practice; for it is impossible to collect an uneducated people,
unused to self government, and allow them to steer their own bark as
law-makers, without observing that they make many openings for serious
mistakes to creep in, which are and should be severely criticised.
The pioneer laws, as they came from the first New Mexican legislature,
were faulty in the extreme. They seemed to point out wickedness as
a punishment for wickedness. If we desired to afford our readers a
laugh, we should permit them to read many of these laws. The simple
perusal of them would cause merriment equal to the most laughable
comedy. Had it not been for the few white men, who, from time to time,
have found their way into the legislature of New Mexico, the whole
body would long since have lost themselves in the depth of learning
which their untutored minds had undertaken to engraft upon their
statute books. The members of this body, for a long time, turned their
attention more to the emoluments which naturally accrued from their
position, than to endeavors to steady the helm of government for
the good of their country. In order to save their pay, they studied
economy, which caused them to make a beggarly appearance, and, in
the eyes of the white men, they were often contemptibly mean. Greatly
predominating in numbers, the Mexicans of course had no difficulty in
ruling the country; and they naturally preferred their own countrymen
in filling the law-making department of their government. The
consequence was, that they thus obtained a crowd of legislators who
could hardly read. By the aid of a few schools, an enlightened press,
and the examples of a few worthy Americans, they are gradually mending
their ways in this respect; and the time will come in a few years,
when the legislature of New Mexico will compare favorably with
its sister territories; but this, not until education has made her
indelible mark upon the people.