New-York tribune., 1876-01-24
Ire IKE A NATIONf


agree about the meaning Of words, why not
resort at once to that fountain of pathological
knowledge, An American Dictionary of the
English Language, by Noah Webster, LID. 7
Mr. Tucker, with that tendency to nice dis
tinction which marks the Virginian mind, in
sists that we are not Nation, and thereby
exasperates his fellow-members who are
nothing if not national. "Will the gentleman
from Massachusetts, said blr. Tucker tri-
umpbantly, "pOnt out where the word Ma
Z" tiOnal with respect to power or anything
" else, occurs in the Constitution ~ Alr. HOar,
of whom this request was made, should have
answered that there was no occasion to use
the word "National" in the Constitution
nor could there be any "Nation" until the
Constitution had created one. Besides, " Ma
"tionaln is not legal, technical word, because
it does not describe with sufficient accuracy.
DR.. Webster defines "Nation' as follows: "a
"body of people inhabIting the same country
cor united under the same sovereign or gov
"ermcnt.r Legally, we are the United States
of America. As people we are the American
Nation. So when Mr. Hoar very naturally, OF
course talked about National Powers" Mr.
Tucker had him at disadvantage. If he had
confined himself to "National Dignity" Mr.
Tucker would not have had word to say.
But when Mr.. Hoar said "the power to levy
"war, to conclude peace, to establish com
"merce, means q nation In every line where
Z" that power is granted" he talked loosely,
and barred his manly bosom to Mr.. fuckers
little arrows, simply because "Nc power' can
never mean ga nation" by any latitude of
construction. Mr.. Lawrence kindly came to
the rescue. a nation" he said "was in the
minds of men who made the Constitution"
Then another verbal triumph for Mr.. Tucker:
"The men did not make IL; the Federal Con-
"vention did not make it; the States made
it," Tucker is sharp. Like true son of
Virginia, he knows all the points. He heard
this thing talked over when he was baby.
OF course, to q man who is not res0lutely
bent upon running this Government on alb
stractions and to whom legislation is larger
and more liberal business than the splitting of
hairs, it is of no consequence whether we
speak of the whole country as a nation or not,
until indeed speculation hardens into treason.
and the Government is admitted to be substan-
tial enough to be destroyed. 1t is to be re-
gretted however, that gentlemen OF Mr..
fuckers discriminating turn of mind should
fail to comprehend that the more closely
they press their theories concerning 1t,
the more likely the Government is to be just
what they do not want it to be. The Federal
power to-day would have been far more lin
tied in its powers if all its powers had not been
continually and cautiously questioned. 1t has
been strengthened by the perpetual necessities
of self-preservation. During the civil war it
was often compelled to do things which at any
other time would have filed every true lover
of liberty with alarm. If Mr. Tucker and
those who are of his mind desire centrallza-
ton still more complete, they have only to go
on fretting about state Rights until the States
have not q right left except that of electing
new President whenever death may create a
vacancy. Nobody can hold in higher estima-
ton the local governments than we do-the
thoroughly popular distribution OF power
among States, counties, and municipalities.
Nobody could regard with greater jealousy the
slightest encroachment upon the authority of
tho individual members of the Union. All
this, however, need not betray us into the de-
luson that the Government of the United
States is mere phantom, pretty fiction, the
form and the show without the substance of
legal authority. of this we are ready to con-
cede to it just so much rs it may need for
self-support, and the more seldom its dignity
is questioned the less dignity will it require.
We beg Mr.. Tucker and other intelligent gen
tlemen of his school not to instigate the Union
to multiply safeguards and arbitrary restric-
tions. These are as-offensive to us as they can
be to the strictest of the strict construction
lists. Let them save their strength for some
case of unquesti0Lable usurpation.