The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-03-21
The Legislature...Its Record.

The Legislature, by concurrent resolution,
fixed upon to-day as the time for adjournment.
The session has now extended over period of
not less than one hundred and twenty days, or
nearly one-third Of the entire year. During
this time, but few bills of any importance to
the State have been passed. The session has
been fritteTed away III unnecessary and useless
squabbles between contending factions, and the
peoples business has been left undone until
the vepy last days of the session. Bills of pub
lie Importance, which should have passed be-
fore the holidays, have been put off from day
to day, until the very last day of the session
finds them still pending, while acts of incorpo-
ration, charters to companies, railroad, militia
ry and otherwise, have been rushed through
with the most astonishing rapidity, and without
any apparent regard to the value of the time
spent in considering them. 1t is safe to say,
that at least three -fourths of all the business
done at the present session of the Legislature,
is of purely private nature. More than half
of that which has consumed so much valuable
time, could just as well be done By the courts.
The Republican party, if it expects to live
in this State for any length of time, must re-
member one fact; and that is, that the people
who pay taxes, both white and colored, will
not long consent to see their money squandered
by the Legislature in celebrating over meas
ures of no earthly Importance to any, save those
who introduce them.
If we expect to exist as party, we must in
troduce these measures of reform, and not have
them forced upon US by the opposite party
There is no Disgusting the fact that our Legis-
lative expenses are nearly double what they
should be, and this is caused solely by the ex-
traordinary length of the session.
The impeachment farce consumed not less
A. tbo otp
thousands upon thousands of dollars. Those
who engineered that scheme should be held to
a strict accountability when they again come
before the people for Office.
There are scores of useless Offices in the State
which should have been abolished, or CONSOLE
dated, but whenever this subject was broached,
all sorts of fair promises were made, but no
definite action could be secured looking to a
curtailment of useless expenditures. Members
were afraid if they voted for such measures,
that some displaced official in their respective
counties would e his influence against them
when they again come before the people for re-
election. All action seemed to be purely for
self, without the slightest regard for the public
at large.
The moment man prostitutes his party, to
serve his own purposes, that moment he should
be kicked out of public position and sent into
political obscurity.
These facts, unpalatable though they may be,
stare us in the face, and we must prepare to
meet them. We have the elements of disor-
ganization in our own ranks, and unless we
seize and control them, they will eventually
work the ruin of the party. He is true Re
publican who sees the errors of his party, ad-
mits their existence, and seeks to correct them.
The demagogue and disorganizer, is he who
studiously seeks to conceal all faults and short
comings in party, allows his partizanship and
thirst for Office to overcome his judgment, and
sinks his manhood in his ungovernable greed
for popular favor. Generally, this is the man
who talks the loudest about his devotion to
party. We have many of such men who hang
to the Republican party like barnacles to
ship's bottom, and the sooner We get rid OF
them the better.
The present Legislature now goes home to
mngle again with the great body of the people
from whence it came. Its record has passed
into, and become part of, the history of our
times. What its influence has been for good
or evil remains to be seen. Whether 1t has
helped our finances by the almost endless in
vestigations which have been kept up, is not
vet apparent. There is a time, however, when
some of the questions will be settled, and that
time comes on apace. The elections are ap-
preaching.
P. S.SSnce the foregoing was written, a
resolution has been adopted by both branches
of the General Assembly, comforting upon the
presiding officers the power to call the Legisla-
ture together at any time upon petition of
majority of the members. ~
Such resolution is not in our Judgment,
worth the time consumed in passing it.-Co-
lumJia Uaion, 1871 inst
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