The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-02-28


No. T.
Nsw Yoax, Feb. 26, 1851.
The System Of special legislation, on which
remarked in preceding letter, u one of the worst
and most dangerous enemies free people have to
encounter. II appeals to private interests Instead
OF great principles involving the rights and liber-
lies Of the people, and substitutes the good of
few for that Of the whole. Il gives additional
force and vigor to that selfish principle, which ii is
the great object OF all good government to mitigate
and control. II transforms that system which WAS
Intended to guard the general interests, and pre-
side over the distribution Of benefits, by laws
equally operating on all alike, into doler out Of
privileges and immunities to favored localities,
and influential combinations of Individuals whose
political influence is worth the purchase. In
short, II Is usurpipg the power Of applying the
functions OF government 10 the fostering OF per-
sonal, local, and sectional interests, instead of the
general welfare for which it was originally insii-
tuted. government, possessing and exercising
this prerogatIve OF conferring peculiar advantages
on any particular branch Of business. or any spe-
cles OF national industry, by which it is enabled
to invest capital or employ labor with greater
proht--sach government. by whatever name it
is called, or under whatever form il may exhibit
ITSELF will in time become too strong tor the peo-
pie. They will come to look up to it as the sole
instrument Of the public prosperity, the bestower
OF all benefits, and the arbtAr Of national happi-
ness. Instead or depending on themselves and
their own individual exertions, they will be grovel-
ling at the footstool Of Congress-, and calling on
the government Hercules to do for them what they
should do for themselves.
Such IL the case in England, whose example we
are following with abject serviIity, instead Of set
ting u better one. Whenever, by any of those al
formations of prosperity and adversely, which are
as certain, though not perhaps regular as those
or the seasons, any particular branch Of trade
industry is depressed, the government is called
upon for relief, which it cannot bestow but at the
expense either of some other class, of the whole
people. True, the political tinkers are perpetually
at work patching up one hole and making an
other, and attempting to cure complication Of
diseases, not Of which can be alleviated with
out aggravating all the rest The government has
degenerated into system of artificial expedents,
SO serious and complicated thar it battles all states
mnnship, and defes all regulation. Nothing has
been left TO the salutary operation Of that benign
and mysterious agency by which the Supreme
Being draws good from evil; and the government
of the universe is attempted TO be wrested from the
hands Of its Creator, by human legislation. Ac-
cording to theory, parliament is omnipotent, and
of course can do any thing. This is not the legti-
mate province Of government. When it has cure
fully and adequately provided for the equal
curity of person and property, it has performed
It's duty and exhausted its proper functions.
Mankind are neither madmen nor idiots, to require
and want no leading strings; they are competent
TO attend to their own business without the aid Of
meddllng legislators, and much Oftener led
astray by the advice and interference Of others,
than by their own ignorance or incapacty. The
pursuit of happiness is an instinct of man; the de-
sire is innate, not elected; and long he is
strained from injurng others, he may, Ms general
rule, be left Judge for himself what is best for
himself lfthis is not the case, he is incapable Of
selfgovernment, and ought never 10 have been
made free agent. But TO return to the subject Of
special legislation, corporations, and monop6es.
The inevitable result of such system is the
corruption, both Of the people and their legislators
The former will become exclusively selfish, by
being perpetually on the watch for legislative
boons; and it should never be forgotten that gov
eminent was instituted to restrain this sehshness:
the latter be exposed to the assaults of bribery
and seduction from all quarters. General laws
operating equally on all classes, sections, and
communities, seldom, if ever, appeal to the pecu-
mary interests, or sectional feelings, any class
or any district of country. The Legislative power
il not therefore subjected to any improper inau-
ence, because one has any special peculiar
interest IN Il law equally enecting all. The mem
bers never on such occasions beset and bad
sered by lobby members, fog-rollers, and borers,
sezing them by the button, tagging after them ut
their lodgings, rleading into the halls of legisa
ton, and dextsrsasy appealing to their private
interests. not perhaps by direct bribery, but in
rIous devious winnings, which lead to the same
thing "a the end But the case is quite different
when special law is required for the exclusive
benefit of a few, and which will put money in
their pockets. In such members worth
buying, and those who can be most cheapy pur-
chased, will be bought in some way or other, for
legislators are but men, and some OF them not the
best in the world. 1t is then that private pecu-
mary interests will be brought bear directly on
legislation; the lobby members then make their
appearance, and the machinery of corruption is
set in motion. 1t is then we see decisions of one
day. reconsIdered and reversed the next; 1t is then
that simple honest men are COMPOUNDED at seeing
members hard at work on Penelopes wit, u
doing at night what they did the day before; and
it is those occasions 80 frequently see
measures carried by majority of ONE, which is
an infallble indication Of the triumph Of log-rolI
ng lobbying and boring.
Special egsIalion, in all its various forms, now
occupies great portion Of the time and attention
of our Stale legislatures. Their proceedings, in
great measure, consist in acts ofincorporaton,
or altering, modifying, and patching up old ones
Nothing, II SEEMS can now be done except by an
act incorporation. Religion must be incorporated;
charity must be incorpo,at ed; and education must
be Incorporated; and if a knot ofmen ambitious
ofbenefttns the public in any way whatever, they
can do nothing without act Of incorporation;
which in spite of all the endeavors Of patriotic egs-
ators to prevent, 1t invariably enables the happy
body corporate, to evade the laws to which We un-
lucky unincorporated individuals ere subjected -
Experience every day proves incontsstibly that you
might as sxe try TO hold an eel by the tail, as
catch corporated body tripping. There is al
ways hole in the charter for it TO creep out; and
hence the example OF one Of them, or one OF its
members, being brought to punishment for swind-
ling the public, is unknown in our legislative or
Judicial records. Every now and then, the legis-
ature gets into great excitement, passes terrible
resolutions, appoints committee of Investigation,
and makes Buncombe speeches without end But
this is the last we hear Of it. The committee eth
err nsver reports, or the report is never taken up
or If It is, unless some political capital can he made
of it, il dies away in distant echoes, and is heard
no more. Sometimes, too, we hear great
posion from the newspapers, about some enor-
nous system of bank swndng, which is followed
by an indictment of the principal agents, which
IL followed by Judicial examinations without num-
Der; then by long mysterious silence, which is,
perhaps, wound up by the announcement Of a
pubic dinner gwen either by, or to, one of those
ustrious defaulters.
That those acts Of incorporation confer privi-
eges not accorded to single Individuals, either by