THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE GIFT OF Anonymous Donor THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS A DISCUSSION OF THE PRINCIPAL QUESTIONS INCIDENT TO THE GOVERNMENTAL POLITY OF THE UNITED STATES, EMBRACING THE SUBJECTS OF AMNESTY, FORCE LEGISLATION, CIVIL SER- VICE, SUFFRAGE, THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER, OUR MONEY AND CURRENCY, THE PUBLIC DEBT, THE NAT- IONAL BANKING SYSTEM, RECONSTRUCTION, THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS, TARIFFS, TAXATION, PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE, AND OTHER IMPORTANT TOPICS. AN EXHAUSTIVE TREATISE UPON AMERICAN POLITICS. BY ORRIN SKINNER, (OF THE NKW YORK BAR.) PHILADELPHIA J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 873. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by ORRIN SKINNER, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. LTPPINCOTT'S PRESS, P II I L A D E L P H I A . WITH DUE RESPECT, THE AUTHOR ADMIRINGLY DEDICATES THIS VOLUME W. DWIGHT, SCHOLAR, A PROFOUND LAV CONTENTS. PAGE PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT xix AUTHOR'S PREFACE... xxiii INTRODUCTORY 13 PART I. MONETARY AND FINANCIAL TOPICS. EXPLANATORY 19 CHAPTER I. MONEY AND CURRENCY. Money with the Ancients The Requisites of Money What is Money? The Offices of Money A Measure of Value The Standard in the United States A Medium of Exchange A Producer of Value The Relations of Money to Commerce The Amount Needed The Balance of Trade Interest The Prospective Decline in the Value of Money The Kinds and Substitutes of Money Convertible Currency Inconvertible Currency, or Paper Money The Proper Limits of both Ex- cessive Issues of the same 20 CHAPTER II. THE MONEY AND CURRENCY OF THE UNITED STATES. The Subject Classified History of our Present Circulating Medium The Character of our Circulation Prior to the Rebellion The Status of Business at its Outbreak The Legal-Tender Notes Issues of Effect of the same u|x>n Business The Three-per- cent. Certificates More Bank Currency demanded ' Equal- ization " of the same attempted Gold Hanks Statement of 1 v vi CONTENTS. FACE Money in Circulation at the Close of the Year 1871 Criticism of the Legal-Tenders Action of the United States Supreme Court in reference to Secretary of the Treasury no Authority to make Further Issues of What they Cost Amount of Circu- lating Medium needed in the United States at the Present Time The Present Volume of Circulation Fifty per cent, in excess Evils of the Present Paper Circulation They constitute a Narrative of Indescribable Suffering The Fraud connected with Mutilated Currency These Evils bear mostly upon the Laboring, Salaried and Agricultural Classes Resumption of Specie Payments How to be Effected Senator Sumner's Plan Criticised Compound-interest Notes not Wanted The Retire- ment of our Legal-Tenders the Proper Means of Resumption... 66 CHAPTER III. BANKS AND THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. DIVISION FIRST. BANKS AND BANKING BUSINESS IN GENERAL. A Necessary Adjunct of Money for Purposes of Commerce Their Legitimate Office to Receive and Distribute Money Present Offices Deposit Discount and Circulation Deposit Masses Capital A Means for Saving the Use of Money Is Deposit a Myth ? Deposits Seldom Moved Deposit is not Money, but its Substitute Discount, the Purchase of Unmatured Obligations The Fund by which the Business of Discount is Worked How Discount Operates in Connection with Deposit Circulation, how it Differs in Nature from Deposit and Discount A Measure of Public instead of Private Economics An Act of Credit The Elements of the Credit requisite for Circulation Circulation belongs to and devolves upon the People The Doctrine of Convertibility Is it Tenable or Feasible ? Private Banking Banking in History The Banks of Venice, Genoa and Amster- dam Their Origin and Operations 95 DIVISION SECOND. THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. A Monopoly Its Origin Its Adoption and Principal Features The Advantages of the System They are seen in its Material Basis, Government Bonds The Arguments against this Feature CONTENTS. Vll PAGB of the System Examined and Refuted They are also seen in the Element of Uniformity Compared with the State Bank System in this respect Also seen in the fact that Circulation cannot be in Excess Its Disadvantages A Monopoly How a Monopoly It sets an Arbitrary Limit upon the Extent of Circu- lation In this respect, Unjust, Indefensible and in Violation of Economic Law It robs the People of the Benefit of Circulation and confers it upon the National Banks In this respect it Enforces Illegal Taxation Minor Defects The Theory of Con- vertibility, as applied to the System, fully Examined The Con- flict between the System and the Legal-Tender Notes A Balance taken between the two The Result in Favor of the Banks The System, with certain Modifications, a Success 119 CHAPTER IV. PUBLIC DEBT AND FUNDING SCHEMES. DIVISION FIRST. PUBLIC DEBTS. The Origin of Public Debt Historical View of the Same The Causes which impel Nations to run in Debt Public Debt in Europe How Contracted in General The Different Expedients adopted for Payment of the Same The Theory that a National Debt is a National Blessing, Examined It is for England, but not for the United States It Depends upon the form of Govern- ment Minor Comment 142 DIVISION SECOND. FUNDING SCHEMES. Nature and Origin Funding defined Details examined Sink- ing Funds Historical View of the Subject The Results of Funding The Various Schemes fully examined Opinions of Eminent Writers upon the same 156 CHAPTER V. THE PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. The Public Debt prior to the I-nte War The first Financial Meas- ures of Government at its Outbreak They show an Utter In- appreciation of the Character of the Conflict The General Policy in this respect fully stated The Various Evidences of viii CONTENTS. PAGE Indebtedness, and the Acts which Authorized them, examined The Evils of the Financial War Policy were Short Loans Loans in the Form of Money The various Funding Acts stated and explained The Operations of the "Syndicate" examined Wholly Illegal Its Results A Failure Why the Debt should be Paid How the United States Differ from Great Britain in this respect 164 PART II. EXISTING AND PROPOSED CHANGES IN OUR ORGANIC AND MUNICIPAL LAW. INDUCTIVE 185 CHAPTER I. THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. The Importance of the Topic The Thirteenth Amendment The First Fruit of the Rebellion Indications of the Purpose of the North to Exterminate Slavery The Confiscation Acts and the Emancipation Proclamations the foundation of the Amendment The Origin of the Amendment The Manner and Legality of its Adoption The Question Discussed at length The Legal- ity of its Ratification by the States The Status of the States assuming to Ratify President Lincoln and Reconstruction President Johnson and Reconstruction The Constitutionality of the Amendment The same Examined at length Minor Col- lateral Questions Presidents Lincoln and Johnson's courses on Reconstruction compared The same Defended The Effect of the Amendment The Fourteenth Amendment Introductory Comment The Incompleteness of the Scheme Its Origin due to both Political and Moral Causes The Ends sought by the Change The History and Legality of both the Congressional Vote proposing the Amendment and its Ratification by the States The Status of the States assuming to Ratify The Ques- tion of Suffrage The Constitutionality of the Scheme Citizen- ship The Amendment analyzed Distinction between Civil and Political Rights and Privileges The Resulting Effect of the Amendment Monopolies The Rights of Corporations and CONTENTS, IX PACK P'ranchises under the Amendment The case of the New Orleans Slaughter-house Company The Full Effect of the Amendment stated The Fifteenth Amendment Its Cause and Origin The Enfranchisement of the Blacks The Legality of its Ratification The Status of the States assuming to Ratify The Right of a State to Withdraw its Assent considered The Constitutionality of the Amendment Discussed at length The Extent of the Power of Amendment The Results of the Amendment fully defined Woman Suffrage under the Amend- ments The alleged Merits of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments criticised in detail Deduction from the Criticism The Case of the Blacks Concluding Comment 190 CHAPTER II. RECONSTRUCTION. Executive Proclamation Congressional Legislation The Freed- men's Bureau Virginia and Tennessee Reconstructed Death of Mr. Lincoln President Johnson's Policy Progress of State Restoration Congress upon Reconstruction in 1 866 The Open- ing of the Executive and Legislative Conflict Contest upon the Freedmen's Bureau Bill The Same reviewed Disagreement upon the Civil Rights Bill Its Constitutionality considered The Status of the late Disloyal States in this Connection Citizenship considered The Civil Rights Bill Unconstitutional President Johnson Officially Declares the Rebellion Con- cluded Continued Disagreement between the President and Congress The Freedmen's Bureau Bill again in Question The Same Vetoed Neither Party entitled to Credit A mere Fight of Policies The Final Reconstruction Measures of Con- gress The Same Stated and fully Considered What Might have Been Collateral Comment Constitutionality of the Scheme Vetoed by the President Legality of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson's Measures Conclusion of Reconstruction 269 CHAPTER III. AMNESTY. The Question stated The Several Measures of Proscription Offi- cial Proscription The Iron-clad Oath Act The Prescriptive Al E CONTENTS. PAGE Feature of the Fourteenth Amendment The Same construed with the Iron-clad Oath Act, and their Operation and Effect considered The Constitutional Oath Act Suffragan Proscrip- tion The Abstract Causes which render Amnesty Necessary The Direct and Collateral Ends sought by its Institution The Last fully equal to the First The So-called Moral Argument against Amnesty refuted The Various Prescriptive Measures criticised The Same based upon Policy Not needed to Secure the Results of the Late War Prejudicial in their Tendencies to the Welfare of the Entire Nation Proscription as a Means of Punishment Inadequate and Indefensible The Policy of Hate Universal Amnesty Required The Problem now Before the People The Ku-klux Klans The Pathway out of Present Difficulties Executive Action in Respect to Amnesty Partly Legal and Partly Illegal President Johnson Dismissed Inter- locutory Comment upon his Impeachment The Status of Mis- souri The United States Supreme Court on Test Oaths 295 CHAPTER IV. FORCE LEGISLATION. The Enforcement or " Ku-klux" Act stated Its General Character Construed with the Fourteenth Amendment The Act in this Connection Irrelevant The First Eight Amendments to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights The Case of the Blacks The Fourteenth Amendment runs against the States The Enforcement Act runs against Individuals The Act confers Executive and Judicial Powers Unconstitutional The Subject in this Connection fully considered The Mariner in which it Violates the Constitution The Habeas Corpus Question Inva- sion and Rebellion considered Congress Illegally Construed both the Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment Miscel- laneous Comment The Plea of Necessity Considered and Refuted The Inherent Errors of Force Legislation The Cen- tralization of Power referred to The Duty of the American People Present Tendencies Action Taken under the Law The Scheme entirely Impolitic, as well as Illegal The Present Condition of the South under the so-called "Carpet-Bag" Governments 316 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER V. CIVIL SERVICE. PAG* "To the Victor belong the Spoils of the Enemy" The Origin and Significance of the Phrase Civil Service defined The present Institution wholly a Political One The Status of the President and Congress in relation thereto The Defects of the Present System It Rests upon Political Influence Merit entirely Discarded Its Enervating Effects upon the President The Same as to Members of Congress The Same as to Members of the Service A Continuous Chain of Self-interest from the Presi- dent to the most Petty Official The Operation of the System viewed How it Bears upon Elections Political Assessments The System a Slavery of Opinion A Statement of the Number, Grade and Salaries of Officials Engaged in the Service Civil Service Reform Attempts in this Direction so far Failures Measures Necessary for an Adequate Reform They consist of Twelve Changes in our Organic and Municipal Code The Same Discussed at Length Criticism of the Report of the Civil Service Commission It is both Inadequate and Impracticable The Worth of Oral or Written Examinations considered The Machinery by which the Same are to be Conducted It Opeus more widely the Door for Fraud and Abuse than the Old System " Political Pressure" not Overcome, but Encouraged A mere Machine for Party Aggrandizement 342 PART III. INDUSTRIAL AND REVENUE LEGISLATION. PRELIMINARY 397 CHAPTER I. PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. The Inherent Difficulties of the Question Like the Entire Theme of Political Economy, it is not Responsive to the Rules of Pure Science The Statement Corrolx>rated by Eminent Authority The Method of the Opposing Forces Protection and Free Trade Defined The Conditions upon which the Opposing Doc- Xii CONTENTS. PAGE trines Rest The Limits of the Respective Systems Free Trade is Passive, Protection Active Protection Merely Secures the Possibilities of Capital and Industry Cheapness and the Law of Price considered The Effect of Protection thereon Protection Seeks its Ends by Means of Tariffs upon Imports Protective Tariffs do not Enhance the Price of Imports to the Extent of the Burden Laid upon the Same The Law of Competition makes such Enhancement Impossible The Principle Illustrated Protection does not Divert the Employment of Capital and Industry to their Prejudice The Point considered at Length The Same of National Prosperity Protection does not Foster Monopolies, either Individual or Local Protection does not Encourage Ignorance Protection is not Taxation Protection does not Bar Exportation The Force of Natural Law in this Connection National Prosperity based upon Producing Power Protection should be Stable John Stuart Mill in Support of the System The Moral Aspect of the Question Rude and Skilled Labor Agriculture and . Manufactures Cities and Villages It is a Question of Civilization or Barbarism, Progress or Decay The Proper Policy for the United States The Abso- lute and Relative Conditions of the Country Stated In View thereof Free Trade Points to the almost Universal Pursuit of Agriculture Free Trade, by Reducing Cost of Raw Material, would not put our Industries on an Equal Footing with European Ones The Case of England Cited Its Position Dissimilar to that of the United States No Analogy between them The Reason England advocates Free Trade The Question of the Laboring Classes in this Connection England Owes her present Commercial Status to Protection Skilled Labor never a Drug Protection at Present the Proper Policy of the American ' Republic 398 CHAPTER II. TARIFFS. The Scope of the Discussion It will not Descend to Details, but state Principles by which the Same may be reached History of Tariff Legislation in the United States The Tariff of 1789 A Protective Measure Its Cause and Origin Amendments thereof Alexander Hamilton and James Madison upon the Policy The Tariff of 1816 Induced by the Changed Status of Europe CONTENTS. Xlll PAGE and America Inadequate The General Distress which fol- lowed The Tariff of 1824 Strongly Protective Its Cause and Origin A Success Clay and Webster the Master-spirits of the Conflict The Claim of Locality The Tariff of 1828 A Modi- fication of the one of 1824 The Compromise Tariff of 1833 Protection Abandoned Its Cause and Origin South Carolina Clay the Mover of the Scheme Webster its Opponent Posi- tions of the two Reversed From 1833 to 1842 Free Trade and Disaster Ruled the Country The Tariff of 1842 Protection Resumed Modified in 1846 Prosperity Followed The Tariff of 1857 Protection again Abandoned The Forerunner of General Distress The Tariff of 1861 Protection Reinstated Why ? Protection for the United States Defended Our Import and Export Trade Reviewed The Results of Tariff Legislation in this Country The Case of Labor, Agriculture and Cotton The Classes of Articles to which a Protective Tariff should Attach The Principle Stated which here Governs The Case of Raw Materials Iron requires Protection Coal and Wool do not Lumber for Special Reasons should not have it The Extent to which a Protective Impost should be Laid The Same fully examined 445 CHAPTER III. TAXATION. Introductory Comment The Scope of the Topic Taxation in the Abstract defined It is a Creature of Policy How the March of Civilization Compels it The Kinds of Taxes Classi- fied Direct, Indirect, Real, Personal and Individual Taxation defined The Powers of Taxation Conferred by the Constitution An Equalization of the Burden the Prime Difficulty of Tax- ation How shall it be Overcome ? Proportionate Sacrifice and Proportionate Protection The Progressive System Direct Tax- ation Discussed The Land-tax Citations from English History The Most Just Income-taxes Impracticable, and, in the United States, Unconstitutional Capitation-taxes Indirect Tax- ation -A House-tax Unjust and Unreasonable Citations from English and Irish History Eminent Writers thereon Excise- taxes They Reach Profits, Vocations and Commodities Labor in this Connection They work Injustice Inappreciable The Error of Congress in this Connection The Whisky-tax High 2 xiv CONTENTS. PAGE Rates of Taxation upon Luxuries and Low Rates upon Neces- saries yield the Greatest Revenue Taxation by Tariffs The Results of Indirect Taxation in the United States Full Statistics Show them Oppressive and Unfair The Question of State Taxation It should be Confined to Real Property Objections to the Plan refuted The Question of Taxation by the General Government A Proper Scheme Suggested, and Discussed at length The Present Needs of the General Government All Direct Taxes may be Abolished and our Tariff Curtailed, and still Reduce our Debt Fifty Millions per Annum The Error of Congress in this Respect "Revenue Reform"..... 