sessions there may be senators of one or two sessions' experience in the senate. Let the compensation of senators and deputies be one hundred dollars for their attendance at each session of the State Assembly, regular or special, and two dollars per day for every day they shall be actually engaged in public business or the duties of their respective chambers. Their travelling compensation should be ten cents per mile and no more. Every citizen of the state should be eligible for the senate or chamber of deputies, and a "citizen of the state of Wisconsan" I would define thus: A free, white man, of full age, and sound mind, who is a citizen of the United States, or has had his declarations of intentions to become a citizen filed at least one year, and who has resided within the state for six months." I am aware that the word white will be regarded as a black spot by many worthy and respectable citizens, and it is to be wished-"devoutly to be wished"—that it could be dispensed with. I believe it is nothing more than justice— nothing more than common right-for the African and his descendants to have the same measure of political liberty as the European and his descendants. It is clear, however, that if the state of Wisconsin confers privileges upon the negro which he does not enjoy in any other of the free states of the Union, we shall have an influx of "colored population," and I would ask any philosophical man or political economist if such a population is desirable. It is true [that] during the last session of the territorial legislature an honorable member drew a very enlightened comparison between the negroes and the Norwegians, in which I believe the former had the best of it, but I believe the gentleman proved nothing more than that he was not in his proper place. Although the peasantry of the north of Europe (in fact of all Europe) are comparatively rude and uneducated, yet have they not the capacity-are not their intellectual and moral capabilities as great as those of their more fortune favored countrymen, among whom are to be found "the masters" in every art and every science, and are not the immediate descendants of European peasants among the first men in the land? The Celtic, the Teutonic, the Scandinavian, and all the minor branches of the great Caucasian race, though differing in language, religion, and manners, yet readily amalgamate. The blending of these different races-or rather portions of a race has formed, and is forming, the great American people. The negro never has been, and never can be, united with them; and if the judgment or feelings, or taste, or (if you will) prejudices of our people did not present an inseparable barrier, it would be the soundest public policy to prevent such a consummation by legislative enactment. The efforts of the patriot should be directed to improve his countrymen-physically, intellectually, and morally as well as politically, and he should never think of introducing among them an inferior race. The Africans and their descendants are an inferior race. This is not mere assertion. It is a demonstrated physiological fact. Give them the same advantages you give to Europeans and their descendants, and although they are certain to advance considerably, they are just as certain to remain in the rear. No change in their political condition can emancipate them from the disabilities which it has pleased the God of nature to impose upon them-the Ethiopian cannot change his skin. The "colored population" of our territory is small. It should be the care of our delegates not to give a constitutional invitation that would make it larger; for it is obviously impolitic to encourage in the same country the growth of two distinct races, who by no possibility can ever amalga mate. But enough for the present. Next week (if permitted) a few more "hints" may be given. ORMOND. HINTS TO OUR DELEGATES-No. 2 [ September 16, 1846 ] The executive department of the government of a free state should be framed with jealous circumspection, yet with enlightened liberality. The governor should not be allowed too wide a field for the exercise of his discretion or caprice; neither should he be cramped by restrictions that would make him little better than a automaton. Four years would, I think, be a proper term for our governor to hold office. A much longer term might make him "forget to remember" that his office was the people's gift; a much shorter term would not be long enough to enable him to give a character to his administration. He should not be eligible for reëlection for at least four years after the expiration of his term of office, for if he shall be eligible for immediate reëlection, it is nothing more than reasonable to suppose that the power and patronage of the governor will be employed to keep a man in office, and that consequently the executive department will hardly be administered with desirable purity. His compensation should be at least $2,500 per year. I do not see the necessity of having a lieutenant or subgovernor. Governors or presidents seldom die, and yet less frequently resign or become incapable of holding office. Our governor will certainly, as far as climate is concerned, have as good a chance for life as the president of the United States, or any governor in the Union, and if one dies in half a century it is as much as any gentleman "in the line of safe precedents' can expect. The death, resignation, or incapacity of the governor should operate as a call for convening the senate forthwith, and as soon as convened they should, without adjourning, choose a governor, whose term of office, however, should be but the unexpired portion of his predecessor's term. A limited veto power should not be unpopular among a thinking people, although its exercise may sometimes cause displeasure and be even reprehensible, for if the history of the exercise of that "one man power" be reviewed, it must be allowed that it has often proved a most salutary check upon hasty legislation and exemplified the truth of the proverb, "Second thoughts are best." Our governor should have a limited veto. A bill, etc., to become law without his assent should at least pass the deputies' chamber by a majority of two-thirds of the deputies voting, and the senate by a majority of the whole number of senators. He should also have a power to pardon, and to remit and commute punishment; and here I would notice a subject which has been of late pretty largely discussed, both in our territory and the neighboring and eastern states; I mean capital punishment. Without regarding the universal precedent that has been given in all ages of the world, from the earliest period to the present day, and the divine sanction of the punishment of death-it does appear that the world is not yet arrived at that happy epoch, when man will regard the life, liberty, and property of his fellows as sacred; or even to the less desirable (though much to be desired) era when human life will not need the strongest guards that can be set around it. I am no advocate for a sanguinary code of laws-for a long list of "felonies by statute." Death should never be inflicted by man upon his fellow, except as a penalty for the commission of the darkest atrocity; but it would be highly impolitic by the entire abolition of capital punishment to deprive life of that adamantine safeguard it has always possessed in every creature-fear of death. Ut poena ad paucos, meta ad omnes perveniat. It is said that perpetual imprisonment is worse than death-that incarceration for life is more to be feared than the scaffold, and I admit that it is so, to many temperaments. But one might *Though few are punished, the fear of punishment affects all. as well argue that poverty is worse than death, that to have once honor wounded is worse than death, or that to have "got the mitten" is worse than death. Hundreds-thousands of men who could not 66 ....bear the whips and scorns of time, Th' oppressor's wrong, the round [proud] man's contumely, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes have dared to become their own executioners, and rush uncalled to "That [the] undiscovered country, from whose bourn Yet no one will contest that the love of life is a principle— an instinct-the strongest in our nature. The prospect of the scaffold has often humbled the most hardened felons. How different would their feelings have been, had they been assured that the laws they had violated could not be enforced by the penalty of death. It is to be hoped that it will be long before the infliction of that high punishment will be called for in our state; but if, unfortunately, it should ever be deemed necessary for the due maintenance of the laws and the proper administration of justice to pronounce the life of an individual forfeited, no absolute bar should be presented by the constitution. The fear of imprisonment for life does and always will operate as a preventative of crime; but the fear of death is a stronger and a surer guard: and why should it be dispensed with? Why should a deliberate villain be allowed to plan and perpetrate a capital offense with a full assurance that however aggravated his crime may be he cannot be hanged. Our sister state, Michigan, has been the first to abolish capital punishment. It was a fearfully important experiment. Let it be fully tested before any other state adopts the |