Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-10-28
rHE aRowrH OF cExrnALrsn.

The citizen VINO has not kept fuIly posted
in regard 10 the progress We are making
toward aseenirAlised government will be
aStonished TO find how near to the dan
gerous edge of things we have already
drifted. In the natural state Of peace,
such as we enjoyed once, and Were prom
ised now" says the Washington Patriot,
the Federal Government was "a cheap de-
fence thing TO be proud of in its serene
existence, but no burthen. The President
was an object of distant and reverential re-
gard. He was our trusted representative
to the world abroad. He never rubbed
himself in a slouching fashion against us in
the ordinary contact of life. The Judici-
ary-we mean the Federal Judiciary-was
an admirable tribunal for specified energen-
cies, not a Pie-pOudre court, to which any
body could resort. The army and navy
were paseants TO be proud OF, perfectly in
noeuous in all their relations. Soldiers
were fighting Indians. Sailors were navi-
eating with success distant seas. Marines
paraded at Commodores' funerals, and
would have felt degraded If employed to
guard election polls or seize whisky stills.
As to taxes, there were none. There were
tariffs, and some pretty severe ones, but no
direct taxes-no inquiSitorial annoyance.
such ,caS the Federal authority in days
when there was peace, and social af-
lection, and union in its true sense. We
have hardly the heart to draw the contrast
with to-day, and the Optimist who challenges
us TO this comparison will scarcely insist on
our doing so. he knows, as well as we do,
what Federal authority ls now. 1t is every
where, and, nowhere more distressingly
than in its interference with the business
relations of the community. The Federal
Tax Collector is at both our elbows. He
demands an account of our income. if we
have any; he makes MS pay for drawing
our pittance out of bank; and we
cannot light a match to guide us
to bed without being conscious of his
presence. Let no one then repeat the ques-
lion, in what does the increase Of Federal
power show itself? 1t is here, there and
everywhere And for this there is no
equivalent in the beneiicent IMMIGRATION of
this thing known as the Nation. And
what is the penalty we are paying for this
snowy and psrnicious imposture? The first
is an actual revolution in our institutions
No one can honestly say or pretend that the
government of 1888, with its checks and
balances, is in any sense the government
we have now. To thoss who were bred up in
reverence for the creations Of the past. this is
no slight infection. Then, we have the
consciousness that our local affairs are La
bic at any moment TO alien interference
that we cannot conduct our elections except
under the supervision of strangers, backed
by the dread power of hired soldiery.
Our fiscal institutions, which once Were sub
jected to local control, are all swept away
10y Federal action into bOttomleSs whrl-
pool of national banking, the final drift of
WINCH lio pllc Cdll- measure. we udu the
privilege of the great Writ of Liberty, issua-
BILE by the humblest State Judge. and which
the highest Federal authority was bound to
obey. 1t is all gone. The States inn
agined themselves free from military
intrusion, and, except when the legislature
or, in its absence, the Governors. solicited
its action, the Federal soldiery was as alien
as the soldiery of Great Britain. Now
Congress and the Executive together claim
and exercise, not by express authority, but
by inference, the right to thrust their sol
diers amongst us whenever certain Federal
political exigencies arise and the rights
Of certain favored classes are called in ques-
ton. Of course all these intI1Isions, if sub
mitted to, as they now seem to be, will take
the name of law. They are assuming that
consistency now, and unless, before long,
the aleInbic In which the metals of old pol
tics are fused is not broken aud the alchcm-
lists driven away, We shall find ourselves
Thoroughly the slaves of the new evil Gen
ius of Centralism which is to be conhlred
up