But five states have failed during the past year to hold sessions, while two have prolonged their sessions to so late a period as to forbid a notice of their enactments in time for this meeting of the Association.
An examination of so many volumes of sessions acts imposes of itself some labor; but this requisition upon your President is greatly increased when he is required to report all noteworthy changes on important points in the statute law of each state. Yet the generous and forbearing partiality which imposed on me this trust, will, I am sure, pardon its unsatisfactory and imperfect performance.
Increasing legislation in the states seems rapidly to be becoming one of the evils of the hour.
In the earlier, if not in the better days of our country, such seemed not to have been the case. Our wise and enlightened statesmen at that time seemed to fear "that power was stealing from the many to the few," and that the people were in danger of being governed too much. Our leaders seemed then to deplore inconsiderate as well as overmuch legislation.
But now, the law-making power seems to have become one of "unrest, activity and change;" it is invoked as the unfailing panacea for every grievance of the body politic, public and private, real or imaginary; the embryo, progressive statesman, seems now to persuade himself that it is unsafe and perilous to allow anything to remain stable and determined, which legislative assemblies, fresh from the people, can reach, modify, and reform.
The system of biennial sessions, received with so much popular favor at first, as a promised and effective check upon unnecessary and slip-shod legislation has not, it is believed, accomplished its result.
Perhaps the reason is, that the system has not been fairly tried or faithfully carried out. The execution of this constitutional biennial limitation has been, so far, confined exclusively to the legislature itself. Consequently, it seems that in utter disregard of the constitution, state legislatures meet in the regular session upon the day fixed by law, and after much time
