The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1872-03-28
The Majority I'm Ehe Legislature
The RuIe of Exfravazance
and PrO~crfpafOm.

'Khe majority In the h@eShshmtmres@
The Rule Of Exfravagance
aud Prescriptions.
In rabid and malignant Radicalism the
present Legislature is not exceIled by
the Black-and-Tan Convention of infa-
nous memory, which assembled in 1868
to frame a State Constitution. The
leaders of the Radical party have pro-
fitted nothing by the experience Of the
intervening years. They have plunged
from one excess TO another utterly re-
gardless Of the welfare of the State, and
bent only on the success of measures
which look to their individual aggran-
dizement and the prolongation of their
power. They have done comparatively
nothing to reform abuses which have
been shown to exist in the departments
of the State government throughout all
its ramifcatiOns, but have done much TO
increase them. In but one branch of
the service have they taken a step in the
way of reform, and in that single instance
they have been literally driven by the
force of public opinion which THE CLARr-
ON has created, and which, with all their
reckless audacity, they have not been
abs to withstand.
Ehen they assembled they were
brought face to face with the figures of
the Auditors Report, showing that the
disbursements for the past year exceeded
by $500, 900 the receipts, which amounted
to the enormous sum of 81 800, 900, ex-
elusive of the school tax-and yet so far
from taking steps to arrest this downward
step to bankruptcy and ruin, they have
taken more rapid strides in that direction.
The daily expenses of the Legislature
itself have not been curtailed. The ex-
been continued. And the same remark
applies to all the branches of the Execu-
tive department As an example of the
way things are managed, going from bad
to worse, we have only to cite the exam
pie of the Auditors office. In former
times, when the taxable basis of the
State was $500, 900, 600 instead of $780,
100000, clerks were deemed sufficient
to perform the duties of the office, but
when the present Legislature assembled
it found seven employed in that establish
ment, and it has since, as if in the exu-
berance of its zeal to furnish places for
its partisans, voted its head two others,
making NINE in ALL The Penitentiary
bill they have passed is a complicated
and cumbersome device, investing the
Executive with excessive powers and re-
sponsibilities, and opening wide the ave-
nue. to extravaganza and fraud. The
enormous cost of assessing the revenue,
which is siT times in excess of what it
was when the property valuation of the
State was sir times more than It now is, re-
mains uncorrected. The munihcent gift
which the federal government made to
the State in common with others, of
lands which realized $3.50, 900, for clear
ly defined and specific objects, has been
diverted from its purposes and misused.
Thirty thousand dollars have been laid
out for objects not only forbidden by the
act of Congress making the grant, but
unauthorized by the law of the State APP
propriating, and the Legislature has been
silent and approving witness of the
transaction.
The foregoing are but few of the
many sins of omission and OF commission
by which the Legislature 1--WE speak of
the controlling majority have challenged
the indignant remonstrance of the people.
To these may be added two of its latest, but
by no means least enOrmities We allude
to the Social Equality abomination which
even the Convention of 1868 would
not have dared to pass so shocking an
aggression as it is upon the private rights
of individuals and the established organi-
zation of society; and the Congressional
Apportionment infamy, by which nearly
all the counties in the State having white
majorities have been deliberately placed
under the dominion of counties having
negro majorities, in order that five out of
the six districts may be represented by
partisans of their choice. 1t is not to be
supposed that accumulated wrongs like
these will fail to arouse the intelligent
and patriotic people to efforts more sys-
tematic and determined than they ever
yet displayed to hurl their authors from
the seats of power they have abused.