The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-01-20
WORDS OF WISDOM.

In the present age when corruption, mis-
rule and tyranny hold full sway, it may no
be amiss to publish few extracts from tn
writings OF Alexander Hamilton and Jame
Madison, as contained in the federaliSt. The,
are applicable to the present condition o
affairs and will repay perusal Perhaps eveI
Grant and his rough rider, Sheridan, may
find it worth while to read the words Of wis
dom uttered by men who aided SO materially
in building up system of government which
it seems to be at once the determination and
ambition of the present Administration to
pull down. Or, perhaps, these modern '.great
men" (save the markD regard with ineffabe
disdain the ideas and theories Of those patri-
OTIS of old, who nursed the silly dream OF
establishing republic that would stand for
ever.
Independent of all other reasonings 1Non
the subject, it is full answer to those who
require more peremptory provision against
military establishments III time Of peace, 20
say that the whole power Of the proposed
government is TO be in the bands Of the repre-
sentatives of the people. This is the essen
tial and, after all, only eiGcacious security for
the rights and privileges Of the people which
is attainable in civil society.
If there should be an army to be made use
of as the engine of despotism, what need of
the militia? If there should be no army,
whittier would the militia, irritated at being
required to undertake distant and distress
ing expedition, for the purpose of riveting
the chains Of slavery upon q part of their
countrymen, direct their course, but to the
seat of the tyrants, who had meditated so
foolish as well as so wicked a project; to crush
them in their imagined Entertainments of
power and make them an example Of the just
vengeance of an abused and incensed peo-
ple.-Hamdt0a.
If the Federal Government should overpass
the Just bounds Of its authority and make a
tyrannical use Of it's powers, the people,
whose creature it is, must appeal to the stan
dard they have formed and take such me-
sures to redress the injury done to the Con-
stitutiOn, as the exigency may suggest and |
prudence justify.
The genius of republican liberty seems to |
demand on one side, not only that all power
should be derived from the people; but that |
those entrusted with it should be kept in de-
pendence on the people, by Il short duration
of their appointments, and that even during
this short PERIOD the trust should be placed |
not in few, but in number OF hands. -
Madison.
In this relation, then, the proposed govern
eminent cannot be deemed national one ::
since the jurisdiction extends to certain emu
merated objects only, and leaves to the several
States residuary and inviolable sovereignty
over all other objects - hudson.
But ambitious entertainments of the Fed
eral Government on the authority of the State
Governments would not excite the opposition
OF single State, or Of few States onlv 5
They would be signals of general alarm.
Every government would espouse the COM
mon cause. correspondence would be I
opened; plans Of resistance would be con |
,erted; one spirit would animate and con c
iuct the whole. The same combination, in |
snort, would result from an apprehension Of |
he Federal, as was produced by the dread of 2
foreign yoke; and unless the projected in i
loyations should be voluntarily renowned, | b
he same appeal to trial of force would be e
made IN the one case as was made in the other. {
6ut what degree Of madness could ever drive
he Federal Government to such an extremity O
let lis not insult the free and gallant citizens s
t America with the suspicion that they G
Tould be less able to defend the rights Of t
Ihich they would be in actual possession r
han the debased subjects of arbitrary power d
'ould be to rescue theirs from the hands of Ii
heir oppressors. Let us rather no longer in O
alt them with the supposition that they can ri
yer reduce themselves to the necessity of G
laking the experiment by a blind and OF
me submission to the long train OF insidious h
IeaSures which must precede and produce it. 81
Madison. e.
sc
no political truth is certainly of greater in
nsic value or is stamped with the authority nj
more enlightened patrons of liberty, than of
lat on which the objection is founded. The n,
OF ALL POWERS LEGISLATIVE, hy
iEcUTIVE AND JUDICIARY, IN THE SAME HANDS m
NEITHER or ONE, FEW OR MANY AND wHHrH-
HEREDITARY, sELF-APPOINTED OR ELECTIVE
Ny JUSTLY BE PRONOUNCED THE VERY DEFINE N,
ON Or TYRANNY Madison. q,