New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-08-25

Hitherto what the United States have had to do
has had to be done quickly. The inventiveness
Of the people adapted itself to the labor of con-
quering and cultivating within century an ex-
panse of territory which for any other race in
any other period would have required a thousand
years. Even the most sagacious men among the
fathers Of the Republic were incapable Of fore
casting the possibilities Of the country. Wash
ington, with all his knowledge OF the region west
Of the Alleghanies thought that certain meagre
projects which ne was of for connecting
that region with the Atlantic would suffice for the
commercial wants of the people. and he listened
barely with patience TO the eager demand for the
opening Of the Mississippi River. Jay fanced
that the benefits Of the treaties with Spain would
be great that he was willing to leave the great
river practically closed TO the men OF the West
for another quarter Of century. There are
few things more instructive" says General Walk
err than the fact that men like Washington and
Jay could have been far wrong In such vital
matter" One of the greatest constitutional dis
putes OF early times was over the right OF the
United States 10 appropriate money for building
what is still known in Pennsylvania and Ohio as
the National Road. 1t brought TO the front
every objection which the strict constructionists
had to make against internal improvements not
the business OF the General dONeTnlHeil uHueT
the Constitution. jefferson and Madison and
their partsans. at least while they were out OF
power. would have forbidden any appropriation
for building an interstate road or digging an in
terstate canal. The controversy went on for
years, keeping pace in fact with the work on the
road II proved that the Government would be
supported in doing what the opposition said 1t had
no right to do. 1t tested in various ways the
doctrine Of implied powers In the Constitution,
and. after all, the result was only an admirable
object lesson In the way wagon roads should
be built. Within comparatively recent memory
the National Road the only road mt to drive
upon at all seasons in Central Ohio. But before
the controversy was over. railroads began to be
built. and as nobody in those days thought Sc
riousy OF putting these in the hands Of the Gov
eminent 1.-The issue died out Of our politics. af
fording a rather curious instance how far laws
and policies and constitutions may be affected by
social and Industrial developments"
Though the problem never fairly answered
in this instance. ii came up in many other ways
Time itself brought upon the scene generation
which could not view the Constitution in the
light cast upon II by those who made 1t or voted
10 accept it. The Constitution itself was neces-
sarlly silent upon the point OF nationality. The
Convention of 1887 was obliged to evade an issue
Wnlcn WOuiQ certainty nave fndoc uHioH iihpossi-
BILE. But the mere fact that intense partisans OF
States rights Ike Samuel Adams and Patrick
Henry scented danger and fought the proposed
union with bitterness sufhces to show what the
real meaning Of the document was even to the
generation which created II. As that generation
passed away every member Of 1t may be said to
have carried to his grave some shred OF prejudice
or opinion Of an older time. To the new genera
ton the Constitution was accomplished fact
The government created in accordance with Its
provisions was in efficient movement. and for all
that mere observation witnessed TO the contrary
might have been going for an indefinite period In
the past With q certain measure OF astonsh-
ment, perhaps. II had been found that the ma
chine would work Just well In the hands OF
the anfi-Federalists as II did in the hands OF the
Federalists II was not at all refractory: and the
natonalism II produced under jefferson put the
nationalism OF Washington and Adams TO the
blush. Moreover. II worked into the hands OF
those who were energetic-especially those self
reliant men who were forcing their way into the
forests beyond the Allegheny Mountains. They
learned to feel that, whatever ancient State they
hailed from. they were above all Americans. 1t
was the same with sailors. proportionately very
large class, who could not but the growing
respect for the Nation. or-to use General Walk