Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-04-01
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Magic OF the General Welfare. Clause
Of the Constitution.
The Open Sesame That Unlocks the
Vaults Of the Treasury.
Geographical and Color Lines of Con
grcssional sympathy.
No Constitutional Provisions or PROV.
ender for Desolattd Darkics.
special correspondents or Tho Qogotte.

lawless benefactions Now that the
supreme court declares that there Is no
limitation of congressional power, save
that imposed 10y supposed General
Welfare every sort OF scheme of char
ity comes. ON Bonded knees, appealing
to congress for its concessions TO "Gen-
eral Welfare.n
Ex-senator and Gen. John b. Cor
don of Georgia has organized another
grand scheme, devised, of course. In
the Interest of humanity and of war.
worn, impoverished Confederate SOL
diers. II Is well. The old veterans
deserve well-provided home and hos
pital, and congress would establish IL
under the general weliare'i clause of
the constitution, were u not that Ed
munds and Sherman and Hoar have
declared that tariff for protec-
lion, and not for revenue, and
the bloody shirt shall be the
issues In this next campaign.
The federal government, under
the general welfnren power can pro-
vide splendid abodes for Union and not
for Secession soldiers, and vet more
than half these Southern soldiers were
ms true Union men. even when fight.
ing for the Confederaoy, as Sherman or
Hoar. In fact, Wendell Phillips was
an original per 81 higher-law Seces.
sionist, ms Were all original Abolition
lists. Even Horace Greeley was so far
committed 10 the theory that when
South Carolina and Georgia went
OUT as Jefferson Davis followers
termed the process, of secession in
! lSG0'l, Greeley wisely said; LET the
erring sister depart in peace.p But the
country's blood was upn and q little
blood-letting may have been an indls.
pensable condition precedent TO im-
mutable indestructible unity and I'M
ion, Therefore philosophical history
may at last declare that Secessiunists
were trusst and wisest Unionists. In
view of Mr.. Jefferson Davis last speech
in Mississippi, he has not yet discov-
cred that he must occupy this
attitude in the eyes Of
aosterity. In any event.
practical secessionism has inculcated
theoretical Unionism, until we see the
supreme court embodyipg In its de-
crees doctrines of Capitalization more
dangerous to individual and local free
dom than those antipodal ideas once
deemed by the North most fatal 10
liberty and union, when promulgated
by Yancey, Lamar and Davis.
THE "GENERAL wELFAREp CLAUSE
This Greenback decision of the su
preme court, based upon the general
welfare clause of the constitution and
| investing congress with unheurd.ot
powers, has induced managers of all
sorts of wild schemes of money-getting
TO appeal to congress. That cattle
disease bill was n shrewdly managed
device to impose upon congressman
having no idea that there Is any de-
fined boundary beyond which congress
cannot go If its purpose be 10 promote
the general welfare.n From all dl-
rections, agents of the little
coterie of spectators In con.
gressional goodness and laXily of ideas
sent pitifnl, touching kilograms TO sem
ators, telling how the sweet Jerseys
and short-horns and Brahmin bulls
were dying OF sore legs and things.
Texas became, In these dispatches, II
pest-house of cattle feyers and rotten
hoofs. The scheme was well worked
| up and begot quite sensation. But n
few Democratse having some regard
for oatbs TO support The constitution,
couldn't well sdE, outside the general
welfare" clause, any authority
for the proposed donation to
cattle doctors. They began
to probe the facts, and finding that
the so-called Texas fever was not dis
ease of Texas cattle, and that like the
| foot disease II was old as the hills and
lowlands OF Virginia, the speculation
failed and much telegraphing and ine
newspaper writing and great uproRr
In the cattle wing of the agricultural
| department spent their forces In vain.
| ANOTHER PHASE OF THE BUSINESS.
Then there came a most pitiful howl
| from the lower valley Of the Mississippi
pi. Negro-chosen congressman learn
ed from all quarters that their wretch
ed constituents were drowning and
starving. OF recent years, under the
general welfaren clause of the con-
stitutlon, whenever flood has Visited
| the great valley, congress has sent
down hog and hominy by the ton and
shovcled ii out among the voracious
Philippians. Blissful congressman se-
curing their appropriations, became
| omnipotent ut home, and nothing was
SO fortunate for the negro or for his
congressional representative as terri
BILE creyassc and destructive over
flow. 1t IL even possible that the
good negroes cut the levees In order to
get an appropriation. They are all
Republicans 10 the extent that they
have learned that there Is nothing like
a jolly appropriation, and IL may be
true, as alleged, that these continuous
appropriations are deemed by the in
nocent darkies congressional rewards
for the submergence Of rebel planta-
lions. In any event the appropria-
lions come with the crevasses, aud
every negro knows how to make Gre
vase. Levees are narrow and easily
cut. A nshing-poIe can do the job,
often executed by q stray cray-iish.
DEsoLATIoN or THE VALLEY.
AS predicted, sadly enough, Elk or
eight weeks ago, the lowlands Of Lou
isana and Mississippi and Arkansas
are overwhelmed as never before.
New Orleans has barely escaped, and
only because relieved by a creyassc
through which the rushing water
sweeps into Pontchartrain vast sums
expended by the river commission on
q INDUSTRIOUS levee. Messrs. King,
| Ellis, Gibson, and the. rest,
all Randall Democrat because
| they take sugar In theirn, do appeal
! 10 the general welfare clause or the
constitution and ask for million and
more To stop the ieaky cracks about
New Orleans and grease the esophagus
of furnishing Africa.
| TOO MUCH or GOOD THING,
But our Yankee brethren are not
! willing, while the Louisiana lottery Is
drawing half million monthly out Of