Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-12-07
mErRoPoLITANIsm vs. EEMocRAcY


Paris is France, London is England are
accepted axioms in the political world. Each
is The metropolis Of the nation and Yields
the larger proportion Of the powers OF gov
erunent We may therefore change the
wording a little without changing the sense
and read Paris rules France, London rules
Eogland In the same manner New York
lays claim to metropolitan honors, and as
such aspncs to a controlling power IN the
government of the United States What
her influence on our national affairs would
De in case she should reach the goal Of her
ambition, can only be determined approx
ma5ely by deduction from the facts and ex-
perionces Of the past. The experiment has
never been tried in London, butt in Paris, all
attempts to establish and administer dem
ocyatic or republican form Of government
have heretofore proved signal failures. The
republics Of ancient times have been pro
verbally short-lived and unstable until the
very name of republic had become the syno
nynl of mutability and political anarchy.
Il has been the ambitions Of political philos-
o9hers, for centuries, to discover the inhe-
rent cause Of the instability Of whatin the
light Of human reason ought TO be the
most permanent of all human governments,
but which all experience, previous to that Of
our ows nation, had demonstrated to be the
most unstable instead mall formerrepub
lies the governing power had been welded,
for the most part or entirely, by large cities,
and in many cases large cities alone consti-
tutcd the republics. It was the vice and
corruption of the citizens (the inhabitants
Of the cities that wrought the destruction
of all the ancient republics. From the re-
publics Of Greece and Rome, down to our
own, all have come to an untimely end
through metropolitan corruption. The
breaking ous Of the rebellion was regarded
and accepted for time by Europe as the end
of republican institutions in America. Since
we succeeded in putting down the rebellion,
democratic institutions in the United States
have been pronounced a success by the civ
ilized world At the very moment when
the most persistent declaimers against de-
mocracies have been obliged to concede, not
only the practicability but also the extraor-
dinary utility and vitality of our institutions,
our chief city, laying claim TO metropolitan
honors aud aspiring to the omnipotenee ofa
London or Paris in the conduct Of our ma
tional affairs, has been obliged to call upon
the Representatives of the rural districts to
defend her from the hands of her own van
dal marauders. Despite a most rigid regis
try law and the best efforts Of herb citi-
zens. New York, governed as a democracy,
is at the mercy of the gamblers, thieves,
robbers, garroters, and other classes Of the
vicious and depraved.
While millions of dollars are extorted
from her business men in the shape Of taxes,
she is one of the worst governed aud filth
est cities III the nation, and is driven to an
appeal to the rural districts, not only to pro
tect her from her robbers and cut-throats,
but to cleanse her from her filth in order to
stay the ravages of the pestilence. New
York is our largest, richest, vilest and filth
est city, but the vast proportion Of the VI
cious classes that are there made available
to perpetrate frauds at elections, character
ize, to a greater or less extent, all cur large
cities We for the first time, in the history
Of republics, have extended the govern
mental power to animmense, intelligent and
moral rural population Is this Why we
have thus far succeeded? ? Has our rural
population been the balance wheel in our
machinery of government that has thus far
regulated and preserved our democratic in
stitutions? Have we after all made no pro-
gress in the science Of government? Is de-
mocracy still failure in large cities?
The proportionate increase of population
in our cities is immensely in excess of that
Of our rural districts. IF the tendencies Of
large cities are prejudicial to republican In
stitutions, we are tending rapidly to destruc-
ton and it behooves us to act promptly in
devising means to counteract these destruct-
i've tendencies. Should we not under such
circumstances set ourselves to work to de-
wise and enact such laws, as viii encourage
the growth of small towns and the increase
Of our rural population and thus divert the
current from those dens Of iniquity, those
cesspools Of iniquity, the large cities, and
turn it into our comparatively unsettled ol
sparsely populated districts These art
questions of the very highest Importance t.
our whole country and we would commend
them to the careful consideration Of oul
students of political philosophy.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND