Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

(Etuoniclc anH jgfrntiml. WEI )NEBDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1877. The sick Turk fights belter than most healthy Christians. Even the New York Journal of Com tncrcc believes that Tweed is telling the truth. t Nathaniel Washburns, of Hartford, Conn., is the champion shot of the world. m — Blydenburgh, the best shot of th* 5 American Team, graduated at Princeton last vear. — Dudley Selph came out fifth in thf general scramble for the championship at Creed moor. Tnr. equinoctial storm Hooded a large part of New Orleans and a general over flow was with difficulty averted. Emperor William, of Germany, ha 1 graciously informed Minister Kasson that he approves of “the policy. The Albany Argue is so indignant that it spells “rascally” with three “IV' when treating of the Electoral Commis sion. u m .Senator Dennis, of Maryland, is dan gerously ill. Morton’s absence from the Benate may bo offset very unexpec tedly. m The percentage of killed and wound ed in the last Nez Perce battle is much greater among the volunteer* than among the regulars. Mr. Evabts is credited with the great er part of the article in the North Amcr lean Review, in response to Jeub Black, fiigDC‘l byi*- ToronTON. Thirty odd thousand emigrants havi come to America since January Ist, one third of whom are Germans. Irish emigration has largely diminished. A German critic is of opinion that the Russians have an army of lions led by asses. This is hard upon the Grand Dukes, if not upon the Czar himself. The balance of exchange is in favor of the United States. Ilenco the deelii < in gold. If that sort of thing could be continued resumption would come of itself. Gen. Stewart L. Woodford, said to be John Sherman’s mouthpiece, is d< - scribed in one of the Northern dailies as “an nnrivalled dispenser of fluent flapdoodle.” Even ]tho best marksman has hie streak of bad luck. The poor shooting of Dudley Selph, at the Inter-State mutch, caused much talk and created great surprise. Contributions “to save Ohio” aro be ing levied upon the Washington clerks. Liko Rip Van Winkle’s drink, this abnso of civil sorvioe reform “don’t count this'time.” ■ - It is the general impression that as the Southern States are returning to “the homo of our fathers,” the people of Georgia will remove the capital to “the ■halls of our fathers.” Morrissey denounces John Kelly as the instigator of Tweed’s confession ; but the Hon. John Morrissey can not put bis finger upon one single dis honest net of the Hon. John Kelly. We have hopes of Morton’s recovery. Ho listened to the whole of Stouoh ton’s flo-ealled reply to Jerk Black, the other day. A sick man who could ■survive that, dose is hard to kill indeed. Hon. Hersohel V. Johnson, of Geor gia, is undoubtedly the strongest man who has yet been named in the South for the vacant place on the Supreme bench.— Washington National Repub lican. Now that it has been established that Jotin Morris ky and carpet-bag Spen obr are intimate friends, many people will unhesitatingly believe that Tweed’s picture of the ex-pounder is a correct °ue. _ _ A cousin of H. W. Beecher is re ported to bo in au imbecile, invalid and starving condition, somewhere in Ala bama. The Brooklyn pastor ought at least to send him his sermon on bread and water. Montgomery Blaiis hopes to get to the Maryland Legislature as a stepping stone to the Senatorship of that State. Hon. Montgomery is a chronic aspirant to office, but we aro of opinion that he will not boa Senator from Maryland. It is predicted that when Hon. Roscoe Conklino finds how popular President Hayes is with New York Republicans, lie will, at the State Convention, play Mr. Blaine’s part of peace-maker. Eoscoe ■will never commit political suicide if he ■can help it. The unknown problem to be solved in Ohio is the strength of tho Working man's movement. Mr. E. V. Smalley, writing to the Tribune, computes that the ticket will poll 20,000 votes. The question now is which party will be hurt the more by this revolt. It is now believed that had Earl Bea consfikld been allowed to have his way, when the Peace Conference failed, the Rnsso-Tnrkish war would have been averted, since Russia knew her weak ness, and would gladly have escaped kou orably from a bad entanglement. Copies of Mr. Groesbeck’s speech on the currency have been widely circulat ed among the press. His positions are that onr Government tried to have silver and gold in circulation together by equally free coinage and unlimited ten der and failed; that onr history of three quarters of a century is a history of the alternate driving out of gold and then of silver, in onr attempts to give them equal value; that we never had but one kind of full legal tender coin in the cir culation at a time, and, therefore, never had practically but the single standard. —m e There is a decided ebb in the tide of immigration to our shores from the over-populated countries of Europe. Nearly 10,000,000 of immigrants—or 9,726,455—arrived in New York from 1819 to 1876, but the full of the tide was in 1873, when 445.483 landed on our shores. There was only a slight de-1 crease in 1574, but in 1575 the number fell off nearly one half, while in 1876 it I dropped to 187,027, and the first eight | months of this year show only 33,129 against 71,265, during the correspond ing period of last year. The temperance paper published at Richmond, Va., denounces the bell punch as an encouragement to crime and suggests that the Legislature pass a law to the effect that every grave, the work of intemperance, from the date of the bell-punch, be decorated with the , following inscription : Rung to Sleep by the Moffett Bell-Punch. Gave His Life for the State Debt. The people are beginning to take a deep interest in the capital question, and we have reason to believe that at the election in December Millegeville will carry the day by a handsome ma jority. Ever since the fraudulent tri umph of Atlanta in 1868, we have favor ed a return to the ancient seat of gov ernment, and we rejoice to know that this feeliDg is shared by the masses. The people in Eastern and Middle Geor gia should vote solidly for Milledgeville. We do not wish to harm Atlanta, but we do wish to have the capital of the State placed where it properly belongs. GOVERNOR HAMPTON. The Governor of South Carolina has certainly becc in as famous a politician in the time of peace as he was a cavalry leader, in the time of war. His speeches during the campaign against Chamber lain were full of sense, patriotism and most electric eloquence. Since that time he has appeared upon eeveial theatres of action, and always as one of ttje cen tral, if not the most conspicuous, figures. He took the North by storm, some months ago. He has captivated the West by his manly speech at Rockford, Illi nois ; and now his voice rings trumpet tongned over the land and over the seas as a leader of Southern opinion of whom all men of good will may be justly proud. Aliuding to his Nashville speech, in company with the President, the ed itor of the American says : “In his manly utterances yesterday, he did not mince matters in his approval. Policy, said he, is a misnomer. What we call ‘the policy’ is a sound statesmanship. In his course in South Carolina during his canvass, in the perils of that con flict, in the anomalous and difficult posi tion after the election, and as a national man, whose local career assumed na- j tional dimensions, Gov. Hampton has not made a mistake. Those who knew him as a dashing and gallant cavalry officer, a brilliant soldier, no doubt little expected that he would bo found equal to all emergencies, familiar with the fun damental law of tho land, able to steer through the most perplexing difficulties, involving difficult legal points and intri cate constitutional problems, besides the extremely delicate and critical rela tions of the people of his State. Through them all he looked to the end with the unerring eye of a statesman, and went forward by a direct and plain road, never swerving or mistaking his way. In his approval he has not been effusive or crowded to the front with compli ment. It was unnecessary. When the occasion arises he makes his approval emphatic and pronounces upon its effi ciency, fullness and sincerity, when he says it is not ‘policy, but statesman ship. Such an expression by such a man—marked for prudence and caution —means a great deal.” Praise from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed. Gov. Hampton is now id what would so?m to be a regular flood tide of good fortune. If be continues to make no mistakes, it it difficult to mark the boundary of his ambition. He lias but to preserve amid so much dazzling flattery that “level head” for which he has been credited, and prizes, yet un dreamed of, may be within his grasp. the president gone south. The President left Cincinnati yester day on his tour of the South. We hope that before he returns he and the people of all the Southern capitals and large cities will have seen and known and liked each other. Since tho President commenced his Summer travels he has spoken a hundred times kind words of the South and her population and her interests. These have been the burden of his reinaks, and at Cincinnati, on the Southern States, were repeated with more than his usual earnestness. The President’s sineerity in these expres sions cannot bo mistaken. Any linger ing doubt about it would be dispelled by a review of his policy and appointments so far. As ho said in his Cincinnati speech— reiterating phrases old but never tiresome: “I wish to see the day within the next three or four years when all causes of dissension will, like slavery, be removed forever, and when onee more tho ancient concord and friendship will be restored. This is my hope, this is my ambition,” elc. The South bus no reason to bo suspicions of the genuine ness of such hopes and promises, when confirmed by many proofs. Therefore, sho is preparing