New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-10-26
THE REAL QUESTION At ISSUE.

THE REAL QUESTION At ISSUE
Among the questions which the Democratic
press and orators are now befogging instead
of discussing, is one OF great Importance IN
two aspects in one, because large and unlaW-
full additions to the burdens OF taxation are
threatened; in the other, because OF moral ana
| political consequences, perhaps even more 10
be dreaded. 1t is certain that efforts made
| within the State to muddle or transpose the
| matters actually in issue are to be reinforced
by concerted recognition and support from
without. Indeed, this has happened already.
| The people are told here, and certain Western
alliances affect to believe it and interpOse &C
cordingly, that strife is going on between
| the great parties on this point: Whether the
| New-YOrk Canals shall be made facility to
commerce. or an obstruction The Democratic
party charges, and its Western affiliations re-
| echo it, that the ultimate end of Republican
Canal policy is to keep the Canals forever as
mere sources of revenue, and not as aids to
| trade: and then claims for itself that 1t lib
orally and wisely desires to throw them open
to public use, substantially free of charge.
| The cunning of this proceeding may be re-
| fined but its perversiOn Of truth is gross. No
such controversy exists. If, in the interest OF
commerce, or the State, or even tho West, the
Democratic party really felt this desire, the
fact would remain that the ultimate object was
common to both parties, however much they
might differ as to tho methods by which it
should be achieved.
There is a question, hnw..yycr, on which the
peorrio ore to vote at the coming election, the
nature of which is stated in the ballot pre-
scrbed 10y law. The voter will be required to
vote for or against "the Act to create State
"debt to provide for the payment of the Canal
"and General Fund debts.n Those who think
the taxes are not now OnerOus enough may vote
to increase them for the coming eighteen
years, in order to pay debt which Republi-
can craftsmanship and economy had re-
duced from $29,OO0,000 to $4,000 900 in
ten years, under constitutional regulations
and from Canal revenues alone; thereby
proving that only five years more of
that well-established management would be
required to pay the whole debt without the aid
of dollar from taxation. The measure pro-
posed, if adopted by the people and adjudged
to be constitutional by the courts, will practi-
cally amend the Constitution but it will have
been done according to the method prescribed
| by the instrument itself. The lawful exercise
| of O constitutional right is not thing TO be
complained of; and any token Of regard for
constitution or laws, or the public judgment, in
Democratic quarter could only be regarded
with respectful surprise by the Republican party.
| But it is not for proposing to take the sense
of the people on tho question that the Repub-
lcan party arraigns the Democrats. 1t does
pnt oh hat tha rio fo
amend the Constitution is crime in its
essence; but it does charge that the Constitu-
ton has been fagrantly violated by the Dem
Ocratic administration that this has been
done consciously and defantly, and neither
| from "gOOd motives" nor for "justifable
"ends;n and that the changes in the organic
law it now urges are suggested by fear rather
! than craftsmanship, and are sought for no
purpose 80 much as to provide some fOunda-
| ton for claim of amnesty in behalf of the
Democratic Canal Board, the perpetrators of
these grave offenses, by means of an er post
factO law. How manifest must be the culpa-
bility of these offenders when neither they nor
the most astute counseOrs of the party can
| find any better defense than one as uncOnst-
tutional as the acts of which they are guilty 2
popular judgment shows the consciousness of
the Democratic cOnspiratOrs that the proposed
changes cOuld not lawfully be made without
the consent Of the people first had and OBJ
tanned. Yet everything has been anticipated
and appropriated without this consent and
against positive prohibitions Of the Constitu-
ton, with resulting losses to the people already
amounting to millions. The pockets of the
people-the only pockets Tammany resorts to
Will be visited, of course, to supply DEFICIENCIES
caused by its Outrages, and taxation will be
the mode. But there is no escape from the
fact that the deficiencies themselves are not Of
the character which the Constitution authorizes
to be supplied in that way.
Let the decision of the people in regard to
the proposed law be what it may, the present
status OF these malcfactors cannot be changed
by 1t. III their acts had been lawful, this law
would not be needed; and IA they have been
otherwise. how will its ratification operate on