New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-09
FUNCTES OFEICIO.

The Hon Garrett Davis, who was Delegate
TO the Capitol Convention at ST. Louis, and
who voted against the removal of the national
Seat of Government "tO some place in the
"yalley of the Mississippi River" has given his
reasons for that vote, IN long letter to the Gov
emor of Kentucky. Mr.. Davis takes the ground
that, however much we may desire to carry our
national gods from the District of Columbia,
we have no power in the premises. When
Virginia and Maryland ceded each portion
of its territory to the nation, they did so for
ever. When the United States accepted this
territory, they took an inalienable estate,
aud were bound TO use it for the purpose
and upon the conditions OF the cession
for all time to come. Mr. Garrett Davis
states this doctrine in two languages--the En-
glish and the Latin-as follows: " When the
States have coded the necessary territory,
they cannot withdraw or abrOgate their
cessions and so when Congress has accepted
them, il cannot repeal or abrogate its accept
ance. No one will deny that the cessiOn of
the States and the acceptance by Congress
concludes any further action of the States,
and their power over the subject then becomes
FUNCrUs oFFICIo and it is equally true that
the associated power of acceptance by Con-
gress, when executed, is exhaustive and
"FUNCrUs OFFIcIo and, therefore, there is
nothing more to be said or done about the
matter. Congress is pOweress. Conventions
are in vain. Delegates can do nothing. The
Capital is like an obstinate old wOman-"when
it is sot, it 3 sot." 1t is AZ immovable as the
everlasting hills, and is firmly bedded in the
mud of the District by some iTrepealable law
of constitutional inertia
Mr. Davis might have safely left the discus
sion at this point, but he INDUCES, after his dry
logic, in various gpOetical and historical sug-
gestiOns. "Shall public buildings he excaims,
whose style and magnlficence command the
admiration of every traveller; shall halls,
made historical by eloQuence and statesman
ship, surprising the Roman forum and all the
learned seats of Athens in their palmiest
days, be abandoned to bats and owlsS" We
fully agree with Mr.. Davis in his answer
"The noblest reason and sentiments of man
"answer, MOI" AS we write, melancholy
picture of the ruined Capitol presents itself to
our minds eye with special and particular
fox looking out of each unglazed window; with
whole colonies of owls trying in vain, by
solemn looks, to keep up the reputation of the
edfce for wisdom; and with flOcks of bats
fitting in the twilight of the crumbling
corridors. The foxes bark; the owls complain
to the moon, and the rustic of the bats sug-
gests the wandering and uneasy ghosts of de-
parted Congressman. 1t may be long before
Lord Nlacaulays New-Zealander will arrive to
inspect tho ruins; but even tho generation
nearest to our own may furnish YOlney or a
Layard to philosophize or to photograph in
Pennsylvania Avenue! Meanwhile, the Capitol
having been removed to st. Louis, she has Ito
use Mr.. Davis's vigorous words) taken to her
"bosom n moral leper, the Government of the
"UnIted States - and her frenzied populace"
is continually frightening honorable members
ont of their senses 10y the preparation of the
widest and bloodiest excuses"
Mr. Davis's final argument against the pro-
jected removal is the highly classical one that,
if we wait long enough, Washington will be-
come like the ancient City of Rome, which
subdued " Italy, Gaul, Germany, Britain, Greece
and Macedon y which "carried her arms in
triumph to Carthage, and, under its walls,
vanquished the great Hannibal; ~ which
pushed them VIGOROUSLY over the dominions
"of the Ptoemies to the Pyramids and
Thebes;" which "subugated SYRIA" which
swept across Mesopotamia;" which "passed
over long buried Babylon :" which built her
fortified camps on the banks of the Indus,
where Alexander terminated his cOnquests y
and blubbered like a school-boy because he
had reached the nil ultra of ambition All
this achievement required, as Mr.. Davis cooly
observes, only twelve centuries from the time
when Romulus located on the Tiber." But
"what was Goosecreek once is Tiber now"
We have made fair start in classical
direction, and in the year of our Lord 3O69 if
we will but wait, Washington will (Alr. Davis
thinks) "run the parallel of Rome in the dura-
4" ton and splendor of Metropolitan history"
This may be very good way Of mitigating
the ardors of Occidental ambitions but we
fear that those who have this movement in
hand will not care the drippings of q whisky
lug for Mfr. CARROTS talk about the Tiber,
Carthage, Hannibal, the PtOlemies, Mesop0-
tamia. and Alexander; for although they are
well seasoned and respectable names, there is
no spell In them to prevent ST. Louis from
running away with our Seat of Government,
she does not find it an impracticable
back load. A good, solid, commonscnse argu-
ment against the change--such, for instance.
as its enormous expense, the nation being
still heavily in debts worth all Mr.. Davis's
fine writing about Rome and Athens, the bats
and the owls The single fact that Washing
ton is practically more nearly center now
than upon the day of It's foundation. il worth
ll the fine things which Mr. DAVIS can find in