to give President Hayes a welcome as hearty as that ho met with in New England, New York, Ohio and elsewhere in tho North. Both parties will join in testifying their respect for the office aud the man. Whatever op position or coldness he may encounter in any part of tho South will come less from the Conservative than the carpet baggers. Tho latter aro tho persons who have most cause to complain of Presidential neglect and the least to expect from Mr. Hayes, if he stands by his pledges. He is doubtless willing that they should give him the cold shoulder at the South, if that would only more plainly emphasize tho Con servative support upon whi,oh he may count jn his relations with Cong*'.es p - While one object of his Southern tour is to see nud len/u things for himself, and he prepared to speak and act in telligently hereafter, audii'* object is to make friends and votes for an a d‘ ministration policy. Wo wish the Presi dent every success in this, if the policy : ho wants to execute is that announced in his speeches tho past few weeks. The Southern trip is an unspoken tribute to the power the Southern Con servatives will have in the next Con gress. If it can be won to the Presi dent’s side on vital issues, ho can, with ! it and the supporters still to be relied j oti from his own party, control that ! body. This would boa very desirable ! combination, if ho better union of the parties could be effected- As to Civil I Service reform and general retrench- I ment and economy there can be no 1 doubt of the favor extended to such i measures by the conservative South. I But we ere not sure of the soundness of ! the South on subsidy questions. It would be reassuring to bear from her I orators during the President’s progress ! that she cares far less for Pacific rail roads, levees aud canals made by Gov i ernment money than for the welfaro of j the whole people (which is inconsistent with such expenditures) and the rcetera ' tiou of prosperity by slower, surer and more legitimate means.— N. Y. Journal of Commerce. A correspondent of the New York Sun, writing from Ohio, predicts that ; the Democratic majority will not be less than 18,000, and that Stanley Mat thews' place will be filled by a political | opponent. Some of the moralists of the press de clare that Morrissey never had such a knock-down as that given him by Tweed, and hencef rth the ruin of thousands of young men will lie heavily upon his soul. Hon. Louis V. Bogy, the deceased Senator from Missouri, was of French extraction. He spoke with great ability on all subjects that came np before the Senate. He characterized J ndge Brad ley as the American Norbury. His latter days were clouded by the pecuni ary misfortunes of his son. The Baltimore Gazette chimes in with the rest of mankind in observing that it is desirable for Mr. Hayes to appoint some Southern man of great learning and exalted character, who will com mand the respect and veneration of the country, upon the Supreme Bench. Judge Herschel V. Johnson is the man of all men who tilts that trne bill. That was a badly sold New Yorker. A friend told him that the Boss in his confession had mentioned liis name, whereupon the indignant, honest trades man wrote to the papers, declaring that what Tweed had said about him was maliciously false. Then he investigated the subject further, and found oat that what Mr. Tweed had said was that this particular honest tradesman was not concerned in the frauds at all. The New Orleans Picayune settles the whole thing thus: “Who, then, saved the Union ? The North ? No. The South ? No. Secession would have triumphed with the South ; centralism would have triumphed with the North. Both have been defeated ; both have been victorious. Between the two the Union has been saved." This is the nearest approach to Titmouse’s proposi tion of “giviig everything to every body,” on record. Now, let ns have music by the band. REVELLING AMONG REBELS. PRESIDENT AND POSTMASTER ARRIVE IN TENNESSEE. Th<- “Time*” Wklp* Araund on the Sonthern Policy—The N#rth and the Sanch Under stand Each Other—Hampton and Unye* a* ( omp:i|non>i do Yorajre. London, September 20. —The limes, editorially commenting on Hayes’ Southern tour, says: “In little more than half a year, the President has suc ceeded in beating down a compact mass of prejudices ,in allaying a host of con flicting passions. The visible triumph of his policy is now being assured. He has this week begun a journey through the Southern States which is intended to show that the work of pacification is not far from completion. The Federal Government has no intention of inter fering in the local administration of the Southern States. The Southern States have no desire to dis.nrb the great achievements of the civil war which have been embodied in the constitu tional amendments. The removal of the objects of contention makes it easy to establish friendly relations between people who respect each other, and the sympathetic meeting of the President and General Hampton is an omen of the coming time when the North and the South will ne longer be separated by the lines of divisions which the civil war had traced.” Arriral in Chattanooga—Decorations and De monstrations. En route President and Mrs. Hayes occupied the rear platform, and admired the scenery, and seemed equally inter ested in the battle fields, whether the Yankees had the better or worse. At Chattanooga, on Market street, a large monogramatic arch, consisting of the letters “R. B. H.,” had been erected, from the centre of which a large floral key was suspended. Patriotic Speeches by Hampton and Key— . Magnanimity on the Major Key. Chattannoga, September 20.—After addresses of welcome and elaborate speeches by the President and Secretary of State, Key said : “My Friends— l am quite hoarse to-day, aud could not make a speech if I wanted to, and I am sure you would not want me to make one if I could, for yon have heard me here and everywhere on all sorts of ques tions. There is one thing I can say to you to-day, and I can say it to the peo ple of the'United States, that when the President did me the very groat and distinguished honor to place me in his Cabinet, the colored people of Chattanoo ga were nut afraid of that act. They knew me and knew I was their friend. They did not suppose that that old Democrat would hurt them very much I am sure. [Applause.] It may be that the white people were more afraid of me, but I don’t know how that was. [Laughter.] lam glad to stand before you. All that I am I owe to Chattanooga and to the people of East Tennessee. They have been my friends, and while I am not unmindful of the groat honor the Presi dent did mo in the appointment, while I am proud of the administration to which I have, in my feeble way, given my ear nest support, I remember with still more pride and gratitado the fact that when in your Legislature I was candidate for the Senate of the United States, every man in East Tennessee, white and black’ Democrat and Republican, Union men and Confederates, was for my election. Now my friends to a crowd like this what can I say ? If I were to talk too much I might say something that somebody would not like and I like you all, there is no people on earth that I love as well as I do the people of Chattanooga. [Ap plause.] Judge Key, liCading Forward Mrs. Ilayes, Said : “Here is the best speech that I think lia3 been made. They abuse all the other members of the Administra tion, but nobody abuses her.” Mrs. Hayes was greeted with loud and con tinued applauso. ' IliiiiiptoiiN Speech. “I scarcely feel that I am authorized to detain for one moment those of yon out there standing in the rain, but I will nt least have the comfort of know ing, if I do so, that my speech will not be a “dry” one. I come to you, my friends, having met the President of the United States when ho first came upon Southern soil. The au thorities in Louisville did me the honor to invite me to join him there, and that gentleman himself added to that honor by expressing the wish that I should come." I went there expecting to remain only a fsw hours to greet him on Southern soil, as a Southern man, aud I recognize in him a man higher th n a party man. [Applause.] A man who had forgotten party as he rose to be a patriot, and it has been my additional good fortune to accompany as he jour neyed southward, and I think we may say to-dav that he has struck the solid South. He is here in Chattanooga, standing upon your battle-scarred plains, looking and seeing every hillside crowded with evidences of war. Remembering that your soil has been stained by precious blood poured out by brave men who were fighting honestly for their convictions on each side, I am glad to come here with him aud see the motto that you have written there of peace and har mony once more restored in our beloved country. My friends, in the few remarks I have had tho honor of making as 1 have been iu this triumphaut pro cession of the President I have studi ously avoided any allusion to politics. I have tried fo subordinate them entirely to a feeling of patriotism, and I urge upon you now, men of the South, as far as possible, to forget past differences between our people, to devote your selves to developing and opening up the best resources of this country. I want to urge upon you this thing, and we will have power and peace and happiness evermore. . . I have not spoken of politics. It was my misfortune, perhaps, to differ in politics from the President of the United States, but Democrat as I am, Democrat, as I have been, there is no man in America to whom I more cheerfully, cordially and willipgly do honor than the Republican president of the United States. Ido that, my friends, because he is showing that he is the Presidat of tho whole United States. I do that be cause he, in the very first gpt of his ad ministration, lifted that great prppsure which was upon the neck of myowu peo ple. Many of them who said that he but did his duty kau never smelt pow