Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-17
Another Reason Why Blaine Should
Not be Elected.

The campaign has been almost wholly
personal thus far. The public and pri-
vate records of the candidates have been
discussed to the exclusion of almost
everything else. Are there not other and
stronger reasons why Blaine should not
be elected than that he was a corrupt
legislator and that he is not safe man to
place at the head Of the government?
He is bold and an aggressive man.
To exercise power gives him pleasure.
He is a firm believer in a strong central
government. He is in the front rank of
those extremists who for years have been
preaching that the power of Congress is
practically unlimited. He has watched
with pleasure the tendency of the Federal
courts to increase their jurisdiction and
to magnify the Importance of the govern
ment at Washington. He has favored
every species Of legislation that tended to
encourage the idea that there is a sort of
inherent sovereignty in the Federal Gov
eminent. 1t must not be forgotten that
the movement towards Capitalization has
been very marked since the Republican
party came into power, and that the move
ment is still in that direction.
Indeed the recent decision of the
Supreme Court in the legal tender case is
absolutely startling, so thoroughly does
it recognize this idea of inherent SOW
ereIgnty. That decision, it will be re-
membered, voices the sentiment of all the
eight Republican Justices of the Court.
Only one-a Observation-Disclosures. This
is what the eight Republican Justices
say:
Congress, as the legislature of a SOW
ereign nation, being expressly empowered
by the constitution to lay taxes, ETC.,
and the power to make the notes of the
government legal tender in payment Of
private debts being one of the powers be-
longing to sovereignty in other civilized
nations, and not expressly withheld from
Congress by the constitution, we are ir-
resistIblY impelled to the conclusion that
the impressing upon the treasury notes of
the United States the quality of being
legal tender in payment OF private debts
is an appropriate means, conducive and
plainly adapted to the execution Of the
undoubted powers of Congress.
Andhere is what the Democratic Justice
says:
herent sovereignty in the government of
the United States. 1t is a government of
delegated powers, supreme within its pre-
scribed sphere, but pOwerless outside of
it. In this country sovereignty resides in
the people. and Congress can exercise no
power which they have not, by their con-
stitution. entrusted to it; all else is with
held.
The Democratic Justice also shows that
the rule of construction adopted by the
Republican Justices would wholly change
the character of the government. Fully
carried out sit would" he says, 'change
the whole nature of our constitution and
break down the barriers which separate a
government of limited from one of I'M
limited powers.D
This decision is all the more remarkable
because it goes so far beyond anything
that has before been claimed by the most
extreme of the Republican leaders. The
late Chief Justice Chase, in deciding a
previous legal tender case, repudiated the
sovereignty idea, and said that to admit
it would be to admit that the government
was practically absolute and unlimited.
If Blaine should be elected, and there
should at the same time be elected a Re-
publican Congress, what might not be
done under the authority of that legal
tender decision? Blaine is just the man
to take advantage of it and make it serve
himself and his party. In four years, or
even in two years, the government could
be given such an impetus towards cen
tralism, that it might never again be pos
sible to confine it within constitutional
limits. Blaine is dangerous because he
hasn't the nice sense of honor which ought
to distinguish a President, but he is par
ucularly dangerous because he is in
hearty sympathy with the centralizing
tendencies of his party.