Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-02-27
LEGISLATION.

IeTnapS HO people, ellner Ill Lhe IasL vi
present, have been the subjects of so much
legislation as the people Of the United States
The constitution of the United States, and the
constitutions of the several States are buried
beneath legislative enactments and repeals o
legislative enactments, until nobody can find
them. Thomas Jefferson said: ave have
too much legislation in this country" Il
such was the case in the days of the author
of the Declaration of Independence, it Ger
tainly is true at the present time. The mania
for enacting new laws and repeating old ones
has been steadily on the increase for many
years, and to-dayit amounts to a perfect turor
Every individual who is so fortunate az
to get a seat in State legislature, seems tc
act as if he felt that it was morally binding
upon him either to have some new law passed
or at least that some clause or section of ar
existing law be amended or changed in some
way or other. One legislature builds up anc
another tears down, and the result is that nc
one, not even lawyers, know what is law.
In one of the old Grecian States the senator
who proposed new law had to do it with q
halter around his neck. If his proposed Law
failed to pass, he was hanged Immediately
Senators and legislators were exceedingly
cautious about proposing either new laws OF
changes in the old ones. We do not advocate
the Inauguration of such a custom in our
country. The comparative newness of our
country and the recent political changes, as
we'll as the general progressiveness Of our
people, need more legal changes and legal
enactments than old countries which have be-
come we'll established in every thing. Where
however, is this thing Of law making to stop!
If the thing goes on for few years in the flu.
ture as it has done in the past, we will have a
law for every thing. Legislative enactments
will invade the privacy of the domestic hearth
and trample under foot the inalienable ights
of individuals. Law will murder justice on
the farm, on the public highway, and on the
very threshold Of the forum. Legal enact.
ments will become what the illustrious Cicero
says about them-dark and mysterious phra.
ses and sentences, which even the learned will
not be able to expound.
The number of laws is no evidence of we'll
governed and happy people. On the contra,
ry, it is an infallible evidence of the very
opposite state of things. If there were no
thieves in country, there would be no need
for laws to punish roguery. This is not all.
There is, in some men, and it would appear
not few, kind VI moral, social and politi-
cal insanity which prompts them to do what
is forbidden, and not to do what is enjoined.
Again, whenever legal enactment infringes
upon what men regard as their rights, they
feel that it is a virtue to violate it.
So it is, that naturally bad law produce,
disorderan confusion hence no law at all is
better than bad law. Justice is more en-
dangered by too much legislation than by too
little. A law-ridden people must always be
an oppressed people. Laws are indications Of
social disease. Law makers are physicians,
whose business it is to heal these social disor.
ders. Legislative enactments are the RENE
dies, but the less medicine that can be used
the better it is for all.