Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-03-25
ARavIKw. OF me SESSION.

SUM Douy SluCc tuo Ht1s Af-9 oOSA S'---
ed upon to face difficulties more press
ing, practical and complicated. The
legacies Of debt and embarrassment
left by war and Radical mismanage-
ment and extravaganza, brought to a
focus by year Of drought and crop
failures, and intensified by the clamors
OF political agitators, cannot all be ad-
justed by single Legislature. The
process Of recovery Is, in all nature,
slower than prostration. To build re-
quires more time than to destroy.
Neither can all the abuses that have
gradually crept into the administra-
ton Of the law through a long term Of
years, delaying its action and impair
ing its efficiency, be remedied in day.
All human institutions are, ike human
ity itself, subject to the laws Of growth,
and all .healthful change is gradual,
while violence is injurious.
Many will criticize the Legislature
for doing 80 little, put we rather re-
gard that as a rare virtue. The gross
est superstition Of this age is its blind
unreasoniDg belief in the omnipotence
Of legislation. The fundamental idea
Of I776 was that the world was gov
erned too much, and human liberty Of
thought, word and act too restricted
by a multiplicity of accommodating
laws. 1t may be set down as rule
that the less legislation we have, the
more viii society prosper. The real
Life Of any live people, their character,
morals, habits and usages, arise from
the religious, social and Industrial en-
ergies at work among them, and can
not be appreciably fastened or retarded
by mere fats of legislation. The true
sphere Of legislation is a police func-
ton, to repress excuses Of energy, to
prevent the strong from expressing the
weak, and the shrewd from deceiving
the innocent or ignorant.
When We recall the multitude Of
wild schemes that have had an airing
in the State House during the past
three months, we think the people have
much reason to thank the outgoing
Legislature for wha5 it did not do.
Opinion VIII vary as to the suficiency
Of its work, which time alone can de-
termine, but all sound thinkers VIII
commend it for work left undone.
Retrenchment and relief were the
two great tasks imposed by the people
and the exigenoies Of the times. Some
progress has been made in the way Of
economyIperhaPs as much ashumanna-
ture should expect from a single session,
though We are sorry that some bills Of
this nature barely failed for want of
time in the rush Of the closing
hours. Steps have also been taken
toward improving the Judiciary. In
the matter Of direct financial relief, it
must be confessed that little has been
accomplished; but while We may regret
that the Legislature failed to adopt the
only ample, sound and feasible plan
offered, that Of a State Bank, We must
rejoice, Tor the sake Of both State and
people, that it rejected all the crude
financial schemes pressed upon its at
tention. By a mode Of assessing rail
roads, acceptable to the companies, it
has avoided litigation and secured an
annual increase of revenues amounting
TO $4,000 or more, as the business Of
the country revives. What the State
needs to-day is revenue, not lawsuits.
Il is difficult to assess railroad property
like other personal or real estate. The
Kentucky system Of assessing it in
the lump, as worth so much per mile,
is obviously unjust. a road running
through a mountainous district
costs sdouble as much as one run.
ming over a level prairie. Shall
the mountain counties double
the taxes, because it requires double
the expenditure to get them out Of the
woods? Again, a weu-equipped road,
ike the Nashville, Chattanooga amidst.
Louis, is worth three times as muchper
mile as an unfinished one like the Ten
nessee and Pacific. a tunnel through
a mountain ridge may cost a million
dollars; shall the barren county in
which the tunnel happens to be levy
taxes On that million collars, while a
fertile county adjoining, which gives
the road ten times as much freight and
travel, has no such tunnel to tax, thanks
to it's almost level surface? So, also,
the Legislaturea7oided the equally CON-
plex question Of adjusting rates, which
are naturally amenable to the laws Of
supply and demand, as developed by
competition and geographical advan-
tages. But the railroads remain none
the less responsible to the courts, rs
common carriers, for unjust diserimi-
nations. Already it begins to
appear that in Tennessee as well
as other States, railroads are
quite sensitive to public opinion,
and VIII, at its bebest, remedy existing
abuses so far as lies IN their power.
Let the same force Of public opinion be
turned upon the Judiciary, demanding
that the poor widow whose only COW
has been killed, shall have the same
chance for justice as the richest corpo-
ration with its brilliant array Of feed
attorneys. Public opinion is the most
powerful engine known to an iutelli-
gent people, and i VIII bring about
more speedy, practical and efficient re-
form in all departments than tie most