Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-03-12
pREROOATIVES OF SOVEREIGNTY
sovsrsiEuty Exerclsed.


To the Editor Of the Ledger:
In its origin governmental power Of
every kind emanates from the people.
Once established, however, its tendency
10 ever toward concentration in tie
hands of q few who, apt to forget that
they are in reality but trustees, seem in
eontinently to fall into the error Of deem.
ing themselves to be the sovereign power
that they are but entrusted with for the
public good. 1t is this p%roneness to
change the relation into the absolute, to
be the reality Of what they are but repre-,
senta.ives Of, that gives force and point
to the aphorism: Eternal vigilance is
the price OF liberty. To conserve and
preserve purity Of government, to keep
their agents within the lines restricted,
the people, as absolute sovereign, must
at times rouse up to the necessity and to
the exercise Of decisive control. The
present is such a time, and the
voice of ultimate sovereignty is
ringing 10 authoritative tones through
out the land. Favoritism must cease;
justice must prevail; the producers
Of wealth have equal rights with con.
sumers and possessors Of it; labor is en.
titled to as much regard, and must have
as full protection as capital. In the
recent past it has not been so. The
great fulcrum on which the prosperity Of
the body polite rests, labor has been
o~verslaughed, and legislation has run
wild 10 excess of devotion to capital.
The nation has been rapidly driven on
the road to ruin because, iorsootb, those
she trusted with power had not the com.
mon sense prescience to comprehend
that, labor being the base, its idlenesc
e%ntailed a similar condition on all else
the consequence is that idleness prevails.
ldleness being the bane of national pros
perity and fairly rempnerated industry
its antidote, it must be conceded that
wherever a narrow aud faulty Legislation
has produced enforced and unWillinr
idleness, a right legislation laying &
9 broad foundation for active industries
will remedy the evil.
| Il, in a naturally energetic people, {
normal governmental policy Of broat
conservation of the interests Of all ha.
4 been gradually undermined and distort
y ed into the narrow groove of class anc
special legislation adverse thereto, re
version to the original policy is the onl,
efficient corrective and requires starI
d enforcement to the eud Of eradicatin
q the poison aud obliterating the rutl
q When a condition Of abnormal, sci
. destroying inertia p~aralyzes the induI
' trious classes, constituting as they d
the great bulk of every prosperous pee
pie, and the nation, as a whole, is thereb
inevitably plunged into poverty and di
n tress, the effect Of unwise if not of ella,
and privileges bougbt,legislation, it
clear to all who study cause and eHe,
that reaction, ever to violent revoludo
is threatened, to avoid the danger
: which legislation must suecumb to h
n peoples emphatic behest. If congreI
be at fault it must perforce undo II
n wrong, whether wittingly or unwittingl
committed, and enact laws in accor
anee with the sovereign will. The mo-
etary legislation Of the United Stat,
IN land Of each separate State as we'll HI
TO been, to a great extent, engineered 10 Il
lie direct interest Of a single and numel
cally small class at the expense OF eyel
II. other and to the detriment Of a true pu
ID lie policy. The 6rst step toward So