468 PART IV. REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. PREPARATORY 509 CHAPTER I. THE ELEMENTS OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. Governments are the Offspring of Experience, and not of Invention The Component Parts of Government The Stages of Civil- ization in respect to Government The Subject in History The Elements of Representative Government are Founded in Education They are Threefold All Forms of Government in a certain sense Rest upon Consent The Processes of Education which Lead to Representative Government The Attendant Difficulties of The Reason of Failures in Attempting to Adopt it The Question viewed Philosophically The Subject belongs to the Realm of Reason 511 CHAPTER II. SUFFRAGE. The Essence of Representative Government Purity of Suffrage defined The Requisites of Suffrage The Unthinking Mind Erroneously looks upon Suffrage as an Abstract Right It Rests upon Duty Universal Suffrage, literally speaking, is Indefen- sible and Wrong Suffrage defined Its Office and Power The CONTENTS. XV PAGE Question of Education The Proper Limits of Suffrage Civil- ization has not yet Solved the Problem Light Sought from the History of the Elective Franchise in the Old and New Worlds The Question in a Philosophical Sense It Depends upon the Peculiar Conditions of every Nation in Respect to Race, Climate, Traits of Character, Education, etc. etc. The Proper Limits of Suffrage in the United States The Difficulties attendant upon Clanship in this connection Our Peculiar Status considered An Intelligent Suffrage our only Safeguard Suffrage should be a National Institution A Proper Scheme of Compulsory Education Suggested The Benefits of such a System The Position of the United States in this Respect a Critical One The Hope that Intelligence will Reassert its Dignity The Opinion of Theorists upon this Point WOMAN SUFFRAGE A Quesftbn entirely Distinct from Suffrage in General Upon this Thought is Based the Whole Issue The Real Scope of the Argument John Stuart Mill Cited Woman Suffrage Denies the Natural Condition of Woman as Ordained by God It Defeats the Purposes of the Family The Creator has not Indulged in Creation without a Purpose Such Purpose is Stamped upon every Species of His Handiwork Adam Fergu- son Cited The Distinguishing Characteristics of the Male and Female Creation The Delicacy of the Point Analogies Drawn from the Brute Creation These Characteristics Designate the Peculiar Scope of Male and Female Duty These Laws applied to Men and Women Woman's Nature Eminent Writers thereon Th^ Requirements of Suffrage Power are such that its Exercise by Woman Essays a Repeal of the Laws of God The Assertion Supported by a View of Republican Politics Perti- nent Inquiries The Question of the Fayiily Its Purposes are the Preservation of Morality and the Perpetuation of the Human Race The Marital Relation Society Maternity The Major- ity of Women Shrink from the Exercise of the Elective Fran- chise Sexual Passion Woman and the Ballot an Illegal Bridal 517 CHAPTER III. MINORITY REPRESENTATION. The Question as Connected with Republicanism The Same in Reference to the Will of the Majority Minority Representation XVI CONTENTS. MOB defined The Legitimate Scope of Suffrage in this Connection How Majority Representation works Disfranchisement The Primal Claim of Minority Representation The Same as seen in Legislation Majority Representation Proscribes Intellect Also Fosters Class Legislation How Minority Representation would Obviate these Difficulties The Means of its Adoption Cumulative Voting Considered Thomas Hare's System the Best ever Devised The Same Simple, Effectual and Impartial Fully explained 543 CHAPTER IV. THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. State Rights vs. National Authority The Difficulty Attending the Settlement of the Possession of Power A Task of Civil- ization The Claim for Centralization Based on certain Alleged Necessities How Centralization Concerns the United States The Nature and Origin of the General Government The Jeffer- sonian Theory of State Rights considered Secession refuted The Proper Line of Division between State and National Authority The Constitution has Defined it by Conferring. cer- tain Joint and Exclusive Powers These Powers Enumerated The Canons by which they are Designated Joint and Exclusive The Instances in which the General Government has Clashed with State Authority The Instances in which it has in this manner Violated the Constitution Mostly Confined to the Pre- sent Administration Instances in this connection Numerous The Present Administration Arraigned Its Faults Stated in Detail Lawlessness its Prime Defect The Chief Executive, Congress and the Departments all Involved Centralization not Required except in respect to Suffrage Why Required here The Evils it would Abolish and Prevent Ignorance the Chief Agency which essays Federal Usurpation The same a Cumu- lative Fault of the Present Administration Conclusion Bis- marck's Edict of Law The Present Need of the American People seen in Present Abuses of Official Trust Absolutism of some sort Needed in Every Government This in the United States is the Inviolability of its Organic and Municipal Law The Sole Kings of the People The Immediate Antecedents of the American People give a Reason for Present Official Law- lessness The Necessary Rule for Official Conduct 551 The portions of this work which contain matter peculiarly per- tinent to the presidential canvass 0/1872 are as follows namely : The second and fifth chapters and Division Second of the third chapter of Part I., the third, fourth and fifth chapters of Part //., the third chapter of Part III., and the fourth chapter of Part IV. The first discloses the defects and evil results of our present circulating medium ; the second examines the management and funding of the public debt, including the Syndicate operation of the Department of Finance ; the third treats of the National banking system, and suggests necessary modifications ; the fourth discusses the subject of universal amnesty for the Southern masses ; the fifth views the alleged violation of the Con- stitution by Congress and the President in the adoption and enforcement of the so-called Ku-klux act and suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus ; the sixth examines the charges of abuse of the civil service by both Congress and the President, and suggests adequate means for the reformation of the system ; the seventh shows the defects of our present scheme of taxation ; the eighth discusses the alleged violation of the Constitution by both Congress and the President in adopting and enforcing measures which are claimed to unwarrantaoly interfere with the local elections of the several States, the charge of the subversion of the war and judicial powers of the Government by the President, the charge of the violation of United States statutes and international law by the War Department, and of the will of Congress by the Navy and Post-office Departments, the alleged prostitution of the press by the present Administration ; states the chief need of the country at the present crisis, and in each of the above instances comments fully upon the collateral topics arising out of the same. 2 xvii PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. r I "*HE publishers of "The Issues of American Poli- -* tics " accompany the presentation of the volume to the public with the following comment. The nature of the work is correctly indicated by the general title, but its exact, legitimate limits and the ends it attempts to accomplish will be better appreciated by a few words of explanation. In respect to the first, the subjects enumerated in the Table of Contents disclose the main idea which has governed the author in fixing the boundary-lines of his work namely, an examination of all the principal questions which are associated with the politics of the United States. In pursuance of this thought the author has grouped his topics under four general classifications, as seen in the " Introductory." These topics, while they explore a portion of the domain of both political economy and governmental science, are not claimed by the author to constitute an abstract treatise upon either. They enter upon these respective lines of inquiry only as they furnish XX PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. subjects of dispute in American politics. The work, consequently, is essentially political and entirely American. As to the end in view, the endeavor has been to sub- ject the multifarious and perplexing questions of our politics to a clear and intelligible discussion, and put them before the masses in a manner that would assist them in forming a fair and impartial judgment upon the merits of opposing claims. The amount of information of the most important character which the author has in this way massed between the covers of a single volume is really immense. The enormous detail of our financial experiments and operations ; the import- ant changes in our constitutional law, and their effect upon the public ; the innovations in schemes of legis- lation ; the perplexing question of our civil service (the simple, novel and effectual treatment of which is worth the price of the entire volume) ; the economic and industrial questions of Protection, Free Trade, Tariffs and Taxation ; the claims of Amnesty and Re- construction for the South ; the material status of that portion of our country; the operation of our system of Suffrage; the irrepressible conflict between the States and the General Government as to the central- ization of power ; the new order of things demanded by the result of the late war, all these are not only presented in an historical light, but, with numerous citations from American and European history, fully PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. XXI discussed and unsparingly criticised, with suggestions for remedial change. In respect to such criticism, the reader cannot but be impressed with its impartial and non-partisan spirit. In those portions of the work which have suggested a review of the course of the present Administration this general feature is particularly noticeable, and the criticism of the " Syndicate " operation of the Treasuiy may well be referred to as an example of the fairness of the entire work. The volume, in short, places the issues of American politics candidly and squarely before the people, and this with a clear and luminous method and pleasing rhetoric. An eminent critic, in reviewing the work, has said : " Owing to the wide range of discussion, I do not, on all points, as a matter of course, agree with Mr. Skinner. The entire work, however, is extremely interesting, contains a vast amount of valuable information, and, as regards purity of logic and beauty of rhetoric, is almost faultless. The abstract discussions of Part I. designated in the 'Explanatory' remarks which pre- cede it, by reason of the intricacy of the subjects, will perhaps fail to interest the careless reader. They are, however, highly important. Discrimination between different portions of the work is hardly possible, but the chapters upon the Money and Currency of the United States, Banks and the National Banking System, Public Debts and Funding Schemes, the Constitutional xxii PU&LISHEKS' ADVERTISEMENT. Amendments, Amnesty, Civil Service, Suffrage, the Centralization of Power, and the whole of Part III., are extraordinary instances of clear and elegant narra- tion, convincing argument and rhetorical skill. The disposition of the question of Civil Service is peculiarly important, on account of its feasibility and simplicity." PHILADELPHIA, September i, 1872. PREFACE. THE twenty-five years last past cover the most important political epochs of the United States. Within the period above named, American literature, in a single work, has not assumed to solve the issues of American politics. The annexed essays, if they may be dignified with such a title, were suggested by reason of the facts above stated, and propose a discussion of the greater portion of the questions which are agitating the public mind. These questions, although they all attach themselves to the governmental polity of the United States, and are, consequently, in a general sense, entirely of a political origin, are, however, strictly speak- ing, of a twofold nature, namely: Those which are purely political, and those which, while in a broad view political, are more especially economic in their character. They are enumerated and classified in the introductory remarks which follow this prefatory com- ment. In respect to those which are economic, the investi- gation is conducted by a preliminary discussion of the abstract principles of economics which form the founda- tion of each particular topic, followed by an application of such principles to the present exigencies of the American republic. For instance, the chapter devoted XXIV PREFACE. * to "The Money and Currency of the United States" is preceded by one entitled " Money and Currency." The space given to the discussion of "The National Banking System" follows prior remarks upon " Banks and Banking Business in General," and the investiga- tion of The Public Debt and Funding Scheme of this country is subsequent to that of Public Debts and Funding Schemes as separate entities of political science; and so through the entire work. This ab- stract discussion seemed absolutely imperative for a proper understanding of the practical questions herein considered which result from the operation of economic law. The value of these essays, if any, is twofold: First, they consist, as already stated, of a primal discussion of the more important principles of the so-called science of Political Economy, which are interwoven with American Politics, followed by a practical application of those principles to the present condition of affairs in the United States. Second, they treat of several very important subjects which have not for the most part been separately discussed in printed form, save in the disconnected manner of newspaper editorials and peri- odical articles. Of these, The Constitutional Amend- ments, Reconstruction, Amnesty, Civil Service, Force Legislation, Suffrage (particularly Woman Suffrage), Minority Representation and The Centralization of Power, have engrossed particular attention. In these respects, these essays modestly assert a merit which does not attach to any similar work now extant. They have been penned with an aim to satisfy a seeming demand among the masses of the people for information upon these and other public matters of the PREFACE. xxv most important character. American history, .since 1860, has been so closely crowded with events of the most stupendous import and events, moreover, result- ing in the adoption of new and untried expedients that no one but a constant student of the same could scarce hope to reduce them to a clear and satisfactory solution. Changes have been made in our constitu- tional law ; a portion of our territory has been subjected to governmental reconstruction ; its people in a meas- ure proscribed ; our Civil Service is a byword and a reproach, and the constantly-increasing heterogeneous character of our population is subjecting the efficiency of Representative Government to an ordeal of unpre- cedented rigor. A proper understanding of these and kindred topics, as already stated, seems to be one of the present needs of the community. This want these essays have striven, in a measure, and doubtless with imperfect success, to appreciate and supply. The method which has been pursued in discussing the topics herein noticed was designed to be peculiarly simple, natural, and consequently logical. With the dismissal of every topic, it has been succeeded by one which seemed to be suggested by its predecessor. Another feature of the author's method has been to give each subject and sub-subject sole and undivided attention. In the opening chapter, for example, money is discussed, by dividing the topic into three divisions, namely, Metallic Money, Convertible Currency and Inconvertible Currency or Paper Money. Most writers have treated these sub-subjects jointly, and conse- quently produced confusion in the minds of inexperi- enced readers. This feature of singleness of discussion pervades the entire work. XX VI PREFACE. The style of the essays is intended to be plain, clear and unostentatious. It could not, indeed, be otherwise. The subjects are such as preclude all play of the im- agination, flights of fancy or figures of rhetoric ; and a reader who seeks such entertainment must look in other fields of literature. Thus much as to the origin and general design of the x treatise. An extended statement of its themes, and the causes which have forced them upon public atten- tion, will be seen in the brief succeeding introductory. In conclusion, the work has doubtless many imper- fections, and possibly a modicum of merit. If it pos- sesses the latter characteristic in a