Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-02-07
THE PROGRESS OF GOVERNMENTAL CEN
TRALIzsTIoN.

An article in the current issue OF the
atlantic Monthly, on the Strong Govern
"ment Idea" may be cited as an evidence
OF the progress already made even among
more or less cultivated men towards APP
proval OF that centralizing tendency which
is the most serious movement of the times,
and the most significant The writer OF
the article referred to calmly recapitulates
the steps which have been taken since the
rebellion to break down and abolish the
theory of States Rights which was con-
fessedly in harmony with the original
American polity, and expresses the opinion
that the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF the Federal
Government, which has been going on so
steadily for the last fifteen years, is in the
line of increased national security and pros
perity. He puts and answers the question
which the present tendency of authority
suggests, thus: viii not this crowding
"of the State governments into narrower
s'fields of action, and this enlargement of
"the powers of the National Government,
weaken, and in the end destroy, repub-
lican institutions? Not necessarily.
"The demand for stronger central gov
'ernment carries with it no DISPOSE
"tion to surrender individual rights. The
''citizen believes that the central power is
ga more effectual agency to protect his
'rights and work out beneficial results to
him than the State can possibly be- and
so forth, in by no means strong or sagacious
way. Now it is evident that the assump-
ton of " demand" for strong central
government, here made, is largely without
warrant. The progress of Capitalization
since the rebellion has not been open, but
indirect and insidious The necessities of
great crisis accustomed the people during
the rebellion to very rude and by no means
scrupulous handling of the Federal Consti-
tuition. At that time it was made to meet
as many diverse requirements as the cele-
brated will in Swift's Tale of Tub. After
the rebellion it was therefore comparatively
easy to persuade the masses that whatever
measures of Capitalization were proposed
were demanded for the securing of the
'.fruits of the war;" and under cover of
that elastic excuse the new tendency re-
ceived powerful forward impulses. At no
time, however, was Capitalization proposed
as desirable policy by the Republican
Party, nor has there ever been
a time when the leaders of that or any
party would have thought it safe to ven
ture upon such proposition. The work
of Capitalization has gone on in great
measure automatically, moreover. Party
has availed itself of the opportunities
created by the popular condemnation of
rebellion, to urge policies which tended
to Capitalization, but which were really
devised without any other than a narrow
partisan purpose. The assertion that "the
citizen believes that the central power
sis a more effectual agency to protect his
"rights and work out beneficial results to
him than the State can possibly be, " is
even more loose and unjustifable than that
which posits the illusion of a popular de-
mand for strong Government. " As it
involves the very core of that question,
however, we must examine it with some
care.