Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/634

 THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

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THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS BY JACOB M. DICKINSON MONTESQUIEU described the ideal legislator as one who "perceives ancient wrongs and the way to correct them, but sees also the evils the correction may produce, who leaves the evil fearing something worse, leaves what is good if doubtful as to what may be better, looks only at the part in order to judge the whole, and examines all the causes in order that he may foresee all the results." This most aptly describes the wisdom and conservatism of those who, in breaking away from English rule and creating a new nation, did not establish a revolution in the laws simply because they were bringing about a revolution in the government, but held to the old, only making changes as the necessity for them became apparent. Much of the spirit of modern legislation is the very antipodes of all this. A wrong often exaggerated in importance becomes manifest, and straightway it is assailed with the bludgeon, and the blows frequently create more devastation than does the object which provokes the assault. A good, sometimes of fanciful value, is per ceived, and its attainment is sought without regard to the intervening destruction it may bring. Ill-considered legislation is sometimes like the heedless impulse of a child, which attracted by a gaudy flower in his eagerness to grasp it tramples down a bed of roses. The vices of legislation engaged the attention and were the princi pal theme of many of my predecessors. Their scathing criticisms and profound disquisitions which will forever enrich our literature, would have cured, or at least have moderated, a less inveterate evil. Against the passion of the American people fof legislation as a panacea, there is no defense. Each of those learned juridical philosophers who essayed it, seeing the

futility of his effort, might have warned those entering the same lists, saying: si Pergama dextra Defendi possent. etiam hac defensa fuissent.

The trouble is inherent in the nature of our institutions. With the conditions as they exist the evil is incurable. While youth, inexperience and ignorance consti tute no legal bar to political preferment, while manhood suffrage is the source of all governmental power, while so many of those most capable of ruling prefer selfishly their personal pleasures and private interests to the general welfare, so long will we suffer the maximum of burdens that come from unwis.e and unskilled legislation. The most fertile fields for the culture of the pathogenic germ which we may classify as the legisla tive microbe, are the brains of fledglings, who are gifted with a facility for speech which is often an open sesame to popular favor, luxuriate in a scanty knowledge of law, especially that which is statute, are opulent in an independence which comes from freedom from all family cares and business responsibility, and above all are fired with an ambition to do something which, while it may incidentally confer a blessing upon their country, is primarily intended for their own promotion. Some measures must be fathered by them, the more sensational the better. Knowing but little of the trend of events, and the corre lation of economic questions, they scan the recent statutes of other states, and without much regard for climate, environment, tra ditions, population, the great questions that enter into the development and conserva tion of the commerce of a country, and the conditions of their own state, forthwith reproduce them if they look formidable and are explosive in character, and proudly send them forth with their imprimatur.