Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/318

294 HISTORY OP force the remedies secured to tliem "by the constitution and the laws for breaches of those contracts, they should not fail to see, at the foundation of these lawless proceedings, a rapidly growing dissatisfaction at the perpetuation of tenures, not in accordance with those by which the great body of the lands of our country are held, and not consonant with the feelings of our people. — And, while the power of the State must and will be exerted to enforce the law, protect private rights, preserve the peace and order of society, give security to the life of the citizen, and pre- vent the prevalence of anarchy and violence, so far as it rests in their power they should be ready to remove the causes of like troubles for the future, by a prompt and liberal arrangement of arrears of rent, whenever an opportunity shall offer; and, by tendering generous terms to the tenants, upon which they will change the tenures to fee simple titles, *put an end for ever to this perpetual relation of landlord and tenant, — a relation already so fruitful of anything but peace and prosperity to either of the par- ties. Even if it shall become necessary to employ the military power of the State to enforce the law, as connected with their peculiar interests, they should be prepared, upon all occasions and under all circumstances, to show to the public that it is no part of their object to be benefited in their pecuniary interests, by the misfortunes or the faults of their ill-advised and mis- guided tenants but that they are ready to consider, generously, the ability and the means of each tenant to pay, and, even if a coerced sale of his property must be the only rule of settle- ment, that they are prepared to become liberal purchasers at such sales. " To the disguised men themselves, and to those less worthy than they, who press them forward into the danger from which they themselves shrink, I have only to say that wrong acts never serve even a good cause ; that persistence in crime can- not mitigate the heavy weight upon the mind and conscience of the first crime ; and that no disguises are perfect enough to