Who
has heard of the legislature of New York or of Massachusetts? It
is boasted here that their insignificance is a sign of the well-
being of the people; that the smallness of the power necessary for
carrying on the machine shows how beautifully the machine is
organized, and how well it works. "It is better to have little
governors than great governors," an American said to me once. "It
is our glory that we know how to live without having great men over
us to rule us." That glory, if ever it were a glory, has come to
an end. It seems to me that all these troubles have come upon the
States because they have not placed high men in high places. The
less of laws and the less of control the better, providing a people
can go right with few laws and little control. One may say that no
laws and no control would be best of all - provided that none were
needed. But this is not exactly the position of the American
people.
The two professions of law-making and of governing have become
unfashionable, low in estimation, and of no repute in the States.
The municipal powers of the cities have not fallen into the hands
of the leading men. The word politician has come to bear the
meaning of political adventurer and almost of political blackleg.
If A calls B a politician, A intends to vilify B by so calling him.
Whether or no the best citizens of a State will ever be induced to
serve in the State legislature by a nobler consideration than that
of pay, or by a higher tone of political morals than that now
existing, I cannot say. It seems to me that some great decrease in
the numbers of the State legislators should be a first step toward
such a consummation. There are not many men in each State who can
afford to give up two or three months of the year to the State
service for nothing; but it may be presumed that in each State
there are a few. Those who are induced to devote their time by the
payment of 60l. can hardly be the men most fitted for the purpose
of legislation. It certainly has seemed to me that the members of
the State legislatures and of the State governments are not held in
that respect and treated with that confidence to which, in the eyes
of an Englishman, such functionaries should be held as entitled.
CHAPTER XVI.
BOSTON.
From New York we returned to Boston by Hartford, the capital or one
of the capitals of Connecticut. This proud little State is
composed of two old provinces, of which Hartford and New Haven were
the two metropolitan towns. Indeed, there was a third colony,
called Saybrook, which was joined to Hartford.
