New-York tribune., 1880-01-15
"CENrR1LLZ1TLON.D

CENTR1LIZATIONp
The single issue upon which the Democratic
/ party has been supposed to be harmonious
and united, is that of the rights Of States, as
opposed 10 what has been called centraliza-
tiOn, q term which nine out of ten OF them
had not the slightest idea of the meaning
of. and which those who did understand
it thought of only as q party cry and bug
bear. They were VIGOROUSLY at odds among
themselves upon all other Questions-currency'
tanff, banks, internal Improvements, subsidies
everything in fact that it is possible for lndi-
viduals to differ about or parties TO divide on.
Upon this one subject they were generally
credited with being perfectly harmonious. The
fights Of the States as Independent sovereign
| ties and the danger to free institutions from
the centralizng tendencies Of the General
Government under Republican rule, are themes
they never tire Of This is their common
rallying ground. They come back to it
from all their hot disputes and noisy quar-
rels and so long as they can coniinc them
selves to IT'S g!ittering genera'itics and
talk about JefiersOnian Democracy" they
seem thoroughly at one with each other
and solid against their opponents. They
differ very widely. to be sure, whenever
they undertake to put in practice their
anti-central zation theories, for the reason
that some of them VINO want appropriations
for their " dcestricls from the Federal Treas
ury have one view Of Capitalization, and others
| vino bave to run on the retrenchment and
economy dodge have n different; still they
agree. or have agreed heretofore, that CEN
| tralization is dangerous TO all we hold dear,
and that the Republicans ought to be put
| down because Of these centrahzing tendencies.
But now comes by far the ablest, if not
the most active and influential Democrat in
| the cOnutiy-Mr Charles 0'CouOr-with
| the startling proposition that so far from
there being any danger 10 free institu-
tions from the Capitalization of power
| in the General Government and Federal
| interference with the sovereign States. the
| very opposite is the truth; that the thing to
do is not to check the ccntralizing tendency,
/ but to hasten it, and place all power in
the Federal Government; not to strengthen
the separate States, but totally abolish them
do away entirely with all the machinery
of State Governments which the Democratic
party has been gorifyug ut such a rate ever
since the days Of jefferson. lie scouts
the notion of the infalliblity of the
Fathers Of the Republic, which there
has been 50 much Democratic mouthing
about whenever that party wanted to take adj
vantage OF some weakness in their work to
usurp power or steal an Office, and freely criti-
ci,es their work as sometimes inadequate and
not seldom mischeyOus. Speaking of the
states rs separate sOvcrelgntiCs, he SAYS
"That multitude of such governments,
"each SET mp ina geographical fragment Of the
Nation, and surmountod by another spread
" ont over the whole, could. through their
clashine and conflicts, prevent or even
"mitigate the evils loreseen as incident
"to every continuously active discretionary
government of men over men, was Il
misconccption.r Continuing. he says of the
system: However beneficial il may appear
" to others, events comparatively recent have
forced upon my Judgment conviction of its
incumbly peuicious tendency
This is remarkable language; aud it comes
from a gentleman who has long been looked
up to by his party as something more than
leadcr-as nothing less. indeed than its oracle
The average Democratic statesman who has
been bowling all these years about the dangers
of ccntrallzng power in the General Govern
mcnt never dreamed of arguing the
question. II was the first of Demo-
cratic axioms. He started from that as
sumption and threw himself upon proving
that the Republican tendency was toward that
fatal policy. And Republicans have not VEN
turcd to defend tie thing itself. They have
simply dsav0wed any such extreme pur-
pose as Democrats charged them with,
and claimed to be maintaining 4 proper
and sale adjustment of relations be-
tween the Nation and the States. Our
Democratic friends who do any thinking ut
all upon fundamental questions may now have
to revise their judgments on this subject.
Here, the other day, Ex-Governor Seymour,
lasl,ing before his andirons and delivering
himself OF words Of encouragement to the De-
mocracy, gave as his reason for believing that
the Democrats would elect the next President,
that they would certainly carry Ncw-York,
and as his reason for believing they would
carry New York, that " the commercial po-
"sinon of the State demands that it shall
"oppose the centrdlYng policy of the
"Repubcan party" He talked about the
bnebear of Capitalization in the old tlke-it-fOr
granted way as though il was only necessary
to sg that the Republicans were in favor of
Capitalization TO stampede all their voters.
But here is another Democrat not at all
inferior in any intellectual or moral
sense to tho Ex-Governor, who goes to
the extreme point in favor of absolute
Capitalization, and advocates the abolition of
all the separate STATE Governments Mr..
OConor differs from Governor Seymour like
wise upon another point. The latter says
{. Tho Dcmocrocv cannot 90 astray in moL,in,y
"their selection. The man whom they
"will nominate has every prospect of sue
cess" Mr.. 0'COnOr says: "I am con-