The weekly North-Carolina standard., 1869-04-28
uastv LEGISLATION.

| shall enact laws; and thus thrown SO far as
! it can, distractions in the way OF hasty 'ieg-
| islation. No Constitution can provide
further than this For if it could, It's ira
mcrs could also lay down infalliDle rules p'r
all time to come, adapted to the crcumstan-
ces Of all generations and applicable 10 al {
classes of society No Legislature, Or Con-
yention, is infallible. No instrument con-
ccived in nthehumanmind is withoutfault,ano
| the excellence of fundamental and SPECIFIC
| laws consists only IN their comparative JUS
tice and adaptability. This position does
not. however, combat the truth that certain
principles are eternal.
In heated moments legislators enact
| foolish laws : and at equally excited periods,
| they seem to be endowed with supernatural
wisdom. But still the cold, calm voice OF
reason, guided by that magnet OF the con-
science which ever turns to the source OF Its
power, is the true safeguard OF nations
safety and happiness
The noblest theory Of legislation is this: do
the best you can in the service OF God and
| your felow-men You cannot perfect any
thing. No legislative body can but every
Legislature is able to approach as near to
| perfection as the sum total of its talent and
ability, properly and continuously expended,
is permitted by natural laws to reach. Were
it possible for any men or set of men to en-
act laws, which would answer for all time
and conditions Of society, then there would
be no need of subsequent assemblies to re-
wise or amend the laws of their predecessors.
But this attribute belongs only to God and
his church on earth, whatever that church
may be.
In the opening hours of the Legislature of
every State great circumspection is shown.
Each member scans the propositions OF his
colleagues. But as the days wear on, the
interests of different sections unite by that
political cohesion known as "log- rolling"
and the consequence is hasty and sometimes
disastrous legislation. We challenge the
records of all such assemblies to 'disprove
our statements Indeed legislators secure
the passage of the BEST as well as the most
pernicious, laws by compromise and seldom
have any people witnessed the enactment of
statutes on the basis of pure merit, unless
they be of trivial or local importance
In the closing hours of the sessions of
| Legislatures, the members rush the business.
Designing men await this opportunity. Bills
are presented, forced into and out of COM
mittees by false clamor, hurried through one
branch ON the plea of emendation in the
other and hurried through the second
branch on the plea of passage in the first.
This is all wrong, yet it is an evil which will
never be entirely eradicated from popular
government; and which can only he reme-
died by frequent, and not protracted, ses-
sions of the Legislature. 81
Therefore we approve the provision in
our Constitution for annual sessions. Hasty
legislation will become less and less each
year, and we may hope for purer and bet
ter system of laws. Yet emerging as we are
from the excitements of war, wherein one
session of the General Assembly was called
upon step by step to advance, or line by
line to undo, the works of former Legi3la-
lures, we are not -enrr-'-sa ttIat our laws
have not neen so fully and thoroughly ex-
amined as prudence would dictate. Certainly
much has been well DONE Much has been
left undore, and some things have been
done, which ought not to have been done.
But this has been the confession of man to
God in all the cycles of time; and the honor
of the recent Legislature with the stability
of its enactments depend not upon any one
law, but upon what it has done, undone or
left undone, or in other words, its achole
works, and their comparative influences for
happiness and peace among the people of
North Carolina.
The idle dreamer can easily draw pic
ture OF Utopia. The practical man makes
the best of what is, and thanks God it is no
worse Humanity is afflicted. For long
generations it seemed that evil predom-
mated over good. But the exercise of vir-
tue, the dominance of the reason over the
passions, and proper estimate upon the evil
of the sword compared to the benefits of the
sickle, have at length asserted their superb
ority among civilized nations Diligence,
with the caution of wisdom drawn from les
sons of experience, has increased the sum of
human happiness beyond calculation. Men
have learned to be slow in tampering with
therights of each other. Legislation has ac-
quired dignity and flexibility, without the
inexorable justice and injustice of the laws
of the Medes, which knew no shadow of
change. Accordingly, therefore, as men are
given to see, and according to the develop
ment of man in this era, we are led to be-
lieve that as long as our Legislators, both
State and National, walk in the paths of
mercy so far as their dim visions may dis
cern it, and measure all things by the plum
met of justice, with caution, deliberation
and wisdom, that all is WELL with America.
and the day is still far distant when her sun
shall set in the asbysm of time.
The fifteenth amendment to the Constitu-
tion of the United States has been adopted
hy twenty-one States, to-wit: Maine, Massa-
chusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina.
Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Michigan, H.
n