Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1852-05-17
Tbe . ailp Spy.
MONDAY, MAY IL, 1852.
Defeat of the New York Canal BIIl.s--The
..Expounder,' Expounded.

lex
Who does not remember that sometime last year,
certain Wing managers of New York posted off to
Marshfed to buy MIR. Webster's legal opinion, in
favor Of law whose operation would be to circum-
and PROSTATE the plain provisions Of the conti-
tuition Of that State and thereby give the control
of nine million dollars 10 pccunary and political
spectators?
Well, the mission to Marshfeld was, Of course,
successful The knowing ones, at least, knew their
man. Thus far they counted the cost. The Ex-
ponder expounded exactly to their liking, and they
to his. The qad pro quo being adjusted to mutual
satisfaction, back the commissioners HE'D to New
York, with the Interpretation of Daniel houting il
into the faces of the people as an end of all contro-
versy, pushing the law straight through the egisla.
ture, constitution and all, obbing out their party
contracts to the tune OF 'Nine Millions and say.
ing to their Wing souls, 'Take your ease, eat drink,
and be merry!''
But the beginning is not the end of a thing, and
''the besaid schemes of mice ami men'' often turn
very short corners and it has happened to the
nine million plot. The law is dead, and the consti
tuition saved alive: The ''Expounder is expounded,
YIN HiN PiSSuoPboh must siSHdill Itbuhtus
Thus pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed!
Or like the snowfall in the river
moment white, then mets foreyeri +"
case involving the constitutionality Of the
"Nne Million Act,' was carried up to the Supreme
Court of Appeals for the State of New York, com.
posed Of seven Judges elected by the people. With
only one dissent they have declared the law uncon-
stiiutiona, null and void, and the contracts under il
not worth a.brass farthing.
The upshot of the matter is this. The constitu.
ton Of New York, as revised in 1876, provides bv
its seventh artice-an article of clear foresight and
most transparent meaning,-for the annual dminu.
ton and speedy extinction of the large debt Of the
State by the appropriation of the surplus canal tolls
The same article also guards, in the most explicit
terms, against the future accumulation of a State
debt, by providing that except in case of war or in
surrecen, ''no debt shall be hereafter contracted by
or on behalf of this State unless such debt shall be
authorized by law for some single work or object
10 be distinctly specified thsrein and such law shall
impose and provide for the collection Of direct an
nual tax to pay, and sufficient pay the interest on
such debt falls due, and also to pay and dis
rirurgv snv principal vs such debt, Within eighteen
years from the time of TIE contracting lhereof',
And to guard yet securely against the accunu-
lation OF State debt. by corrupt or improvident
legislation, the seventh article of the Constitution
further provides, that s'no such law las aforesaid
shall take effect, until it shall, at a general election,
have been submitted to the people, and have re-
ceiVed majority of all the votes cast for and
against 1t, at such eecton.'
BY vic lent Wrestling Of the careful and plain
language of the constitution; by thwarting its mani.
fest spirit and most evident scope; and BY the
h0cns Pocns of special pleading, in magical blackle
ter at Marsh6eld, with quantum su6fcit Of political
and stock jobbing intrigue, the grand problem wa,
to be solved of enlargng the Erie and other canals oil
New York, at an expense of nine million dollars,
without cash in hand, and without mourning cent
OF debt! And in this corrupt and corrupting farce
the "Great Expounder consented to play an appro.
pirate part, and muuer his mock ssthunder!''
Well, the "Nine Million Act'' was juggled through
the Legislature, vast contracts were precipitated
into nominal being, in the deIusive hope that the
elective supreme judiciary of New York, would not
have the independence to brave measures so bold,
and so far advanced. But these ful-blown hopes arc
all trosbltten and PROSTATE forever 1t is lesson
to be remembered. New York will not forget it. Ii
Is triumphal part of her constitutional and judicial
history. Other states Will remember it, Mr. Web.
SER will have abundant leisure to ponder over il
at Marshfeld