The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-08-30

/ hohr, Dut W party rule. Ii party
machinery, the whole of it. Would the Repub-
lican minority in Congress, do you think, insist
! upon keeping these laws upon the statute books
II there was democratic President and only
| Democratic Marshals and Deputy Marshsls
! were TO be appointedg Laws should be as fair
for one as for another. Nor were these laws
made for the South as has been claimed, so
much as for close districts, and especially the
cities In the North, where elections can be best
manipulated. Five-sixths of the money ex-
| pended under them to pay Marshals has been
! expended in Northern States The demand for
their repeal did not come from the South 1t
| is not Southern issue. 1t is a demand that
elections shall be kept free: that bayonets shall
/ not come 70 the polls nor Marshals with power
| to arrest without warrant, and with money
taken from the treasury to bride and corrupt
To the exercise of no power by the General
| Government was there more objection offered
| in the formation OF the constitution than the
| right to make or alter regulations respecting
the election of Representatives. More than
| half of the State Conventions objected to this
| provision, and urged that ii should be taken
away This is the language of the New York
| Convention: THAT the constitution will not
make or alter any regulation in this State re-
| specung the times, places and manner for
| holding elections for Senators or Representa-
| tves"
The constitution imposes upon the Legisa-
| ture of each State the duty of prescribing the
times, places and manner of holding elections
with, however, provision, Confding, TO use
the language OF Hamilton in the Federalist
| the ultimate right of regulating its own cleo
| ton to the Union itself"
| Though Congress may make or alter by law
| such regulations, there is no warrant anywhere
for Congress to provide for the appointment of
United States officers to execute the laws or su-
| pervise the carrying out of regulations made
! by State Legislatures, and to interfere thereby
as they necessarily do under the law as it stands
with the election of State officers. That is "a
manifest conflict of authority that can not safe-
! ly be permitted to exist
| A majority in Congress, / say. sought the re-
| peal of these laws. The President, at the de-
| mand of his party interposed his veto Con-
| gress, then, having appropriated money for all
| other legitimate objects, made an appropria-
| ton for regular Marshals and their general
Deputies providing, however, that no part of
| the money appropriated should be used to pay
| Deputy Marshals to attend elections. But, for
| the fifth time, the Executive veto was inter
! posed to thwart the will of the majority of
Congress- The President, in effect, by his veto
said: If l cannot have the money without con-
| ditious-have it to pay Deputy Marshals to
stand at the pols-I will not have it at all
Thus, for the first time irf our Government, the
President assumes to exercise dictatorial control
! over Congress in the matter OF appropriations
| Why, my friends, control over revenues, taxa
| ton and appropriations constitutes the most i'm
| portant safeguard against despotc power known
! to free Governments. Indeed. that there are
| free Governments at all is due more TO the con
troll over the purse strings retained by the peo-
| pie than to any other cause In no constitu-
| hOnal Government has King or Emperor, or
President held control over taxes or appropria-
| tons since the middle sges CHARLES l. under
| took to levy taxes, to raise and appropriate
! money without Parliament; but it called forth
the resistance of Hampden and Pym, and the
head Of Charles went off on the block.
When Congress surrenders to any Executive
| its absolute control over the revenue and ap
preparations, yields to his dicta ion, it lets go
| the most important restraining power in free
| Government 1t is for Congress, aud not the
| President TO say for what objects money shall
| be appropriated and how it shall be applied
| Congress, too, may III it's discretion withhold
| appropriations from any objects, and for its
| acts IN 30 doing Congress alone il responsible
| and must answer to the people The President
has no responsibility, and no power in this re
| gard
| POWERS AND SAFEGUARDS MUST STAND TO
| GETHER.
The more l study the nature and attributes
| OF our system of Government and compare it
| with the Governments of other countries and
| with Governments that have existed in other
| times, the more convinced l am that it le, in
| form, the best Government on the earth. l be
| neye that none was ever more wisely calculated
| or better adapted to promote the general wei
| fare and secure the blessings of liberty" to a
people than our Government as framed by our
| duty of this generation to preserve and trans
INIT 1t with its powers and its safeguards equal
| ly unimpaired.
1t is only when we consider the greater i'm
| portance to the citizen of peace at home, and
| local security to person and property, that the
| INFINITE value OF our local system of Govern
ment becomes apparent The most striking
feature In our system to foreigner Is the large
| share of power locally exercised
Sir James Mcintosh, in discoursing on the
of Gov anti o,,n fnrdt nn hp
| surest protection against wrong both to their
| rulers and their fellows says: "The best
| security which human wisdom can devise seems
| to be the distribution Of political authority
| among individuals and bodies, the separate in
| terests and separate characters corresponding
to the variety of classes of which civil society
| is composed, each interested to guard their own
| order from opposition by the rest; each also
| interested to prevent any of the others from
Selling an exclusive, and, therefore, despotic
| power, and all having common interest to
| cooperate in carrying on the ordinary and nee
essary administration of government" :
'Such governments" he adds, care with
| justice peculiarly aud emphatcally called free
and III ascribing that liberty to the skillful COM
| bination OF mutual dependence and mutual
check feel my own conviction greatly strength
| ened by calling to mind that in this opinion
| agree with all the wise men who have ever
| deeply considered the principles of politics.
with Aristotle, Polybius, with Cicero and Taci-
| quieu and Hume"
| And 1t VIII De an unhappy day for this country
| when the General Government is permitted to
| absorb the functions designed to be exercised
| by local authorities. There seem to be those,
| however, who think it has come to be the le-
| climate province of the General Government
! to enter into and make laws at discretion
for the States, and with its own officers to exc
| cute all laws. 1t was the doctrine of Jefferson
that the nearer Government WAS kept to the
| people the more secure Government was, and
| the more secure, also, were the liberties of the
| people. Ii by the whole each is protected then
| all are protected That is q Government of the
| people, by the people and for the people But
| if we accustOm ourselves to look for protection
not from our neighbors, but from an extrane-
GUS power, then it will be too late to complain
| if our liberties are determined by the same
| power. Let us be candid, then, and, as citizens
| OF this State, In our sovereign capacity as
| voters, answer whether we will invite the as
! sumption of the functions of the State by the
General Government Will you give up entirely
/ the autonomy of the State? / apprehend no
sooner than you would give up the Union.
Eighteen years ago, to save the Union from the
rock Of secession, million of men took up
| arms; shall we permit it now to be swat
| lowed up in the whirlpool of general power by
our consent or our apathy?
The question Of the right of secession has
been forever settled by the tribunal of last
| resort-war. That decree has been ineffacea-
| bly, stamped on hundred battle-felds, and
there can be no reversal BY the same ordeal,
slavery that excrescence left on our free nstitu-
| tions. went out forever.
Among the first to take arms, and among the
| foremost to bear them in that conflict for the
| Union, were the gallant men who have been
| chosen leaders in the political contest now be-
| fore us. When the appsal to arms was made
they went forth ready to sacrifice all to preserve