The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-01-17
THE REMEDY.

Hugh S. Legare, of South Carolina. at va
rious times Attorney General of the United
States, Acting Secretary of State and Foreign
Minister, q thorough classical scholar, ar
orator and brilliant essayist, remarks in 8
criticism on the Public Economy of Athens,
as follows:
"A system Of politics, calculated upon an
enduring enthusiasm, can lead to nothing
but imbecility and disgrace. 1t is taking the
exception instead of the rule for its founda-
ton ; it is opposing the sure, constant, IN
changeable tendencies Of nature, and only
destroying the more certainly and more hope
lessly the very power it is compelled to exert
in SO wild an enterprise" These pregnant
sentences, though written forty years ago of a
commonwealth which has many centuries
since elapsed into a standardization, are SO
pertinent to the issues of the day that we feel
it necessary to call to them the attention of
the thinking men of this Republic.
We will merely take the history of this
country since the late unfortunate conflict,
and ask if this same enduring enthusiasm"
has not been made the base for all action
taken by the General Government In all
questions Of reconstruction, Of finance, of in
ternal Improvements and Of foreign relations |
the grand germ Of dominating thought has
always been the substitution Of National for |
popular ideas, growing out Of an enthusi-
sstic relegation of power by States to the Gen
eral Government during the war. At first, in
4 stealthy and unperceived manner, the Ex-
,cutive gained upon the other coordinate
branches of the Government, until at length
crown stronger than both its two co-ordinates
it to-day, through the lachesse of
corrupted and weak judiciary, and the
lmost ludicrous fear Of a rotten legislative,
las laid a fearless hand upon the throat of /,
overeign State and sought to strangle out all g
Constitutional liberty in her borders. Y
1t is the system Of politics of which we 3
peak that has done this. Men say Grant is v
} blame for this or that aggression, the army q
to be censured for this or that act of q
ampling upon civil authority; but it is
either of these--it is the false system which v
as afforded the opportunities; and the fools G
no have grasped them will suffer for their t,
lure in far greater degree than we can at S
resent imagine. Had they stopped half way ri
ID waited for the people to become .
oroughly accustomed to the new machinery n
ID then gradually crept onward, it might e.
we been to them successful and to the Il
public disastrous; as it is, they are wrecked to
tn their system and must upon its scattered y,
ID tempest-:ossed fragments seek to gain the 81
ore. If they perish no hand will raise VI
vi
If they escape it will be to die in nakedness ha
ION pitiless rock-bound coast. The tn
nedy for the country is in new declara-
n Of the autonomy Of the States, and re- th
cton OF congressional and Executive do
wers within the narrow limits originally re-
ced around them in the Constitution. an
er the Presidents message, followed by 10,
saker Wiltzs unanswered appeal, and sub tt
uentiy oy the subcommittee report, 1t is fri
duty of Governors to call their State Le- tb.
atures and instruct Senators how to act. re-,
ators do not represent party ideas. The
ner this conviction is forced upon the Co
sent Senate by the imperative demand of say
several State Legislatures, the sooner will att
country arrive at a safe and peaceful sys- ron
of politics which will insure the perpe- fro
y Of the Union, as well as protect the di- ind
'e interests Of its integral factors, the souer- :,
States. he