der. Show me tpo man wild will do his duty without fear aud without favor “nd who will not do more than bis fluty, and I will clasp hands with him and will stand upon the same platform, f Applause.] He has brought back peace to our people; be has shown that the nit u who fought other can meet iu peace and fraternity, without any loss of respect. We could not do it when the Stale was pinned down by bayonets, and my right arm should have dropped from my shoulder before I would have given my hand jn peace while my State was pinned down by bayonets. [Applause.] When we felt that every State was the equal of every other; that every JBSU in every State was equal, white and black; when the great Republican party, the dominant party, the representative of men whom we fought, came forward and said, “We respect yon as men who fought for your convictions as meu who fought bravely,and as long as you could;’ when thev came forward and said that to us of* the South, and extended the hand of peace aud said: “We were oul.v fighting to restore the Union, come back into the household of States, come back to the hearthstones of your fathers,” I felt that better things would bo accom plished. I felt as a Southern man, as a Southern soldier, as a rebel, if you choose, I could come back. [Applause.] I told the men in Illinois that I had fought them as long and as hard as I could, and I would have been fighting them new if I had been ordered to do so. They honored and respected me for it, and thal is the way for ns io meet, as brave men should meet; if not forgetting the past, at least drawing a curtain over it, looking not at the bloody past, which is full of sorrows to all of ns, but looking forward to a brighter and higher future, when all of as can march i bravely, honestly aud truthfully, each ' one doing his dptv to the whole country, • leaving the consequences to God. [LoDg 1 and continued applause.] THE PRESIDENTIAL, PARTY. From to Atlanta anti Thence Back Via l.> nt bhurs—Will They t'ome to Au gusta f Washington, September 21.-—The Presidential party is at Knoxville to day, and go thence to Atlanta. Gov. Wade Hampton left the party for home last night. Knoxville, September 21.—Tlie Pres idential party arrived here at 10:30, a. m. The reception was very fine. The streets were densely jammed with peo ple. Lynchburg. September 21.—Postmas ter-Geuero 1 Key telegraphs from Knox ville that the President will go to At lanta to-night, and return to Knoxville on Saturday night, and that Tie expects to be in Lynchburg about 2, p. m., on Monday. Knoxville, September 21.—The Presi dential par.y left on the 10 o’clock train for Atlantal and will return Saturday night to Knoxville and pass the Sab bath. Atlanta, September 21.—Governor Hampton arrived in this city this morn ing, and made a speech to a large and enthusiastic crowd to-night in the Capi tol. Extensive preparations have been made for the reception of the President to-morrow. NOTES ON THE NEW CONSTITUTION.^ A Hevirw of t!** Instrument Proposed for Ratification—The First of the Serien—The Hood in the Convention—The Sections Re lating to Railroads. Editors Chronicle and Constitutionalist: I have thought about, aud prepared the following notes on the new Consti tution. Not without trepidation do I accept your invitation and give them to the public. For while my church, in her solemn ritual, is ever sending np to the throne of mercy, the fervent prayer, “From bfttle and murder, and from sudden death, Good Lord, deliver us ! ” —Mr. Hill tells us—the man that op poses this Constitution will die so fast that he won’t know what hnrt him. But when I reflected, that our eloquent Sen ator may be indulging in those fignres of speech with which a rich imagination has so copiously endowed him, and by allowance of metaphor had used “ political life ” in the sense of “ politi cal livelihood” —that the orator did not mean a civil demise, but an extinction of official existence only—l again took heart. I could wish that the instrument had received more investigation and less laudation. It is an irvidious du ty to discover flaws where eveiyoody is inventing praises, and amid the clamor that cries “off with the old, and on with the new,” to question the grounds of the load hurrah. In doing so, however, I promise that if I nothing extenuate, I have naught set down in malice. Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, Jos. Ganahl. Augusta, September 14th, 1877. The Hood In the Instrument. Mr. Toombs says, in bis Atlanta speech, that one thing is certain, that the Constitution elect will do no harm. And there is some truth in the remark, for compared with the evil the Conven tion threatened, the wrong actually done is wonderfully small; nay, it has done some good. The wild scheme of equalizing rail road freights, which would have driven all through business out of tho State, and the robber device of armiDg every blackguard* informer with a quo war ranto, to hack at, and levy blackmail from every corporation iu the land were, thank God, for the honor of our State, iu this Convention of our people, voted down. And in its place I see a provision, thanks to Hammond, of Fulton, which heartily commends itself to my re gard. I refer to the clause which in hibits the Legislature from revoking a charter, except in such manner as to work no injustice to the corporators, or the creditors of the incoiporutiou. As the law now stands, the General Assembly may revoke a franchise unless the power be negatived in the grant. This new lim itation upon the Legislature is eminent ly wise. It secures all rights of prop erty acquired under a charter, and gives to corporations and their creditors the protection of the Courts. Again, I like the provision by which it is made the duty of the Legislature, to enact laws for the punishment of fraud and for reaching the property of the debt or concealed from the creditor. All think ing men will agree with me, that the chief concern of government, under our insti tutions at least, is the protection of property. Liberty and person are se cure enough, but property, so long as it rests in contract rights, does not, under the present Constitution, nor the law, receive due protection. The rights of creditors are the last thing subserved under our system. To relieve the mis fortunes of the debtor when they are often his misdeeds, engages the atten tion of the Constitution, consumes the time of the Legislature, and exercises the ingenuity of our Courts. Regulation of Railroads. Some of the harm, and much of the merit attributed to the new Constitu tion fail to challenge my regard. Mak ing it the duty of the Legislature to regulate railroad freight and passenger tariffs looks at first frightful enough, but when we reflect how the Courts will expound the provision, we shall find that this, too, as Mr. Toombs says, “will do no harm.” Properly construed, and held within the limits that contracts re main unimpaired, it is no new grant of power, but is only a part of the inhe rent duty of sovereignty to police its own institutions, and to regulate them, that they do not infringe upon the rights of individuals or tho well being of the State. It is clear that when the State has once by charter prescribed the limits within which a corporation may charge for freights and passengers, its super vision thereafter extends only to seeing that the terms are kept. There is not, I apprehend, a railroad in tho State whose charter does not provide for this matter- The right, once granted, is protected against the intervention of the Leg islature. It becomes a contract, which no subsequent law may impair— the grant of a special privilege, which cannot be revoked for the obvious rea son that the revocation would work in justice to the corporation or its credit ors. Perhaps the only exception to the above is tho company holding a lease of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. But this corporation is under the protecting care of Governor Joseph E. Brown. I doubt not he will be equal to the occa sion. He has met Mr. Toombs on other fields and came out with pluck and hon or, and here, too, doubtless, he will prove an over-match for the author of Constitutional war on the railroads of his State. You may be sure, “It will do no harm.” While we admit that tho mischief here may—fhanks to the Courts !—be not great, it is not possible to pass by the subject without reprehending the spirit that incorporated this species of legis lation in the organic law. It is the ves tige of a crusade made in the Conven tion against the railroads of the State— where the people were arrayed against their institutions, and all tho troubles in the laud laid at the door of these, the indispensable common carriers of all civilized mankind. One orator —to goad the passi jns—soared to the limit of calling them, the tax gatherers, the perpetuities, the monopolists and I robbers of the land assembling i their magistrates from time to time at the Kimball House to make laws, and' to determine how pinch and what of the peoples means they should take— striding like a Colos sus over the country, destroying the mills of Wilkes county, appropriating ev -.rv discovery of science, every inven tion* of a* 4 until they had even dared with stuirjiegeous It and to rob the light ing from us’koMuS JSth® Havens . It was sad to purs gjj asseid mage statesmen, that failed to recognize the tact so well realized by these corpora tions themselves, that the prosperity of railroads depends upon the prosperity of their customer, the people—that the welfare of the pne is bound up with the welfare of the other—that if the people be poor the railroads must get poorer. Yet at one time in this Convention, a looker on might have supposed, that it had assembled for the special purpose of adjusting a quarrel of the village of Americas wffk fcjae Central Railroad and Banking Gompany of Georgia, be cause with but one railroad famished to this settlement, it had to pay heavier freight than