Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-04-09
The Great Danger of the Republic.

L
We can at present find room but for
the following extract of comprehensive
article in the April number of the Gal
ary, by Z, Darwin Smith:
The exigencies of the war necessarily
| invoked the latent powers of the Constr
tuition, and called into action and exer-
else every principle or theory in respect
| to our Government which could
strengthen the national arm or contribute
to common defense. The necessities of
our great war confessedly called into ex-
ercise powers never before exercised or
claimed under the Constitution, and the
General Government, for the time being,
practically became great consolidated
national government. Indepe ndently OF
the States, it raised armies, created ma
vies, levie taxes and customs, and took
from the States the power long exercised
by them, of creating banks of issue, and
assumed the right of control over the
money and currency of the country.
During the war the country was virtually
one vast military camp, and the writ of
habeas corpus being suspended, orr peo-
pie everywhere we're substantially under
the martial law and under the national
authority. 1t is not surprising th ut the
national machine acquired such momen-
tum, under these circumstances, that 1t
was hard to stop it when the war ceas ed.
Aside from the great increase of the
power and patrs mage of the General
Government, anei the multiplication of
offices unavoidably incident to the war,
\ g. he Ia IF lab& nd
structural difficulty and embarrassm ent
which it has left to the country, it is
quite apparent that there is at present
existing in the public mind growing
disposition to look to the General Gov
eminent as the great source of power
and fountain of privilege and dispenser
of benefits, and to urge upon the na-
tional authorities the extension of the
sphere of its legislative action much be-
yond its former limits. Congress is
pressed with applications to induce the
| Government to embark in new schemes
and enterprises of internal Improvement,
to grant special privileges or subsidies,
| and to create new occasions for the ex-
penditure of public money or other sp-
preparations OF the public property to
Congressional legislation upon many
subjects heretofore regarded as pecu-
liarly within the domain Of State legsla-
ton.
The evident tendency Of these applica-
tons to Congress, and the necessary con-
sequence of granting them, would be to
divert power from the States and greatly
increase the number Of national officers
and the power and patronage of the gene
raj government. Before the war, for in
stance, it was scarcely supposed by any
among the statesmen or public men of
this country that Congress had power to
grant charters of incorporation, except
to citizens of the District of Colu nbia,
or where the operations Of the corpora
tons were 10 be carried on within that
district. Except the charter for the
Bank of the United States, granted in
1871, and the charter for the second
Bank of the United States, granted in
1916, Congress had not, before the war,
granted charters for any private corpora
ten, aside from those granted as above
stated, for the District of Columbia
The right eminent domain was univer-
sally regarded as vested in the States,
and except In the territories where the
General Government owns the soil, the
title to land could not, according to the
received opinion of the country, be ac-
quired by the National Government for
forts, naval stations, or other national
purposes, except by purchase, with the
consent Of the State Legislatures. The
received doctrine of the country was,
that the National Government was one
Of special aud enumerated powers, and
that all powers not delegated in express
terms, or by necessary implication, were
reserved to the States or the people. II
is doubtless true, that in the interest of
State rights, the Constitution was form
erly construed too strictly, in some par
! ticulsrs, and the war and the logic of the
war have, unquestionably and most prop
erly, modified the views OF most of our
citizens in respect to the powers Of the
General Government, in favor Of the ma
tional authority and in furiherance Of the
national interests.