sufficient degree, it will be read ; otherwise, it will be let alone. It is con- sequently submitted to an intelligent and discriminating public, with neither apology on the one hand nor plea for favor on the other. It must stand solely upon its intrinsic worth. O. S. NEW YORK, August i, 1871. THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. INTRODUCTORY. THE present issues of American politics spring, in a great measure, from events which have transpired within the last decade. A brief analytical statement of these events will, consequently, form a portion of the fol- lowing introductory remarks. On the 1 2th of April, 1861, the United States were pre- cipitated into the most gigantic civil war that has found a place in the annals of history. During the presidential term next preceding the 4th of March of the same year, the Executive power had been controlled by 'a party and surrounded by men one wing of which, and a majority of whom, subsequently became the open enemies of the Gov- ernment they had sworn to protect. The official acts of the occupant of the White House had added to the shame of cowardice the crime of hypocrisy, and the heads of the Departments, leagued as they were with the rebellious faction, had virtually given it possession of the 'National Treasury and the land and naval forces of the country. In addition to Executive disloyalty, traitors infected the Capitol and the judiciary was looked upon with suspicion. At the close of this presidential term (March 4, 1861) the Republican party, in pursuance of the legally-expressed 2 13 14 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. wish of the people, for the first time assumed the direction of the General Government, and Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as its Chief Magistrate. The leaders of the revolt, however, had so far availed themselves of their opportunities that the new administration sought in vain the appliances of Government to which it would have other- wise succeeded. The mints, forts, dockyards and armories of the country had been placed beyond the reach of the administrative arm, for in instances where they had not been actually transferred to the custody of the seceding forces, the arteries of communication that had connected these citadels of strength with the seat of Government had been severed, and the federal authorities were thus shut up in Washington, with no immediate means for even a defen- sive campaign. The prosecution of the war necessitated the organization of an army and navy which, in numerical proportions at least, were entirely without precedent. The supplies, am- munition and various accoutrements demanded by this' immense force at once exhausted the circulating fund of national treasure, and the Government sought to put its department of finance in a position to meet, not only obli- gations already due, but also those rapidly approaching maturity. To secure these ends, the National Banking System was established, and evidences of indebtedness, various in form, character and denomination, and amount- ing in the aggregate to the sum of $2,901,510,468, all of which will hereafter receive a separate cpnsideration, were either put in circulation as current funds or negotiated as loans in the different money-marts of the world. The perpetuation of slavery was the grand object for which the rebellion was waged. This element of the strife suggested the propriety of a change in our organic law, and the proposed Thirteenth Amendment to our Federal Con- stitution was submitted to the States for ratification. INTRODUCTORY. 15 The war closed, but the indiscretion of Executive action prolonged, as its cowardice and hypocrisy had precipitated, our difficulties. The Republican party bore its burden in patience till 1869, but in the mean time measures of the gravest and most important character that were ever pressed upon the attention of a government demanded considera- tion. The States had ratified the proposed addition to our Constitution, and, as such, the Thirteenth Amendment had been officially promulgated. Suppletory provisions, how- ever, were deemed advisory, and after submission to and ratification by the States, the adoption of the constitutional article now known as the Fourteenth Amendment was officially declared. The animosities of the recently-con- tending factions, moreover, awaited reconciliation, and the needed revival of industrial pursuits absolutely required that these discordant elements should be recomposed. For the attainment of these ends the Reconstruction Acts and their execution followed. The work of re-creation, however, was not at this point complete. The country had incurred an enormous debt, and provision for its payment was impera- tive. A scheme of internal taxation was consequently put into operation, and a tariff upon imports was established. The first-named measure has provoked criticism, not merely as to its wisdom, but in some respects as to its legality, and the last-named has again arrayed against each other the opposing forces of Protection and Free Trade. The Four- teenth Amendment to the Constitution, moreover, failed to satisfy the adherents of the administration, and the legal sanction of the States was asked to another proposed addi- tion to our fundamental law. The sanction was given, and the thus constituted Fifteenth Amendment to our Federal charter was officially announced. The maintenance of the national credit seemed possible to the Government only by pursuance of systematic action in paying the public debt, and this, in connection with collateral causes, has evolved a 1 6 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. funding scheme, approved by many and inveighed against by not a few. Continued disturbances at the South have given rise to a species of force legislation on the part of Congress, the propriety of which is questioned by the whole of the Democratic and a portion of the Republican party. The long- looked-for provision of Universal Amnesty has not yet been made, whereat its advocates, who constitute a respectable and by no means a small proportion of both political organizations, find cause for the censure of a policy the further continuance of which they claim to be a useless and enervating proscription. Grave defects in the workings of the departments for the collection of taxes and customs, together with alleged abuses of official patronage, have caused a demand, and in no respect a party one, for a reform in our Civil Service. In the metropolis of the nation, moreover, a clan of adventurers, deriving their chief support from the foreign element, have subverted the municipal government, robbed the treasury, illegally mulcted its taxpayers, given to the State of New York an established Church, bid defiance to the laws to which they are amen- able, and with their enormous hoard of stolen treasure have dared to reach out their shameless hands to seize the reins of the Federal Government. From these facts spring the present issues of American politics. The object of the chapters following this Introductory is to discuss the issues presented by this record, basing the examination of the same upon such facts as alone appear to be relevant and material. For the sake of logical propriety, and to avoid confusion, the subjoined remarks will be divided into four parts, and the constituent elements of each submitted to a separate consideration. Part I. will be entitled "Monetary and Financial Topics," and thereunder attention will be directed to the subjects of "Money and Currency;" "The Money and Currency INTRODUCTOR Y. 1 7 of the United States;" "Banks and Banking Business in General;" "The National Banking System;" "Public Debts and Funding Schemes," and " The Public Debt and Funding Scheme of the United States." Part II. will be styled "Existing and Proposed Changes in our Organic and Municipal Law." Under this, "The Constitutional Amendments," " Reconstruction," " Force Legislation," "Amnesty," and "Civil Service" will be treated of in their respective order. Part III. will be designated " Industrial and Revenue Legislation." This heading will embrace, as sub-subjects, " Protection and Free Trade," " Tariffs," and "Taxation," with a careful examination of the same as applied to the present condition of this country. Part IV. will be entitled " Representative Government," wherein "The Elements of Representative Government," "Suffrage," "Minority Representation," and "The Cen- tralization of Power" will receive a detailed investigation. Parts I. and III. embrace the subjects which in the Preface were styled economic, while Parts II. and IV. include those which are purely political. These respective Parts, with their kindred subjects, were placed out of consecutive order for the purpose of affording the reader an agreeable change from the necessarily close line of discussion which the examination of economic topics always assumes, to what is generally considered the more entertaining field of inquiry which is opened by an acquaintance with purely political investigations. As the several Parts in respect to subjects are entirely disconnected, the arrangement above noted works no violence to logical order or consistency. 2 PART I. MONETARY AND FINANCIAL TOPICS. EXPLANATORY. A REMARK in the Preface intended for general guidance 2~\. demands a special application in this connection. Reference is had to the statement there made that the discus- sions of the various subjects of this work are initiated by expositions of abstract principles. This is particularly so in the case of the topics above entitled. As to those em- braced in Parts II., III. and IV., this abstract comment is not only very brief, but also, in most instances, an integral instead of a separate portion of the main investigation, and therefore, while indispensable to the general, is by no means wearisome to the scientific, reader. The nature of the sub- jects included in Part L, however, rendered a more detailed examination of abstract propositions an absolute prerequisite to the practical discussion of the same ; and although these surveys of fundamental principles assume to be the vehicle of very much matter which is both new and interesting, and challenge from all parties the most careful attention, yet the reader who is versed in the elements of Political Economy may or may not regard them worthy of perusal. To readers of a more restricted knowledge they are important in the extreme. The limits of these elementary inquiries of Part I. are designated by Division First of the third and the whole of the first and fourth chapters. 19 20 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. CHAPTER I. MONEY AND CURRENCY. ' Money with the Ancients The Requisites of Money What is Money ? The Offices of Money A Measure of Value The Standard in the United States A Medium of Exchange A Producer of Value The Relations of Money to Commerce The Amount Needed The Balance of Trade Interest The Prospective Decline in the Value of Money The Kinds and Substitutes of Money Convertible Cur- rency Inconvertible Currency, or Paper Money The Proper Limits of both Excessive Issues of the same. THE opening chapter of this treatise will be devoted to a statement of the causes to which Money owes its origin, and an examination of the theoretical elements and practical uses of the same for purposes of commerce. The history of the world presents no more forcible illus- tration of the success of human effort in devising means for the attainment of ends than is found in the existence of that peculiar factor of wealth which has been christened with the magnetic name of Money; and though it can "neither open new avenues to pleasures, nor block up the passages of anguish," Money, materially speaking, is the sole and universal agent which effects the permutation of property, and elevates man from his primal state of an ignorant huntsman to the higher and advancing stages of an affluent and intelligent civilization. The human race has emerged from archaic barbarism by a well-defined series of upward gradations. The ancients of the Eastern World made their first record upon the his- toric page as simple followers of the chase. This finding stage, however if such a term may be used was of short duration. It required but a little time to develop the fact to these primitive savages that constant employment in this MONEY AND CURRENCY. 21 direction brought far greater returns than were necessary to satisfy the only wants attendant upon their condition namely, those of food and covering. The whole of the game obtained by this hunting life was, consequently, no longer condemned to slaughter, but the excess above that required for physical sustenance and protection was herded and tended upon the open field. In the record of this change the second general condition of these Eastern people is seen to be the pursuance of a nomadic or pastoral life. But in these early times of barbaric simplicity, as in the present age of extended culture, one advance step only begat another. The fallow land of this pastoral people soon refused to yield the neces- sary verdure for their ever-increasing flocks, and necessity here first inaugurated the cultivation of the soil. This epoch notes the dawn of the agricultural period, the third step in the transmission of the human race from a savage to a civilized condition. To this period the inhabitants of the earth were mere consumers of its spontaneous fruits, but when they assumed the position of tillers of the ground they opened for themselves and their successors the bound- less field of productive industry. With the induction of this era man ceased to be a mere passive recipient of the perennial gifts of the soil, and by the donation of labor elected himself to a peerage with the forces of nalffre in persuading a responsive earth to augment its natural prod- ucts and disseminate its hidden wealth. He had at last become a producer, and here stood upon the threshold of civilization. Every transition of the Eastern ancients from these primordial stages of barbarism to the agricultural period was but a practical demonstration of the law which has a Divine source and sanction namely, that man to live must advance, that life is progress, that repose is death. This law was now to receive an application of a double character. The agricultural era was no sooner inaugurated, the 22 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. loiterers upon, had no sooner become tillers of, the ground, the consumer had no sooner been changed to a producer, than two difficulties presented themselves which required a simultaneous solution. Implements were necessary for the prosecution of agricultural art, and the want could be supplied only by the slow processes of invention and crea- tion. To design and construct the requisite appliances for tillage, and then apply them to their practical purpose in the cultivation of the soil, and this, moreover, by every individual or clan, thus necessitating as many preparatory and determinate operations of tillage as there were followers of the pursuit, so trammeled the capacity of labor that it eventuated in little or no reward. Experience, the only teacher of these ignorant barbarians, soon showed them the necessity of allotting the invention and construction of tools and implements to one, and the employment of the same for purposes of tillage to another, class of their popula- tion, as distinct and exclusive vocations. The employment of the entire time of one clan in designing and creating means for, and that of another in applying these means to, the purposes of agriculture, at once surrounded the respec- tive classes with necessities which, though imperative, were at the same time reciprocal. The artisan required the agri- culturist's products of the soil for food, and the tiller of the land stood in need of the artisan's implements of tillage ; consequently, each gives to the other the result of his separate and exclusive labor, and in so doing satisfies his peculiar wants. In thus disposing of the difficulties which arose with the induction of the agricultural period, these unlettered ancients established, although in a rude and restricted manner, the two great principles of political science which always go hand in hand, which are always extended or contracted in exactly a relative ratio, which, in short, are found only in a state of co-existence the laws of Exchange and Division of Labor. MONEY AND CURRENCY. 