adjourned and perhaps done less
to commend itself than any of its predecessors."--_Obion
Democrat._

"The people elect the legislators and the people are
responsible for the character of men they elect and send to
Nashville to make and unmake laws. We know the Legislature was
bad, even miserable, but the members got their commissions from
the people."--_Gallatin News._

"The weekly press of the state is almost unanimous in its
condemnation of the late Legislature. * * * As we have said
before, the general littleness of the body, its petty conduct
in many instances, its trades and combinations, the autocratic
methods of self-seeking members, the quarrels, the cheap
declamations and intemperate and undignified and unwarrantable
public denunciations by members who should have shown a better
sense of dignity and decency, the dishonesty in juggling with
bills, the unreliability of promises--the general record and
conduct of the body marked it as unworthy of the state or the
approval of the people. What man of established reputation
would care to be known as a member of such a Legislature as the
one recently adjourned?"--_The Nashville American._

These comments are from newspapers of the same political faith as the
Legislature.

5. The question might be raised as to whether the conditions set forth
in THE HINDERED HAND are true of some special locality or are general in
character.

As to how general the conditions complained of are one may infer from
the following editorial from a leading Southern newspaper, which never
fails in defense of the South where defense is possible.

"In South Carolina, as we have noted, the safest crime is the
crime of taking human life. The conditions are the same in
almost every Southern State. Murder and violence are the
distinguishing marks of our present-day civilization. We do not
enforce the law. We say by statute that murder must be punished
by death, and murder is rarely punished by death, or rarely
punished in any other way in this State, and in any of the
Southern States, except where the murderer is colored, or is
poor and without influence. Now this state of affairs cannot
last forever. We have grown so accustomed to the failure of
justice in cases where human life is taken by violence that we
excuse one failure and an