its neighbor, Albany, that happened to be supplied with three. It may not be in Magna charta, but the spirit in the English heart that exacted these birth-rights of liberty from a tyrant is the same that cries shame upon the man who strikes another on the ground. We have all suffered, individuals and corporations, especially have railroads suffered. But when out of sixty millions, forty njiljions of their money have shrunk and gone, eaten up byffieree competition, to the sufferance of many a widow and orphan, and to the gain of the people at large, there was neither valor nor justice, because they lay thus prostrate and broken, in stamping them under foot and villifying them with every epithet known to the vocabulary of denunciation. Oh ! That, as iu the days of old Repub ; lican Rome, some Meneuiua Agrippa had ; arisen to rebuke this cry of havoc, and ! point t|ie moral of sop’s familiar fable : of how uu, 5-hole body must languish 1 when its members undertake to quarrel with and fight each other. What effect this clamor, when con strued with the duty imposed of regu lating railroad freights, may have upon a Legislature—which the new Constitu tion has retained from the present sys tem, and degraded with every mark of suspicion, so that its most illustrious buckler swells with pride in the an nouncement that the people’s treasury j is forever locked and Darted against the | peop’e’s representatives—it is Hard to. say. What folly may not be attempted by a General Assembly, that (according to the propaunders of this Constitution) is incompetent or unworthy of fixing their own pay and cleat hue— yben it cornea to use this apparent license to pirate on rixty millions of private prop erty it is impossible to conjecture. Retroactive Laws— Unconditional Contracts —The Bill ol Hlghts—Lobbying—General Slovenliness—Municipal Debts. Another provision in the Constitu tion that looks harmful is not difficult of remedy. I refer to the clause prohibiting the passage of retro active laws. These acts when not inju riously affecting vested rights, are high ly salutaiy, and are designated in the books witn the complimentary term of healing statutes. The’r only function is to cure defects, and carry out the true intent of parties, when it can be done without impairment of right. Their prohibition will make it necessary for the Legislature (as was done in Ohio) to provide jn9t and- equitable means by which the Conrts may oure omissions, defects and errors, in proceedings aris ing from uon-oonformity with the laws. So the harm ianot very great, and won’t, it is hoped, last veiy long. Litigation will be increased, and doubtless will be extended. Bat a Constitution which proposes a supply of cheap Jrdges, two trials and two jnries in every case, has sown a large crop of this artiole. This is only an average specimen of the re trenchment and economy so copiously administered in this Constitution. There are some absurd things in the instrument of which the best that can be said of them is that perhaps “they will do no harm.” There is the provis ion that the Judge of the Superior Court shall give jndgment on unconditional contracts in writing. An unconditional contract is unconditional nonsense, be cause there can exist no such thing. The framers meant, I suppose, an uncondi tional obligation. I don’t know and can’t say. Where lawyers differ the Courts must decide. And so beyond the lawyers’ fees and the law’s delay, “it will do no harm.” In the first article of the Constitution an article which assumes to declare the objects of free government and the principles that are to subserve ard per petuate it—iu the Bill of Rights—where the people are supposed to set out an itemized bill of the rights which they refuse to surrender to government, bat reserve to themselves forever—we are fetched up with the announcement that lobbying shall be deemed a crime. This is an odd place enough to find a penal law. In a statute the capt ; on must in dicate the subject matter of the enact ment, or the Courts, as instructed by this Constitution, will declare the law void. No such rule obtains for the Con stitution itself, and the incongruity will, I suppose, “do no harm.” But the evidences of bungling does not end with seasoning a body of stale truisms with a spice from the penal code. This clause of the Constitution, with pragmatical solemnity, denounces a crime which it does not define. What the fathers in tend by the term “lobbying,” which is formally pronounced a public wrong, is known only to the great Searcher of all hearts, who will jndgd in mercy, and distinguish the motives from the acts of men. But here below, where we consti tute human tribunals to expound its meaning, it will remain secret for all time. Attendance by the citizens upon the Legislature to procure redress of griev ances or otherwise to solicit the action of that body, may not only be inno cent and meritorious, but is often the only mode by which justice may bo at tained. The right of the people to petition government on all matters is a principle whose denial would negative the doctrine that all government is made by aud for them. If the citizen have the right to ask, tho obligation is upon the legislator to hear and heed him. Surely the discoverers of this novel crime did not design to deprive the citizen of this right, nor rolieve the legislator of this duty. It is true, that in the exercise of this right and the per formance of this duty corrupt practices may arise, which are proper subjects of punitive legislation. And though this undeniable proposition applies to every human institution, still we hazard the conjecture, that it was against these evils, the authors of this provision in tended to guard. But the language is too loose to venture more than a guess. As it stands it is senseless, and what is senseless “will do no harm.” Another curiosity I notice in this 3ill of Rights. I refer to the provision for ever forbidding suspension of habeas corpus. The writ has never, to my knowledge, been suspended by this State, and likely enough never will be. But I can conceive a condition of things where its suspension, in case of wide spread insurrection would be as neces sary for the preservation of liberty as in quieter times, the operation of the writ securing this boon to the citizen. There are exigencies in the history of States, where to use the language of Blaokstone, the people should surrender their liber ty for a time in order to maintain it for ever. May they never come unto us ! But if we ever do get into suoh a scrape “it will do no harm." The United States will help us out with the bayonet. That Constitution guarantees to us a republi can form of government, and though I had rather not be indebted to it for fa vors, still if my own State won’t provide for my liberty, 1 must even take it where I can get it. This sort of slovenliness marks the whole production. Under the same “Bill of Rights” we find a regulation about Court costs, and a scrap from the law of libel, in company with the eter nal interdiction of lotteries. As these detachments from the Code fitted no de partment of fundamental law, and were too essential to be left with the Legisla ture, it was due to their importance and the requirements of symmetry that a separate chapter had been furnished to domicile the strangers. They would have felt at home in an article entitled, “Novel and miscellaneous enactments.’’ But it is too late for suggestions, and we prooeed. Under the head of “Edu cation” we find most important addi tions to the power of the General As sembly over taxation, and under the head “of the power of the General As sembly over taxation” only one para graph out of peven treats on the subject at all. Another paragraph of the ar ticle asserts tho right of eminent do main and the police power of the State, the rest are devoted to corporations iu general, and railroads in par ticular. It is here we stumble over those thundering injunctions that that the Legislature take no stock in corporations, or help them under any circumstances; that it never remit the forfeiture of charters, until the company bo put on terms; that it regulate freight charges and passenger tariff's for rail roads; that it prevent them from help ing each other or working together; and that it puish them should they dare al low a rebate, or accord a bonus. But this jumble is a small matter. Some body will find profit in analyzing, clas sifying and digesting the mass. Then will our Constitution be read, and then, too, will come the Court. “ His fan is in hi3 hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, aud burn the chaff with fire unquenchable.” This winnowing process may take time, make litigation and cost money; but it is too neatly hidden for the people to see the tax — and if they do, where’s the harm ? Bar not the money been provided out of the stricken wages iff onr public servants? ffje crowning merit claimed for the Constitution of stopping the loan of State credit and restricting municipal debts is more apparent than real. It was an evil that had cured itself, and i ceasC' 1 before tho inhibition came. Had —Gitution provided efficient this Uou*.. -'"tment of munici remedies to enforce i riven pal debts already contracted—am* 0 confidence in this species of property— I had found much to admire. But to prohibit cities from borrowing money after their credit is gone is vain and idle enongh. If vain and idle, of course “it will do no harm.” Local Laws—NoLocal Legislation Until 1880 -lion- It Tui Bv Oblninnl Then—A Re striction That Is, In Effect, Prohibition. I should like to give in my adhesion to one part pf the Constitution that has received the commendation of gentle men whose judgment I prize. I refer to the numerous restrictions put by the instrument on the passing of local and special laws. Some of these are onerons, some indifferent, while the operation of some appear to balk and de feat this claes of legislation altogether. The restrictions are, in Bnbstance, as fol lows : Ist. Notice of the proposed law must be published in the locality to be effect ed thirty days before introduction, in a manner to be prescribed by the Legisla ture. 2d. Evidence of the publication mast be exhibited to both Houses of the Legislature. 