Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-22

by legislation touching our domestic affairs
or our relations to other coantries-they,
too,are pressed with the labor of at
tending to the personal interests
of their constituents seeking place or leg
islation; of members of the house, who
hold for two years, in which time they can
not attend to all the calls made upon them
and at the same time learn the details of
our government, orSof the abuses which
grow up. The fourth body is the lobby"
rapidly increasing in numbers, who hold
their places for life Many of them make
their homes in Washington; they alone are
familiar with affairs, and acquainted with
the clerks and Others who fill the depart
ments. These are the men who, in the
language of the late member of the cabi
net already quoted, are producing aspira
tions and interests so powerful and COM
plicated in their nature and so constantly
appealing to the government, rightfully or
wrongfully, that the requirements of
craftsmanship are far different from those
which suficed century ago."
Republican journals have made it known
throughout the land that this last named
organization is so potent that it deies the
government itself, in its own courts, by
the aid of its own agents. These facts
have aroused the attention of patriotic
Republicans, who find that they are the
results Of their own doctrines of centrali-
zation. The fruit of Capitalization is
found to be a system of temptations which
viii grow worse as our population increas-
es in number and wealth. In less than
thirty years this country will contain 100,
100000 souls. It's income will grow still
more rapidly. The amount of money III
the hands of congress, to be given away
for all sorts of objects, will, as past ex-
perience shows, increase in a four
fold ratio. Congress is now over
burdened with duties, and it usually ad-
journs more in consequence of the Teari-
ness of the members than because its task
has been done. All thoughtful men in
each party see that this state of things
must be corrected; that we must go back
to the teaching of the constitutions land that
strict construction of the powers of con-
gress will leave less opportunity for cor
ruption.
It is this feeling which has produced the
political results of the year 1882. 1t has
burst the strong bonds which held together
the Republican organization. party
(which has doubts about the correctness of
its views loses the power to adjust its
controversies. Should they be adjusted,
the tap of the drum will not call back citi-
zens to its ranks. say this, not because 1
would throw discredit upon the Republi-
can party; on the contrary, the SEN
timents which govern large
numbers of its members are patriotic and
honorable, as are their efforts to check
nh, Of TO
views of policy. It would be an insult to
say that they were governed by their
passions or personal interest. No; the re-
suits of the election of 1882 were not due
to local causes or controversies. They were
the product of a general belief that the
doctrines of contamination have fostered
serpent's eggs where they were expected to
give strength to our Union. We have re-
ports of corruptions not only in the post
Office, in the signal service, and in the po-
lice force designed to protect the property
Of the public from wrongs and robberies,
but also in the collection and use of po-
itical assessments, which congressman
claim they have right to make, while
they punish as crimes such acts by other
officials. Other departments, where there
are greateri temptations, are yet to be
looked into.
The circumstances of the elections diff
fered in the several states. The character
of the nominations had the usual influence.
Whatever difference there may have been
as to harmony or strife in the ranks of
parties, all were overborne by the fell
ing in the minds of thoughtful, calm, and
patriotic Republicans that they had drifted
into errors under the influence of passions
infamed by civil war. And this has been
confirmed by every days reports of judic-
ial proceedings where the government has
been baffled in its effort to punish wrong
doors, in many instances by the corruption
of its own agents. All feel that in the
near future, when our population shall
be 100,000,000, our government can not go
on unless it returns to the constitutional
policy Of our fathers. In view of the evils
growing out of vague constructions of the
constitution, and of usurpations of indef-
mite powers, the public is inclined to heed
this warning of Washington:
''If, in the opinion of the people, the
distribution or modification of the consti-
tutional powers be, in any particular,
wrong, let it be corrected by an amend
ment in the way the constitution desig
mates. But let there be no change by
usurpation; for though this, in one in
stance, may be the instrument of good,
it is the customary weapon by which free
governments are destroyed. The precedent
must always greatly overbalance in per
manent evil any partial or transient bene-
fit which the use can at any time yield"
4 Cali on the "SmaU Potato Fools to