Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-07-25

imposes upon the states lately in re
bellion tax 500 per cent. greater
than before the war, when the valua'
ton of those states was 400 per cent
greater than it is to day, merely tc
support the prodigal profigacy imr
ported aliens, who, we may rest as,
sured, will entreat the general govern.
ment to continue its high usurpation
of state authority, till those bank
rupt states no longer afford that sin.
gular abortion of free government
the "carpet Dagger" hope of plum,
der. 1t must be stern necessity in.
deed, that justifies a system of tax.
alton that broods over the nation
like pestilance, paraIyzing our in
dustries, sapping the sources of our
wealth, and materially retarding our
growth and prosperity. That must
be strange necessity indeed, and
an hitherto undiscovered principle OF
political economy, that can justify
the Secretary of the Treasury in
wringing from the industry Of the
country, hardly recovered from the
most costly war the world ever saw
one hundred million ofdollars per an
mum beyond the sum necessary to
meet the interest on our public debt,
and to send to our foreign creditors
twelve million of dollars a month, in
advance payment of a debt not yet
due. That must be a strange ex-
pediency indeed, that imposes duty
upon articles of universal consump-
ton, beyond the necessities Of gov
eminent, with the same purpose of
making the home market for there
products the dearest in the west.
But policy 80 suicidal can find sup
port only from visionary enthusiasts,
and interested monopolists.
The sense of the country is in ia.
vor of free trade with only such a
revenue az shall meet the present ne
cessities of government, and utterly
opposed to any increase of tariff,
which, under the name of protection,
means nothing more than a restraint
upon industry, and the advance of
private wealth at the expense of pub
lie poverty. The honest tax payer
finds in our rapidly advancing wealth
no pretext for unnecessarily incess-
ant taxation, but is wholly opposed
to that policy which would discharge
our debt at once by a system of
drainage whose effects must be pain
fully apparent tor years to come !;
and the appropriation of millions
that ought to contribute to the build
ing up of our hampered commerce,
charging our manufactures, fructify
our soil and enhance our growth to
pay our obligations, where one-third
the sum will more than maintain the
nations honor, and the large residue
so advance the resources that in the
end we can discharge our debt with
one-half the effort with which we
now pay the annual installments of
principal which the unwise zeal of
the Secretary Of the Treasury makes
so imperative.
Again: this government is not a
government for the millions so long
as there is manifest so strong dis
position to stretch it's powers be-
yond the pale of constitutional limit
alton. And in what | have to say
on this point, | wish to be understood
as speaking as Republican though
| may criticise an individual act Of
the present administration, still ad-
here with confidence to the great
principles represented in that party
which saved this Union. The whole
tendency of our present legislation
Is practically to ignore the vested
right of State Sovereignty. Once
establish the right of the general
government on every pretext of pub
lie necessity to invade the constitu-
tional rights of sovereign states, and
you make this government the
most central and arbitrary pow
err ever known. What statesman.
forty years ago, could find in the Con-
stitution of the United States author
ity or pretext for making or unmak-
ing state governments at pleasure or
rejecting legally admitted states by
a hasty ballot after heated partis-
an debate? Who that trusts in an in
dependent, fearless judiciary as the
only safe test of the CONSTITUTIONAL
ty of our legislation can regard with
out regret the recent attempt TO vir-
tually abolish this most honored
branch of our triune system by max
ing it powerless to pass upon acts Of
Congress p?
If not sign of danger, is it not
at least a most singular fact that an
amendment to a constitution resting
upon the free choice of the people
an amendment simply annunciating
the first principles of humanity and
justice-after being by popular vote
incorporated as an integral part of
the constitution, should require the
interference of any legislation to en-
force it's practical recognition 2 A
strange policy indeed is that which
violates the sacred rights of lawful
states, forcing them to accept the un-
scrupulous rule of state officials not
the free choice of popular ballot, but
the arbitrary appointees of govern
ment authority, and at the same
time refusing to entertain the
peaceful expedient of general amnes-
ty and equal brotherhood. A strange
policy indeed, is that which refuses
to place the control of the Southern
States in the hands of their own citi-
zens who alone are competent to gov
ern them, and substitutes the trial
by martial law-that extreme resort,
justified only by direct necessity
for the sacred right of every citizen,
the trial by jury
| know the Constitution Of the
United States is most elastic docu-
ment, readily warped to meet the
whims of party factions and the
fancied expediency of every passing
hour, but methinks could the great
ramers of that wonderful document,
Hamilton, Madison and Jefferson,
know to-day that that same consti-
tuition, which they designed as the
chartered rights of a free republic,