The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-02-15
Extracts from Christian Neighbor
That Blair Bill.

Speech of Hon. G. G. Vest, Missouri,
in the Senate of the United States,
January 8, 1888, against the Blair Bill,
to erect a monument to the memory
Of Alexander Hamilton, and encourage
mendicancy in the Southern States.
Senator Vest makes q most earnest
protest against the passage of this bill,
and hinges his strongest arguments
on its unconstitntionality, and on the
fact, as shown by the census of 1880,
that illiteracy and criminality are not
proportional in the states. Regarding
the first lie re-opens the old question
whether this is limited or an unlim-
tied government, Il question which di-
vidcd the two great parties led respec-
lively by Hamilton and Jefferson.
The very fact, as Mr.. Vest clearly
shows, that the trainers of the consti-
tuition enumerated the powers of the
government shows that that govern
uiShG ID 1liHilCu w IlOSC clluulGIdleu
powers, and that 1t is not an unlimited
government. Jefferson, Madison,
Monroe, and Jackson repudiated the
Hamiltonion idea that this was goy-
ernment of unlimited powers, and
when Hamilton asserted that under
the general welfare clause of the Con-
stitution Congress could impose any
tax it saw fit to protect the manufac-
lures of the United States, Mr.. JefIer-
son, then Secretary of State, declared
to President Washington his purpose
to retire from the Cabinet.
As to the ratio ofilliteracy and crime
the following is shown: The ten
most illiterate States are Tennessee,
Arkansas, Virginia, Florida, North
Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Alaba-
ma, Louisiana, and South Carolina.
South Carolina is first in morality
and tenth in instruction; Tennessee is
tenth in morality and first in instruc-
ton. Comparing ten other States
which arc alike in climatic conditions
and class Of population, Wisconsin is
first in morality and eighth in instruc-
ton; Kansas is ninth in morality and
fourth in instruction. OF all the
States as to native white population,
Massachusetts is first in instruction
and thirty-iifth in morality South
Carolina ranks thirty-sccond in in
structiOn and second in moral
ity. These with corresponding tell
tale figures show that morality and ed
ucation are not commensurate. Mr..
Vest we'll says: "I am not attacking
but I am attacking the
monstrous claim that this bill is pam
acea for all the evils which ai1lict the
body polite" and closes his address
with the following warm words:
Mr.. President, I have loved the peo-
pie of the South devotedly. I have
shared their sorrows and gloried in
their heroic fortitude under adverse
fortune. They are now in presence Of
II great temptation. and if they yield
to the tempter, if they barter away
their history, traditions, principles,
independence, and self-respcct for this
nlcss of Federal pottage, l shall turn
away more in grief and shame than
anger.
If this bill is passed, it will he hy
Southern votes but there is one place
Of refuge still left for the constitu-
ton.
The brave and honest man who is
President of the Republic will prove
false to the principles of his life, and
of the Great party which elected him,
if he does not interpnsc his Executive
veto in the path of this pcrnicious and
undcmUcratic measure.