The Constitution or Virginia.
--We understand the
Convention will adjourn in a few days.
We hope it will not do so before making a radical alteration in some of the most objectionable features of our present system of Government.
The public mind is fully prepared for the change, and will ratify it without the least hesitation.
This is no time for demagogues.
The people have other things to think of than their tricks and manœuvres.
They know and feel the necessity of those changes, and they will not be deluded by the appeals of those who, heretofore, have led them into nothing but error.
They feel that a worse system of Government than that under which we live could hardly be devised, they know that they were induced by gogues to insist upon its principal fea Let us cut loose from the
Yankee system for this Constitution is eminently Yankee all its parts and all its bearings.
It is fit for the latitude of
New England, and for no other latitude as far as we know.
It is eminently
sinful for a proud, high-spirited race of gentlemen slaveholders, like the people of
Virginia.
We proceed to indicate some of the most objectionable points.
First, Universal Suffrage.
This is the most formidable instrument that tyranny ever employed to enslave a free people.
It was by methods analogous to it that
Tiberius, the most crafty tyrant that ever existed, succeeded in crushing the better classes in
Rome, and in treading out the last spark of liberty that had been left unextinguished by his predecessor.
It is by this means that Napoleon III.
has become the sole ruler of
France.
But for the strongest proof of its effects, let us look across the
Potomac.
A year ago, the
Yankee nation boasted that it was the freest in the world.
Now, it crouches feet of a despotism stronger than that of
Russia, more debasing than that of
Dahomey.
And this is the effect of Universal Suffrage.--My country came first to be ruled by a mob, and the mob chose a master who ruled them with a Their example affords a warning all time against Universal Suffrage.-- has failed, and it never will fall, to despotism.
Next let us get rid of the system of electing every petty officer by the people.
This is part of the system which leads to des The people become wearied with the ever sting succession of elections, and at last to attend.
The consequence is, that a few demagogues confer an the officers.
The officers become nuisances under the control of into whose hands they fall, the system of election becomes a burden, and the people, fatigued and worried, are ready to give up the ise, on condition of being relieved from the trouble.
It operates badly in other reports.
The men who obtain offices are not, general, of a class to deserve them.
Hence defalcation, corruption, neglect of duty, and all the evils that flow from mob government.
Every man in the
State is conversant with the extreme difficulty of collecting the full revenue of the counties.
The
Sheriff is elected by the people — he goes around to collect the is put off by almost every man he meets, and, unless he be a person of strong moral courage, he dare not put the law in force.
inst he lose, in every instance, a vote.
The vices arising from this state of things are deplorable, are palpable, are almost universal.
New are they less felt in other particulars.
The darks of
Virginia were, under the also Constitution of
Virginia, the most remarkable body of public officers that ever existed.--They were gentlemen of high intelligence generally sound lawyers, and thoroughly accommodated in their vocation.
When the old system was changed, it was found that there had been but one defalcation among the whole body of them from the time of the revolution.
We fail the contrast now, when a demagogue who dot know how to write his name may such a fair chance, indeed
does stand the fairest chance of all others, of being elected.
Has no man had occasion to observe how touch vote lenient the judges and justices now are the they formerly were to delinquents?
And, heaven knows, they were always too lenient.
What is the cause?
Why, is it now unpossible to convict a criminal upon the clearest evidence?
It is because the criminal has a vote.
We make no particular allusion, not do we believe that more than a very few of their officers would be swayed by such native, if they were conscious of it to themselves.
human nature is weak, and interest is too apt to have its effect in blessing the ment of the best of us. Let us go back to the old English rule.
Let the judge be the ermine placed above suspicion.
In the third place, let us have no more
paid justices.
Any man who remembers the old benefit of justices in any county, and will compare its successor of the present day, will be sticking by the contrast.
Formerly, men of intelligence and standing filled the post.
Their decisions were received with respect, and we have high authority for saying fewer of them were reversed by the Court of Appeals than those were of the
Superior Courts.
We will not stop to point out the great change.
And what is the cause of it?
The justices are elected by the people — the people vote for the most popular man, for his popular qualities — the miserable pittance attached to the office attracts every loafer and drone who is too lazy to earn a livelihood in any other way, and such persons are but too apt to succeed through demagogue arts, over the best men of a county.
There are other points to which we would allude, had we not already made this article too long.
But they will be easily understood.
Let us exorcise the foul spirit of Yankeeism from our institutions; let us go back, as near as we can, to the old Constitution of
George Mason, or whoever drew up the
Constitution of 1776--the most perfect form of government the world ever saw. It was an evil day for
Virginia when she first departed from it. From that day to this every step in advance has been a plunge in the mire.
If there are any members with weak knees, we assure them they have nothing to fear.
The people are for the change, and the demagogues they leave behind them when they come here cannot hurt them.
