The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1879-05-02
New Constitution of California.

New Constitution of California.
The Commercial IS. F. Adrocate, of March
10th, gives the following dark picture of the
proposed Constitution of our sister State.
If the statements of the Aduoca:c arc cor
rect. it is remarkable document, one that
the people ought to study we'll before voting
for its adoption
On the 7th of next May the most i'm
portant election ever held in California is to
take place. 1t embraces in its results the
future OF this State. It will decide whether
individual rights shall be respected, or if the
State will, be surrendered to agrarianism, an
archy and financial ruin. If the new consti-
tuition, which will then be presented to the
citizens of California for their decision as to
its acceptance or rejection, should by plu-
rality of votes become the constitution of
the State, it will entail in its acceptance a
long continued scene of litigation u period
of uncertainty and doubt, during which all
enterprise will cease, and all confidence be
lost in mercantile. industrial and real estate
transactions. The present order, harmony
and usefulness of business operations of all
classes will be overihrown, and instead there
of, there will be us!tered upon the communi-
transfcrence of personal or real properties.
In fact it will be q matter of uncertainty if
any right to hold property beyond certain
limits will, in accordance with its total alb
rogation of all heretofore sacred principles
of direct ownership, be sustained. 1t is so
completely antagonistic to private rights
that no one could be sure under its rulings
that his own was jim reality his own.
| 1t stands as a record of shame for CalI.
fornia. 1t shows 4 total absence of that
vigor of intellect that just perception of
equity that respect for and protection of.
individual rights that chivalrous support
of good and adherence of evil that hber-
ality and generosity, and that recognition Of
pure freedom, which, while it allows unre.
| strained action So far as no wrong is con-
summated, yet holds in check the intention
to perpetrate evil, for which the citizens of
this State have ever been so renowned. 1t
overthrows all equities it violates all prin-
ciples of political economy, and it panders
to the baser passions of mob rule and COM
sent out into the world stigma will rest
upon our fair fame as citizens and will awak-
en- sensations of contemptuous pity for our
seeming ignorance and actual idiocy. The
world will say that no people possessed of
nationality would ever have written fal-
| lacious, so absurd and so unlawful an nstru-
ment. The ideas that are pronounced in
the lowest grade of pot-house declamations,
rise superior to these enunciations of dema-
gogic ignorance.
1t runs counter to all industrial enterprises
and public Improvements. 1t takes from
individuals the management OF their own
affairs. 1t places prohibitory enactments
upon corporate bodies; it creates tyrannlcal
despotism it destroys all semblance of free
dom; it promotes the destruction of rig hit,
and brings into existence living wrongs it
is not human in its principles, but is ffend-
ish in its inceptions and devilish in its de-
signs it tears in fragments all title deeds
| it scatters to the winds the records which
secure permanence to the ownership of prop
erty it vitiates all contracts. 1t does all
this long array of evils because it attacks
every principle involved in the integrity of
the diverse of its actions as above set forth.
| 1t would be impossible to convene in any
other part of the world such an asscmblage
of dolts as constituted the late Constitutional
Convention. In corroboration of this asser-
ton, we quote holy writ: ''By their fruits
We shall know them" Certainly the fruit
as manifested in the document under con-
sideration has 10 nutritious qualities it is
replete with toxical properties; it is ''bltter
in the belly without the redeeming ''sweet-
ness in the mouth;" and it is composed of
the ashes of the Dead Sea fruit, while it is
devoid of its pleasant appearance 1t pos
sesses no redeeming characteristics.
If this Constitution is adopted it will work
irretrievabe ruin upon the State Property
of all kinds will at once depreciate because
no basic security will attend its holders
Stagnatlon in all progressive movements will
ensue, because all confidence i'll contracts
will be annihifated. J.
| It, therefore, becomes the absolute duty
of evey lover Of law and order, of every
friend of progress, of every well wisher Of
the stability of society, and the welfare of
the individual to struggle to the utmost to
prevent its adoption. The contest which is
thus forced upon our people, will have to be
met manfnIly, firmly and decisively. 1t is
contest il. which the madness and hatred
of Socialism to all that is beneficial will be
arrayed in it's fercest mahgnity against that
class of society which represents intelligence,
morality and progress. There is no time to
lose. The enemy is already marshaling its
cohorts. Its defamers of public men, are
ranting their calumncs aud falsehoods
They are stirring up, the evil passions of an
ignorant mob. In our own city two marked
instances of vitiated press stand boldly out
in the display Of their infamy by applaud
ing the insane rawlings of an arch traitor to
our institutions, and thus aiding and abet-
ting the enemies Of the prosperity of our
State. Why do they do this? First, from
their inherent hatred of all good. and second
from their instinct of avaricious greed Like
Judas Iscariot, they would sell their God for
lucre.
In future issues We shall maintain every
assertion we have made in this article, and
prove each and all of them by quotations
from, and criticisms. upon the Objectionable
articles of the New Constitution, and we
bespeak for them, n.advance of their pub
lication, an attentive and careful Derusal
when they shall he issued, for in them we
will expose the errors, fallacies and evil ten
dencfes of this monstrosity of the present
time