2$ The law that life is progress soon impelled an additional advance into the boundaries of civilization, after tracing which the consideration of the subject-matter proper of this chapter will be next in order. Exchange and Division of Labor, unattended by any collateral law, were unavoidably confined within the narrow limits of giving one product for another in exact equivalents a rule of justice, but at the same time one of inefficiency. An artisan at the end of a season of productive labor, at the time of the inauguration of these periods of restricted agriculture and exchange, would find a stock of wares upon his hands, but no food. He seeks to make an exchange of his wares for the produce of an agriculturist, that he may satisfy his wants. The party to whom he first makes application has an excess of the required products of the soil, but is not in need of any implements of tillage. Another agriculturist, however, of whom the artisan seeks an exchange, is in want of his imple- ments of tillage, but has no excess of the required produce to give as an equivalent therefor. The artisan accordingly seeks to transfer his goods to this second tiller of the soil, and receive from him something which shall be a symbol of the value of the material and labor of which his imple- ments are composed, and with this token of their worth to obtain from the first agriculturist the coveted food of which he has an excess. In this transaction every party thereto receives a substantial benefit. The artisan secures his means of physical subsistence, the second agriculturist obtains his needed implements of tillage, while the first makes a disposition of his excess of produce, and receives jherefor a symbol of the value of the labor which produced it. The circumstances vary, and this symbol of value may be in the possession of one or another of these three, or of many different parties, as a representative of the worth of the articles with which he or they have parted. But wherever it is, it is a means for the extension of productive industry 24 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. and the disposition of superfluous fruits of labor. In this combination of the laws of Exchange and Division of Labor, and the perfection of the former by the use- of a circulating symbol which should at the same time effect exchanges and measure the value of commodities, commerce takes root and civilization finds its origin. This commercial system these Eastern ancients rudely, to be sure, fully and fairly established. Their early symbols of value were uncouth and inconvenient, it is true ; still, they satisfied the purposes of sale. Homer, for instance, records the fact that Diomede purchased his armor for nine oxen, an example of a very primitive symbol of value. Farther on in history, salt, shells, sugar, and finally the precious metals, by reason of their scarcity and difficulty of attainment, are recorded as current symbols of value and worth. In the establishment of this rude species of commerce, in the homely motive of these untutored Eastern tribes in exchanging articles for something which, in the first place, should be a symbol of the value of the labor and materials of which the same were composed, and which, in the second place, should have a capacity of exchange for other articles of an equivalent corresponding to the value represented by the symbol, in this custom, and in the motive which founded the custom, are found the two great fundamental constituents of Money, which in its various ramifications will now receive appro- priate consideration. The further treatment of this subject will consist, as already stated, in an examination of the theoretical ele- ments and practical uses of Money. This discussion will be conducted in the following order: I. The Requisites of Money. II. What is Money? III. The Offices of Money. IV. The Relations of Money to Commerce. V. The Kinds and Substitutes of Money. $IONE Y AND CURRENC Y. 2$ I. THE REQUISITES OF MONEY. The requisites of Money are both material and potential material, in that it shall possess certain qualities of a purely inherent, intrinsic character ; potential, in that it shall have certain external capacities, entirely separate and distinct from its materialistic attributes. Of these in their order. 1. The material requisites of Money are (a) That it shall be a substance of either such scarcity or difficulty of attainment as to incur cost in its production, that it shall be an exponent of labor in short, that it shall denote value; () that it shall be a substance of such costly production, a symbol of such extended labor, a token of such great value, that it shall represent, in small particles, full equiv- alents of the various and bulky commodities of commerce ; (c) that it shall be a substance the production of which shall, at all times, involve a similar and corresponding amount of labor and search, and thus possess a uniform value; (d) that it shall be an indestructible substance; (e) that it shall be a substance easily divisible; (/) that it shall be a substance possessing ductility. The reasons why an article to be used as a circulating medium should possess these material qualities are too apparent to require either statement or elucidation. 2. The potential requisites of Money are (a) That it shall receive the unqualified indorsement of the entire community for the purposes of circulation ; () and, more important than all, that it shall bear a visible impress of the sanction of the Government within whose territory it is produced and disseminated. These are the principal requisites of Money. The last named suggests an examination of the principles and modes of coinage. Such a discussion, however, would be a clear digression, not only from the scope of the present chapter, but also from the entire treatise ; and comment upon this a it 26 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. topic will therefore be entirely omitted, with the excep- tion of a slight allusion to seignorage and the relative coined value of the precious metals, which will be made when "The Offices of Money" shall form the subject of investiga- tion. The matter is referred to, in this connection, simply for the sake of logical propriety. With due regard to the necessary qualifications of a cir- culating medium as above described, the nations of the entire world, from the remotest period of civilization, and from some of the later stages of barbarism even, have made use of the precious metals for purposes of Money. The exact date, however, of the inauguration of a metallic cur- rency of the period when man first summoned the glistening metal from its hiding-place in the inner earth, and by the name of Money, made it a crystal messenger to lay the foundations of commerce, and thereby wed the human race to the cause of civilization of the induction of a custom which has ever since had the sanction of law, the date of this happy and momentous event slumbers among the mysteries of the unrecorded past. History gives us no record of it, and the wondrous beauty of even "The Lost Arts" has inscribed for it no tablet upon the annals of literature. II. WHAT is MONEY? The consideration of the requisites of Money has opened the path for an answer to this inquiry ; or, in other words, a definition of Money is now logically appropriate. Money, in its restricted sense, consists of pieces of metal of ascer- tained weight, determinate value and given fineness, bearing the impress of the sanction of Government as to its exchange- able worth, and also the authority of Government for its circulation. The further discussion of this subject, until " The Kinds and Substitutes of Money" shall engage atten- tion, will refer entirely to a circulating medium of this restricted metallic character. MONEY AND CURRENCY. 2J III. THE OFFICES OF MONEY. The way is now prepared for an examination of one of the most important sub-subjects of this chapter namely, "The Offices of Money." The functions of Money are threefold : i, as a measure of value ; 2, as a circulating medium or means of exchange ; and 3, as a producer of value. i. Money, it has been said, is a measure of value. It is a mere nominal measure, and nominal for the reason that its own value is subject to fluctuation and change. The ultimate measure of all value is labor, and ultimate because all value is based upon and produced by labor. A brief analysis of value makes these two principles more apparent. Value is of two kinds value for purposes of use, and value for purposes of exchange. An illustration of these respect- ive kinds of value may assist this investigation. A man of extended culture and refined taste obtains, by reason of his peculiar wants, at a great expense, a plot of ground which has surroundings of romantic scenery. At an additional great expense, on account of his admiration for art and a bent for unique accompaniments, he erects a dwelling and lays out his grounds. His elegant possessions are of great value, but of great value only for his particular use. This man of taste and lover of art is laid low by death. His heirs are obliged to part with their ancestor's elaborate home, and their only available purchaser may be a man who wants a house only for shelter and ground only for the purpose of cultivation ; and just exactly what these beautiful possessions are worth for the purposes of shelter and cultivation is what can alone be realized from their disposal. A railway corporation, moreover, under pursu- ance of an authority given it by the State, in accordance with the right of eminent domain, may wish to lay its road- bed directly through these grounds that have been dedicated 28 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. to art, and the damages the corporation would be obliged to pay would simply be the value of the ground to a man of ordinary tastes and habits. The value of the particular love of the owner for these elegant possessions cannot be appreciated in money. On the other hand, a laboring man may be possessed of an ingot of rare metallic quartz. It is of no possible value to the laborer in use, but of great and determinate value in exchange. Its value is not subject to depression by any such delicate causes as affect wealth which has a mere value for purposes of use. Now, labor is the ultimate measure of the value of the elegant possessions on the one hand, and of the ingot of quartz on the other the ultimate measure of the value of the elegant possessions, because they are worth just that amount of labor which would suffice, at an ordinary valua- tion, to purchase those elegant possessions for the use of a man of ordinary tastes and habits. It is, moreover, the ultimate measure of the value of the ingot of quartz, for the reason that, comparatively speaking, the same amount of labor will produce an ingot of quartz at all times and under all circumstances. Money, however, is only the nominal measure of both of these species of wealth, because, by reason of unusual productiveness or non-productiveness of mines, or collateral causes, it is itself subject to varia- tion and change of value; while labor, speaking in the abstract, so far as its material results are concerned, will accomplish the same in a given space at all times, and under all conditions. This train of thought has been pursued in a somewhat extended manner, because its importance seemed to demand it ; and if the fact is borne in mind that Money is not the absolute, but the nominal or relative, measure of value, the further discussion of the entire subject will be comparatively unclouded. It is only necessary to add the remark that, although Money is not the absolute, it is, by reason of a MONEY AND CURRENCY. 2Q compliance more perfect than that given by any other substance to the material requisites of a circulating medium, hereinbefore noticed, the nearest possible absolute measure of value of any material token that can be produced. The basis upon which Money rests as a measure of value is not the quantity but the cost of production. In other words, the labor requisite to produce Money, and not the quantity of Money so produced, is the constituent element which makes it a measure of value. It will be remembered, in this connection, that this entire discussion, thus far, refers exclusively to Money in its restricted signification to metallic Money. The truth of this principle is clearly apparent. A laboring man who purchases a loaf for his frugal meal, and a prince of commerce who buys the product of a million spindles, are both required by the law of ex- change to give an equivalent for the articles which have passed to their possession. Now, the equivalent for the loaf is the value of the labor which produced and cooked the cereal which constitutes it ; and the equivalent for the product of the spindles is the value of the labor which bought the sheep, grew the wool and tended the process of manufacture of which the cloth is composed. The question now arises In what way is the value of the loaf and cloth, and of the substances offered as their equivalents, to be measured ? Now, labor, as already observed, is the sole constituent essence of both the cloth and the loaf. Con- sequently, the only exact and the only just way of measur- ing the value of the substance proposed as an equivalent for this loaf and cloth is to see that the same amount of labor was necessary to produce this substance as was required to create the piece of cloth or single loaf for which this sub- stance is offered in exchange. For further proof of this principle let this affirmative be supplemented by a negative line of discussion. Let the supposition be made that the stocks of merchandise in the city of New York have a 3 30 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. marketable value of one hundred millions of dollars. Let it also be supposed that it requires a million of dollars, and no more, to float this merchandise through the different channels of commerce. Let this volume of circulating medium be increased till, instead of one, it shall amount to five millions of dollars. Will it require more dollars under this last condition of things to buy a bale of cloth or a barrel of sugar than it did under the first ? Comparatively speaking, never ! The reason is simple, and consequently entirely clear. Money, as already seen, possesses certain material as well as potential properties. These material properties give to Money an inherent, intrinsic worth. It is, itself, reducible to a commodity. The substance of which it is formed enters into many rare and coveted articles of commerce. As such a commodity it always has a determinate market value namely, the cost of the labor which produced it ; and when, therefore, in its province of a circulating medium, Money, by reason of its profuseness, ceases to realize its possessor the cost of the labor which created it, the excess immediately finds its way to the chemist's crucible or the jeweler's bench, from whence it emerges, on the one hand, to serve the purposes of science, and on the other to decorate the devotees of fashion and grace the table of a prince. A brief allusion to what has been made the standard measure of value in the United States will properly close these remarks upon the first function of Money. At a time when this country has a paper circulation of about seven hundred millions of dollars, and, comparatively speaking, not a dollar of specie in use as a means of exchange, it may provoke a smile to note the assertion that gold is the standard measure of value of the United States. And yet such is the fact. At least, gold is the declared, if not the actual, standard measure of value in this country. Prior to the year 1853, silver and gold both formed the standard MONEY AND CURRENCY. 3! measure of value. This law was maintained, of course, only by declaring how many grains of silver should equal one grain of gold. In other words, a constant relativity was necessitated between the two metals. The ever-varying divergence in the cost of production between these two metals, owing to success and failure in mining and to the changing demand for each for purposes of commerce, rendered the system of having two legal measures of value so troublesome and repugnant that Congress in 1853 made gold the sole standard in the United States. The Government, moreover, charges a seigniorage for coining the precious metals one-fifth of one per cent, for gold, and three-fourths of one per cent, for silver. The reason and object of seigniorage should perhaps receive a passing allusion. Seigniorage is the remuneration which the Government receives for coining bullion into Money. The United States formerly performed this office as a gratuity, but the system was productive of evil, and was consequently abandoned. The nature of the evil will appear in the following statement of the effect of an estab- lished system of seigniorage. It operates to enhance the price of coined bullion. For instance, if the Government, by way of taking a seigniorage for coining, puts ninety-five cents' worth of gold only into a dollar, it renders that dollar worth five cents more for purposes of Money than for commercial use. Seigniorage consequently prevents the withdrawal and melting up of specie for manufacturing purposes, and drives the worker of the precious metals to seek his raw material, if such an expression may be used, from holders of bullion, and so relieves the Government mints from repeatedly coining the same identical metal, and prevents, to this extent, disturbance in the relative quantity of circulation. 2. The office of Money as a medium of exchange, for the most part, rests upon the same fundamental principles 32 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. that have just been stated in the discussion of its first func- tion. The examination of this second office of Money, therefore, will, to avoid repetition, be apparently, as an isolated topic, somewhat curtailed. Whatever matter, how- ever, may seem in this connection to be wanting, will be found in the examination of the last sub-subject, and in the remarks farther on upon the relations of Money to commerce. The necessity of a medium of exchange begins with the inauguration, and grows with the extension, of Division of Labor ; and Exchange and Division of Labor, moreover, only arise when mankind occupies the position of a pro- ducer. They do not arise upon the immediate induction of a system of productive industry, but are both preceded by one other transition period. This transition era, how- ever, is of a very brief duration, and the law which governs it is the restricted rule of barter. Barter, properly speak- ing, is the exchange of commodities in exact equivalents. The inadequacy of this rude and restricted system of com- merce, it will be remembered, was of a twofold character. It ceased to be efficient, first, when an exchange of com- modities having different equivalents was desired ; and second, when, by reason of various wants, and isolated opportunities to supply such wants, it became necessary that there should be more than two parties to effect a satis- factory transposition of commodities. And thus, as neces- sity, in the first instance, created Exchange and Division of Labor, so in the second instance this uncompromising agent inaugurated a medium of exchange, and that medium, for reasons before noticed, was Money. 3. The third and last office of Money is that of a pro- ducer of value. This function of Money grows out of the two preceding ones. So true is this last statement that an assertion of the paradox is almost warranted that Money as a producer of value acts in an entirely passive capacity. MONEY AND CURRENCY. 33 Whatever may have been the discussions of philosophy as to primal causes, whatever may have been the opinions which were advocated by the metaphysicians of Athens or the schoolmen of Charlemagne as to the cause of creation, certain it is that mankind dwells upon a world of matter. The mandate of The Divine Author, when He first entrusted man with the exclusive dominion of matter " Subdue it !" for ever has and ever will be law. The device of man may promulgate statutes and establish codes to either extend or abridge the principles of the common, which are assumed to be founded upon those of the higher, law, but this first grand injunction of Omnipotence admits of no repeal. It is a condition in the great trust-deed by which man holds the title to material earth, and is as rigid and unchangeable as the penalty attached to the crime of man's disobedience: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." The means for complying with the requisition of this primal command are suggested in the character of the primal curse. It is to be effected by labor. Labor creates value, but what, in the mean time, supports labor? Two things the fruits of other labor, of antecedent toil, and the credit-power which the possession of these fruits always brings to their holder. There is no fact more fully proven by mercantile experience than that an in- dividual who possesses a certain amount of wealth can procure upon credit commodities the value of which greatly exceed the value of his immediate possessions. The quantity of productive industry, therefore, which an individual can keep in operation is measured by the value of his capital and the extent of his credit. Now, this capital and the credit-power which springs from its pos- session are, so to speak, labor concreted into Money, for both are measured by and reducible to Money. Every branch of productive industry, moreover, if properly based and pursued, eventuates in a profit, and this profit is more 1)2 34 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. labor concreted into Money, which, in turn, assumes the support of new industrial enterprises. Again, the prosecu- tion of' every industrial pursuit creates a demand for other values, such as raw material, and food and clothing for the workmen which the enterprise engages. Money, then, is a producer of value in three respects : First, because its possession gives a credit-power which operates to extend the sphere of industrial pursuits ; second, because in sup- porting labor new profits are evolved, new values created ; third, because in supporting any productive industry, in supporting labor, it causes the creation of other values which the prosecution of this particular industrial pursuit demands. Money, moreover, is a producer of value in these three directions, for the simple reason that by it values are measured and exchanged. The creation of a measure of value and a medium of exchange, as already seen, constitutes the very foundations of commerce, and when we take from Money these respective offices we also rob it of its capacity of producing value. For if commodi- ties, so to speak, cannot be put into commercial circulation, whence comes the impetus for further production? IV. THE RELATIONS OF MONEY TO COMMERCE. The consideration of the relations of Money to com- merce is next in order. The discussion of this topic will be pursued under the following heads: i, the amount of Money needed for commercial purposes ; 2, the character of Money needed ; 3, the theory of balance of trade ; 4, interest. The amount of Money needed for commercial purposes is that sum which will effect the necessary exchanges of commodities. This is a very simple proposition, but it involves questions of the most delicate and complex charac- ter. The history of our own and other countries furnishes more instances of national calamity by reason of inability MONEY AND CURRENCY. 35 to comprehend, or unwillingness to respect, this simple proposition than can be traced to any other source. Viola- tions of this simple maxim by undue extensions of the various substitutes for metallic Money have rendered the code commercial of continental Europe a myth, paralyzed the mercantile interests of Great Britain, and more than once within the present century have plunged the com- merce of the United States into almost an inextricable state of confusion and disorder. Money is a very mysterious agent, and commerce a most delicate institution. The offices of the first and wants of the last are of a purely mutual and relative character, and whenever the two are at variance it is always by reason of violent convulsions of state or similar causes of extraneous origin. In such seasons of confusion and disorder metallic Money immedi- ately renounces its allegiance and retires from the service of its commercial chief. The pulse of commerce is also exceedingly sensitive. It claims to be, as it is, the only infallible judge of its moneyed demands, and demurs to all external supervision of its wants in this respect. At the slightest interference in this direction it sends a note of warning with electric rapidity through every avenue of the business-world ; and whenever its condition is chronicled as one of disease or disorder, it is pretty safe to conclude that its metallic servant, Money, has rebelled against this foreign influence, and retired from its peculiar field of labor, until its commercial master can give undoubted asr surance that the disturbing forces have been put to flight. The amount of Money required to effect the necessary exchanges of commodities is based upon the relative rapidity with which Money and commodities circulate. As an illus- tration of this principle, let the circulation of an article be taken which, from its "cash" character, militates most strongly against it namely, flour. The flouring-mills of our wheat-growing sections of country will fill the orders 36 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. of wholesale houses of approved credit, located either upon our Atlantic or Pacific seaboards, or in any of our great commercial marts, upon what is known in mercantile par- lance as "sixty days' time." Allow a period of eight days for transportation from the mills to these wholesale dealers, and the latter will, in turn, make shipments to any jobbing house of good standing which will not require more than three days for transportation by reason of the frequency of wholesale marts, upon " thirty days' time." The jobber also will make sales to his retail trade, which, by reason again of the frequency of jobbing houses, will not require more than one day for transportation, upon a similar credit of thirty days. The retailer, moreover, will divide a barrel of flour into, upon an average, sixteen packages, and distri- bute the same among as many of his laboring customers, to be paid for upon the first day of the month next succeeding. It will be seen that four out of the thirty days allowed for the passage of the money from the sixteen consumers to the wholesale house have been occupied in transportation. Four days more may be allowed for the money to pass from the consumers to the wholesaler, leaving twenty-two out of the original thirty days in which the money was to be in the possession of the latter. Very good ! Seven days more may now be allowed for contingencies, and still keep within the letter of these several contracts ; for it will be remembered that the retailer sells, not upon a month's credit, but until the close of the month in which the sale is made, until the laboring customers' "pay-day;" which, as these sales in small quantities are daily occurrences, makes an average credit of not more than fifteen days. In the exchange of this commodity it is thus seen that a barrel of flour has become the property of nineteen different indi- viduals before any payment of the purchase-money has been made or required, showing a circulation of flour, in comparison with that of Money, as nineteen tp one. MONEY AND CURRENCY. 37 The truth of the principle claimed by this line of discus- sion is too apparent to require extended examination, and the argument formerly held by many authorities, that the sum of Money requisite for the exchange of commodities was one equal -to the exchangeable value of all articles in commercial circulation, is entirely refuted by consistent and continuous historic facts. The amount of circulating medium in the United States, for instance, immediately prior to the late Civil War, was about $335,000,000, not including in this estimate, of course, $90,000,000 held by the banks in specie as a legal reserve. Upon the basis of the report of the Bureau of Statistics at Washington, it is estimated that about $3,000,000,000 worth of commodities were in circulation in this country at that time. The gross production of the country, by exact investigation, was shown to be a little less than $4,000,000,000; conse- quently, the above estimate is not an unfair one. But this $4,000,000,000 worth of commercial products, as above cited, did not include that species of intangible commod- ities which are represented by professional and similar labor ; so that it is safe to say that $4,000,000,000 of com- modities were at this time in circulation ; and this estimate leaves $1,000,000,000 worth of tangible commodities to be consumed without traversing the avenues of commerce, which is certainly a liberal allowance in that direction. It is consequently seen that $335,000,000 furnished ample transportation for $4,000,000,000 worth of commodities through the numerous and deviating paths of commerce, in addition to effecting exchanges and sales of real estate. Similar facts might be cited from English history, but such a course seems wholly unnecessary. A discussion of the excess and scarcity of Money, and the effects of both upon commerce, logically speaking, would be next in order; but as such a condition of the Money market is confined exclusively to a paper circula- 4 38 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. tion, this topic will be deferred till " The Kinds and Substi- tutes of Money ' ' shall form the subject of investigation. Ref- erence is here had to this point solely for logical complete- ness, for so far as metallic Money is concerned, it has already been shown that, owing to its material, intrinsic qualities, and consequent determinate value for commercial purposes, any and every excess of it always finds its way into the list of commercial commodities. Upon the same principle namely, that Money as a medium of exchange is based upon the cost of production, that is, upon the value of the labor which created it there is never a scarcity of metallic Money, barring the single improbable possibility, if such an expression may be allowed, of the exhaustion of the mines from whence it is procured. In both cases, so far as metallic Money is concerned, the law that labor seeks that employment which yields the largest recompense bars any possibility of an excess or scarcity of a circulating medium. The amount of Money, again, necessary for an exchange of commodities increases with the extension of Division of Labor. This proposition is stated more as a self-evident truth than as a point the maintenance of which requires discussion. It is perfectly apparent that as new offshoots are made from old branches of productive industry, an additional amount of circulating medium will be needed to effect exchanges of these new products. This topic of the amount of Money needed for the proper exchange of commodities will pass from consideration with a single allusion to what constitutes or rather what should constitute the regulator of the quantity of a metallic circu- lating medium. As has been hereinbefore insisted, com- merce is the only proper judge and supervisor of its moneyed necessities. Commerce is not a parsimonious miser, which requires a legislative guardian to gorge its reluctant coffers with mineral wealth ; neither is it a profligate spendthrift, MONEY AND CURRENCY. 39 demanding a similar supervisory power to set a limit upon its reckless and extravagant disbursements ; but, located far above the powers that assume to watch its incomings and outgoings, with its faithful and omnipresent sentinel, Labor, noting by its flux and reflux the ever-varying localities of plenty and want, it is its own great conservator, and by a law as changeless as that which brings light and darkness with every revolution of the earth around the son, it sends its metallic postboys to scatter the products of industry through every channel of the business-world, in just such numbers and just such localities as are suggested by the growth or wane of industrial pursuits ; and that law is two- fold namely, that scarcity, on the one hand, enhances price and drives Money to purchase in fields of plenty, and that plenty, on the other hand, diminishes price and drives products to sell in fields of want. This law, moreover, bears upon the theory of Balance of Trade, which will soon come under discussion. 2. The next point that comes up for consideration is the character of Money required for commercial purposes. The function of Money as a medium of exchange suggests its character, in one respect at least namely, that it should possess, as near as possible, a character of perfect stability and certainty. The dealings of the commercial world are mostly, so to speak, in future ; that is, they consist of what the law terms executory instead of executed contracts. With the exception of petty purchases for the satisfaction of every-day wants, the commodities of commerce are sub- jects of contracts which are to be complied with, so far as payments of Money are concerned, at some future period. Such contracts are based and predicated upon what is con- sidered will be the value of Money at that deferred day of payment. All loans of Money for long periods are based upon this same calculation, and if by any emergency the 4O THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. value of Money at the final day of execution of such deferred contracts and obligations shall be either enhanced or depre- ciated, the creditor gains perhaps not an unjust, but cer- tainly an unexpected, advantage on the one hand, and the debtor a similar advancement on the other. The first characteristic Money should possess for purposes of com- merce is therefore one of stability. The second characteristic demanded of Money for com- mercial purposes is, that it shall be extended only so far as will enable it to measure the value of commodities upon the same relative basis as that by which such value is meas- ured in foreign countries, provided the measure of value in foreign countries is the natural metallic, and not a local one. This proposition again brings to notice the topics of excess and scarcity of a circulating medium, neither of which, as already seen, ever occurs where such circulating medium is of a metallic character. The consideration of these two subjects is therefore again postponed till "The Kinds and Substitutes of Money" shall engage attention, when the foregoing proposition, here laid down for com- pleteness' sake, will be restated and properly explained. 3. The relation of Money to commerce in connection with the theory of Balance of Trade which, it is claimed, may be either a bane or a blessing now requires examina- tion. Of all subjects upon which political economists and legislators have held conflicting opinions, there are none which have elicited more general discussion than the theory of Balance of Trade. The public councils of Great Britain, France, Portugal, the United Netherlands and the United States have often resounded with words of hot and angry debate between the enemies and supporters of this much- mooted question, while in the humbler walks of life rigid lines have been drawn between its opponents and advocates; and still the problem divides private organizations and great MONEY AND CURRENCY. 4! political parties which, upon almost every other topic affect- ing the public welfare, are in perfect harmony and concord. The theory grows out of the Protective Policy, but neither that nor the opposing doctrine of Free Trade will occupy a place in the present discussion. The immediate topic is the relation of Money to this theory. Stating the question in its prejudicial light, the theory is that excessive importations that is, imports in excess of exports drain a country of specie, and so impoverish it. A proper investigation of the subject will warrant the following statements : (a) that a country the value of whose annual products exceeds the value of its annual consumption will never for a long time import more than it exports ; (b} that a country never enters upon a stage of impoverishment until the value of its annual products is less than the value of its consump- tion ; (c) that an occasional excess of imports over exports furnishes no evidence that a country is in a state of im- poverishment, but that such occasional excesses of importa- tion are due to causes entirely extraneous from that of poverty ; (//) that the moneyed wealth of any country is never permanently diminished by the Balance of Trade standing against it, unless consumption is greater than pro- duction. The first proposition is a simple statement in another form of the law referred to when the topic of the requisite amount of Money necessary for commercial purposes was under discussion namely, that scarcity, on the one hand, enhances price and drives Money to purchase in fields of plenty, and that plenty, on the other hand, diminishes price and drives products to sell in fields of want. Now, a nation may, for two, three, five or more years, while developing particular branches of productive industry or while engaged in war, make importations in excess of exports, and yet, if home consumption does not exceed production, be all the 4* 42 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. while amassing national wealth, though in the mean time it is constantly exporting coin and bullion to make good the Balance of Trade that stands, for the time, against it. For example, let it be supposed that the annual products of the United States have a value of $4,000,000,000 ; that the value of imports is $350,000,000, and that of exports $225,000,000. These, in round numbers, are very nearly the value of the products, imports and exports of this country for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1861 a year which shows a larger Balance of Trade against the United States than any other during the last decade namely, by the above figures (which are a little in excess as to imports, and the opposite as to exports), a balance of $125,000,000. Now, even if the consumption of the United States, upon the above basis, equals the enormous sum of $3,875,000,000, the national ledger is simply balanced, and the country has neither made nor lost a dollar ; but by as much as the con- sumption of the country is less in value, upon this basis, than $3,875,000,000, by so much has the nation added to its public wealth. That this wealth is represented by com- modities instead of Money does not prove the impoverish- ment of the country, for the measure of the value of both the commodities and the Money is labor ; and if the forces of the latter are continued in the employment of producing commodities instead of Money specie their plenty, at some future day, will drive them out of the country for sale, and the flow of specie will then be inward instead of out- ward. It is a matter which governs itself, and so long as production exceeds consumption a nation will not for any length of time import more than it exports. The history of the United States for the last twelve years fully proves the proposition, and this at a period when our exporting trade for one- half the time was disturbed and paralyzed by civil war. MONEY AND CURRENCY. 43 The account stands as follows : Year. Imports. Exports. 1859 $3 I 7> 8 73,053 $335,894,385 1860 335,233,232 373,189,284 1861 -315,004,726 228,699,486 1862 188,902,263 213,069,519 1863 226,796,336 305,884,998 1864 39>35>955 320,035,199 1865 216,441,495 323,743,187 1866 430,770,041 550,684,277 1867 397,222,067 438,577,312 1868 349,023,682 454,301,713 1869 412,140,841 413,961,115 1870 431,950,428 499,092,143 Total $3,930,664,119 $4,457,132,618 The above is taken from the report of the Commissioner of Statistics, and is correct. It does not include Southern imports and exports during the war, as no complete returns in those respects have yet been published. It is thus seen, both by theory and practice, that a nation whose production does not fall below consumption will not for any length of time import more than it exports. The import and export history of this country, as seen in the foregoing table, moreover shows that this is a matter which regulates itself, on the theory that an excess of com- modities in one locality will eventually, to a certain extent, change places with an excess of Money in another. The table shows that in the years 1859 and 1860, our exports exceeded our imports. In the year 1861 this was reversed, and in 1862 we again exported more than we imported. So again from the year 1863 to the year 1870 inclusive in, however, greatly varying proportions. The second, third and fourth statements, laid down in connection with the one which has just passed from discus- sion, are proven by the same line of argument which has been adduced to support the first. They will, conse- 44 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. quently, not receive a separate examination, but a little general comment, applicable to all three, will close this review of the relation which Money bears to the theory of Balance of Trade. Balance of Trade, in a great measure, is secured by the successful establishment and prosecution of industrial pur- suits by the advancement of productive industry. That is one way. A country may, however, by refusing to make any extended importations, retain a hold upon its Money, and so ship, for the time being, more than it , receives. That is another way. But a pursuance of the latter course for any length of time that is, of refusing to import solely for the purpose of having the Balance of Trade stand in its favor will render the road to the point where con- sumption exceeds production very short and easy of transit. The golden chain of commerce encircles not one conti- nent alone, but the entire globe. This globe has many geographical divisions, and these geographical divisions possess, in many instances, climates of an entirely different character. Their products are consequently of a most diversified sort, and each one, so to speak, has certain spe- cialties, for the production of which the laws of Nature have granted it an exclusive monopoly letters-patent of a climatic stamp. The peculiar products of these varied di- visions are some seasons below, and again in excess of, the demand from extraneous sources. In years of plenty, there- by producing cheapness, these products will be driven out by Money from some other division where analogous causes have produced an excess of it, and vice versa. In conclu- sion, then, the relation of Money to Balance of Trade is such that a drain of specie from a country does not neces- sarily argue its impoverishment. A nation never reaches a period of impoverishment till consumption exceeds produc- tion. A country whose production exceeds consumption will never, for any length of time, import more than it ex- MONEY AND CURRENCY. 45 ports, and so have a Balance of Trade against it. Now, whether a protective policy is requisite to sustain productive industries, and so regulate this theory, is entirely another question, and is, in this connection, neither denied nor affirmed. 4. Interest. The next relation of Money to commerce requiring attention is that which forms the subject of Inter- est. A large proportion of the business pursuits of every country are conducted by means of borrowed capital, and for the use of such capital the borrower pays a remunera- tion. Interest, then, may be said to be Money paid for the use of Money, and the prices which determine the extent of this remuneration what the rate of Interest shall be are both natural and artificial. The natural forces are those arising from the age and commercial status of nations. The artificial forces consist of arbitrary restraints imposed by statute law. These two governing elements will first engage attention, when some incidental remarks, bearing upon the subject of Interest in general, will close the exam- ination of this topic. The first of the natural forces which influences the rate of interest is the age of the country in which Money finds employment. Money will always command a higher rate of interest in new countries than in old, from the fact that new governments, as well as their subjects, are borrowers, while old ones are not, except in the emergency of war. Governments, except for war-uses, borrow Money only for the purpose, so to speak, of creating fixed capital. Unlike individuals, they do not hire Money to establish enterprises which are expected to yield an immediate moneyed return, but for the purpose of prosecuting projects which redound to the benefit of the entire people, which, in part, enable all the inhabitants of a country to engage in industrial pursuits from which immediate moneyed returns will be received. These uses which governments have for Money arc the crec- 46 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. tion of public buildings, opening of highways, establish- ment of fortifications, armories and navy-yards, the build- ing of docks, the organization of fleets, the perfection of means of navigation, etc., etc. The period required for the attainment of these ends varies, of course, in different countries and under different circumstances, but history proves that new countries occupy, upon an average, a period of full two hundred years in perfecting this material organism of government. During such periods the govern- ment demands for Money will inevitably enhance the rate of interest. The second of the natural forces which influence the rate of interest grows out of the existence of the first. It is the age of a nation's commerce. In new countries, when industrial pursuits are in their infancy, competition is limited, profits large, the incentive to extension of business consequently great, and large rates of interest are readily obtained. As the different branches of productive industry are extended, although thereby more capital is demanded which fact at first thought would seem to operate toward an increase of the wages of Money the rate diminishes, because by reason of the competition the profits are reduced, and however great maybe the amount of Money demanded, the earnings of a business determine the sum of Money that can be paid for capital to conduct it. The third of the natural forces which bear upon the rate of interest is the diseased or healthy condition of a nation's productive industry. With industrial pursuits disturbed, and commerce consequently paralyzed, the rate of interest rises not so much by reason of a scarcity of Money as from the element of fear and uncertainty which capitalists enter- tain as to making investments. On the other hand, with industry and commerce in a prosperous condition the rate of interest usually recedes, for although, as already seen, MONEY AND CURRENCY. 47 the amount of Money required is large, the rate of interest is governed by the rate of accruing profits. The attempt by artificial force of statute law to determine the rate of interest for Money has been adopted in almost every civilized government, and always proved a failure. The earlier law of England made it a criminal offence to receive interest for Money to any extent. In other words, it forbid interest ; but the only effect of the law was to enhance the rate the lender would have been willing to receive in the absence of the statute, by so much as he con- sidered would remunerate him for incurring the risk of suf- fering the prescribed penalty. The French edict of 1 766, reducing the legal rate from five to four per cent., was simi- larly avoided ; and all the usury laws of the United States for usury laws these arbitrary restraints of statute are have proved entirely inoperative. The theory of a usury law is untenable, for the reason that the use of Money will bring just what the projects and business of the borrower can afford to pay ; and yet, if a usury law could secure univer- sal compliance, it would entirely put to flight one of the greatest disturbers of commercial peace namely, specula- tion. The irrepressible passion of man, however, to sell his wares in the best market and at the highest possible price renders such statutes a dead letter, and when partially en- forced, as they ever only are, they prejudice the national or State prosperity by driving home-capital to foreign locali- ties for investment. The somewhat prevalent notion that an increase in the amount of mineral wealth, of metallic Money, will diminish the rate of interest, is a fallacy. Money is measured in value by labor, and when by reason of excess it will not loan for a sufficient sum to realize the cost of the labor which produced it, it seeks employment in commerce as an article of trade. The future rate of interest in the United States cannot, 48 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. by any possibility, be very much diminished for a long period to come. The immense amount of territory yet to be developed, the extension of our present industrial pur- suits and the creation of new ones, the moneyed needs of Government, these and a train of collateral causes render the reduction of the rate of interest in this country impos- sible for probably fifty years. This somewhat extended topic of The Relations of Money to Commerce will be concluded by a brief allusion to the effect which the prospective decline in the value of Money will have in the commercial world. Since the discovery of the North American mines, their continued and increasing productiveness, added to the capacity of those of South America, Australia and the Spanish and Peruvian possessions, results in a relatively greater supply of the precious metals than is required for the combined purposes of a circulating medium and for the fabrication of metallic articles of commerce. As already seen, an excess of metallic circulating medium never creates a per- manent diminution of the value of Money, so long as there is not an excess of the raw metals for purposes of productive industry. An excess of the latter character, however, denotes the limit of consumptive demand, and hence the present decline, necessarily slow, in the value of the mineral wealth of the entire world. This decline, as already indicated, cannot by any possibility be a rapid one. The demand for raw metal for the fabrication of elegant wares will not probably increase in an equal ratio with the supply, on account of the inexorable rule in the code of fashion which will allow no other definition of either beauty or taste in the matter of ornament except the element of difficulty attaching to the procurement of articles for such uses. Exhaust, or rather very nearly exhaust) the world's supply of common, ordinary granite stone, and it would appear first among the entrees upon every jeweler's bill of MONEY AND CURRENCY. 49 fare who caters for the ornamental wants of the fashionable world. On the other hand, however, the supply for the purposes of a circulating medium will not bear such a pro- portionate increase over the demand as will be found in the uses of commerce. The task of internal improvement before the United States as a government is yet wellnigh boundless, and the development of productive industries by its people is in only an incipient stage ; both of which facts will militate against the diminution in the demand for the precious metals for the purposes of Money. Mr. Bowen has collected the authorities upon this point, and treated the whole subject with his usual completeness and elegance of thought and rhetoric in his admirable work on Political Economy, wherein he estimates that at the close of the present century metallic Money will pos- sess about one-half of the exchangeable value that it did in the year 1854. The decline will be extended over so long a period that its effect will not be particularly prejudi- cial to commercial pursuits. The prices of labor and com- modities will advance in a ratio proportionate to the de- cline, and the constant depreciation will be hardly percep- tible, except in two instances those of long-deferred debts and contracts. In these cases the debtor class will gain a substantial pecuniary advantage, and the benefit of this sort which will accrue to our Government in the redemp- tion of bonds, the payment of which is long deferred, will be by no means inconsiderable. V. THE KINDS AND SUBSTITUTES OF MONEY. The consideration of Money in its restricted sense of metallic Money is here concluded. The remaining por- tion of this chapter will be devoted to an examination of the various kinds and substitutes of Money, when, in the next succeeding one, the Money and Currency of the United States will engage particular attention. ft C 50 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. All substitutes for Money are embraced under the generic term of Currency. Currency is of two kinds that payable or convertible in specie upon presentation at the place of issue, and that payable or convertible in specie at some fixed or indefinite future period. In the description of the last species of currency is found a proper definition of paper Money, and the deduction to be made from this paragraph is that, strictly speaking, there is but one substi- tute for Money, namely currency; that currency is of two sorts, convertible and inconvertible, and that a circu- lating medium may be made up of either metallic or paper Money, or convertible paper currency, or by a mixture of the last two. This discussion will proceed under two main divisions : 1. Convertible Currency ; 2. Inconvertible Currency, or Paper Money. Under the first main division will be embraced the fol- lowing sub-subjects, which will be treated of in their order : (a) The basis of convertible currency ; () the theory and utility of the same ; (Y) its characteristics ; (*/) the proper amount of a convertible issue ; (i) the effect of an excessive issue of the same upon commerce. (a) The basis of convertible currency is faith in the honesty and pecuniary resources of moneyed institutions and moneyed men who make the issue of such a currency their peculiar and exclusive vocation. It is, in short, credit. In the present age of extended commerce, and amid the ever-changing shifts of fortune, with the history of traffic recording five instances of failure to one of suc- cess, it is a very common remark among the business por- tion of the community that they stake nothing upon chance, that they run no risks, that they look before they leap ; and yet every act of their lives is a flat denial of the truth of their pet proposition. Their entire life, in company with that of common humanity, is but a game of chance, from MONEY AND CURRENCY. 