Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-03-05

existence with all their powers and privI'
lepes, for the benefit of our own citizens, we
demand that our lands shall no longer be
used as a meie pathway for the commerce
of the west; that their franchises shall not
be applied as so many instruments to hinder
our development and delay our prosperity;
that our people shall receive the same con-
sideration and fair dealing accorded to
those of ~neighboring States; that there
shall be no greater charges for freight or
passenger, for a shorter than a longer. dis
lance, in the same direction; and that tor
all persons there shall be the same facilities,
and the same price for like service, BY the
abolition and prevention OF every species OF
extortion and discrimination.
We shall insist, also, in common justice
to all tax Fsying persons, natural ana cor
porate, that The unlawful evasion OF oy
the Chesapeake and Ohio aud the Baiu-
more and Ohio railroad companies, so long
and so successfully practiced in the past,
shall not be repeated, and that the.
shall pay their taxes for the support OF
Government, State, county and district
fully and without compromise. Just the same
as all others are required to do. 1t is to be
hoped, too, that our Legislature will enact
such laws as maybe necessary to etfectually
urohibit the distribution OF railroad passes
TO public officers, and members of political
conventions, concerning which this State
has not escaped experience of an exceeding
" instructive nature.
FEDERAL RELATIONS.
But, fellow-citizens, weighty as are all the
interesting questions relating directly to
the material development and financial
prosperity of the State, it is Of vastly more
Importance to the great body OF the people
that our political institutions be preserved
in all heir purity, simplicity, strength and
yipor; and, to this end, that we shall ever
hold in view the selfevident truths thai
free government and the blessings of lib
erty can be preserved to any people only. by
a firm adherence to justice, moderation,
temperance, frugality and virtue, and by a
frequent recurrence to fundamental princl-
ples;" and that eternal vigilance is the
price of liberty" as truly and certainly IN
times of peace as when the lowering CLOUDS
of wal are obscuring the sunlight OF free,
dom, the passions of man run mad, n
CIVIL authority has Uecu ouUOAulAoNSN w 49,
iron hand of military power.
Possessed as we are of the best form and
system of government ever devised by the
wisdom of man, or consecrated by patriot
blood, so rests upon US the grandest respon-
sibility ever assumed by any people to pre-
serve inviolate the priceless inheritance,
that it may pass from our hands as 1t came
from the fathers, a blessing to posterity IN
ages yet to come.
A Federal Government for Federal pur-
poses and State Governments for home
rule-combining in unity, by written or.
ganic law, all those specifically delegated
powers of the respective States, indlspensa-
BILE in our dealings and intercourse with for
eign nations, and such other limited powers
only, as for the general welfare are neces.
sary to be exercised internally, the acme OF
the science of free government has been at
tanned in creating the United States OF
America-the grandest political orgsniza-
ton upon the face of the earth-while re-
serving to the people and to the States re
spectively, guaranteed against the dangers
of Capitalization and consolidation, the in
estimable and exclusive right Of local s9If.
government.
From the earliest days of colonial history
until the present hour, the liberty-loving
American, with an unchanging and I'M
swerving fidelity, has maintained this re-
served right of local selfgoverRment as the
true, if not the only reliable and perfect safe
guard to the institutions of our country. 1t
was for this that thirteen independent colo
uies, with the free offering pledge of life,
of fortune and Of sacred honor, united in
one common cause to resist a common
danger, repel a common enemy, and es-
tablish the independence OF these States.
1t was because of its jealous regard
that the old articles Of confedera'
ton were but "a rope of sand"
and the constitution of the United States
lay hopelessly stranded upon public dis
favor, until the guarantee had come from
almost every State from Massachusetts to
the Carolinas "a guarantee that was prompt
ly fulfilled by the adoption Of the first ten
amendments, that the omission OF a bill Of
rights should be supplied, and all undele-
gated powers reserved by affirmative declar-
alton. The creation, by organic law, OF
three departments Of government-legisla-
tive, judicial and executive-and, as q bar
rier against encroachme nt, providing that
they should be separate, distinct and CO.
ordinate, was an immense advance over all
other forms and experiments for the secu-
rity and perpetuation of free government;
but for a further and more potential security,
through the wisdom, the patriot
ism and the love of human free
dom that actuated, moved and directed
the founders of the Republic, that vast
residuum of undelegsted power was care
fully reservedt to the States and to the PEG.
pie. That the Federal Government, con.
ceiyed, fashioned and created in and by del
egated powers alone, should remain entirely
within the sphere Of its political action, as
prescribed by the Constitution of the United
States, is as vitality essential to the preser
walton of our governmental system as thai
The States should refrain from attempting a
reclamation of those powers delegated and
surrendered by the adoption Of that instrn-
nent. Upon this fundamental principle of
local self.government rests the entire fabric
of American institutions. Once destroyed,
whether through the violence of civil COM
motion, or, possibly, the yet more danger
GUS, though insidious encroachments Of
legislative and judicial implications, and
free government upon this continent will
cease to be, as surely as ambition is still
aggressive; as surely as the history Of re-
corded time presents no democratic or re-
publican form of government that has sur
vived the invasions of q single, central Law.
making power. Embedded in our constitu-
tional history, and standing out in bold
relief through the stern letter Of the law, it
was the plain object and purpose Of the
founders that there should be a union of
States for the protection Of States.
Trusting to an American patriotism, as
broad and deep as the love of human liber.
ty, we can believe, with an uushaken and
unfaltering confidence, that in the onward
march of coming centuries, when star after
star Of equal magnitude and Of equal glory
shall have been received into the radiant
constellation, beaming forth in t~rsnscendent
splendor from the blue field Of the banner Of