3d. The bill can originate in the Lower, and least intelligent body of the General Assembly only. 4th. The bill mußt first be submit ted to a select committee of the House appointed by the Speaker, embrac ing one trom each Congressional Dis trict; and this council of nine are to con sider, consolidate and report upon it. 5. If this committee shall fail to re port or £ee fit to report adversely, the bill is not to be heard at all, unless two thirds of the House 'determine otherwise. 6th. This special committee is to be appointed within five days after organi zation of the General Assembly, and within fifteen days after organization every bill must be before it. 7th, If the bill fail to reach the com mittee within the appointed time, two thirds ugain of the whole House is re quired to gei it there, The statement of many of these con ditions carry their own comment, borne of them are yet to be determined by act of the Legialatnre, and as the required enactment ‘•annot be madetill 1878, the door against ary inckl legislation what ever is shut until The meeting of the second Legislature, under themew in strument, in }BBO. We think the same result is practically accomplished for all time. We call at-ention to the character and functions of this choice ooinmittee into whose hands all local legislation is so confidently committed. As to these lawg this committee of nine is virtually a third House—not selected by, not known by the people,(but born after five days gestation of the Mr. Speaker— springing perfect, like Minerva, from the head of Jove, full panoplied, with legislative and veto power. The Constitution is fermenting every where with bitter suspicions against tlio other two branches of the legislative body. It refuses to trnst them with their per diem and mileage, with the pay of their presiding officers or the wages of their clerks. They are guarded even against the obscure persuasions of champagne and oysters. This seducer is renounced to the penitentiary; lobby ing is decreed a crime). They are close ly watched at every step in the progress of every act. Their proceedings are in public, and the text of every bill must be promulgated three separate times, on three separate days. And not even when the bill has become a law are these doubts hushed. Every statute must be tested by the evidence of the record. The journals of each House are invoked to prove that what the Legisla ture has pronounced a law, has really received the due number of their votes. But these dark shadows are only cast upon the representatives seat up by the people. A joyous confidence beams upon the new daughter of the Constitu tion—so wise and so fair—who shall wield the sceptre of local legislation 1 Her deliberations are in private, her presence chamber is closed from public intrusion, her counsels are shrouded from vulgar scrutiny. None may ques tion her motives, no one ask her rea sons, and no power—save two-thirds of the whole House—may gainsay her judgments. Bui, to leave metaphor, let us see how/ this monopoly will practically work. From the very nature of its composition, eight of this committee do not live in, and are not presumed to know the wants of the community to be effect ed by the proposed law. The ninth mem ber may reside hundreds of miles away and be delegated from a section whose interests are as variant as the differences of industries, pursuits and environment can make them. For instance, the mem ber of this select committee, from the First Congressional District, would likely enough be a gentleman from Sa vannah, sent up from Chatham, from his peculiar fitness to represent the in terests of a commercial emporium.— Ware county ou the opposite borders of the State, but in the same District, plants corn, raises wire grass, cuts tim ber, and holds sway over much of the Okefoaokeo Swamp. Because a remote and poor section is the greater reason why she may suffer a particular griev ance, demanding particular relief. To this end, her intelligent son, McDonald, is elected to the House—delegated to explain the wrong and obtain the reme dy. No! Says the Constitution, in general matters, Mr. McDonald, you have an equal voice, but matters which exclusively concern your particular con stituents are under the espionage of the commercial deputy of the seaport, who with eight other strangers, will regul'.te your neighborhood troubles. Un’ess the privy council of nine shall see fit to consider your bill, or consoli date it with other matter in hand, or if for some reason known only to them selves, this close communion fail to re port or report adversely, you get not the ear of the Legislature. A forlorn hope is left. You can try and muster one hun dred and seventeen men out of one hun dred and seventy-five to let you in. But here you will hardly succeed; one hun dred and seventeen men rarely under take a business committed to somebody else. Another peculiarity in these restric tions deserves notice. I’refer to the fifteen days limited for the reception of these bills. The first business that will engross the time of the Legislature is the elections. In addition to United States Senators, all the Judges and Solicitors-General are to be elected by joint ballot of the House and Senate. Those who within the present year have had occasion to see this same Leg islature elect a Senator, when but one office, and fairly but two candidates were before them—and have witnessed the excitement, the feeling, the con fusion, not to speak of the coaching, the wire-pulling, and log-rolling, that beset this electoral body, may form a slight conception of the scene, when, from every part of the State, any num ber of candidates —for offices high and and low—with armies of friends and backers—shall throng and press the Capitol for the votes of the General As sembly— Then will the cauldron teem and seetho— And with Double, double, toil and trouble. Like a hell-broth boil and bubble! if it took a week last Winter for the Legislature to settle down from the election of Mr. Hill to the Senate of the United States, two weeks and one day is a short allowance for the new work of the same kind imposed by the new Constitution. Yet it is exactly within theso fifteen days, so utterly absorbed in matters foreign to legisla tion that the new Constitution selects exclusively for the digestion and presen tation of all local and special bills to this select committee of nine. The result is that, in many cases at least, these provisions will not restrict but proscribe local and special laws. How the aocount will stand between too much and practically none of this kind of legislature I am not prepared to say, but in this aspect only can these provisions of the new Constitu tion be said that—“lt. will do no harm.” In avoiding one rock the Constitution has split upon'another. This part of our garden was over grown with noxious plants. A prudent husbandry would have given it careful weeding. Does the Constitution per form this duty ? It is easy to demolish, it is difficult to construct; but to make a waste and call it peace gives title to the freebooter, not the statesman. To con serve the precious while he destroys the baneful; to burn the tares whilo he gar ners the wheat— hie labor, hoc opns est ! To this toil, to this work, is the statesman called. VVlmt Done Willi the Executive—Wliat is the Legislature and What Huh Been Done to It ?—The SyNtem of Representation. That the new Constitution will do no harm is not an answer to the inquiry of those who are invoked to vote for and ratify it. The question is, Has it responded to its call ? Does it perform its trust ? Will it do any good ? The province of a Constitution is to dis tribute the sovereign powers into their three departments—to determine the limits of and organize the executive, legislative and judicial branches of gov ernment. What has the new instrument done with these ? With the executive department it has done much. As to the propriety of taking from it all patronage and turning the Legislature into an electoral body, we shall speak hereafter. At present we notp that the Constitution has left our Governor in a palace furnished with damask and supplied with gas. But as indemnity for this display, it re stricts his salary to the stipend allowed to a first class dry goods olerk. As the instrument has not gone back on the term or the salary of the present incum bent recently voted to him with his of- t yl aa nobody liere fioe by tne Chief Mag ; s . after will apply for tracy of this great State without lum.