The present Legislature is trying their
best to put themselves on record as the
most ignorant and ignominious that ever
undertook to frame laws for a State. If
they had the sonse of ordinary mortals
tkey must have learned before tliis that in
every section of the South where reforma
tion in the Stock Law has been attempted
since the war, it has been met with the
vilest opposition of demagogues, and been
approved by the thinking, practical men;
that notwithstanding this great opposition
iu the commencement, there is not a single
Community in the South where the law has
been in operation for two years that it could
be repealed by a vote of the people. Our
Legislators oppose the Stock Law because
they are. either too ignorant to know w hat
is best, or because they think it may enable
them to be re-elected. If they were smart,
and knew how the public will change its
mind after two years' trial, they would
know that their very opposition to what
they deem unpopular now, will of itself de
feat them at the next election. They talk
about high taxation, economy in adminis
tration of the State's concerns, &c, yet
they would put upon us a fence tax, greater
by five hundred times than all other taxes
combined a tax which every five years
amounts to about the value of the land.
