The Washington union., 1857-05-21


and general welfare and were it not thus expressly
delegated its exercise would be justified on the
ground Of being indispensable to that primary object
of the confederation. The same reasoning applies
TO forts navyyards and other establishments
sary to the common defence
But assuredly this principle does not sanction
distribution of the public lands, or any portion of
them, among the States part of the States to be
applied to local purposes, they certainly would be,
Judging by past experience. Instead of being APP
propriated to the common defence and general well
fare, they would be expended in local improvements,
the benefits of which would be limited to a single
State or to that portion best entitled to it on the
of political expediency, other consid-
Grafton having nothing to do with the common de
fence and general welfare of the Union at large Ev
erybody knows the individual States rely almost
trey the central government for all their perma
nent of defence, and everybody knows that OF
the many millions of surplus revenue formerly
"loaned or deposited with the States, not dollar
has been applied to the great national object of the
common Defence according to the proper accepta-
ton of the term. BY far the greater portion ap
propriated, either directly indirectly, to State
school funds and local improvements many of which,
so far from administering to the general welfare, were
actually highly injurious to many of the sister States,
as tending to monopolize advantages that had been
hitherto shared equally among them.
But we recollect to have heard one of the most
jealous and ingenious advocates of distribution make
use ofthe following argument: The body polite, like
the human body, is so intimately combined, so in
=
pendent on the other, as to constitute single
identity and thus the Strengthening of part in
vigorates the whole The public welfare in States,
he maintained, was like the vital fluid of the human
frame and whether it circulated through the region
Of the heart the Of the brain, the ends of
the toes it equally tended to the great purposes of
human existence Consequently, his conclusion was,
that the good of part was that of the whole, and
hence the application of the public lands public
revenues to fractional part of the great bodypolitc
was an nalIibe mode of administering to the common
defence and general welfare. He quoted the cele-
brated fable of the belly, and the members address
ed by Menanius Agrippa to the people of Rome
case in point; but to us it appears to incucate
very different moral from that of friend-name-
y, that feeding the belly, and not the members was
the proper mode Of administering to the general well
fare.
But these anaIogies are at best more or less de-
usve and cannot aspire to the dignity of argument
They may be rhetoric, but they not logic. There
is no such identity between the bodypolitic and the
human body as to render argument drawn from
one applicable to the other, and the nearest
blance between them win be found in the rule which
applies equally to bohnamely, that as, in order to
constitute healthful vigorous it is indispensa
BILE that the vital principle should be equally dused
through every vein and artery is it equally inds-
pensabe, in order to constitute a healthy, vigor-
GUS state, that its prosperity should not be con-
fined to part, but that all should have share in
the defence, and all partake in the general
welfare. The general happiness and prosperity of
this great republic, for example, do not consist
in the growth Of New York, Philadelphia, Balti-
more Boston, or any other of our great cities nor
in the fact 30 often announced in the public journals
with such exutation, that property in fortunate
location has risen hundred five hundred per
cent within year, or lesser term. The general
welfare is not affected in the slightest degree by
these detached miracles, that like angel visits
few and far between" or if affected at ALL injuriously
As to that other evidence of the prosperity Of the
country exhibited in the sudden rise in the value of
property in some remote town that has grown up
like mushroom in a single night, we have heard,
and sometimes seen. such miracles before and wit
messed their consequences. Every man within sight
hearing turns specuator, and every mans head is
turned. The cultivation Of the land, the prosecution
of careful business and useful labor of all kinds be-
come entirely neglected amid the whirlwind of ina-
ton property passes from hand to hand without be-
ing beneficial to anybody, rising and rising like a
balloon the lighter it becomes until at length Ion
ger able to sustain the imitation, the bubble bursts
the phantom Of prosperity disappears, the imaginary
millionaire becomes lame duck and the anticipated
emporium dwindles into school-house, black
smiths shop, and splendid hotel which cost a
prodigious sum of money, but which nobody
ever paid for We cannot think the country is much
benefited or the general welfare at all enhanced by
such examples
Our idea of the common welfare (but we are verg-
ing towards the order of old foges is, that it does
not consist in the overgrown wealth Of one man in
ten or hundred thousand or the premature growth
of few cities towns, but in the general diffusion
of comfort among that class which constitutes vast
majority of every civilized nation under the sun We