Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-02-27
TRUE PROGRESS.

or applied science, manufactures col
merce, everything which gives empLo
ment to the people"
And, upon that, he adds, What a
politics? The wind that has blown, Il
smoke thathas drifted away, leaving Il
dust of the one, and the seidity OF Il
other. We have been very selfish IN Il
South. We have thought only of Il
upner. membersof the social architectur
We have never regarded the solid Al
sturdy basement that supports all, az
that stood by Us when so many who.
the people had trusted and honor'
waxed faint
Few persons, We imagine, will nov |
inclined to dispute the proposition IN
% class Of the community have on I'll
whole been Of so little practical benef
TO it, As the professional politicians.
must be conceded that, in the South, Il
for the last twenty-five or thirty year
they have wrought little else than mis-
chief: because, during the whole OF tha
time, there has. been a constant struggl
between parties, which has itself bee
at the bottom only q contest betwee.
two sets of politicians for office. Al
the citizens of a republic, where plac
and Office are open to all, naturally in
cline to engage, to some extent, II
political controversy; and the rivalrie
Of party in a little while distract tn
attention of the people from 81 question
and considerations except those which
are agitated by factions and affect part
ian interests.
Men ought, it would seem, very easily
to agree, on most points, as to what j
for the real and permanent benefit ant
honour Of the country. But one faction
never consents or agrees to anything
proposed by the hostile faction; anC
there are, therefore, continual dispute anC
augmentation and recriminatiOn, il
respect to principles, measures and men
which put every thing that really con.
Germs the well-being OF the people at
large to one side, and cause it for the
most part 70 lost sight Of.
It was certainly the most eXtraordi,
nary thing that ever occurred in the
affairs Of States, that the Nation began
its existence with a dispute as to the
very nature OF the Government and
Constitution, and as to the real parties
to that instrument upon the solution OF
which the construction Of the instrument
In many important particulars depended.
It never before happened, and will prob
ably never happen again, that thirteen
independent States, each having had
their independence separately acknowl-
edged, and each possessing complete in
d~ividuality, sovereignty and nationality,
became connected together under a
common government, without knowing
whether there was or was not a Union of
the States, by a compact to which they
alone, as States, were parties or whether
the people Of all had coalesced into one,
and enacted the Constitution as a su-
preme law imposed by that one people
on the States and the people Of each
State alike. 1t was not known whether
the msttO Of the new Government, az
pluribuS U3ltrH," n composed Of many,
meant one Federation composed Of many
States, or one Nation composed Of many
individuals. Upon this question all the
people necessarily took sides, and parties
formed, and their disputes sgitated the
country. Out Of this question grew that
OF construction strict or latitudinarian,
the practical effect Of which we will in
quire into hereafter.
Neither were parties content with the
questions that unavoidably presented
themseIves-that could not be evaded,
however dangerous they might be, and
that arrayed State against State, and
one half OF the Nation against.the other
half, and indeed divided more than one
Of the States, each into two hostile
camps. As these died out, or were set
tied, or the interest Of the people in them
tagged, new ones were invented, GEN
orally by the dominant faction, to serve
new bonds Of party organization, and
engross the attention Of the people
these being frequently fraught with dan
ger TO the Commonwealth, d~istracting |
and dividing it the more, and making
the chief business Of all men.
Such disputes, as we have since seen. |
even invaded the sanctuary, and the
rawlings Of political polemics echoed in
Christian churches, till the pulpit has be-
come almost AntichTist.
These questions, the inevitable and
The unnecessary, were not discussed upon
principles, and with reference to
he interests Of the people; but upon the
letter of the Constitution; the direction
sequence being the constant use Of every
vice in argument and error in reasoning.
Those Of US who were men thirty-five
ago, remember the old and long
continued dispute as to the powers OF the
General Government and the reserved
lights OF the States. This was to make
,ur public men lawyers rather than
statesmen for the questions Of construc-
are the same in the case Of a cen
titution, as in that Of a charter or a
iced.
Thus the great questions which agi-
ated the country did not turn upon the
oftiest considerations, as they do in
.ountries where there is no written
ompact or constitution 10 be construed
nd interpreted by the keen rather than
reat intellects Of lawyers, often not s
ven familiar with the great, catholic,
quitable rules and principles Of the {
ivil law, but with the narrower and
pedantic maXims Of the common I
wv and its modes Of Interpretation. s
they resorted to what has been /
sIicitously called a "stunted verbal
Interpretation" that was invariably il
Use. For example, WEBsTER's argu- {
tent in respect to the nature OF the p
Constitution and the parties 10 it. con- v
.sted largely in a narrow and false o
depreciation Of the single phrase. We Z
ne People Of the United States, (which ;,
e certainly knew could s well mean n
,e people Of each separate united State. )
!, the one people Of all and when il
as absolutely certain That the one al
aople did not make the Constitution, n
IA never did an act under it as one II
.ople, the majority Of votes whereof b,
,verned. n
The question always was, not what a in
cat Dowerful and beneficent govern Ia
ent ought to do, and what it would be W
,.s 10 do, in the given case,-not what fr
,u.ors such q government possessed in "a
Z nature Of things, or because it s0as a b,
.,,arnment; but whether the COnstitu- th
oroDerIy construed, conferred the ST
~ directly or BY implication. The ex
h,ndamental rules OF construction in
~ we're in dispute 1.-THE first tn