Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/322

 298 HISTORY OF Aristarclius Blish^ Grabriel S. Mead; Edmund Crooker, Novatus Blisli. After an able and lucid charge from Judge Parker, in which lie dwelt at length upon the history and origin of the anti-rent troubles in the county — concluding by impressing upon them the imperative duty of prompt and fearless action as the only method of restpring peace and quiet, they retired to their room. In the course of his charge he thus depicts the demoralizing effect upon the society and best interests of the county : a J regret to say that in all the disorder and violence ex- hibited in this State, this county has occupied a prominence lamentable in the extreme ; and I should suppose that the de- plorable effects that are evident upon the state of things here amongst you, would restrain all from engaging hereafter in such transactions. But one year since I saw your county in a most flourishing condition — youT green hills and beautiful valley bore upon their face evidence of prosperity hardly to be found elsewhere. It was a flourishing county, even under the lease- hold system, and no county had gone forward more rapidly than this in the acquisition of wealth and enjoyment of social happiness. The contrast that is now presented is most deeply to be regretted. In portions of your county I am told that the crops have not been harvested. Although heaven has continued its blessings upon the labor of the husbandman, yet the husbandman — having in an evil hour been led to the com- mission of crime, having listened perhaps to foreign lectures, and having been thus induced to place himself in an attitude of hostility to the law — has fled, and left his crops to perish. ^^And here the contrast is equally striking. In a commu- nity where but little crime was manifested, hundreds are now crowding your jail, awaiting trial — many of them, I regret to say, for a capital offence. It is surprising that in a govern- ment like ours, things of this kind should exist ; that a portion