-' tice that the style and hospitalities befit ting the exalted station must be met out of his own pocket, we may again say, “It will do no harm.” The Guber natorial Chair is only another monopoly for the rich. But this is the last of this refrain. Let us inquire, What has the Constitution done with the legislative department of our government ? Nothing that can be said will add to the reprobation denounced in the Con vention against the Legislature. The slight, early in its session, put upon the people’s Executive, is lost to yiew when we witness the contempt lavished upon the people’s representatives. Indeed, after the fatigue of distant and foreign excursions from the province of general legislation, abuse of the Legislature was the favorite diversion of many members of the Conventioa. Jn their eyes, the only legislative act thatsav.ute4 virtue was that which had called them togeth er, All else was wrong. The deficits reckoned sp in these accounts against our law jojakere furnished the fathers with a convenient pretext to stretch their commission, and besides a Consti- tution, to make laws for the people. But censure of the Legislature was not measured by its failure to frame the laws, which the Conventioners were un der the urgent necessity to ordain, The net was cast wide and deep, and not a minnow, not a grub, not a small fry of detraction escaped the meshes. The science at figures was invoked to fix with mathematical precision ths exact extent of the ignominy. One gentleman, a member of the Convention, and likewise of the Legislature, and who appeared to speak with the authority of an ex pert, was at the pains to apply to the subject the analysis of arithmetic. By th’s process he reduced the collective capacity of the General Assembly com posed of two hundred and nineteen head to the actual count of forty-five men. Not being present ourself, we do not vouch for the statement, but Mr. Ham ilton, of Floyd, is reported by the news papers to have declared on {be floor of the Convention that only forty-nve good men, who tried to do their duty, could be found in the present Legisla ture. The figures are appalling—only bne-fifth of the people’s representatives worthy of their trust. We are thank ful there were just enough to call the yeas and nays before a bill could be carried on division. If the Convention or any body else mean to charge corruption or vice upon the Legislature of Georgia, I must differ with them. They are aa honest and as well minded as any average body of two hnndred and nineteen men, and did the best that they knew how. They are not bad, but iguorant. Their shortcomings are not due to sloth or indifference, but to ignorance, :.nd their transgressions not to depravity of heart, but to the same ignorance combined with an ambi tion that aspired to do good. The historian of civilization, to whom we owe so many truths, has revealed one in stronger light than any other. It is, that mankind owes more suffering to the follies of ignorance than to the orimes and vices of their rulers. For the moral sense, the same in all ages, revo’ts at crime, and sooner or later is aroused to punish the evil doer ; and by inevitable law vice brings its own wages of suffer ing and death. But nothing can pierce the obtuse armor of ignorance. The more sincere and devoted the subject, the more impenetrable this coat of mail —and then to fearless bigotry are added the horrors of fanaticism. The blun ders of ignorance are bad enough, but God save His creatures from tho calami ties that arise from zeal without knowl edge. It is through these (Buckle has shown) that the best and purest of men have wrought more woe than the com bined achievements of ambition, tyranny and lust. These are all sufficient to explain the trouble and tell: How, after the cut purses of the realm were driven out and the Legislature changed its color and its politics, evils still remained ; because fraud and ignorance were followed only by ignorance and fidelity. How reckless | and wicked appropriation of the State’s credit was succeeded by reckless and indiscriminate repudiation of the State’s obligations. How the collection laws of the State of Georgia have become a by word and reproach—where a solveut debtor may put his property in his pocket and scout his creditor to the face—where a man may die insolvent and leave his widow and family rich. How three successive Legislatures re fused relief to a citizen who had bought bonds on the faith of the legislative declaration of their binding obligation upon the State, only because they could not understand the merit of the claim and the dishonor of its repudiation. How general laws were drawn so loose that the Courts could not expound them, and, so soon as made intelligible, amended and thrown back into confu sion. How local and special laws were passed without number and object, and were changed faster than they could be read or heeded. How tax laws were en aoted, that after years of litigation were returned by the Supreme Court of the United States marked “ unconstitu tional nnd void.” How, finally, those unfortunate beings, the convicts of the State, entrusted to civilized society for punishment and for reform, have been knocked down to the accepted bidder, farmed out for revenue, and the spectacle presented of the State of Geor gia banking ou her own crime ! All this, too, in the name of, for, and in be half of the people. Never ! My people, tho people of Georgia, could never weigh money against dishonor ! could never measure a breach of trust at twen ty-five thousand dollars per annum ! But these abuses were to come to an end. Another sort of representation would be given to the people. For this was the Convention called. For this did it meet. For this did it organize, and for this was an illustrious gentle man, whom the youth call tho “Great Commoner,” more recently characterized as “the keystone of the intellectual arch, the immortal Toombs” made chairman of the legislative committee. What was done? More in sorrow than in aDger —with disappointment and with shame, we answer—nothing ! The vice in the present Constitution was flagrant; the remedy was clear. The Convention neither destroyed the one nor applied the other. The taint at the vitals is left untouched. The Conven tion did not skin or film the ulcerous place, whilst rank corruption mining all within infects unseen. It was called to revise and amend the organic law. Had it performed the duty of revision, it would have found that all the ills of the body fetch their head and spring from this one source. Had it performed the duty of amendment it would have ap plied knife and cautery. In place of a running sore, it would have planted a system by which the General Assembly had borne the image and superscription of their Cseuir, had approved itself the true coin and pure gold from the miut of the people. To verify the above charges, lot us briefly refer to the first principles of free government and contrast them with a few facts and figures from the rep resentative system of our State. It is clear—that if the theory of re publican government be true—if gov ernment be made by and for the peo ple—if their will be indeed the law— this will can only be clearly defined and truly expressed whon everywhere, but especially in the law working depart ment of tho State, this people are clearly and truly represented. Exact representation would make republican government as perfect in practice as it is perfect in theory. Every departure from this exact representation is prac tically a lapse from the intent and pur pose of free government. But to ignore and to antogonize the principle, is noth ing short of usurpation—whatever other government be left, it can neither be re publican nor free. Let us pause for a moment, and inquire what are these people whose will should be law. They are not a herd to be counted by the head. Besides numbers, they own property, pay taxes, and live in com munities. Aggregate these and you have that political sovereign entity, known as “the people.” Give to each of these factors—to population, prop erty, taxation, and community interest— their just and due authority in the coun cils of State, and the aim of republican government will have been reached. The people are enthroned. Failing in this, no contrivance of State craft, no limita tion upon power, no check upon wrong will avail. They are vain expedients, the makeshifts, and quicksands, for the rock upon which free government is founded. This attained, all other troubles are light and transient, for the sovereign is there. His will prevades— his faithful guardsmen garrison the Commonwealth. This absolute excellence is, of course, unattainable where imperfection is inci dent to humanity. But the complaint is that those fundamental principles are not only disregarded, but opposed and annulled. That our Legislature is not apportioned on these durable bases of free government., nor upon any basis, principle, rule or warrant whatever; that it is an arbitrary selection from the body of tho people, and that, represent ing nothing, it is responsible to nobody. These charges we proceed to make true. Legislative Appointment The Evil Made Perpetual—The People At*k* for llread 9 the ConNtitution (ilves a Tomb-Stone. To present the abominations in our prc-Eont representative system—a sys tem to which the new Constitution clings with every letter—we must refer to a few dry figures, and contrast two divisions of the State, differing vastly in population, property and taxation, and show their relative representation in the House. The result will demon strate that every constituent and doc trine oi ”f nr esentati -n is disregarded ana ;'J verPec *- We draw ,rnin the cen sus of 1870 : • . t Chatham county has a population P 1 41,279. Colquitt county of 1,064. The population of Chatham is twenty-four times and a fraction over that of Col quitt. Chatham sends three Represen tatives to the Home; Colquitt sends one. Three into twenty-four goes oight times. Result: Proper representation in Colquitt is eight times greater than in Chatham. Again, property in Chatham amounts to $25,257,940. property in Colquitt amounts to $284,047? ’The property of Chatham is one hundred and twenty times and a fraotion over that of Col quitt. Chatham has three ltepresenta tives in the House, Colquitt one. Three into one hnndred and twenty-three goes forty-one times. Besult: Property rep resentation in Colquitt is forty-one times greater than in Chatham. Again, Chatham pay* to the . State a tax of $96,415. Colquitt pays tq the State a tax of $547. The tak paid by Chatham is one hundred and seventy-six times and a fraction over that paid by Col quitt. Chatham furnishes three Repre sentatives' to the Souse, Colquitt fur nishes one. Three into onp and seventy-six goes fifty-three times. Result; That in the United Staten of America —a cornin' :nity of Ilepuulics horn of the principle—that taxation is the price of protection and the measure of repre sentation, there exists a Commonwealth that in this regard taxes one portion of its people fifty-five times more than an other. 