Weekly Trinity journal., 1879-05-24
THE PRosCRIPTIoNIsTs.


about IA, 900 The full returns will pro-
badly swell The vote to, in round mum bers,
10000, with majority of 10000 or
more in favor of adoption. There will be,
than eighty thousand who favored a
change in our organic law, against seven
ty thousand who opposed such change
And, no sooner does the news that the
change has been carried become a GER
tainty, than up springs some Of the shin
ing lights who, by one of those strange
freaks of fortune that cannot be account
ed for find themselves in the majority. and
say that seventy thousand Of their fellow
citizens are unfit TO be trusted in any
governmental capacity. That they who
voted for the new code, and they alone,
are the only men fit to bear share in the
governmental we except the privilege of
paying taxes toward its support.
1t is hardly necessary for us to say
that foremost in this cry are many of the
sapient gentlemen to whom California is
indebted ~ for devising and foisting this
instrument upon the people. Having
formulated the instrument and signed
their names thereto with new goose quills,
and packed the goose quilts home as me>
mentos, the honorable gentlemen, fearing
to be relegated TO the obscurty from
which they emerged, where they could
have the opportunity Of contemplating
their goose qulls with that feeling Of se-
rene satisfaction which comes to the mind
withIhe consciousness of having perform
ed good action, have now formed a sort Of
mutual admiration society or party, in
which each resolves that the other is a
good man and trustworthy, but that mas
much as all the honor and all the honesty
were upon their side, and all who did not
do and think as they do wore the monop-
oily collar, those who did not agree with
them were tools Of corporations and ut>
terly unfit to be recipients Of the public
trust. And if they can only succeed in
making majority of the people Of Cali
fornia believe this very comfortable doc
trine of politics, then the honorable gen>
tiemen are perfectly secure, for who of all
California are better qualified to shape and
give form to the law than the learned
persons who made the law And if the |
law is so dangerous to society that it can
be made oppressive by those who were
opposed 20 its adoption, it follows as |
logical consequence that they must never,
no never be perm itted to hold any Office |
under the new constitution until it has |
been so amended by its friends that it |
will be powerless for harm. This thought |
must also be very COM iorJing one to the |
wise gen llemen, inasmuch as it pavcs the |
way to lifelong public service for each one |
Of them. But ordinary mortals, who |
have not been blessed with that degree of
light which enabled them to see the |
beauties Of the instrument must be for |
ever excluded from any participation in
its benefits.
Man is naturally inclined to be selfish, |
and when he sees his brother man intent |
upon the prosecution of some purpose, is |
disposed to scrutinize motives little.-
So when we come to analyze the probable |
motive of the honorable ex delegates, we |
find that this intense regard for the public |
is all so much buncombe, played down to |
n fine point to put little money in the
pockets Of the gentlemen who served the |
State ffty-seven days longer than the
State asked their services. Probably |
those who sold their script to Stanford's |
gardener do not feel so anxious to have |
none but "frends" of the constitution in
the Legislature, as those who Ibid Their
certificates Of Service away with their
goose quills. For our part, we are dis
posed to have those fifty seven days ser
vice paid for at once since the constitu-
ton has been adopted it is only a question
of time when it will be paid, like John
Jackson's "relIef bill" proved. Ifthe re-
suit had been the other way, we should
have said differently.
But candidly, this brazen proposition,
that in effect would disquaify every man
who voted against adoption from holding
any Office for an indefinite period, is too
proscriptive and damnable to be eseriouslv
entertained. The Constitution is adopted
and by "A decisive majority those who
voted for and those who voted against it
should unite to give ITS propositiors legal
of in 4
the general veal. The man who proposes
to disfranchise his reighbor for mere
honest difference of opinion, is bigot or
demagogue. Such a proposition, If car
red into effect in the manner proposed by
the honorable bilks," "by Denis Kearney,
who is ms great a blk as any, or by the
San Francisco Chronicle, which is the
bill k par eTcetience, can only succeed in
carrying an element of dscord into every
community, arraying neighbor against
neighbor, and arousing ilI-feeling, rancor
and contention in every precinct from
Siskiyou to San Diego. While the prop
ositi0n may find favor among chronic
othcesseekers, it will find little sympathy
among the masses of the people, and will
draw to our side all the better elements of
the pro constitution men. We made our
fight against the new constitution at the
polls, the proper time and place, and
when we were defeated there our opposi-
tion ended, and we are ready TO carry out
! the provisions of the new instrument in
good faith, and in the interests Of good
government.
The various aspirants for Railroad
Commissioner have been conducting
siill hnni Thn,, nro 49,. IL. L. Il - = :,