The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-16
THE LEGLSLA TURE ADJO URNS.

THE LEGISLA TURE ADO URNS.
LET the people rejoice! Let bells be rung, can
non fired, and bonfres be set blazing. This is a
white day in the calendar of the State! The
Legislature of infamous memory, journs at
last and its mCrcGnary members bid a farewell,
which with many will be a last farewell, to the
Capitol, with its coveted opportunities for plum
dering their constituents, its corrupt rings, its
vice and venality. The foolish and bad men
who, "dressed in little brief authority, played
such fantastic tricks before high heaven as made
the angels weep" must now dOff their dishonored
robes of office and sink disgraced into
the insignifcance from which they
should never have been temporarily
raised. The efforts to turn their weak
heads with hattery and bribcs will cease,
and the people can once more retire to rest
without fearing that they will awake to pain
ful consciousness OF the invention of a new
legislative scheme of fraud or extortion. While
tLey remained in session, no man and no interest
was safe which was not guarded by an mpene-
trable constitutional shield. An invading army
can be met by host of bold defenders, and
brave community can always make gallant
stand against open foes. When the Rebels in
vaded our borders, though they burned Cham
bersburg levied contributions on York, and stole
a few horses and cattle here and there, a limit
was soon set to their powers of mischief, and
line drawn beyond which they could never pass.
Unhappiy, no such barrier can be thrown up
against insidious legislators. Armed with the
privileges voluntarily, but inconsiderately,
conferred by the voters of the State, they
can penetrate into the very bowels of the
land, and establish wrong work ruin in every
quarter of the Commonwealth. They can be-
tray az the confidential clerk can betray a con-
6ding merchant, as cashier can rob bank, as
r treacherous or foolish lawyer can ruin client,
as an unscrupulous guardian can plumber a
helpless orphan. The public has grown
familiar with Legislative rascality that it no
longer eXcites astonishment, and scarcely
awakens indignation; but those who have most
deeply studied this subject from the moral stand
point, unite in the opinion that it is one of the
basest and worst of crimes. Dante puts
Brutus and Casssius in the centre of his imaginary
hell, as the very worst of his long list of crimi
nals for the sole reason that they treacherously
injured their country, and were the moving
cause of the subsequent disruption OF Italy.
Other writers have ably contended that an
0ffense against nation is more deadly sin
than an offense against single individual, and
that it is a thousand times worse to prostitute
public place to the injury of millions than
TO openly rob one man. These opinions
are not without endorsement in this
country, and the popular opprobrum which sur
rounds the name of Benedict Arnold is but type
of the anger that should envelop as in burning
flame, every man who meanly or wantonly be-
trays public trust, and sells out his constitu-
ents Jas the traitor of the Revolution tried to sell
West Point. Years ago, in this State, when a
suspicion existed that ii few members sent to
Har had no Iy ipdu tn "a,
an improper measure, a Pennsylvania editor
poeticaly portrayed the infamy of bribed legis-
lator in stinging words that echoedand re-echoed
through every corner of the Commonwealth, and
awakened storm of pitiless indignation.
But in more recent times the people have
grown comparatively careless and callous, and
they turn to the Legislature rather with prayer
that it will not be too outrageously wrong in its
proceedings than with hope or expectation
that it will know the right and faithfully pursue
it, The best that can be said of the late session
is that q considerable proportion OF the worst
things that commanded the support of many of
its members were defeated, but the authors and
defenders of the infamous schemes presented
from time to time are not the less culpable; and
although the State may escape the consequences
of their villainy, they should never
theless be held accountable for their
infamous votes. AS usual, general legislation
and the interests OF the Commonwealth were
neglected and the questions which should have
absorbed attention were rarely or never dis
cussed. There was always time, however, to
give a protracted hearing TO schemes of fraud
10 pass the Twelfth and Sixteenth Streets Pas
senger Railway bill-to tax the treasury with the
support of host Of unnecessary employes-to
consider the Cattle and Sheep bills-to attempt to
prevent the removal of the railway tracks from
Broad street-to favor the plundering Boiler-In-
spection, Low-Water Indicator, and High-Pres-
sure Safety-Valye bnl--to devise a cumbersome
new Tax law beneficial to politicians and corpo-
rations at the expense of the people-and to go
on day after day doing those things that should
not have been done, and neglecting to do those
things which best deserved attention. What
mischief has been accomplished in the closing
hours, or how many snakes" are coiled away in
bills with innocent titles, can never be fully
known until the whole mass of crudties coagu-
lated into laws is finally printed. But for the
present let us be thankful for the last and
greatest boon the Legislature could confer-it
has adjourned. The Commonwealth can breathe
freet and deeper, for the fangs have been drawn
from its most dangerous enemy.
THE OBSTRUCTION OF BROAD STREET
A NUMBER of merchants doing business on
Rroad street who have been eninconveniencedb by the