Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-01-30
rs IT WAS AND as .I1 rs.

Up to the year 1859 there was no question
as to the character of the government of the
United States. 1t was simply an executive
government, its officers contenting them
selves with executing the laws of the several
States and of Their representatives in Con-
gress assembled. It never entered into the
mind of any man to &C nceive that the federal
government could become other than what it
was intended to be--a committee of the
whole on the public safety. The States were
confederated, and as such confederation
formed central government, not for the
regulation of internal affairs, but for the
protection of the people of the several SOW
ereign States against foreign invasion. It
was just such combination as might be
formed by the merchants of any city for
mutual protection against external opposi-
ton. 1t did not interfere with the complete
independence of any party to the compact.
Such was the federal union as originally
designed. Such, however, is not the federal
union of to-day. Step by step the central
government has been usurping the powers of
the several States, until now Congress
scarcely pays any heed to the reserved rights
of the States, and to defend those rights
either in Congress or through the press is
regarded as little short of treason. It has
been the aim of the party in power to build
up strong government, one to which the
people of every city and State in the Union
will have to look for police protection, for
the right to carry on trade and commerce in
any of their varied branches, for every right
which they have hitherto derived from the
State or municipal authority. 10 that
end the army was made the tool of the exec
utive to Fenforce laws while the regularly
constituted civil authorities were ignored
wholly. With that purpose the federal gov
eminent has extended its authority over the
most insignificant affairs, and has appoint ed
revenue and customs collectors who are sur
rounded by horde of spies who pry into
the private concerns of the people and prac-
tice tyranny in some of its most detestable
forms. To increase its power it has appoint-
ed supervisors to regulate the elections in the
several States, giving them extraordinary
powers and authorizing unwarranta5le and
unconstitutional interference with the free
dom of the ballot.
1t is about time that halt was called in
this matter. It is time that the original
purpose of the founders of the government
was brought into view and called, to the at
rent1on of our law-givers. There is real
danger in this rendering towards central
lzation that has been SO dominant of late
danger that as tho federal power becomes
strong it will seek to subordinate ell other
authority to the dicta of those who rule at
Washington. The people may learn when it
is too late to remedy the evil that they have
allowed their dearest privileges to DO taken
from them under pretense of military ne
cessity or party expediency. After the rights
OF the States have been destroyed or absorb
ed by the general government, the rights Of
the people will soon follow, and even those
now in middle life may live to see a des-
potism established on the ruins of the re-
public that will be far more intolerable than
any that now curses the old world. Eternal
vigilance in this direction is the price of
liberty. We cannot too strenuously insist
that the reserved rights of the individual
States of the Union bs defended to the ut
termost.