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TEXAS ST.ATE LrnRARY
in as much as the plaintiff is compelled to pav the costs of suit, whether he succeeds or not: it would be madness to incur co;;ts without any hope of success This I presume mav proprrly be called a legal rob• bery and the intrrested party bound to suhmit to it, from dire neccs• sity and rejoice that it is no worse The p~ojectors of that law had their own sinister motives: it was not as it pnrports; to bC'nefit the government? - but to intervene and cheat some nei;.dibor, perhaps, out of his favorite location by legislative tricker_\' And on the other hand the buckeye quacks was opening a fair field for their unhallowed opera- tions Presuming that the poor people would choose the lesser evil and rather than loose all, would employ tlU'm, go to law and at least try to save a part so that the ususpecting r sir l people, have to sub- mit to a total loss by legislatirn quackerv or denen<l on the glorious nneertainties of the law which amount;; to about the i'ame thinq in the end It is an old adage and one that has, and will, throu_gh all time to come, prove itself true, that honesty is the best policy. and without which, even robbers canriot prosper in their profession It is true those men have so far succeeded as to deprirn the government of her domain, (so far as they could approach it) - and the balance they • have liberally given away, perhaps, to he settled by fanatical abolition- ists and paupers from all countries The want of common honesty, their lack of foresight, and want of ingenuity, has in a great measure thwarted their grand purpose: as they have failed to vest the all in themselves In their subsequent and eontinued legislation on what might be fairly called vested rights, they have thrown all the land titles or claims, which have originated under this government into what the law properly term botch pot, or hotch-potch A situation of all others the most hopelesi'l and destructive fo the interests of the Country These quacks however, have succeeded in opening a field for litigation without end, by which they vainlv hope to thrive and fatten A little reflection however, ought to teach the quack; that his province is to poison, not to cure - that these vulgar politicians have originated a foul nest, a tangled hank, which the most honorubfle l and well in- formed - those who shine as lights and ornaments to their profession can never hope to unravel or wind. The only alternative left to either the government or citizen, is a resort to the judicial tribunals of the Country as the sheet anchor of surrity, and the only one now remaining To embarrass justice by complication or multiciplity of laws, or to hazard it by confidence in judges; seems to be the oposite rocks on which all civil institutions have been wrecked and between which legislative wisdom has never yet found an open passage It is perhaps impossible to review the laws of any Country without discov- ering many defects, and many superfluities. Laws often continue when their reasons have ceased. With us however, having before us the lights and experience of past ages; there can be no sort of excuse for ac· cumulating one formality on another, until already the art of litiga- tion requires more study than the discovery of right I confident!~• hope that our Courts will in this matter take a bold decided and inde- pendent stand - cut this tangled hank which no ingenuity can wind - denounce the whole as a fraud practised on the gowrnment, and all acts had nnder these laws void abanitiv f sic l If this be done the public domain would revert back to the government where it properly
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