The Monmouth Inquirer

The Legislature.

It is now believed that the Legislature will adjourn on Friday next, and as all the important business of the session has been disposed of, it may be well to examine the record which the Democracy have made. No Legislature for many years has been so violently partisan as this. Never have measures so unscrupulous and indefensible been passed by any body claiming to act in obedience to solemn obligations of duty. At the very outset, resolutions or the repeal of the ratification of the 14th Constitutional Amendment, were introduced and urged forward with indecent haste, for the avowed purpose of defeating, if possible, the incorporation of the provisions of the Amendment into the organic law and obstructing the restoration of the rebel States upon the Congressional basis. In the advocacy of this repeal, the Democratic members employed arguments that, during the war, would have been pronounced absolutely treasonable; arguments inflamed with the old spirit of venom and hostility to every principle of Justice, Freedom, and Humanity; and when at last the resolutions were adopted, the party rejoiced with the same enthusiasm as when our armies were beaten in the field.

Another conspicuous partisan act of this Legislature has been the repeal of the Registry and Sunset Law. These laws were designed solely for the protection of the purity of elections, and had contributed largely, in two years of experience, to that end. They had diminished fraudulent voting, prevented disorders at the polls and tended in many ways to facilitate our elections, especially in the cities and large towns. They were designed for the benefit of no one party, and certainly did not operate to the prejudice of any party which desired an honest, legal exercise of the elective franchise. Yet both laws are repealed, even while some of the advocates of the repeal admit that they at least have done no injury. Gov. Ward, as was to be expected, vetoed in both instances the repealing measures, but his just and forcible reasons for interposing a negative, were unheeded, and at the first opportunity, both bills were passed over the veto by the full vote of the Democracy.—Thus a premium is once more offered to illegal voting, and our elections will again become scenes of disorder and shameless corruption.

But the Democracy did not stop here. Wherever opportunity could be detected for getting a partisan advantage, it was promptly embraced.

The party came into power with pledges of economy and reform, and the Legislature organized with a distinct promise of a short and frugal session. Yet, the session has been protracted to the utmost limit, and has been characterized throughout by the profusest extravagance. Money has been squandered on "stationery" and other items, especially in the House, with a recklessness almost unprecedented, while appropriations, designed in some cases for the benefit of partisans, have been made with a prodigality seldom, if ever, witnessed. All this disregard of solemn pledges is, of course, characteristic, but it is none the less worthy of being remembered. It shows that the party, spite of its pretended regard for the rights and interest of the people, is the same now as in former years when it held undisputed sway in the State, and must convince every independent minded voter that all dependence upon its professions, however sacred, in the future as in the past, must prove alike vain and unprofitable.

As to the measures enacted by the Legislature of a public character, they have been few and of trifling importance. Indeed, we do not call to mind a single act which will stand as a memorial of its wisdom and sagacity. Its whole effort has been to pull down and destroy. It has enacted nothing which will prove of permanent advantage to the people. It has attempted to destroy the School Law, to abrogate the wise and benevolent prohibition of liquor selling on election day, to complicate still further the already obscure and ill-adjusted Tax Laws, and to destroy the public confidence in the national securities by legislation unquestionably hostile in its character. These, and other acts, constitute the proof of the destructive Democratic policy. What the party has done positively for the public good, we leave its own organs to show, only remarking that if it has really done anything in that direction, we do not know where to find it.-Newark Courier.