State Legislation 79 



been a member, I have sat with bankers and brick- 

 layers, with merchants and mechanics, with lawyers, 

 farmers, day - laborers, saloon - keepers, clergymen, 

 and prize-fighters. Among my colleagues there 

 were many very good men; there was a still more 

 numerous class of men who were neither very 

 good nor very bad, but went one way or the other, 

 according to the strength of the various conflicting 

 influences acting around, behind, and upon them; 

 and, finally, there were many very bad men. Still, 

 the New York Legislature, taken as a whole, is 

 by no means as bad a body as we would be led to 

 believe, if our judgment was based purely on what 

 we read in the great metropolitan papers; for the 

 custom of the latter is to portray things as either 

 very much better or very much worse than they are. 

 Where a number of men, many of them poor, some 

 of them unscrupulous, and others elected by con- 

 stituents too ignorant to hold them to a proper ac- 

 countability for their actions, are put into a position 

 of great temporary power, where they are called to 

 take action upon questions affecting the welfare of 

 large corporations and wealthy private individuals, 

 the chances for corruption are always great; and 

 that there is much viciousness and political dis- 

 honesty, much moral cowardice, and a good deal 

 of actual bribe-taking in Albany, no one who has 

 had any practical experience of legislation can doubt ; 

 but, at the same time, I think that the good members 

 generally outnumber the bad, and that there is not 

 often doubt as to the result when a naked question 



