REMARKS ON THE CONSTITUTION. 175 



parts, which these forests now shade. Our iron ores, by means 

 of the coal, reposing always near them, may be manufactured 

 into all the articles, into which iron is converted. Canals 

 may be made by the side of every river, and pass near every 

 man's door. Rail road^ may be made, in all directions, all 

 over the state. Lake Erie and the Ohio river may be naviga- 

 ted by ten thousand of our steamers, and every port be throng- 

 ed with them, and the millions who own them. Steamers, 

 canal boats and rail road cars, may, as they certainly will, 

 throw the people and their property into masses, in cities and 

 towns. In fine, the whole state may be made to resemble in 

 appearance, a garden — a perfect paradise, and yet, unless 

 good government is maintained, those who live under it, may 

 be truly miserable. 



Germany is a perfect garden, and yet hundreds of thousands 

 are flying from it, as they would from the direst pestilence. 



Let us hope, that some honest patriot may show himself in 

 our general assembly, who will urge that body to place these 

 amendments before the people for their approbation, and, Ohio 

 may obtain a constitution, at no distant day, which will guar- 

 antee to us, what, until then, we cannot have, a well grounded 

 hope of better officers, better laws, and less danger of being 

 ruined by unprincipled demagogues. As it now is, during 

 many a session of the legislature, all well informed men, live 

 in fear, of some new efforts being made, to almost ruin the state. 

 As the state increases in wealth; as the legislature becomes 

 more and more selfish, or rather as that selfishness has more 

 opportunities of gratifying its depraved appetite for legal plun- 

 der; the longer such tremendous powers remain in the gene- 

 ral assembly, the more difficult will it become, to wrest such 

 powers from so dangerous a body. The more apparent the 

 duty of all good men becomes, to unite, in such measures as 

 will lead to reform, before it is forever too late to obtain it. 

 Place the amendments before the people, article by article, to 

 be voted for and against, and we should stand some chance of 

 having a better constitution. 