1 ' r If it be said that this Is an extreme I and exceptional case, let ns 1 try one at! our doors—pertainly not' very much above the average—let ps compare Rich mond with its neighbor, Glascock. It will bo found that Richmond haß nine and a quarter times the population, thirty-six and a quarter times the prop erty, and pays thirty-six times the tax of Glascock. In population Glascock has three times, and in property and taxa tion twelve times the representation of Ricfamon.4- The Senatorial representation does not exhibit solecisms quite so extrava gant. Bat the discrepancy is only less preposterous, and the trifling gain here is fully counterbalanced by two consid erations: First, the Senatorial Districts have no common interest or association with one another, but are linked togeth er from mere accident of contiguity. A mercantile and manufacturing communi ty is bound up with others whose inter ests are purely agricultural. Second, resulting from this absence of commu nity relations, the practice called rota tion has sprung up throughout the State. Each county of the district in turn lays olaim to and is awarded the Senalorship as a special right and perquisite. In this way the Senate has become hardly more than another liouso to represent the political divisions of the State, call ed counties. These anomalies in representation have been the development of sixty years, and commenced with the habit so industriously exhibited within this pe riod of creating new counties, without modifying the legislative appointment to fit the new order. Since 1817 the counties of the State have grown from 39 to 137 in number. It is obvious that the political divis ions of the State might well he the con trolling basis of representation in 1817, when the thirty-nine counties varied but little in population and property. It. is just as obvious that nothing could work more injustice than to make the political divisions of the State the con trolling basis of representatron, when the 137 counties differed from each other in population and property an hundred fold. A rule —reasonable and jnstin its origin—has continued for sixty years after its reason had ceased. And what in 1817 effected a just and reason able representation, produced a mon strous and fantastic misrepresentation in 1877. Just here the problem arose in the Convention. Every county must have representation. How to preserve this and equalize the representation of pop ulation and property, when these coun ties differ so immensely in these regards, was a question too great for its solutiou. If the county with the least of these have one member, equalization would swell tho House into the proportions of an army. If one member bo apportioned to Colquitt, twenty-four, at the least, must bo awarded to Chatham. At this rate, tho members will count up a round one thousand. This, too, in the face of the cry for reduction which rang throughout tho State. What was to he done, the Convention did not know. “Aud like tho rnaidon that lost her oar-rings in the well, Oh ! what to say to Masa ! Alas sho could not tell.” It will be observed that incident to population aud wealth are education and enlightenment. It is exactly, therefore, in these qualities that a legislature must be deficient, when the sparser tho popu lation and smaller the means, the larger relatively tho representation. No more ingenious scheme; no premium on ignor ance, could have- succeeded better in securing its predominance among the law makers of the State. Aud thus it happened that an intelligent aud in the main an accomplished people evolved a benighted Legislature. We have said the Constitution did nothing. We beg pardon ! It saw the whole mischief and traced it to tho source. It did not remedy the evil— this was to last forever—but it stopped its increase. The Constitution interdict ed the creation of new coun'ies. Thanks ! But to reform tho system, to abate the nuisance, to root out an usurpation, to give the people of a groat State a repre sentation worthy of their material and intellectual nature—these were beyond the powers of a body, that had assumed as their mission to tear down salaries and upraid corporations. The people asked for a government republican in substance as in form; they called for measures by which trusty public servants servants worthy of their confidence, with capacity to know aud intelligence to execute their will should fill the councils of State. They asked for bread, the Convention gave them a stone ! And what a stone ! On it the Con stitution has written : “A represeuta “ tion of the people in their collective “ capacities of population, property and “ intelligence cannot bo awarded them, “ but instead thereof the body that now “ usurps this function shall be shorn of “ power, that it do no harm. The “ liberty of the subject shall in no “event be entrusted to them. Habeas “ corpus shall never be suspended. The “individual hardships that may flow “ from non-compliance with the letter “of a statute arc small when compared “ with risking the remedy in un “ worthy hands. Retroactive laws are “foibiddeD. The right of taxation is “sovereign and inalienable, a jewel too “ precious for their touch. The Legisla “ ture may classify property, and assess “ the tax, but this Constitution alone “ declares the law. It is true that it is “ the State’s duty to nurture infant in “ dustries—that grown prosperous may “return tribute a hundred fold; tha “ the crop, not the seed corn shouldt “be taxed. But it is better to be “guided by a law thataltereth not, than “ to give discretion where it is sure to “bo absurd. It is better that all prop “ erly be taxed according to value, and “ uniformly according to clasH, than a “ benighted Legislature tamper with an “ inalienable right. If it be hard that the “ liquor that is compounded in medicine “ should be taxod uniformly with the li “ quor that is compounded into a dram. “ If it be unwise to exact the same tribute “ from private libraries and museums “that are held to dispense "light and “ exalt the taste, as from the like prop “ errty held for profit and for gain, it “is still harder, it is still unwiser, to “ intrust distinctions to a body incapa “ ble of perceiving differences. The “ lash of the Constitution is easier borne “than the scorpion of the Legislature. “ Besides, wo make amends. In the “ place and stead of ordinary functions “ of legislation, we transform the Legis “ lature into an electoral body to select “ Judges for the people, and with confi “ dence commit to their keeping the “ regulation of railroad lreights and “ passenger tariff.” This is the Tomb-stone over the grave of a just, free and equal representation, tendered to the people by the Constitu tion. The Remedy—-Mr. Stephen*’ Elan—'The Jndi clary—Finale. Our argument has proceeded to show that tho two main propositions upon which the new Constitution rests for public favor : First. That it will do no harm. Second. That it has forever barred the people’s Treasury against the people’s representatives; are, instoad of a defence and a distinction, the reproach and the shame of that instrument. For when summoned to do good, it is an answer to say: “See I have done no harm.” And tho dilemma is patent; if it be p, glory to bar tho door agaiDst a Representative, it tnqst be a shame that such a Representative exist. If a ser vant be unfaithful we dispiisp hipa, bpt to retain him in service, aud deprive him of the means of service, carries con tradiction and folly cn its face. The conclusion was inexorable that the peo ple were not in Geoigia represented; that this it was the duty of the Consti tution to award; and that this duty had not been performed. Just here a friend, friendly to the Constitution, makes the following criti cism; “Your strictures are good, but it is easy to find fault; you admit the evil to be of long growth, |t is certainly dif ficult of remedy; you have exposed the poison, suggest tho cure.” To which answering I said: “ This I cannot of “ myself essay, but I may point you to “ the statesman —a sure and ripe one— “ who solved the problem, and whose “counsels Intel (*2 mv humble a juofiaent'i been heeded would, have “ redeemed'the (lomPlQnffftW}.” Early in the session ot the Conven tion, when every heart beat buoyant— exulting at a work so full and bright with promise; when the last monument of our defeat and shame should tumble to the dust; when a Constitution made hv Federal hands at the point of Federal , - , ‘ and a free bayonets was io pass Eeople were once again to make and to old their ofn tfSo government, Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, in his invalid chair, ws rolled into No. 46 Kimball House, I remember it was the day the Con vention was arguing the propriety of fixing the salaries of county officers, re quiring them by bond and security to return the overplus of their earnings into the Treasury—that I paid my re spects to the distinguished leader. The weakness of body and physical ailments of this martyr to disease were not more apparent than the vigor of’ his under standing and the ardor of his patriot ism. Without the limbs that might bear an enfeebled body, his mind was borne away, transported at the political rege neration that awaited the people he loved ao well. It was not long before the vital question of reforming the pres ent representative apportionment was asked. Mr. Stephens gratified me by giving me his views. I do not under take to impart them with the light and terseness that belongs to their author, and trust that I may not do his scheme or his reasons injustice. They were, as I remember them, substantially as fol lows: The political divisiops of the State should have the fullest representation. They form communities, and be the counties great or small, they gradually chrystalize into unities of interest and sentiment. This obligation might be met by giving to every county one del egate, and the House of Representatives be thus composed of one hundred and thirty-seven members. This would make the lower branch of