Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-11-02

vas actuated BY an honest opposition to what
he called concentrated power. forgetting,
however, that the power of our national gov
eminent was the power of the people when
| administered by the nation a. we'll ~ when
administered by the State.
These two opposing theories were mani
tested in every question, great and small
that appeared in the politics of the first bali
century, though even Mr.. Jefferson exercis-
ed what he thought was an unconstitutional
power in the acquisition of Louisiana. and
Madison approved the bank bill. and the high
| protective tariff, and Monroe asserted the
highest national power in respect to foreign
affairs. The result of the first half cestury
was to establish the principles of John. Mar
shall az against those of Thomas Jefferson,
| and nothing disturbed this tendency until the
question of slavery unfortunately became in
volved in party politics, when the interests OF
slavery induced the Southern leaders, John
c. Calhoun at the head, to seek to cripple and
| limit and narrow the powers of the national
government, and extend the powers of the
State and local authority. 1t vas upon this
dividing line between national and state au-
thortv that the civil war fought, and it
ended by the abolition of slavery, and should
have been followed by the abandonment of
the doctrine which led to the contest, so that
nov it may be said in theory, if not in practice,
the doctrines of John Marshall are the esrab-
lished principles of national law, while the
democratic party still adheres to the old
theories, and still seeks to belittle. to limit,
and to cripple the powers of the national
government as to many of the great and nee
essary objects of national policy.
| Now, 10 these questions. whatever may be
said of the past, the state of Virginia is far
| more deeply interested in republican ideas
than the state of Ohio or any of the northern
ideas The two Virginias, taken as a whole
and united into one state as they should be,
possess more undeveloped resources than
Pennsylvania or any of the western States.
You have coal and iron without limit under
a soil exhausted but capable of restoration.
You have harbors and rivers as beautiful as
the sun shines upon. You have proximity to
market, good climate, all the products of
the sea and all the productions of the land
suited to your climate. These are not my
opinions. expressed for the first time to you in
a political canvass, but they were expressed
five years ago after a careful study of your
resources. now repeat to you that whatever
may have been your theories in the past, when
it was necessary for you to do what you could
to maintain the system Of slavery, yet now
that every man is free and citizen, the in
the fair and just application of the principles
of John Marshall as any state in this Union;
that for Virginia still to linger around the
resolutions of 1898, when new elements and
new life require for your aid the exercise of
all the powers of the national government, is
mere bourbonism, intense and pure, forget
ting nothing, and learning nothing by the
march OF time. What you want is a govern
ment able. not only to protect you from for
eign powers, but also to develop your re-
sources, protect your industries, improve
your rivers and harbors, and in supporting
YOUR schools, and, in cooperation with the
States. to create and regulate those great
lines of communication, both of water and
rail, that tend, by absolute free trade between
fifty millions of people within the United
States, to increase the intercourse and sub
ply the wants of the American people.
The constitution confers upon the national
government ample power of taxation to collect
revenue for all these purposes without bur-
dening the people ofthe states with oppressive
direct taxes. Congress can levy duties on
imported goods without oppression, even to
a greater amount than is now collected. Ex-
perience has developed mode of evying
excuses on number of articles Welding
large revenue, without being burden but an
actual benefit, by restraining their USE Chief
of these is the tax on whiskev, beer and
tobacco-a tax which is as beneficial in res
training the use of these articles as it is bene-
fetal As source of revenue and RELIEF from
other taxes. This system of indirect taxes
can, if occasion demands, be extended to a
multitude of articles, which would enable the
national government, without burden to the
states, to confer untold benefits upon the
people of all the states, leaving, however, un-
restricted to the states all the powers they
now possess.
Under the constitution no state can levy
duties on imported goods, and thus this
bountitul source of revenue is cut off from
them. In effect, if not expressly, all states
are prevented from levying any form of
excise taxes, or taxes on production or con-
sumption, because the imposition of those
taxes would tend to injure the state that levies
them for the benefit of adjoining states that
do not. No tax can be levied by a state upon
the production or manufacture of tobacco,
because such tax would only force this pro
duction and manufacture into other states
where the tax was not levied. There is no
longer any ground for jealousy of national
authority, because the commerce between the
states is now so rapid and intimate that
Virginia is TO-DAY as near to Ohio as adjoin-
ing counties were to each other fifty years
ago. The states have increased in such
numbers, distributed over vast region of
country, that the possibility of injury to any
state by national authority is too remote to
be feared. Therefore it is that whatever
might have been the merits of the opposing
theories OF Marshall and Jefferson. certain it
is that now the interests of Virginia should
be on the side of strong national govern
meet instead of weak one, should be in
favor of national authority rather than of
local authority, and the largest possible de-
velopment of internal resources consistent
with the revenue of the United States.
SO on the doctrine of the protection of
American industry, which is now becoming a
chief question of American politics. The re-
publican party plainly and strongly announces
its purpose to protect all forms of American
industry. not only of the workshop but of the
farm, by levying duties on foreign goods that
can be manufactured or produced in this
country. The object of this policy is that
our people mav be induced TO manufacture
at home every article essential to American
life and industry. We insist that this policy
strengthens our country, makes it more in
dependent of foreign nations, that the labor
ing men employed in manufactures furnish
the best market for agricultural products,
now consuming nipe-twelfths of all the
surplus products of the farm. We also insist
that this policy gives employment to capital,
enables manufacturers to pay more wages to
the working men employed, and protects