The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1847-05-06

conductor" is to drag along after it the heightened
.train Of the States Let such strain" be started
such track" and how long will the conductor"
troll the machinery and the momentum We must look
out first for series of fearful osangs and then for
enormous and final crash The consequences and the
catastrophe might not always be received with the
daughter aud applause which his obging and perhaps
unrefectng hosts exhibited his dinner-eoquence
and amid their Glowing cups~
| But surely all this vision of Mr.. Webster-politics
turned into poetryfogets, utterly fegets the elemental
and essential principles upon which Federal Union
is founded The grant of Legislative powers made to Con-
gress by the Constitution is limited grant But what
practical n,ts has legislative power which, under the
general and vague pretence of Internal improvements
words by the way found in the Constution) may
thus, pleasure canal-dgger and railroad builder
to any conceivable extent from to sea, overriding
like straws in the wild OF its schemes, all State
Jurisdictions and sovereignty, and municipal legislation
The legislative powers granted to Congress specified
powers. But what place, and what utility and what
meaning has specification in an instrument which gives
grant of power vague, general and in fact, uni
versal as ths' If Congress may carry railroad or
canal through every valley, without the slightest
regard to State authority or jurisdiction, why may
| it not well place school house every hill
top? If its inteental prerogatve OF Internal Improve
ments is thus transcend and supersede all State
ton and lay its grasp upon the whole body OF the mate
rial interests of the country why may not by equal
right and under the pretence of providing for the
general welfare take under its sole charge the moral
and the intellectual interests of the country well By
the express terms of the Constitution, ''the powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor
prohibited by to the States reserved to the States
respectively or to The people" But what power could have
with better right been claimed be thus reserped" to
State than the right decide what railroad canal it will
have built within its borders, which one if any
one, of the harbos of its 'nland SEAS" 1t will deem
worthy of improvement? The great problem OF
our political system was at the time of forming the
constitution, and still is, TO preserve a Just eqlIi-
brin between the powers of the States and the powers
of the national government. But how is any such equ-
! librium possible conceivable, under claim on
the part of Congress TO show itself at all times
and everywhere within the very body of the State,
as protector and proprietary and regulator
of vast network of national railroads and canals
Can any doubt the inevitable conflict of ju-
Jurisdictions which such state of things must pro-
iuce' How long the general government be he Id
within any defined denable powers of legislation in
such state Of things? In truth the practical working
and result of Mr. Websters theory of Internal Improve
ment plain enough. They must inevitably change
our government from federaus to consolidated sys-
tenn. Such theory of federal legislation is wholly at
with all ideas of limited government and of reserved
State rights. But why absractly upon
the Constitution The question is, What is it Not
what powers ought to have been granted but what
granted And was not this very power proposed
to be granted the time of its formation but refused by
| the federal convention
Nor is this all. The vast expanse OF our country en-
braces a mighty multiplicity OF sectional interests.
While these diversified interests are left as nature has lett
them, they bonl OF union. The North and the
South the East and the West, with all their various pro-
iuctons and fabrics, and habits of industry, useful
and necessary each other But Mr. Websters plan OF
government would raise up, in hobed growth, in add
ton to these diversified natural interests, ecming har-
vest of artificial interests, created by and wholly depen
dent upon federal legislation. No human wisdom would
avail to reconcile and regulate the array Of local interests
thus artifciaHy pampered into growth and viger Like
the tabled progeny of Deucalion, they would spring up
armed for unrelenting conflict from their very infancy
Such system would be death-bow to all hope of per-
manency for our federal Union.
We hold that the diversity of interests sprnging from
a natural variety of soil, climate, and situation, is
calculated to bind the Union together. Washingtons
farewell address demonstrates this proposition in the
most forcibe and beautiful But when the fed
eral government creates artificial set of interests by
protecting the industry and inerestsof section at the
expense of another, Gas, for example, by protective
tar,) that very diversity weakens the bonds of the
Union by creating camor heartburnings, discomfort,
and dscord
Mr. Webster seems, indeed to admit that the Constitu
ton, ii stands has made provision for any such
plan of Internal improvements. He tells us that 'Wash
ington and Madison and their companions had not the
force Of intellect to contemplate all the contingencies
4 which should arise in the country after them" He
| would, therefore, strain the Constitution which they
framed to meet the necessities of state OF things which
they did contemplate In this he does those great
little injustice He forgets that they provided for the
amendment Of the Constitution which they formed. If
powers be needed by the general government the
way is thus opened for the people and the States to con
fer them. Every contingency is thus provided for.
Mr. Webster congratlates the country that it has not
now a Constitution to form. He deems that task too
great for the powers of the present generation. Let
him take heed then, that he does not advocate system
of policy which would destroy and PROSTATE, by misuse,
the system of government which has been handed down
to u.s. and which, in his Judgment the political vision
and virtue of the present day would be inadequate to
construct or supply