The New York herald., 1871-03-01

1
Many.
To afford the greatest amount Of good to
the largest number of people is the first and
| legitimate aim of civil government The sub
| ject toilers surrender to the executive, to a
very considerable extent at least, the right OF
regulating and supervising matters which re-
| late most essentially to their everyday per-
| sonal comfort and domestic economies OF
affairs which affect their savings and income,
and their expenditures; nay, their very health
| and the lives of their children. In proportion
as the people believe that the government esti-
mates the value Of the trust which they confde
to its care, SO far have they confidence in the
| government. Let the administration once
| commence to avoid, to evade, to shirk, or
to abncgate its duty toward the people,
| and last iaasmuch as is the lapsus on
the part Of the ruling power, will the
bond which unites it to the community be
shaken and society ut large receive shock.
The repetition Of such shocks, springing from
| such cause, produces national demoraliza-
tions. A demoralzed nation cannot be pow
erfuI nation. It will either succumb at the
footstool of home tyranny or fall victim to
foreign force, foreign intrigue or foreign
moneyed Power. 1t is, consequently, abso-
lutely necessary, both for the present well
being and future siren th Of country, that its
government should be vigilant, active, inde-
pendent and above. and perhaps, before all,
honest. No class interest, no party, no fac
ton, no family consideration should be per-
mitted to come between the governing autho-
rity and those who are governed
Having promised thus much in the reitera-
tion and commendation OF grand cardinal
social supcrstructure, it is almost needless to
assert that we think that there should be no
''rings"-''rings" commercial, ''rings" trading,
''rings" manufacturing, market s'rings," or
shop ''rings." ''Rngs" political are equally
injurious as any of the others, and rings
legislative absolutely ruinous; for if the par
liam antary expression becomes at all tainted
| the corrupt tongue is made to utter citizen
approval of everything which is false and bad
as it is sent forth from the centre of each and
every one of the ''rincs" to bear injury and
loss to the people, and very frequently
pauperize them to the extreme circumfer-
ence Of the territory, to the utmost limit of
the public domain. Such has been the
result at every stage Of the worlds history
when the great staples of mans subsistence
have been sported with by tyrants or preyed
on by the members Of voracious corporations.
The ancient Romans beheld Caligula building
bridges from Ba@ to Puteol more than a
league in length, the pontoons of which were
formed Of the feet of corn vessels which sup
piled the city with food, so that the inhabi-
the time while the fabric was maintained. It
was believed at the moment that the tyrant
was first moved to this act of brutality and
murder by the money bribes of an interest
which was adverse to that of the dealers in
breadstufs. The poet Pope apostrophzed the
| issue OF Queen Anne's paper money in the
| words -
| Best paper money! last and hest supply,
Which lends corruption lighter wings to ny.
Dean Swift advised the Irish s.to burn
everything which came from England but their
coal'-the witty and patriotic satirist thus in
culcatiog the absolute necessity which existed
for national independent action against both
the control of foreign government and the
interested intrigue of home and foreign corpo-
rations.
Napoleon the First found that his soldiers
were cheated by ''ring" men contractors at
the very gates of Moscow, and left TO perish
and starvs through the soulless operations Of
like agency during their retreat from Russia.
Napoleon the Third would in all human pro-
liability be on the throne of France to-day had
he cast off the ''rng" men who encrcled the
Tuileries for years prior to the war with
Prussia, and who followed him to the field,
but left him at Sedan.
As it has been in the past, so will it be in
the present. Like causes produce similar
effects The American people must take
warning from the teachings of history. They
must not permit that the Industrial interests
OF the republic shall be managed and directed
by and for the sole personal profits of the
members of certain ''rings." That there is
danger of the advent of such calamity and of
a ruinous oppression of the rights of home
labor was made painfully and alarmingly
apparent few days since by the operations of
set OF really irresponsible persons in the
matters of the supply and price of coal, the
sufferings of our city poor serving merely as a
stimulus to the greed of certain Incorporated
''rng" men, who thrust themselves forward as
the representatives of the railroad and mining
interests of the United States of America.
1t looks, indeed, as if an attempt
will be made to surrender the great
industries of the Union into the hands
of ''rins" men. The Eoening Post published
a " articla last Monday in which IL w "a ahown