bills have been added to our
statutes, and the hugest of volumes
will be added to our pamphlet laws.
Just what has passed nobody knows,
and none pretend to know. Governor
Geary has had hundreds of bills to
dispose of during the last hours of the
session, and how many of them had
snug little serpents, kissing vipers, or
regular anacondas, coiled up in them,
he will learn only when their fangs sink
into some lucklesS victim and he prays
for relief. The Senate has gradually
degenerated until litrises but little above
the House in point of the dignity of
legislation. On Tuesday large calen-
dar of private bills was to De disposed
of, and the first legislative tribunal of
the State sat for hours passing bills by
their titles, no one knowing what the
body ofthe bills contained. True, they
had passed committees, but who knew
what had been interpolated by stray
word or line? or who knew what hid
den serpents wriggled in them under
thecolOr of fairness? There sat Bigham
and Ridgway in front of the Clerk to
hear the titles read, and as fast as pro-
nounced by the Clerk they were declared
passed. Occasionally some obstreperous
Senator would interpose an objection,
DuU IlG WOUlU UG UdWlCu lOWA NY a
score of voices, saying-"let it go-it's
all right-don'ts stop the machine !'and,
lest his little bill might fall victim to
the retribution of some defeated assOci-
ates, he would quiet down and the farce
would 90 on. Thus were hundreds of
bills passed in the Pennsylvania Senate,
and they now stand upon our records
as solemnly enacted laws. In the
Hn Ixyl
more so. Instead of reading bills by
their title, they read and passed many
of them merely by their numbers.
Neither title or body of the bills were
read. Colonel Quay at one time jocu-
larly suggested that they had better
pass the calendar of bills by the page,
but it was deemed necessary to read
the numbers, and thus they were
rushed through. OF course in such a
whirlwind of legislation the roosters
had good time, but often it would be
discovered that there had not been a
understanding or fair divide; that
some rooster sharper than his fellows,
had snaked a "good thing" through
without giving the rest show. I'M
mediately upon the discovery of such
a mistake, motion would be made to
reconsider, and as such motion was
always notice to all the roosters that
there was something wrong, it always
carried. A hasty consultation would
follow-a little knot of firSt-class dealers
would bob their heads togather in a
corner, the Objectionable bill would
appear all right and go kiting through
again. Thus rushed legislation for
days, and especially the last few days
of the session, until the enormous num-
berofsixteen hundred bills were passed,
and nearly all of them have been ap-
proved.
From the Somerset Herald and Whig.
The act of adjournment, appears to
have given more satisfaction to the
people of the State, than any other act
of the Legislature of 1067.-Bad as has
been the character of our Legislature
for years, it seems to be generally con-
ceded that the body just adjourned,
was even more untrustworthy than
any of it's predecessors. Individual
promises and party pledges were set
at naught, and public sentiment detied
and derided.
From the Bedford Inquirer.
The Legislature of this State adjourn
ed on the 11th inst, after having pass
ed bills enough to make volume half
as large as Webster's Unabridged Die
tionary. All the Christian people in
the State should Join in thanks to the
Throne of Grace that it did no more
harm than it did. Another such a
Legislature would sink us. If the Re
Dublican party returns, within the