The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-06-21

ffaE ySHye~.i5E influence Of Jefferson
Afhf!:E SI4S,sK upon the politics of
Ea 1 this country was rap p
n ~ idly waning, while
that OF Hamilton was
rapidly Increasing. Nor was the remark
unnatural He was accustomed TO see and
admire the government only in its most ire
mendous exhibitions of strength during an
exceptional period. Its enormous drafts
upon the lives and property Of the people,
its vast fiscal and military operations, its
imperial endowments Of corporations, its
ruthless Determinations, in favor of the few
as against the many in Its tax laws, and, in
deed, its whole legislation and administra-
ton, from the hour in which he entered
Congress to the hour in which he became
President, seemed to show thai the limited
federal agency which our forefathers es-
tablished had at length developed into that
strong, masterful government which was
Hamllton's ideal But even when Presi-
dent Garfield spoke the tide that had been
30 strongly was near its turn.
THE DREAD OF DIsUNIoN.
For twenty years the oyermastering
dread Of this people was that which arose
from the mad attempt to destroy the Union :;
and their attention was fixed upon the one
point of danger. They poured out blood
and money without stint to preserve the
Union; but these were not the whole, nor,
perhaps, the greatest OF their sacrifices
They tamely suffered the states to be
robbed of power at every possible poiht OF
attrition between them and the federal
government, and at some points where
there was not even the excuse of attrition.
They permitted the manufacturers who
supplied our armies and those who fur
nished the munitions of war-the fortunate
possessors of the furnaces, FORCES, mills,
shops and looms, who were able to render
timely service TO the republic at an infinite
private prolific set themselves up as
class apart, and under the war tariff to levy
enormous tribute upon the industry of the
people long after the peace. The allowed
the capitalists who took the national loans,
al snaves each more ruinous than the last,
not merely TO roll up great fortunes and
acquire exclusive privileges, but to erect
themselves into permanent power, able TO
control the operations eff the treasury, 70
y,
and to exercise most dangerous power in
political contests. They saw the railway
corporation, whose inestimable service TO
the cause of the Union was doubly paid for,
turn into its Golfers rich streams of subsidy
from the proceeds of common taxation; ap-
propriate the public domain, which was &C
quired by the first Democratic administra-
ton, and which Mr.. jefferson fondly be-
lieved would remain an ample basis Of pub
lie credit forever; lift itself into an impcr-
ium in fmperiO, levy taxes, extort tribute,
invade Congress, buy legislatures, corrupt
the political morals, and well nigh strangle
the liberties of the nation. And in 1877 they
saw all these classes and powers unite il
the imposition of chief magistrate, not
merely unchosen but overwhelmingly re-
pudiated at a regular and orderly election
All this they submitted to because they
were too much preoccupied to resist. While
the war lasted, while the federal relations
OF the seeding states remained in debate,
az appeal TO the supreme passion CT union
was all that was necessary to divert atten-
ton from any question less grave than that
o. national preservation.
HOW TEE FEDERALIsTs USED THE SAME
FEELING.
The same passion was played upon in the
same way By Hamilton and the ''nono-
Gratis" who undertook TO revolutionize the
new government by the assumption of i'm
piled powers at the close of the last century.
The pressure of British force was hardly
withdrawn until the contending nations Of
Europe began to rival each other in the de-
ion n~ mo 4
young repsblic for years trembled on the
verge Of conflict wherein the frlnest union
OF the states would have been as important
as during the revolution. Secession at that
time meant simple ruin to the states which
should 60 as well as TO the states which
should remain. The very word was terri
BILE in the ears of men who had just achieved
political and commercial independence, and
knew that both would be completely sacri- |
feed by ACKNOWLEDGMENT In 1861, the
United States and the Confederate States |
would each have constituted great nation, |
but in $500 no respectable power could have
been formed by any subdivision CT the |
whole Upon this dread Hamilton and his |
political associates laid hold as the lever |
with which to pry one rib after another |
from the constitution. When the funding |
bill was to be passed, under circumstances |
which enriched class of favored specula- |
tors ard formed treasury party'' in Con- |
-.
When the state debts were to be assumed, |
1t was insisted that the project Of separa- |
ton had already taken form; and when the |
National bank, the parent Of ''the monster
of Jackson's time, was proposed, it was
urged that it alone was capable of nursing |
q strong coofederacy, and contenting its |
several members in the same family. But |
this could not continue; the practice ceased |
with the pretext; and the people realized |
the mischief which had been accomplished |
in the meantime. At the close of the /
Adams administration, with its extrava-
gance and corruption, its British sympa- |
tnies, its alien and sedition laws, its judicial |
its whippings of editors, its pris- |
ons filled with the victims of political per-
secutions, the revolution came, and the ever 1
in famous attempt, so like that of 1876, to |
seat President against the will Of the peo-
pie completed the good work To realize
the fierce and stubborn spirit with which |
those old federalists resisted the grand re-
of popular rights, as proposed by