The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1871-04-22

| State Government u Nuisance.
/ [From the New Orleans Bulletin.]
1t is Il striking commentary on the
proverbial power of circumstances to
alter cases that the first distinct voice
for laying aside the forms of State gov
ernment comes from South Carolina,
the State historically renowned above
all others for the tenacity of its adher-
ence to the doctrine of State sovereignty.
In a period when State rights had some
practical force and significance, it was
common for the advocates of an enlarge
ment Of Federal authority to throw up
to MIR. Calhoun and his political dis
ciples, that they were mere biologists
who would not hesitate to sacrifice sub
| stantial advantages to sterile abstrac-
tions. But the South CarOlinians of that
day did not believe they were cherish
| ing II theory wholly unsusceptible OF
concrete realization. The mechanism
Of State government was then to them
actually identified with the evolution
of the elements of local autonomy. AS
such they could use it for defense against
aggression and in furtherance of their
prosperity. But what do they find 1t
now? This question has a practical
answer in the movement of South Caro-
lima taxpayers in favor of replacing the
| existing State government with an adj
ministration openly and directly In
spired and controlled from Washington.
The people who make this appeal are
surely not infatuated abstractionists.
They see in the mechanism of their
State government an instrument which
u thinly covered central despOtism has
placed, for partisan purposes, in the
| hands of Il reckless local faction, incom-
petent to govern, but marvelously apt
| ut plundering; and they are not such
sodden fools as to cling to this vile and
miserable simulacrum of Statehood as
their ark of safety and the repository OF
all their hopes. In short, they are anx-
| ious to get rid of it, even by the per-
mnnent dissolution of South Carolina
Statehood, since they can conceive no
other method of relief from the organ
lied robbery which is now inflicted
crnnent.
| The movement to which we refer in
South Carolina is replete with sugges.
ton. The thoughts which have given
rise SO it have been silently maturing
for final expression in all the States
which have passed through the agony
and the wreck called reconstruction.
The victims of local organizations
efficient in nothing but the art Of plum
dcring, and upheld by the power re-
siding at Washington which called
them into existence, may well believe
that they would be better off if brought
under the direct rule of that central au-
thOrity. They now suffer all the evils
which could beftll them under the
worst of centralized governments. The
oppression comes upon them by
roundabout process. Dating from the
central power installed at the Federal
capital, its actual embodiment Is in u
State, or it may be IL municipal, organ
ization, say Louisiana or South Caro-
lima, say New Orleans or Charleston.
But the arrangement makes no provis-
ion for the protective invention of the
central power, by either circutiOus or
direct methods.
1t is II cruel mockery to remind Il
people who are thus abandoned to
system of vicarious dcspotism, that the
evils of which they complain are the
work of Il State government which
they are presumed to have constituted,
| which is presumed to represent them,
and which, presumptivcly, they have
the power to reform; and that therefore
the remedy is in their own hands.
Such is the bitter comfort rendered by
not Il few Northern papers speaking as
| the organs of the dominant pnrty-pa-
| ptlS "HlCIl itIC AcStSty w VAAc u Va
! revolution, treason, rebellion against
the first earnest attempt to accomplish
the reformation which they suggest as
the only remedy.
Assurcdly it would be better for
people in this miserable dilemma to
place themselves, if possible, under the
direct power residing at Washington.
The responsibility for those incidents
of government which most nearly con-
cern them is now studiously diffused.
1t would then be concentrated; and If
the public revenue were profiigately
squandered, and taxation were only
hagitious looting, in Louisiana or South
Carolina, all the world could point to
the responsible authors of the iniquity.
Responsibility of this nature, which
cannot be concealed or evaded, even
when associated with the forms of an
absolute government, always tends to
operate as Il wholesome check.
The Lowest Type Of Humanity.
| Tho fnf}nUir,r il from,