The Disgraceful Scrawl of Territorial Law

There probably never was a more disgraceful official publication put forth by any government, State or Territorial, than the volume of laws passed by the Territorial Legislature at its last session. It would undoubtedly be good economy to collect the entire records of that legislative session, either printed or written, and burn them, and scatter the ashes to the four winds of heaven. It is the only way to avoid interminable litigation, the costs of which will greatly overbalance all the public benefits to be derived from that kind of legislation. We lately examined the original acts on file in the Secretary’s office, some of the most important of which were prepared with no regard to the rules of grammar, syntax, or punctuation, and came to the Governor for Executive approval with all the erasures, interlineations, marginal amendments, pasted, patched, blotted, and ragged, as they had undergone revision by the two houses without the intervention of clerks or committees. This miserable travesty upon legislation will not be without use if it tends to convince subsequent Legislatures of the necessity of reforming the civil service in connection with legislative positions. The places in the Legislature have heretofore been regarded as belonging to the members, to be dispensed as patronage without regard to qualification or public interests, and have been allotted by bargain and division. I held the office of chief clerk of the Council during one session, and of a full corps of clerks under my direction, there was not more than one capable of performing the duties severally assigned to them; which left me no alternative but to do all the service for which three clerks drew full pay, or be dishonored as the chief of the clerical force. It is bad enough to suffer mullets in the Legislature, without employing mullets to make up the record.