Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-03-28
GENERALIZATION.
A Prophecy and warning from DE
VIII Clinton.

From the New York World.
Among the great statesmen OF this cOun-
try, there is no one of whom New York
has so much reason TO be proud, no one
who was 30 progressive or so much in adj
vance Of his age, no one who contributed
80 much TO the wonderful growth of this
metropolis or to the development and pros
perity Of the whole country, as De Witt
Clinton We need not recount his achieve
mems they have for more than forty years
been in the lessons of every American
school boy The mature convictions Of
such a man, deliberately expressed on a
public occasion, will be read with greater
Difference than any contemporary views on
the same subject as being less open TO the
suspicion of party bias. We therefore ask
attention to the following extract from his
speech to the Legislature, in November,
1920, which may be found in Hammond's
Political History of New York" vol, l,
page 53S:
He protestedagainstt the interference Of the
officers of the general government with our
State elections. On that subject he said :
"Our government is complex in its organi-
cation, and it is essentially necessary TO
preserve the Stale governments in their
purity and energy. A free government
could never exist in a country so extensive
as the United States without a iudicious
combination Of the federal and representa-
tive principles. The apprehensions which
some Of our wisest statesmen entertained
at the formation of the Constitution, that
the State governments would constantly
encroach upon the powers of the national
government, appears not TO have been re-
allied. The practical tendency has been
in the opposite direction. The power OF
the general administrators has increased
with the extension OF its patronage, and il
the officers under its appointment shall see
III, as an organized and disciplined corps,
tOanteriere in the State elections, | trust
that there will be found a becoming dispo-
sition in the people 10 resist these alarming
attempts upon the purity and independence
of their local governments; for whenever
the pillars which support the editice of the
general government are undermined and
Frustrated, the whole fabric of national
freedom and prosperity will be crushed in
ruin. ! have considered il my solemn duty
TO protest against these unwarrantable in
trusions of extraneous influence. and |
hope that the national legislature will not
be regardless Of its duty on this occasion"
That great man, though dead, yet speak
eth" We are nov passing into the very
vortex of that Capitalization which he
dreaded aud against which he go solemnlv
warned his countrymen. Let those who
revere his memory say whether his fears
were chimerical There was never n man
who less deserved to be soorned AZ an old
foey never man more devoted to bright,
hopeful, progressive politics bat he was too
wise not 10 see Observation-Disclosures is our
greatest political danger. il is as il the
harmony Of the solar system should be
snbyerted, and the earth and planets fall
in ruins to the sun. Unless DE Witt Gin.
ton was fool, the leaders Of the Radical
party are madmen.