Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-10-19

nefrcI. hi onr GoNernment.


Defeots in our Government.
The facts of the times and the testimony
of recent events are such as to leave us no
room to doubt that we have not only avery
weak Government, but that our institutions
are so constructed that, except in very ex-
teptional cases, we can have no other. A
Government that is unwise is weak, and it
would seem as if the Constitution Of the
United States had been constructed with a
view to secure The largest possible amount
of legislative and administrative unwisdom
and incompetency,
The trainers of our Government perhaps
were not to blame for many of the defects of
the thing which they constructed. The ex-
istence Of well established local politics
throughout the entire territory which they
sought to consolidate into municipalities
whose mischievous influence they in part
foresaw, but which they were nevertheless
forbidden by imperative circumstances to
destroy, and which has been so fruitful of
mischief is thing with which they can not
he charged. They were compelled by the
imperative voice of popular opinion, to leave
the States as they found them, with the
name and many of the attributes of sover-
eighty, and in yielding to this necessity they
implanted an organic defect in our National
Constitution, which, however much we may
deny OF attempt to conceal it, exists and is
jrradicable.
Our national polity was framed too soon
IL. ,,F 4bo Daro1nt;no tp
cape the prejudices which grew out of that
event, or out of the causes by which it was
produced. The Jealousy of power in the
hands Of individuals was 80 intense as to be
a weakness in the minds of the men of the
Revolution. They would gladly have set
bounds to every species of official discretion;
and unable to do that, seem to have deter
mined, as a substitute, to provide that power
should remain in the same hands as short a
period as possible. The notion appears to
have been that the longer man is in power,
the more likely he is to abuse it; and the
better he understands his official duties, the
more certainly will he make use Of his
knowledge for corrupt purposes.
Our Government is founded in distrust Of
instead of faith in, humanity; and the result
is that we actually suffer an excess Of the
very disadvantages which its founders
sought to guard against, As an individual
who is unnaturally suspicious is more liable
to be cheated than one who is simply circum-
spect so Government based upon the idea
that all men are corrupt, will come in prac-
tice pretty near the realization of its theory.
Our Constitution is so constructed as to Sc
cure official incompetency. By the time a
man has been in Office long enough to have
acquired the rudiments of its duties, his term
expires, with, in general, the chances for q
re- election against him. A new man comes
into his place, with the same knowledge to
acquire, and to leave by the time he hs;
fairly entered upon his education. Each two
years may bring into Congress an entirely
new and ignorant body of men, in whost
unused and incompetent hands, let the pub
tic peril be ever so great, the destiny of TIN
nation is placed. Six years is little enougl
time in which to acquire acknowledge of tn
duties which attach to the Office Of Senator
and yet, when the six years end, and th
Senator is fit for his place, he is called upo
to retire in favor of novice, who got
through the same routine.
But the most ridiculous feature of allan
certainly the most ridiculous feature in an.
government over civilized people of mod
ern times--is our Administration. Eacl
four years withdraws from lawyers Offices
from State Legislatures, and the practice Q
the local courts, body of gentlemen, one 0
whom as President, and the others as hi
official advisers, are thrust at once into tn
highest offices of the nation, and, by the pre-
sumptions of the Constitution, expected Il
conduct the intricate and important domesti
and foreign affairs of one of the greatest ma
tions of the world with wisdom and ability
The duties are most difficult; and yet the
incumbents are chosen, as it were, at ran
dom, with little regard, and no knowledge o
their qualifications and are hardly warm il
their places before they are thrust out to give
place to another set as ignorant and unfit a