Georgetown weekly news., 1855-04-12
The Great Placer.

Two radically diverse conceptions of the
nature and legitimate sphere of Govern
ment, says the New York Tribune, natur-
ally divide mankind, and more especially
our cOuntrymen. One of them regards
constraint as the sole end for which the
state eXlsts-the cOnstraint, namely, of evil
passion, lawlesS appetite and reckless am
bitiOn When government has kept out
foreign invaders and kept down domestic
Williams, it has done, according to this theo-
ry, all that it has properly any power to do.
This conception Is substantially embodied
III the creed Of our present democratic party.
The antagonist theory aflirms that the
State is often called to achieve positive
good as well as to resist and repress mill
t1nt evll-that it may as legitimatey con-
front obstruction, ignorance, and misery. as
invasion, outrage, and crime. This is the
fundamental idea which vltalizes what has
been known as the Wing party. The army
the sheriff. the Jail and the galows Tor otn-
er instrumentalities of punishment,) are
therefore the cardinal elements of the Dem
ocratic sway; the Wing idea does not ignore
these, but regards the highway, the public
school, the canal, the harbor or breakwater.
as equally objects Of governmental solici-
tude. Or course, where the politics of so
many are determined by tradition, relation
ship, ambition, or some other incident, we
have Democrats in tie Wing party and
Wings III the Democratic; while thousands
III either are neither one thing nor the oth-
er but something between. Many natur-
al Democrat turns Wing for the occasion
when the question of improving harbor
near which he has property or at which his
produce is shipped, is at issue, or wien IA
railroad or canal in dispute is to run near
his premises; but this does not efface the
elemental difference aforesaid
There is now balance of some twenty
five millions in the Federal Treasury; and
this, according to the Democratic theory, is
a very great peril if not necessarily great
evil 1t tends to defect the Government
| from its proper path-to seduce it into the
field of "General Welfare" and to override
the barriers which confine it to the narrow
path OF legitimate duty. OF course, democ-
racy would have the tariff reduced still low
er, the Army increased and other measures
taken to deplete the treasury promptly and
thoroughly. The whig, on the other hand,
naturally regards this as favorable time TO
clear out the channels OF rivers improve
harbors, and push on the great railroad
which shall ere long connect the Mississippi
and Missouri with the Sacramento and Co
lumbia. In his view, generous surplus is
only perilous or undesirable in case the
neople have not wisdom and virtue enough
to elect fit men to manage and dispose of it.
But here interposes third party, drawn
from both the aforesaid, but radically differ
ent from either-the party of jobbing and
plumber. 1t goes in for Iiberality on the
part of Congress-not toward the people
and their common interests, but toward the
office-holders, public empioges and jobbers.
1t says to the Wings, "Parsimony ill be-
comes one Of your liberal principles-help
us to be generous to this or that knot OF
sturdy beggars. 1t says to the democrat:
"This surplus is an evil, dangerous thing;