The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-03-09
Tha National Vanity Fair.

The action of the United States enats in
referring to a committee the threemiIsion
centennial appropriation hui is considered
fatal. 1t was properly referred sofhe Com.
3mittee on Appropriations, aud. the senate
refused, by q roteof TITO %, to Instruct 'no
committee to report an appropriation.
Almost all tho speakers except the REM
sylyania senator's opposed the propriets OF
making the centennial the occasion OF a great
show an international exhtbition-and
some concurred with Mr. THURMAN 10 con"
tending that Congress bad no right under the
Constitution to make any appropriation at
all to the purposes of the proposed ccle5ra.
ton. AS we have already said, it would be
most inconsistent in tue Government to vote
money to the centennial, and thus commit q
fragrant violation of the Constitution-the
charter of the principles and rights pro-
claimed on !" Internationally" and sancti'
fed by the sacrifices and the blood OF our
illustrious ancestors.
If the people can't pay for tho celebration
out Of their own pockets their PATRIOTISM
must be very feeble, or their love OF none!
must be stronger than their love OF country.
We are not surprised that the plans for
the centennial look more to money'maklng
than to laudin. the principles OF eonstita-
tionsl republicanism. The latter should ao-
sorb the public mind On the day Of the cele-
bration; but in Philadelphia the money fea-
ture is the major proposition. Certainly this
is patural, since the movers In this affair
have been conspicuous in violating the prin-
cipIes and rights established by the "rebel-
lion - Of '7G. Why should they spend their
time and millions of money Contributed by
other people and from the National Trea-
sury) in celebrating principles which they
have tranlpled into the dust9
Let the people spend thcf own money
everywhere in their own way. That would
be 6 national ccebration-frec and repuDll.
can. But if the nation is to pay millions for
a celebration il Philadelphia the affair Is
made local and turned into pccuuary spec
ulation for one city in a country OF hundreds
of towns and cities. What an outrage upon
the nation. The people couldn't see it nor
enjoy it, and yet it is proposed to take their
money for it. Only the rich, who can afford
to travel, would be able to witness it, and
after AL it would be degraded to money
making and pocket-pickng affair." II Con-
grcss votes the money of the people to this
local and s,rdid concern it will outrage the
constitution and perpetratc great wrong
upon the Taxpayers of the nation.
Leave to Philadelphia her own centennial,
and 10 other places theirs. Let subscriptions
be free to all aud compulsory on none. Let
San Francisco; and Brownsville, Texas; and |
Portland, Maine; aud Duluth and Charles
ton, $. G., and Alaska celebrate the dey in
their own respective fashionss for paying |
their money they should lave their choice of
of ways. But to offer Philadelphia as the
heart-its shouts as the national
voice its shows and trafficking as the cele- |
bra:i,n of American independesce-is mon
-trou>. a greater show Of vanity and pre-
sumption has not been made during the
lite of the nation"