Year: 1873




ing or misanthropic complaint, but We
trust not wholly without patriotic
purpose, we have frequently called pub.
lie attention to the prevailing and
growing corruption Of the times, and
more especially to that of legislative
bodies. We are glad to see that one
ofthe old style of master thinkers, who
is in position to speak the truth some
what effectively, has taken up this SUBJ
ject in the person of Hon. Jere. s.
Black, than whom. perhaps, there isno
man more competent. At the expense
of occupying a considerable space,
which the importance of his subject
fully warrants, we give the following
concluding portion of his great speech
in the Pennsylvania Constitution Con-
vention, March 10th, on the report of
the committee on Legislation. He
asks-and we repeat the inquiry asap-
plicable to other States as WE'LL shall
we stand by and see this prodigious
ruin rushing down upon us without an
effort to arrest it?." He said:


But. Mr.. Chairman, | do not know
that we ought to blame the members
of the Legislature too severely. Some
thing ought to be allowed for the
temptation with which they are sur
rounded. They walk among snares,
and pitfalls, and man-traps. In fact
they do not represent us. We are not
governed by the men we send there.
Our masters are the members of the
lobby, They are organized into a
third House, whose power is over
shadowingand omnipotent They pro-
pose the laws that suit themselves, and
the interested parties who send them
there. The other Houses simply reg
lister their DEGREES. That our rights
and liberties should be in such hands,
is disgusting in the extreme, for they
are generally the most loathsome mis-
creants on the face of the earth.


My friend from Dauphin (Mr. Mac
Veagh) spoke of legislation under the
figure of stream, which, he said,
ought always to flow with crystal wa
ter. 1t is true that the Legislature is
the fountain from which the current of
our social and political life must run, or
we must bear no life; but as it now is,
we keep it merely as 'cistern for foul
toads to knot and gender in" He has
described the tree of liberty, as his
poetic fancy sees it, in the good time
coming, when weary men shall rest un-
der its shade, and singing birds shall
inhabit its branches and make agreea-
BILE music. But what is the condition
Of that tree now? Weary men do, in
deed, rest under it, but they rest in un-
rest, and the longer they remain there
the more weary they become. And
the birds-it is not the woodlark, nor
the thrush, nor the nightingale, nor
any of the musical tribe that inhabit
the branches of our tree. The foulest
birds that wing the air have made il
their roosting place, and:.their obscene
droppings cover all the plains about
them the kite, with his beak always
sharpened for some cruel repast; the
yulture, ever ready to stoop upon his
prey; the buzzard, digesting his filthy
meal and watching for the moment
when he can gorge himself again upon
the PROSTATE carcass of the Common
wealth. And the ra--ea is hoarse that
sits there croaking despair to all who
approach for any clean or honest pur-
pose.


Mr.. Chairman. this state of things
cannot go on without bringing us to
utter destruction 1t is getting worse
and worse, and our institutions must
utterly perish if we do not stop this
mischief. We may preserve the forms
of republican government, but the
substance will pass away, and with it
will depart all that is perfect in poll
tics, all that is pure in morals, that
makes life, liberty and property secure;
all that makes existence in a free
country worth having.


Shall we stand by and see this prOdi-
gious ruin rushing down upon us with
out an effort to arrest it? No, surely
not! But seeing that we are sent here
for the very purpose of stopping if, We
will perform our duty, and, with the help
of the living God, We will succeed in
our mission. We will deliver our good
old Commonwealth from the body Of
this death.


But how shall that end be accom-
plished? / admit that it is possible to
answer this question in different ways,
when we come TO the details of the
remedy. But the common sense and
the common honesty of the people as
represented here will make us unani-
nous at least on this; that the remedy
shall be efficient, radical, thorough
and complete. We will not insult our
constituents by offering them mere pal
liatives for the hideous malady with
which they are afflicted. They know,
and we know, that this is not case
for the quackery of half-hearted meas
ures. We must cut the cancer out. A
surgical operation on vital part OF
the body, if it be not entirely success
full, always hasten the death of the pa
tient.


| am thoroughly persuaded that
there is some fatal defect in our Amer
lean system of legislation. 1t has
failed ignominiously wherever it has
been tried 1t is not only here in
Pennsylvania that we have rotten re-
presentatives and dishonest legislation.
The same evil is found in the other
States. 1t exists in its worst form and
operates on its grandest scale in the
Legislature of the Union. What is
the causeF


Mr. President of this Convention,
(Mr. Meredith struck the point when,
speaking of the misconduct of men,
bers of the Legislature, he said that it
was because they were not responsible
and nobody was responsible for them.
Washington said long ago that ire
sponsible power could never be safely
trusted in human hands. BY irrespon-
sible power | mean power which may
be abused without calling down any
punishment upon the heads of those
who commit it. In this respect all
our Constitutions are anomalous.
They are a series of commands with
out any sanction to enforce them. This
is particularly and emphatically true
with regard to those who execute the
supreme power of making your laws.
You trust the members of your Legis-
lature implicitly. The trainers of the
federal Constitution, who we're imitat=
ed in all the States. seem to have
thought of legislative corruption as
the Spartans did of parricide. that il
was an impossible crime. The Supreme
Court of the United States, in Fletcher
VS.. Peck, influenced by this delusion
because it was embodied in the Con-


laIa.aI H. +ho,- i; not 10