the General Assem bly a more wieldy body fo? deliberation than the one hundred and seventy-five members it now contains. Any inequal ity here, arising from disparity between tne counties, would be compensated by the counties of greater population and enlightmeut sending forward the abler men. All sectional questions in the counties would cease; as only one more could be chosen, the best man would doubtless be elected, independently of where he happened to make hiß resi dence. In this way the House would embody at least a fair sample of the cit izens of every county in the State. But in the composition of the Senate, did Mr, Stephens’ projpet manifest to our mind,the constructive statesmanship with which he is endowed, as it was desirable that the General Assembly should not be increased in numbers, or be at additional expense to the State, the Senate might be composed of the balance from the total of two hundred and nineteen, ard consist of seventy-two in number. Instead of a bulky com mittee, as now, of forty-four, it would attain the dimensions of a compact de liberative body. The State is divided into nine Congressional Districts, equal in population and varying but little in property and taxation. To each of these he proposed to give the selection of seven Senators (making sixty-three), and the nine remaining to be selected by the State at large. Two classes of first class men would in this manner fill the chamber. Seven-eighths of the body would be men whose reputations had, at the least, extended to the limits of the respective Congressional Districts, and the other eighth, men whose names were known and honored throughout the ex tent of the State. A healthy emulation would arise betweon the districts to send up strong delegations. The honor of a seat in such an assembly would stimulate every lofty ambition, aud mus ter into the State’s service the choicest of the State’s sons. Let us pause for a moment to consider what demands of the body politic, Mr. Stephens’ scheme would fill. It would evolve a just and fair representation of tho intelligence, integrity, and every general and local interest of the Com monwealth. Population, property, taxa tion, and communities would respective ly attain their due weight and consid eration in the law-making department of the government. Matters of local and special concern would wisely be awarded as tho province of the lower House. Broad, progressive and conservative leg islation would befit the higher chamber. To such a Legislature the people might risk safely, in time of extreme peril en trust their liberties. No need for a de cree that habeas corpus shall never be suspended ! Tho power to enact laws that repair wrong without impairing right, though retroactive in form, might securely be lodged with this body. No call here for the creation of a solect committeo to blockade local and special legislation, for the whole Legis lature is the select of the people. No call here for the “Bill of Rights” to or dain about Court oosts, about libel, about lotteries; or, iu order that suoh a body of the people’s representatives be kept from temptation aud be delivered from evil, to decree they be unapproach able by thecitizen, whocomes topetition fora frauohise or pray redress. A Senate, one eighth of whom are selected along with tho Governor and fro>e the State at large, and with honor and dignity only record to his own, would prove an all sufficient check upon abuses in F.xecu tive patronage, and a sure warrant for the appointment of the best meu. No need then for an applicant to engage in a pandemonium, pressing, begging and log-rolling with members, who cannot be acquainted with, and are too ig norant to judge of the merits of the candidate. To this body might safely be committed the subject of taxa tion; of what and how the taxes should be levied; of when their remission would work material advantage, and their exac tion material detriment to the State, Such a protectorate would be all compe tent to determine when aud how a ju dicious loan of the State’s credit, with out danger of eventual liability, might develop the resources of a great empire, and reap the harvest of wealth that is only awaiting tho enactment of wise laws, by wise and good men. Oh ! for ten lines of reform in tho place of whole chapters of folly! But the Convention neither heard nor heeded the wise mnn. The Legislative Committee, whose business was of tho first importance, was the last to make its report, and when made, failed to touch the vital point. The subject reached the Convention when that body had fatigued the public, and was at last tired itself. It came, too, in the midst of the dire excitement—in the clash of resounding arms ! When that heroic charge was made on the wicked rail roads, defended by corrupt corporators with their hireling officers and subsidi zed attorneys. Exhausted by this bat tle, the Convention, shortly after, made its bow and retired. Tho remaining department of the gov ernment, the judiciary, closes these notes. What has the Constitution done with this ? It might bo suffio ; ent to add what has already been indicated that the Constitution filters tho administrators of this branch of government through a Legislature which does not represent the people, and which the in strument itself degrades with ig nominy. It bars the door of the Treasury upon the very men whom it designates to appoint the guardians of the person, the property and liberty of the people. But this is not all. The positions of power, of honor, of useful ness that belong to the learned and liberal profession of the law should be the prizes awarded to its most eminent aud worthy followers. Among the strong provocatives of Hhaks pearo’s subtle reasoner to suicide are, “The pangs of despised love and the law’s delays not the least among the rights wrested from King John in Mag na Charta is that “Justice shall not be delayed.” When tho salaries attached to the judgeships are too small to com mand the best talent, the ripest experi ence, and tho highest character at the bar ; when no lawyer ef practice and ability, without largo means or without family, can assume the ermine—because the compensation is inadequate to meet the wants of ordinary culture—inferior men must hold theso exalted trusts, and delay in the law, dolay in the adminis tration of justicp, is tho result inevi table. You may count to the dollar and cent what is stricken from salaries, but tho tax paid by a people in tho delay of justice and in the delay of the law is simply incalculable. Again: If we would cherish State pride aud State love, we must accord its posts of honor and spheres of usefulness to the State’s best. sons. If the State allow but niggard requital for service, while the central government awards fair emoluments to its officers, we must not be surprised if the dignity of the State become the lower in public esteem. When lowered sufficiently in publio re gard}, the transition is easy Rom sov ereign States of the Union to police dev partments of the nation called the “United States of America." It is in vain that you cry glory to States’ Rights when you cry down tho State's offices and fill them cheap. The eost is not to be counted in dol- lars—only in danger to republican in stitutions ! The lowest salary given by the Fed eral Government to the lowest class of its Judges is one sixth more than what the Constitution allows to the highest infßcjal office of thp fifigte. Judge Era? sine, of the Distriat Court receives $3,500, with handsome mileage, per an num. The Hon. Hiram Warner, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court ot the State of Georgia, receives $3,000. It is no answer to say (as Mr. Toombs does): There is ro danger, there will bo plenty of candidates. There is no gopsp;ipt jaw t° pialfe a man hold offieq like there wks to’ umke him fight, ‘the State is as independent as the nigger who sold short driuks, ajid says to every? body who complains of short pay, “If you don’t like it jes pour it hack in de jug.” Doubtless, there will be plenty of candidates, for the lower the olEn* ♦ Ua ” • more tne applicants : the more the quantity the less in quality, I had intended to note other features of this Constitution. How without changing the character of the Legisla ture, it turns out one in December next, that was elected one year before, to make way for another that will not serve for a year thereafter. What for ? That the 219 candidates may carry the Con stitution before the people along with themselves into office. I had some thoughts about the con stitutional tax law—that cuts a knot but does not solve a problem. Especially did I propose to animadvert op the pro vision that makes amendment to the in- strument so extremely difficult and rarely possible—l mean the provision that a proposed amendment shall be carried by the majority of the whole electoral vote of the people. But lam oppressed by the wealth of my topic. It is too much for one time and one pen. tiKNATOR IIOUY DEAD. Senator Lchlh V. Rogy, of fMNourl, Diet* of AbtiCcuH of the Ijiver. St. Louis, September 20.—United States Senator Lewis V. Bogy died at eleven o’clock this morning. He had been afflicted with malarial feyer fo‘r several months, and lately an abscess of the liver was discovered, which hasten ed or perhaps directly caused his death, llellciouii Cookery. The lightest, sweetest, most whole some and delicious Vienna rolls, tea bis cuits, bread, muffins, flannel cakes, crullers, and all articles prepared from flour, are always possible tp every table by using Dooley’s Yeast Powder. This celebrated Baking Powder has stood the critical test of the best housekeepers and the consuming pnblio generally of America for twenty years. It is abso lutely pure, and always of uniform strength. The genuine is put up in eans. Most all good grocers sell it. Husband—“ That beastly dog. I can’t enter the room withunt his biting my legs.” Wife, pensively—“ Poor little creature; he is so intelligent,”