5 I the opening door of the cradle to the closing portal of the grave. Mystery envelops their every step, and their very existence is shrouded with uncertainty. The thoughts and intentions of man are known only to himself and Omnipo- tence. No human agency can divine their character. No human law, moreover, can either compel such thoughts and intentions to be honest and upright, or devise means whereby dishonest thought and purpose can be invariably detected by outward act. It is mere faith in the purity and probity of such thought and purpose that constitutes the corner-stone of commerce, society and every human insti- tution whatsoever. Discard this element of trust in man for man, and you sap the foundations of society, block the wheels of business, stay the progress of civilization, strike at the very roots of Christianity, and by thus forgetting that man was made "in His own image," utter a libel upon the Bible and offer insult to God. This element of trust is peculiarly apparent in the use of a convertible paper currency. Such a currency meets with public approbation and acceptance in almost unlimited amounts, simply because the community puts faith in the ability of the issuing party to meet the obligation expressed upon the issue, and that such ability is supplemented by honest intent. This characteristic of business faith and trust is forcibly illustrated in the dealings of the New York city banks with the brokers of Wall street ; and to the credit of the latter be it said, notwithstanding they are generally accused of an opposite course, there is no class of people in the United States who live in their business so exclusively " upon honor" as they. Their honesty is measured by the banks with whom they deal within the limits of from one to a million of dollars. Instances of a Wall-street broker wish- ing to buy stock to fill an order to the extent of one hundred thousand dollars more than his bank balance, and of his 52 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. bank honoring his check for the amount upon the mere belief that he will buy and sell his stock and make good his balance, are of every-day occurrence. The basis, then, of a convertible currency, speaking in the abstract merely, is credit, faith, trust. This is its general, moral, organic, and not its conventional, material basis. Discussion of the latter point belongs more appro- priately to our chapter upon Banking, and will there en- gage attention. () The theory and utility of a convertible currency is demonstrated in the combined argument of convenience and economy. The nineteenth century is characterized by a people who husband the resources of labor, and this trait of character finds emphatic expression in the fact of a con- vertible currency. It is far less bulky than specie, much easier of manipulation, and, if destroyed by fire or other calamity, results in no loss save that of temporary conveni- ence. It has no intrinsic worth. It is merely the repre- sentative of such intrinsic value a simple certificate that the holder is entitled to the sum of money stamped upon its face and upon proof of destruction the issuing party will always furnish the loser with a duplicate. So long as it is convertible in specie, a paper currency is one of the happiest inventions and most efficient instruments of com- merce. This is the argument of convenience. The argu- ment of economy is twofold one of small, the other of immense importance. The loss sustained from use in the wear of paper Money is very inconsiderable, while that re- sulting from the abrasion of gold and silver is quite the re- verse. But the great argument of economy is the use of the surplus specie, resulting from the adoption of converti- ble currency, which accrues to a nation for foreign pur- poses and use. A convertible paper currency will only cir- culate within the territory of the government where it is is- sued. All foreign remittances must be made in specie, and MONEY AND CURRENCY. 53 the sum equal to the difference between the amount of spe- cie necessary for the banks of issue of a country to keep as a reserve for the conversion of their currency, and the gross amount of the circulating medium, represents the amount of surplus specie which the adoption of a converti- ble currency puts into the hands of a government and a people for foreign commerce. (c] The characteristics of a convertible currency. As has been already remarked, it has no intrinsic, material worth or character. It consists in mere stamped or en- graved pieces of paper, promising to pay a certain sum of money to any bearer on presentation, and that uncondi- tionally and at all events. It differs from a promissory note or bill of exchange payable on demand in that it is pay- able to any holder, and in transfer from man to man does not require indorsement. (//) The proper amount of a convertible issue. This point is self-evident and apparent. As convertible cur- rency is instituted to supplant a metallic circulating me- dium, the quantity of specie in circulation prior to its adop- tion is the proper measure of a convertible issue. History furnishes striking instances of the violation of this plain and simple principle in the scheme for promoting the busi- ness interests of Scotland by the establishment of the Bank of Ayr, and in the financial panics in this country of 1837 and 1857. A full statement of these illustrative truths, however, finds a more appropriate and logical place under the second main division of this subject Paper Money or Inconvertible Currency and their full citation is conse- quently deferred till that subject shall engage attention. (e) The action upon commerce of an excessive issue of convertible currency occasions distrust in the business community, which is followed by a run upon the source of issue for a conversion of the same in specie, a consequent hoarding and exportation of the latter, inevitable suspen- 54 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. sion of specie payment by the source of issue, and finally the incomparable evils of an era of paper Money of in- convertible currency and financial disaster. As the evil results of such an over-issue are not seen, experienced or appreciated until the point is reached, by suspension of payment, where convertible currency assumes the form of paper Money, full discussion of these evils will be post- poned to its appropriate place under that subject. 2. Inconvertible currency or paper Money. An ex- amination of the subject of paper Money involves allusion to the following subordinate topics : (#) The cause of paper Money ; (b} its theory ; (c) its characteristics ; ( tenable, and the proof of the proposition may be found in the chapter above designated. It is an attempt to extend the issue of a species of currency which works an actual robbery of the public. Dl 82 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. III. THE AMOUNT OF CIRCULATING MEDIUM NEEDED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE PRESENT TIME. The statement will probably meet with the approval of the entire business community that in the spring of the year 1861, prior to the commencement of hostilities, the amount of circulating medium in the United States was abundantly sufficient to satisfy all legitimate demands for Money. This amount of circulating medium, as 'already seen, was about $335,000,000. The gross amount of prod- ucts for this year, moreover, was seen to be $4,000,000,000. It has also been estimated that $1,000,000,000 were paid for untangible products of industry, so to speak, such as pro- fessional labor. If $1,000,000,000 worth of the products of that year is set aside for immediate consumption with- out having first traversed the avenues of commerce (and that is a very liberal estimate), it is seen that $4,000,000,000 worth of both tangible and untangible products of industry was in commercial circulation during the year 1861. In addition to this, exchanges of real estate were effected during this year to the amount of about $1,200,000,000, so that $5,200,000,000 represent the aggregate moneyed value of all species of property which was bought and sold in 1 86 1 ; and the purchases and sales were effected by the means of $335,000,000 of specie and convertible currency. The proportion of aggregate wealth in circulation during this year to that of Money is thus seen to be very nearly as fifteen to one. Granting the original premise to be true that the ratio of circulation between the wealth and Money of the country in 1861 was a just one, and the proposition is tenable that, all other things being equal, by just so much as the business of the country at the present time exceeds in amount that of the year 1861, in just that relative degree should the volume of our circulating medium be now ex- tended. There is no complete statistical report extant at the close of the present year (1871) showing the exact MONEY AND CURRENCY OF THE U. S. 83 amount of the business of the country at this period. In the absence of explicit returns there is no better criterion to be governed by than the increase of our export trade since the year 1860, which is shown by statistics to be forty-nine per cent. Assuming that this represents the increase of the amount of wealth now in circulation in this country over that in the year 1861, and the present annual business transactions of the United States will amount to $7,748,000,000. Now, to preserve the proportion between the amount of wealth in circulation to that of Money in the ratio of fifteen to one, which is allowed to have been a just one in 1861, add forty-nine per cent, to the amount of circulating medium in use at that time, and the requisite amount of Money for the present period will be ascertained. The result of the calculation will show that $499,150,000 should be the extent of our present volume of circulating medium. In other words, if it required $335,000,000 of circulating medium to transact business to the extent of $5,200,000,000 in 1861, it requires, all other things being equal, $499,150,000 to effect the proper exchanges of wealth which possesses a value of $7,748,000,000 in 1871. But the attendant circumstances are very far from being equal in one important particular. Since the year 1861 the means for saving the use of Money have been very largely perfected and extended in the systems of deposit checks, notes, drafts, and, more important than all, the clearing-house system of our large cities. This last was in its infancy in this country in 1861, compared with its pres- ent colossal proportions. The report of the clearing-house of New York City, for instance, for the year 1869, shows that daily accounts of debit and credit between the banks of that city were settled amounting, upon an average, to the enormous sum of $125,000,000, and that the average sum of Money used to effect these daily settlements did not exceed $5,000,000 ; the balancp of these accounts namely, 84 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. $120,000,000 being adjusted by way of offset in the ex- change of checks, notes and bills of exchange which the respective banks held against each other. In the year 1 86 1 these bank settlements were nearly all effected by actual manipulation and exchange of Money. An exact estimate cannot be made of the extent of this saving in the use of Money within the last decade, but it is a very mate- rial one, and has been placed by good authorities at twenty- five per cent. ; fifteen per cent, is certainly a very small es- timate of the saving which has been effected in the use of Money by these means. Allowing this to be the proper estimate, a deduction of fifteen per cent, from $499,150,000 will give the amount of circulating medium required for the present business purposes of the United States namely. $424,277,500. The former amount, it will be remem- bered, is the sum which, by previous calculation, would represent the proper volume of our currency at the present time, were it not for this saving of fifteen per cent, which has been effected in the use of Money within the last ten years. By a recurrence to the statement of the amount of paper Money in actual circulation in the United States in 1871, it is seen that the same amounts to $640,605,378.08, fully fifty per cent, above the sum really needed, as shown by the foregoing calculation; and the excess, about $217,000,000, it will be noticed, nearly equals the volume of legal-tender notes or greenbacks in actual use by the public namely, $250,500,000. IV. EVILS OF THE PRESENT PAPER CIRCULATION. The evils of our present paper circulation have their origin solely in its redundant condition. These evils, more- over, are both past and present, actual and potential. An account of those that belong to the past, by reason of their similarity to those still in existence, is not particularly per- MONEY AND CURRENCY OF THE U. S. 85 tinent to the scope of this treatise. They are events that indeed deserve a place, and an important one, in the annals of American literature, but the task of giving them such a record devolves more properly upon the historian. This has been partially though not fully, and however deep the research, and however facile the pen that shall transcribe the narrative, never will be fully accomplished. They form a part, to be sure, of the history of community in general, but they moreover form a part, and a very large one, of the history of private life, whose recesses of pri- vation and suffering history can never fathom, whose only record is that which years of self-denying and ill-remune- rated toil have written in deep and indelible lines upon the blameless foreheads of millions of careworn parents, and which undeserved want has left in the stunted forms and hapless lives of a generation of innocent and unsus- pecting children. The indescribable suffering of these sad and silent witnesses, who carry in their mournful existence these tearful evidences of the evils of our present financial policy, and who are to be found in every town, village and hamlet of the republic, will never form a subject which will inspire the historian's pen or make an impress upon the gilded leaf of literature. Heaven alone has marked their anguish, and to many of them, alas ! Heaven can only bring relief. These past evils of our present redundant paper currency and for the last five years, at least, needlessly and inexcus- ably so will consequently not engage further attention, with the exception of a little general comment. The burden has fallen most heavily upon laborers, salaried men, agricultu- rists and the working-classes in general. The excessive issues of paper Money, which so enormously enhanced the prices of commodities, also enhanced the opportunities of the business and commercial world, but the wages, salaries and returns of the classes above mentioned have never in- 8 86 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. creased in anything like a relative ratio with the augmented cost of living. One of the most obnoxious features and obnoxious be- cause wholly unreasonable and unprecedented of this paper Money has been seen in the system which has been pursued in its redemption, or rather exchange, when pre- sented in a mutilated form. The Government, after for- cing a loan upon community of $400,000,000 of legal-tender notes and fractional currency, as if not satisfied with the returns of this seemingly illegal and abortive scheme of taxation, has followed the practice of making a deduction from the amount of mutilated pieces of these issues when presented for redemption in proportion to the extent of the mutilation. That is, if a legal-tender $5 note was pre- sented for redemption (or rather for exchange, it could not be redeemed) with one-eighth part of it detached, other currency has only been given for it to the amount of $4.371/2, unless the holder could positively swear 'that the missing portion was actually destroyed, which of course has been nearly always impossible. Up to October i, 1871, Government had taken from the people in this unwarranted manner the sum of $250,000, and the agent of the Associated Press joyfully telegraphed the fact from Washington, adding that " This is a clear gain to the Government and a tax on cir- culation." The paltry excuse for this custom has been that the detached pieces might be pasted together and form so perfect a note that the Government could not detect the fraud that other currency would be given in exchange for such counterfeits, and thus the Government be a loser. With such Department clerks as the present system of civil service furnishes to attend to such duties of exchange, this has undoubtedly been a good and valid plea in defence of the rule. The worst feature of the whole matter has been that this loss has fallen upon the poorer classes. The busi- ness portion of community have been acquainted with the MONEY AND CURRENCY OF THE U. S. 87 law and avoided the amercement, while the laboring masses, ignorant of the same, became the ultimate posses- sors