lu this my concluding article, i
promised to point out the obstacles
which have occurred to mo as being
in tho way of a just and thorough
execution of such a law. But before
going into this, I will venture an ob
servation or two upon what should
bo the warrant and tonuro of all le
gal enactments—authority to act,
admitted. All ponal laws which re
quire for their execution tho machin
ery of voluntary complaint and tes
timony, should be fouuded only in
tho well settled convictions and the
abiding sense of tho mass of law
abiding citizens. No set of legisla
tive “tinkers,” as tho lamented Lin
coln, called thorn, would have a
right, acting on a chance ascendancy
or by force of lobby pressure alone,
to go one stop beyond* this ; vet, the
larger portion of our statutes are be
gotten by an incestuous embrace of
Chance and Lobby. Legislation at
State capitals is a game of bowles,
and a workshop of crude experi
ments in vain and shalloiv conceits
and upon public credulity. We set
up to knock down ; one experiment
is succeeded by a swarm ol others
equally preposterous, only to grati
fy the “vaulting ambition” of master
workmen aiming at self ; but in the
meantime, tho temper of the mass
who are made to foot the bills is be
coming exhaueted. Tinkering, or
reckless trifling in matters ot legisla
tion is not much unlike playing with
lighted matches among explosive and
combustible materials. We cannot
be too careful not to poison tho
fountain or to weaken the force of
legal authority.
