New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-24
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
BY HORACE GREELEY
TX
THE STATE. ITS LEGITIMATE SPHERE.
POWERS AND 5o}d 5g5.. FREE TRADE

THE STATE. ITS LEGITIMATE SPHERE.
POWERS AND o}a odlS FREE TRADE
AXIoMs &c OFFERED.
AsTv - proceedings Of a Free Trade meeting
in 40 are laid before me. They open with q
preamble and resolves. moved by DIR. Ray, whereof
the base or groundwork is the following proposition:
Whereds The right of each citizen Of a free
country ID nave and to hold the, fruit his own
labor at the control OF ms own 5179qm Inc 81 same
ernfor litbont Iof HoZ ai9)fa in the way
ca inst taxes 10 ~ ssOIoe zlsW bosoqo1qn the State is
Az clear ~ his9n 9dl hoislY on yGv "A may not pc
OVerrd 3W b0Iisigt ybG1uR 0yEd iDther HgnIS'
- stIsmunnni OBJ anoug bsaliH bxatlon is leglti-
Lsr.raI. llI bnR .o0is loeb 8slGC1 2oceeds are de-
voted 10 e 9aa0aId VI gn DoogrJ maintain law and
order in the State" Vi course, taxation to pay the
purehase-money for Louisiana twas usurping ana
fraudulent, not. merely on the ground affirmed by
Mr. Jefferson that the Federal Constitution did not
warrant any such expenditure, but on the broader.
more sweeping assumption that no Constitution could
warrant it-that it was made for purpose wholly
foreign to the legitimate ends of Government.
Yet DIR. Ray, l cannot doubt, has favored the ex-
pendture of large sums aud the contracting OF con-
siderable debt by Chicago expressly to provide her
people with pure, sweet water-a purpose which he
declares wholly without tho legitimate sphere of
S6veFnrneht. At all events, very heartily voted,
thirty-sx years ago. to bring the Croton water into
our City at very heavy cost to her Taxpayers, OF
whom was not yet one. There was spirited oppo-
stioD especially in the poorest quarters OF the City
two of the Wards mainly inhabited by non-tax'
payers giving majorities in the negative. Yet at
least two-thirds of all who voted ct all voted
for Water and our City has been more att1ac-
tive, moro healthfu less liable to pestience,
less filthy less noisome and every way moro fit for
human habitation, since that water came pouring
through our streets and streaming into our houses
We obtained it by voting to mortgage and tax the
property alike of those who assented and those who
professionally decsiyely denying and overriding the
alleged right of free citizen to have and to hold
the fruit of his labor at the control of his own
will" l cannot doubt that Dr. Ray has done the
same in at least hundred different instances and
especially with regard to Common Schools.
But | offer a still more conspicuous proof of the
futility of Dr. Rays proposition put in evidence
against him the City of Hew-York tho Commercial
Emporium Of the New World Men carelessly say
that her wOndrous growth and unrivaled predomi
nance are the results Of her great natural advan-
tages even commercial dictonary1 lying before
me asserts that "NewYork is indebted, for her won
derful increase, to her admirable situation, which
has rendered her the greatest emporium of the New
World" Yet such is by no means the fact. New
York was more than two centuries old before she
could be deemed the commercial emporium even Of
this country Though settled more than half cen
fury sooner New-YOrk was long second to Philadel-
pha, and was barely abreast of her down TO time
far within my recollection. The population of the
two cities under each Federal Census was, re-
spectiyely as follows: