The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1848-12-02


ancient Greeks assigned a tutelary der
ty 10 every tribe. every city, every oc
cupation, AMI 10 almost every individu
al. And every one Of these deities had
= mythcs, peculiar glory, a divine at,
tribute. If The State Of Oaio has had
q tuielary divinity for the last quarter
Of century, that divinity has been the
god Of faxation, and his peculiar attr-
butte, 10 make the people pay. We in;
vito our fellow citizens to forsaks such
u costly species Of idolatry.
individual interest receives new
impulse, and takes on new activity the
moment new line OF public improve,
mentis proposed. Every Establishment
is employed with the members OF the
General Assembly. Every engine, Of
hope, fear, flattery, favor, affection, i'm
poitunity, solicitation, and persu lslon,
is putin requsion. until, in an evil hour
the members 60 to their places and
1 vote away the peoples money "lor lha.
whichis mol bread, and their substance
for that which salisfeth not" That
is, they vote 10 employ the peoples
money in commercial adventures, so
fantastic, that they would very justly
consign u private capitalist to strict Sc
clusion and straight jacket. And Why
all this? Because no commercial ad.
venture, no internal Improvement can
be undertaken by the government,
which does end in enriching number
ofindividuals: hence the immense stock
of influence which is provided to lead
the General Assembly into error
Commetce,. If left TO her own energies,
would construct her Improvements on
\ the line of the channels Of trade, as IN
dicated by The natural features OF the
country, by the state OF wealth and pop
ula,ion, and by her own wants. lndI-
vidual interest persuades the govern
ment to construct her works Of I'M
provement along any line Of swamp or
forest, where the political combinations
are such as to enable it to obtain an
appropriation. The ultimate object
and design is 10 OBTAIN AN ApPRoPRlA-
roN; in other words, TO spend the peo-
ple's money, and this for the purpose
Of aggrandlzing individuals by means OF
Jobs, contracts, speculauons. Some
times the amount OF individual interest
engaged in behalf Of one scheme, is not
suffi cient TO ensure its success. A con-
fedracy is then formed amongst the
friends of different schemes. commonly,
bu. expressively termed ''log rolling"
The committee is acquainted with u log
rolling confederacy which cost the
people of this State three millions tour
hundred thousand dollars, and the works
which it constructed are so perfectly
worthless that no private capitalist out
of Bedlam, would except them on the
terms of keeping them in repair.
As public interest succumos I" Pr-
vate in the inception of these works, so
their existence and their management
forever bring on succession oi the
same unhappy kind of collisions. Ihe
sovereign was unfortunately persuaded
to commence many Of these works IN
order to display its wealth, its grandeur,
its power, its muni6cence and It's ultra
generosity. Its muni6cence and Its
generosity now cost the taxpayers al
most or quite million OF dollars per
annum to pay the interest on an I'M
mense public debt. A train OF conse'
quen,iai damages, such as The overflow,
ing OF lands, injury to water power, and
the sinking of merchandise on the ca
nails. minute sometimes in themselves,
but immense in the aggregate, bring on
perpetual conflicts between individual
and public interest. Some OF these
claims are we'll founded and some are
baseless. And they nearly always I'M
pose disagreeabe task on the men,
bers Of the Assembly, body which
has no adequate means ot investigation.
Yet notwithstanding the unfortunate
termination Of our sovereign CONNER
cial speculations, private interest Is al
ways ready to hold the State to the
riqor Of her bond. The State has be-
come great merchant, a mighty ad-
ventuer, or, in ordinary phrase, va com
mon CARRIER" and she must CONFORM 10
her situatien and call upon her taXpay-
ers to make up commercial losses ever
recurring and ever renewed. Yes. and
If the State had the same means OF sell
defence as common carrier, we should
not complain. But is there single
senator who doubts that the public trea'
sury is often charged with the conse-
quences of individual negligence, re-
missness, fraud, contrlvance ana Gun
ming? Do not these consl jeration ex
hort us in thunder tones to shut me
door, inexorably, on This species OF leg
islalion as soon and as fast as we can.