The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-11-16
Washington Letter.
(From our Special Representative j

Washington, Nov. 11.-At the cab
met meeting to-day, the domestic
and race troubles in North Carolina
and South Carolina came in for con-
siderable attention. The race ques-
ton came to q head in Wilmington.
y. c., the other day in the shape of a
street conflict in which many lives
were lost, and the conditions there
have challenged the most serious
attention of the Federal authorities
here and became one of the chief
topics of discussion at to-day's cabl-
net meeting. 1t is understood that
the President and his advisers came
to the conclusion that, under and by
virtue of section $500 of the Revised
Statutes of the United States which
became a law in 1870, the admlnls-
tration has ample power and author
itv to send Federal troops down there
even if the governors Of the States 90
not call upon him for aid and protec-
tion. But it is also stated that the
President will refer the question to
his encouragement for consldera-
ton and report. But it is very ques-
tionable whether the President can
legally interfere with the domestic
affairs as to threaten the interests OF
the United States, interfere With the
administration of federal laws, or the
governor of the State calls for aid in
his efforts to preserve order and sup
press riot or insurrection. 1t is a
very dangerous precedent to estab-
ish and is wholly incompatible with
any inst appre:iation of the ire
served rights of the States or the
people," But such conduct is in ex-
act keeping with the "elastic idea"
of federal powers One by one and
inch by inch the Federal has in
croached upon the State powers to
such an extent that the President OF
the United States, whether 1t be
Grover Cleveland in the Chicago
strikes or William Mckinley in the
North Carolina race troubles, does
not hesitate to invade the borders OF
State and paralyze its domestic au-
tonomv; and thus, by degrees for
years. the boasted palladium OF our
| liberties is being broken over, and
local self-government has become
delusion, mockery and sham-the
mere shadow of that sacred right
which our forefathers sought to
hedge about by ample constitutional
reservation and provision. Ever
since the late war the tendency OF
both Congress and the Federal courts
has been to give the United States
the benefit Of every possible doubt
lying along the border line between
Federal and State jurisdlct!on-so
much so that the late Samuel +. Mil
ler, one of the ablest judges that ever
graced the bench of the Supreme
Court of the United States, was
heard to say in a public lecture be-
fore law school in this city that the
pendulum had swung from the eX-
treme of State notification of Fed
eral laws to that other, further and
more dangerous extreme OF tederal
notification of State laws and en-
croachment upon the reserved rights
of the people.
The reports of the Supreme Court
show that Justice Miller was not IN
accord with many of the leading de-
cisions rendered by that conrt along
these lines; for he had the courage,
independence and honest manhood
to render dissenting opinions in near
lv all of the cases which took Federal
authority beyond the proper bound
arv which separated it from the To-
cal rights of the States; and a few
more justices as able, honest and
fearless as Justice Miller would have
rendered such a course as that Presl-
dent Mckinley and his advisers are
now contemplating as utterly out Of
the question. But, as it is, 1.-The
States have no rights which the gen
eral government is bound to re-
spect.'' And, when local self-govern-
ment in the States has become Who'll
" thing of the past (and the pres
ent tendency makes it only q ques-
ton of time when such will be the
case), the respective States will be-
come mere counties and the national
bosses, like Hanna, Quay and Platt,
will run the whole machinery OF gov
ernment, local, state and national,
as completely as any mayor can run
the official forces of his municipality;
but, when that day dawns, Amerl-
can liberty will have become only "a
tale that is told" And yet the peo-
pie seem to be wholly unconcerned.
The masses are surely not keeping
|up with the procession; for they can
not be Indifferent to questions which
so vitally concern them, their chill
dren and their children's children;
for these things reach those whose
fathers are yet unborn.