The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-02-17
Equal Benefits from the National Gov
eminent.
From the Galveston News, +,


From the Galveston News, February 6th.J
"Poyerty, prostration, and helplessness
are poor consultations to the South" says the
Richmond Dispatch, "for her exclusion from
equal participation IN the benefits of the Ma
tional Government, BY reason OF Der own
strict constr uction rs to the constitutional
powers of the Federal Government" We
concur fully with our Virginia contempo-
rsry. This is no time for southern commu.
mites to listen to constructive logicians of
the antediluvian period, who so long and
with such fatal efficiency construed them
out OF the benefits of the National
Epion, but left them naked and helpless un-
der its iron rod and relentless manaclea.
Historically considered, the strict construc'
ton which gave 10 one section with respect
to national bounties a monopoly OF ipdul.
gence, and to the other section monopoly OF
abstinence. was an after-thought adopted in
the vain hope that it would prove an i'm
pregnable bul&ark to protect the "pecu-
liar institutions of the South against
the sentimental politics OF the North.
One would think that since its fu.
N4afty has been so thoroughly demon
strated by the logic of events the tenacil!
with which 1t was once cluDg to would have
strioi c,nstructionis;s belong 10 the hopeless
class of minds that learn nothing and forget
nothing, and walls of political doctrine
which were originally reared as q fortress
for the South they are now defending with
all their might as the south's prison and
peor.house. 1t Is also historical fact that
internal improvements, with the aid and un.
der the care of the National Government. for
80 oIx nf oil Ercf
suggested by southern statesmea. Wash.
iHstoi first conceived the idea OF uni
ting the waters Of the Ohio and OF
the James river. Jefferson, Madison, and
Monroe repeatedly urged the great pub
lie expediency of establishing, through
Government agency, as soon Us possible
ample highways across the country and con-
aecting all its parts. They advocated such a
advance the material prosperity Of the peo-
pie aud bring them into relations of har-
mony, friendly acquaintance, aud cordial
reciprocity. But aside from all this. and
aside from any intrinsic force original
ly contained In the strict construction
logic, 1t Is alse matter of history that the
,preporderatipg power In the Union long ago
decided the issue in favor OF applying The
power and the money of the National Gov
eminent to works OF internal improvement,
and especially to the construction of great
trans.continental railway liness There the
decision is proclaimed In unequiyocal
precedents. It Ia idle to assert that 1t
lacks clear sanction IN the Constitution.
It stands more firmly as an nnwritten part OF
that instrument than the limitation Of the
presidency to two terms. 1t Is no longer In
order to debate point which, for practi-
cal purposes, presents no question. The
most that southern stickiers for strict con.
struetion, In opposition to national subsidies
to works of internal Improvement, can do 10
that regard is to encourage the continuance
Of that divided policy which has given the
North the lions share OF appropriations from
The National Treasury, and shut the South
,nt In the cold TO enjoy 10 poverty, and rags,
md starvation her exclusive virtue Of
,iraights!aoed and unoonquerably abstemious