New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-04
WASHINGTON GENERALIZATION

power OF the crown was 100 eieaV, WAC IN
creasing, and should be diminished, nobody
censured his boldness as unconstitutional,
though under more than one preceding reign
IL might have sent him from his seat to the
Tower. and from the Tower to the scahold.
A limited monarchy presupposes vigiiaht
jealousy of encrOachments upon the popular
liberties all the more uncOmpromislng De-
cause royalty ia its object; while government
democratic in form is saved from suspicion by
its own theory and may constantly DEFEND
itself by pointing to an apparent popular
sanction. After nearly a century OF polltlcal
existence, we find ourselves beset by the
same problems about the solution OF which
Hamilton and jefferson, the Federalists ana
the Democrats, so widely differed The war
for the Union put the authority OF the several
States into allegiance, and made wash
ington the focus OF political action
and energy. While the war ragged we
were helpless. All the power which the
General Government demanded it freely
received, and the President, the Secretary of
State. the Secretary of War, the Secretary OF
the Navy, the Attorney General and his local
subordinates did very much as they pleased,
and were thanked by panic-stricken
nation for their patriotic energy. We saw
then what we hope never to see again. we
saw the press under censorship; we saw jour-
nails suspended and sentinels on guard at the
doors of their offices while, in some cases,
remonstrance against this despotism, for it
was nothing else, necessary though it may
have been, was followed by the Imprisonment
of the remonstrants. When the war was over
in the field we prolonged its habits and Its
methods and we did this all the more inev-
itably by calling our most successful soldier
to the Presidency, partly out OF gratitude and
partly from cowardice; partly because the
soldier had conquered and partly because we
were not sure that the contest was over
| The admirable letter of Mr. Groesbeck,
which has recently been published, has be-
trayed the satraps and pensioners of the Presi-
dent-his hired servants, if we may SO call
tbem-into certain remarkable avOwals. The
Ohio statesman naturally complained OF the
concentration and increase of the power of the
General Government. The facts being too
obvious to be denied and the evil too patent
to be ignored it has been found the cheapest
and easiest method resolutely to deny that it
is an evil at all; and, in the second place, to
|
inevitable. The concentration of power at the
seat of the Government is frankly admitted,
but it is ascribed "to the industrial develop
"ments of the age, and especially to the CEN
tralizing tendencies of railroads and tele-
"grapbs.n Power" we are told "will
Railways become centralized when il can OPP
"erate more effectively from given center
than from different points. One might as
"well complain of the growth of large cities
Gas complain of the centralizing tendencies
"of the Federal Government" We may well
stand astonished and aghast at the credulou5
faulty or the startling impudence of asser-
tons like these. Without knowing it, this
writer is using precisely the same honeyed
excavations which were employed by those
who fawned upon and flattered the Caesars.
We need hardly say that this philosophical
politician is o resident of Washington. No.
body outside the comfortable shelter of Execu-
tive favor would avow that, because we have
railroads and steam navigation" this Wash
ington Capitalization has become natural and
necessary. We are forsooth to have "rings"
and populations and brazen-faced brib-
cry; we are to have salaries enormously in
creased, the Presidentenriched Representatives
bought and paid for, the public service trans
muted into one general and golden job every
public interest considered secondary to the
prosperity of the Republican party; great COM
monwealths, some of which were in existence
one hundred and fifty years before Presidents
or Congresses were dreamed of, degraded into
mere outlying provinces-and all because of
the railways and the telegraph We might be
angry at such stammering subterfuge if it
were not so childish. 1t would be for the
President to blush at this indscretion of his
creature, if haply the President were capable
of cOmprehending the length and the breadth
and the depth of it.
The duties and powers of the General Gov
eminent are few and simple. They are all
the more strictly defined by the Constitution
because that instrument so little defines them.
Washington has no legal authority which the
States have not, in terms, granted to it. The
loyalty which wanders in the excess of its zeal
outside the limits of these concessions is trea-
son to the local government Of the States. These
should be left free, not merely to manage
their own private affairs, but to exercise with
ont any undue influences proceeding from the
National Government all the powers and
duties having dlrect relation 10 tnaC GOv-
eminent. The States create the Congresses.
The States send to Washington Senators and
Representatives to make laws, which it is the
business of the President to respect and en-
force, as the servant of the popular will.
Even that anomaly, the Veto Power, is lin
tied, and legislation may be persisted in not
withstanding Executive disapproval. These
are evil days upon which we have fallen, and
doctrines like these may seem strange; but it
is high time that the bitter ignorance of our