Year: 1876

OF the evils which bad government has
brought upon the Republic, and which are a
danger to the permanence of the Union, COR
ruption is one of the chief. If it could be
destroyed by the removal of unfit men, by
the impeachment of Belknap or by sending
thousand thieving officials to Jail, it would
be a triding danger. But the task is not SO
easily performed. Corruption is not the in
cident of an administration, which dies with
it; it is disease which is inherited, and our
next President cannot hope to escape the
consequences of Grants weakness any more
than an innocent child can escape constitu-
tional predispositions imposed by consump-
tive parents. This complicated evil Of bar
gaining, plotting, robbing and degrading
national trusts to personal ends, can only be
expelled from the government by long con-
tinued effort. We are firm in the belief that
if the corruption of the government as it has
been ruled by Grant should be permitted to
multiply upon itself few years longer the
downfall of the Republic would be rs certain
as the fall of the Roman Empire or the
ruin of the Napoleonic dynasty. But this
is not the only great danger which the gov
ernment has brought upon the Union. Gen.
tralization of power at Washington is per-
haps more immediate cause of that
jealousy, suspicion and fear which have les
sened the love of the people than even cor
ruption. The Union was not established
for the purpose OF ruling the whole country
from the capital Its objects and powers
were clearly defined in the constitution.
But there has been policy of encroachment
and usurpation. We would say to the next
President, whoever he may be, ''Take the
heavy hand of the administration off the
States" There is no longer the pretext of
the war for this interference with the sov-
ereign parties to the national compact. 1t
has prevented the pacifcation of the South,
aroused the Indignation of the North and
threatens to be as pernicious in its influence
in the West. Never until the unjust inter-
ference with States and the tendency to CEN
tralization is checked will the old, fond, en-
thusinstic passion for the Union be restored !;
and those who would depress that noble
sentiment ore the enemies of Liberty herself.


The leaders of both parties in this critical
contest would do wisely to reflect upon the
great changes in the condition of the coun-
try. They will see the South with no other
reason to dislike the Union, now that slavery
is destroyed, than the mere memories of the
war, which are fading. as the Stuart rebel
lions in England vanished from English
politics and appeared in poetry and romance.
They will see the West giant power, which
has no motive for distrust of the Union if
the government does not interfere with the
development of its prosperity. They will
see the Pacific slope, younger giant, grow
ing up by the side of its mighty brethren,
reioiced to maintain the Union for the glory
of all, but uneasy under the fear of central
lied interference. They will see the East,
wherein the Union had its birth, conscious
of the fact that it is no longer
compact of the Atlantic seaboard,
but confederation of the continent.
If they comprehend these changes they will
know that the Union is not to be ruled with
imperial sway from the capital, and that its
dangers are, not what they were in Wash