The daily republic., 1853-08-26
THE. REPUBLIC.
WASHINGTON:
FRIDAY MORNING. AUGUST as, 1853.
Ought the Federal Patronage to b
Increased?

In the seven years war waged betw cen The
Wings and Democrats upon the issue Of the
United States Bank, we understand the Wings
to have contended, first, that the Executive
exceeded its powers by removing the pub
lie money without authority of the Legislature;
and second, that the Bank of the United States
should have bean reincorporated, because 1t
was necessary to regulate the currency and
exchanges. The party organization which
formed around the Executive assumed that the
just odium which rested upon the bank was
justification of the measure complained of.
Though it remains, and must ever remain, a
dangerous precedent, under which the power
usurped for the prostraton Of an unpopular
institution may yet be employed for other and
more dangerous purposes.
Experience has shown that the idea of rel wing
upon one bank TO regulate the foreign and do
mestic exchanges of this vast empire would be
as practical as to regulate the tides Of the sea
by Yankee clock. So the country has been
happily rid Of one vast organizm Of power
and political corruption. 1t was fortunate
thing that there was an accidental antagonism
between the Federal Government and the
bank; united they would have been irresisti-
BILE, and but for this party division the United
States Bank would long since have gone over
to the power which held the deposits, and its
offices would have been at this time as much
an object of distribution as those of the Post
Office or Custom House. Happy would it
have been for the country if it had alike repu-
dated the removal Of the deposits and the res
toration of the bank.
In this long and embittered contest the De-
mocratic party had one strong vantage ground
1t always contended that the connexion be-
tween Bank and State was inconsistent with
the principles of Republican Government.
They depicted the results of employing the
public money to effect commercial results.
They showed the influence which the control
of this vast engine must have over popular
necessities, and the tempting inducements
cious politicians.
This was powerful and just argument. 1t
was in truth Whig argument, for it was
urged against the system Of Federal corrup-
ton and the growth of Federal patronage,
the cardinal doctrine upon which the Wing
party was founded. But We have never been
able to see why the principle of separating the
Government from dangerous organism did
not equally apply in all cases which bestowed
upon the Federal Government the control Of
men and money And we have been especial
Iy astonlshed to see not only the connexion
between the Public Press and the Public Trea-
sury become regular measure of Democratic
policy, but also the connexion between the
States and an extended system of internal i'm :
provements recognised as settled subject Of
Democratic action and a regular object Of party
conflict and of party reward. That this sys-
tenn is advocated by their opponents is no argu-
ment of its propriety. The same principle
which sought the separation of Bank and State,
should oppose the union of Press and State, or
of Canal and State. If the principle mean
anything, it means the separation of power and
patronage, and should be applied wherever
that result is to be apprehended.
Whilst the country rang with the clamors of
basis and circulaton-whilst politicians were
gazing through party stained glasses upon the
comets in the financial sky--enthusiastic gen
tlemen were exerting themselves in the State
Legislatures to secure the construction of arti-
fetal ways of communication, intended to de-
velop local interests. Public opinion was gen
orally divided as to whether these gentlemen
were desrous to secure the local expenditure
for the interior cities Of Bagdad and Perseopo-
lis, which as yet existed chiefly upon the col
ored. diagram of the county surveyor; or whe-
ther they belonged to the insane] family of
Miss DIX. The enthusiasts ventured to hint
that the commerce of the Lakes, or of the Mis-
sissppi, might be carried, by artificial ways,
direct to the Atlantic; but were so rdculed by
those who knew better that, for fear of injur-
ing Bagdad or Perseopols, they modified the abb
surd intimation. As the legislative discussions
upon these subjects were always postponed to
the republished debates upon Federal resolu-
tions, the world was ignorant of their growth
and progress.
BY and by, however, came the 'sglorous
army of lrishmen armed with pckaxes, and
commanded by contractors; then came perfect
ed experiment and popular conviction; then
came competition for subscriptions, and heated
questions of location and construction; and then
stood revealed and perfected magnificent sys-
tenn of internal communication, reversing the
natural channel of trade, spreading the sail,
peopling the wilderness, and sending that
greatest missionary, the locomotive, upon his
path of iron with his breath of steam.
The politicians soon saw that the people
turned from the comet to look at the cars, as
the greater curiosity of the two, and they could
never afterwards get an audience to their lee
lures on financial astronomy.
Bnt they saw there was power and patron
age in this new system, and they fastened to