Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1872-09-20
~. ..-.-or Capitalization.

request.
The PartyOf Capitalization.
The ceIebrsed naturalist, Cuvier, in (
remarkable ssay delivered half century
ago before he French Academy, asserted
that while the field Of the natural sciences
ts unlimited and inexhaustible, the field of
he moral sciences, including that OF gov
ernmsnt, seems absolutely exhausted. No
progress, no discoveries have been made
since the day of Plato, in the art of govern
ing men. The English historian, Buckle,
takes the same view, and a careful obser-
vstion of the events of our day seems to
confirm it.
We fondly imagined that the founders of
our Republic had left us a perfect work
which might endure forever. For more
than ten Years the party in power have
tried to change and disfgure it until it can
scarcely be recognized. Their object is to
substitute for the beautiful and elastic sys-
tenn which combined the sovereignty of
the States with their united action through
the Federal government, centralized
government like that established in France
by Louis XIV, confirmed by the Republic,
strengthened by Napoleon, and which has
continued to curse that country until the
present day. The effort of the enlightened
moderate French republicans is to shake
off the incubus of this Capitalization,
while that of so-called Republicans i'll this
country is to introduce it and saddle it
upon us forever.
Upon this subject the Courier des Etats
Tnis publishes an article so timely and
sensible that we translate below few ex-
tracts. While the views of that paper
upon French politics are thoroughly sound
and conservative, they are no less so upon
American politics. 1t is conducted with
remarkable ability, and it has always been
lust and sympathetic towards the South.
Speaking OF Mr.. Blaine's late speech at
Augusta, Maine, the Courier says:
Mr.. Blaines thesis is that the doctrine
OF State sovereignty is a fallacy which the
American people must renounce ill order
TO enter fully into the career of centralza-
ton. MIR. Blaine narrows down the ques-
ton and says, Chow can you expect the
American government to be respected
when defending the rights of American
citizens abroad, if it does not possess the
right of protecting citizen at home upon
the pretext that by doing so it would ell
eToach upon the state government ~
This ID evidently a specious paradox,
which it would be puerile to answer. But
it traces exactly the line Of division
between the Republican and the Demo
cratic party. This is precisely the question
between the theory of the local and that
OF the Federal government. The main
thing to know is where the one commences
and the other ends !; and this is not the
problem of the United States alone, it is
that of every country.
The clear and positive fact, and this is
the meaning of Mr.. Blaine's speech, is that
The American Republicans aim precisely,
and with q tenacity daily exhibited by
new encroachments, to do here what the
most enlightened spirits endeavor to undo
In France that is, to concentrate all the
threads of the administration in one single
public docile instrument, obeying, even
In the least details of political, administra-
tive and social life, the watchword issued
from Washington in one word, to forge
for the profit of clique, party, an impe-
rious, exclusive and domineering oil
garchy, q s,oord, eUhose hilt shall be in
the White House, and its point eUeryachere.
Such is, in one word, the Regime which
General Grants administration tends to
impose upon the country, and has already
imposed upon it progressively, day after
day, and not without success. And it is
because such are the doctrines and prac-
tioe Of the Republican party, that we have
always been, and always intend to remain,
Democrats. It would matter but very
little to US that one of the candidates were
named Grant and the other Greeley, if
these names represented merely two per-
sonages, for neither of whom we feel any
heart-yearnings !; but in the fact that
MIR. Greeley is the representative of the
party which inelines most to local indie
pendence and to what may be called adj
ministrative decentralization, is found the |
sole cause of our adhesion to the platforms |
and candidates proclaimed at Cincinnati |
and Baltimore.
1t would be easy to demonstrate that if |
Capitalization is the normal condition of
rRonarchial and oligarchic governments, in
which authority emanAtes from one central
point, it is for this very cause hostile to
popular governments, especially by placing
in one single hand the disposition of public
Offices, which becomes an engine of cor
ruption.''
After showing the enormous burden i'm
posed upon the Southern States, deprived
Of the management of their own affairs by
the arpet-baggers sent and supported by
the Grant Administration, the Courier
concludes:
"There is no medium between a COM
plete reform or ruin. The South must be
restored to herself or Efall into sayagery.
She must resume her rank among the
prosperous States of the Union or sink to
the condition of San Domingo. Once
more, the principal, if not the only cause
Of this situation is in the fatal influence of
Radical politics; that is to say, the nepo-
ttsm and systematic corruption which have
entrusted all the public offices to unworthy
and incapable hands. Hence the yassa-