of this mutilated currency, and consequently sustained the loss. A reform was recently instituted providing that legal-tender notes and fractional currency should thereafter be received at their full value, " provided that three-fifths of the original proportion of such notes are presented in one piece. If more than one-half and less than five-eighths is presented, half the face value will be paid ; less than half a note will be redeemed only on affidavit that the missing portion has been totally destroyed." This alleviates the evils resulting from the former system of redemption, but does not wholly remove them. The laboring and salaried classes of community and our ag- ricultural population, as they ever have been since its inau- guration, still continue to be the principal sufferers from the evils of our present redundant currency. The ratio of increase in the wages and salaries of the first two has been by no means proportionate to that in the prices of all commodities which constitute the ordinary means of sub- sistence, and at so late a period as the close of the year 1871 this increase in the income of the salaried and laboring classes was from twenty to forty per cent, below the relative enhancement of ordinary living expenses. The agricultural population are prejudiced in their interests in precisely the same manner and in about the same degree as were the farmers in Illinois in the illustration in the preceding chap- ter of the evils which result from an undue extension of the volume of paper Money. It was demonstrated in the course of that discussion that the exchangeable value of paper Money, by reason of its non-intrinsic character and consequent inability to enter the field of traffic as a commodity, is measured by the law of scarcity and excess. In other words, its value depre- ciates in a direct ratio with the increase that is made in the 88 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. amount in circulation, and a further logical conclusion is ; as already shown, that the prices of commodities of which paper Money is the sole measure of value and these com- modities are such as are produced and find an exclusive market within the territories where paper Money is circu- lated increase in a direct ratio with the decline in the value of such a medium of exchange. It was also shown in that discussion that the premium on specie, by reason that its value for the uses of a circulating medium over that of paper Money is checked to a certain extent by its market price as a commodity, never rises in a ratio proportionate to either the decline in the value of a redundant currency or the consequent advance in the prices of commodities. It also appeared in that discussion that when the bulk of any particular product finds a market in a foreign country, the price of such a product for shipment governs the price for that portion of it which is sold in the home market. The paper Money of the United States at the close of the present year (1871), as already seen, is fully fifty per cent, above the necessary volume. Its value is consequently de- preciated, and the prices of commodities of whose value it is the sole measure namely, those which are produced and find an exclusive market in this country are enhanced in just this ratio. The average premium on specie at the close of this year (1871), moreover, for reasons above cited, is about twelve and a half per cent. The price of all our agricultural products is influenced in a great degree by that of one of our principal staples of agriculture namely, cotton. The great bulk of this staple, fully four-fifths of it, finds a market in European and other marts, and the price of that portion of it which is sold in our home market, as already shown, is governed by the price for shipment. This shipping price is measured by a specie standard, and the agriculturists of the country, so far as the value of their products is governed by the price of cotton and our price MONEY AND CURRENCY OF THE U. S. 89 lists show that this influence is wellnigh absolute are con sequently selling the same by a measure of value twenty- five per cent, less than that which affixes the price to articles produced and sold exclusively in this country, and which they are constantly purchasing as means of daily sub- sistence. That is, with specie at a premium of twelve and a half per cent., and our paper Money depreciated fifty per cent., and home products sold exclusively here consequently enhanced in value to that extent, our agriculturists sell an article of a given value for one dollar in specie, or one dollar and twelve and a half cents in currency, and pay one dollar and fifty cents in currency for articles of subsist- ence of a given value, which cost their owner no more than did the farmer's produce, which realizes him but one dollar and twelve and a half cents. The present redundant cur- rency thus robs our agricultural population of twenty-five per cent, of their annual produce. This theoretical reason- ing is abundantly sustained by facts. In the autumn of 1871 flour was quoted upon our wholesale price-lists from twenty-two to Uventy-eight per cent, below the ruling rate in 1860, and pork about thirty per cent, below its market value prior to the opening of hostilities. These evils of our redundant currency will not be further considered, and attention is drawn from the topic to that which will embrace the concluding remarks of this chapter namely : V. RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. Of all the duties which ever devolve upon a govern- ment for execution there is none more delicate in character, far-reaching in its bearings and important in results than the one effecting a transition from an era of paper Money to the establishment or re-establishment of specie payments. It is an end which can never be attained, however great the wisdom which directs the means for its accomplishment, without causing dissatisfaction, and eliciting censure from 8* 90 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. some portion or portions of the community, for on some it is sure to operate with disadvantage. Gold and silver con- stitute the only normal and legal instruments of commerce for measuring the value and effecting exchanges of com- modities, and when once compelled by violent convulsions of State to abdicate the throne to which the wisdom of the ancients elected them, are not easily enticed to reassume the sceptre which has been unwarrantably filched from their control. The generic term which covers all means of resumption is contraction. This contraction, or resumption, as pleasure or caprice may term it, may be effected in one of two ways, and one of these is immediate, the other mediate, in the attainment of the result. The first is to call in the paper Money and give the holder specie in exchange ; the sec- ond is to fund such paper Money in Government securities which, both principal and interest, are ultimately payable in coin. The first difficulty in the way of effecting resump- tion by the method first above named is the want of the necessary specie to cancel the excessive volume of paper Money in which its adoption is always sure to terminate. Accumulation for this purpose is a slow process, and seldom if ever resorted to. The history of nations resuming specie payments after protracted eras of paper Money almost invariably shows that other methods have been pursued. England, for instance, in the year 1819, specie payments having been suspended since 1797, adopted a scheme of resumption, in pursuance of an act of Parliament, which required the Bank of England to immediately commence the redemption of its notes in coin, but allowing this to be consummated by slowly-advancing stages. The bank was required to commence redemption by paying specie for its notes only a little in advance of their rated value as deter- mined by the premium on gold, and to slightly increase this amount at frequent intervals. That is, if the notes of MONEY AND CURRENCY OF THE U. S. 9 1 the Bank of England were worth ninety cents to the dollar, the scheme was to begin redemption of the same by first paying, say, ninety-three cents to the dollar in specie for all that were presented, and increase the valuation at stated intervals. The project, as all readers of English history are aware, was a success. The changes were so slight and of so frequent occurrence that very little disturbance re- sulted to the commerce of Great Britain, and the final period of full resumption was anticipated by the bank, and its notes reached a par valuation with specie some time before the date suggested by the act of Parliament. This plan has been recommended by high authority for the adoption of our Government as a means of returning to specie payments ; and with nearly one hundred millions of coin constantly hoarded in the National Treasury, and our paper Money at a valuation of about eighty-five cents to the dollar, no earthly reason can be presented, neither would any arise, barring war, why, under such a course, the United States should not effect a full resumption at any time, within, at farthest, two years after the inauguration of such a system. The second plan of resumption by funding our paper Money, or rather the excess of it, in an interest-bearing bond, principal and interest payable in coin, is equally feasible, and free from obstacles which would militate against its reaching a successful issue. The entire amount of legal-tender notes namely, $357,500,000 might be gradually withdrawn in this manner without any prejudice to commercial interests. This statement may at first glance seem unwarranted, when the fact is remembered that, by our calculation a few pages back, $217,000,000 nearly represent the excess of our present circulating medium. It must also, however, be remembered that $107,000,000 of this issue of legal-tenders are held as a reserve by the National banks, thus leaving only $250,500,000 in actual 92 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. use as a medium of exchange. As the notes now held by the National banks would simply be exchanged, under such a funding process, for an equal amount of the bonds into which the whole issue would be funded, $33,500,000 would represent the gross sum by which our currency would, in this manner, appear to be unduly contracted. This apparent void of $33,500,000 would, however, be speedily filled with specie, which such contraction, by means of its placing our currency at a par valuation with gold and silver, would force from the amount that is now hoarded throughout the country. Large holders of merchandise, obligors on deferred con- tracts and obligations, and the entire portion of the debtor class of community, would suffer comparative loss by such resumption ; but nearly seven years have elapsed since the exigencies which induced this era of paper Money have ceased to exist, and no valid reason can be offered by the parties above named why they have not ere this set their houses in order and prepared for the change. It is respectfully submitted, in this connection, that the plan of resumption presented by Senator Sumner to the United States Senate in the winter of 1871 and 1872 is unsound in theory and would prove mischievous in prac- tice. Mr. Sumner proposes to effect resumption by issuing "every month ten millions of interest-bearing legal-tender notes, similar to those that were issued in 1863 and 1864, and to cancel a like amount of greenbacks, the process to go on till all the greenbacks have been thus replaced. The new notes, he proposes, shall bear five per cent, interest, and shall be paid in coin at the end of three years, or con- verted into five per cent, bonds, at the option of the Gov- ernment." The mischief of such a scheme of resumption as this is found in the fact that these " interest-bearing legal-tender notes, similar to those that were issued in 1863 and 1864," MONEY AND CURRENCY OF THE U. S. 93 would serve the double purpose of capital and Money. They would almost invariably, in the first instance, be taken for purposes of investment, like any other Government security, but with the intention of using them, as occasion might require, for legitimate business pursuits or speculative purposes, as a regular medium of exchange. While held as an investment our circulating medium would be contracted, but when put in circulation as Money the volume of our currency would be again extended, and during the entire period of three years allotted for their maturity there would be a constant alternation between these two extremes. These constant changes in the amount of our circulating medium would produce corresponding vacillations in the relative value of our paper Money and specie, similar and frequent variations in the value of all commodities, and a consequent ceaseless disturbance of our entire commercial interests. This method of resumption would destroy the first fundamental element of a healthy circulating medium namely, stability envelop the returns of labor, business and capital with uncertainty, and create inevitable stagna- tion and distrust in every scheme of private enterprise what- soever. For proof of these assertions reference may be had to our experience with the notes of 1863 and 1864, which Mr. Sumner proposes to pattern after in his plan of resumption. The first issue of these notes was made in the winter of 1862 and 1863, amounting to a little over $100,000,000. They were used in precisely the same manner as we have already indicated at one time as Money and another as capital with precisely the same results. Prices of commodities rose and fell during the next six months in an alternate ratio of from thirty to forty per cent. Toward the close of the year 1864, as stated in the early part of this discussion, over 5200,000,000 of these notes were in circulation, and the re- ports of the Money market during the early part of this 94 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. year show that the price of gold, within periods of no more than twelve days, ranged from $2.20 to $2.75. These changes in the value of commodities and specie resulted solely from the disturbance in the volume of the circulating medium, caused by this alternate ingress and egress of these compound-interest notes. They were, in short, one of the most pernicious species of paper Money issued during the war. It might seem mere temerity to question the soundness of a plan of resumption emanating from such a source as Senator Sumner, were it not for the existence of these in- disputable facts. Have we any reason to suppose that this same history will not repeat itself if a corresponding con- dition of things is inaugurated ? The proper disposition of the legal-tender notes seems to be a conversion of them into some sort of security, which shall be only a means of investment, which shall be merely capital a security which shall not possess the dual and mischievous function of both capital and Money. The country is not only, at the present time, ready for such resumption, but the interests of the community at large, and particularly of our laboring, salaried and agricultural classes, who have so long submitted to this gross injustice, demand that further postponement of a full resumption of specie payments shall not be allowed that at least the legal-tenders in actual circulation outside of the amount held as a reserve fund by the National banks shall be re- tired, and thus palliate, if not entirely remove, the evils which are greater than those resulting from all other features of our present governmental policy, save that of our civil service namely, those of our redundant paper currency. BANKS AND BANKING BUSINESS. 95 CHAPTER III. BANKS AND THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. THE theory and uses of Money in the abstract, together with the present status and relations of the circu- lating medium of this country, constituted the sole subjects of investigation of the preceding chapters. The present one will be devoted to a consideration of the agencies which in a great measure effect the proper distribution of Money namely, Banks and a discussion of the National Banking System of the United States. For this purpose the present chapter will be divided into two divisions. The first will treat of Banks and Banking Business in Gen- eral ; the second of The National Banking System. DIVISION FIRST. BANKS AND BANKING BUSINESS IN GENERAL. A Necessary Adjunct of Money for Purposes of Commerce Their Le- gitimate Office to Receive and Distribute Money Present Offices Deposit Discount and Circulation Deposit Masses Capital A Means for Saving the Use of Money Is Deposit a Myth? De- posits Seldom Moved Deposit is not Money, but its Substitute Discount, the Purchase of Unmatured Obligations The Fund by which the Business of Discount is Worked How Discount Operates in Connection with Deposit Circulation, how it Differs in Nature from Deposit and Discount A Measure of Public instead of Pri- vate Economics An Act of Credit The Elements of the Credit requisite for Circulation Circulation belongs to and devolves upon the People The Doctrine of Convertibility Is it Tenable or Feasible? Private Hanking Banking in History The Banks of Venice, Genoa and Amsterdam Their Origin and Operations. IN a prior connection we had occasion to lay down the law which God has attached to all conditions of hu- man existence a law which indeed places mankind but 96 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. one remove from Omnipotence namely : That man to live must advance that life is progress, that repose is death. In tracing the causes and origin of Money we incidentally cited the invention of this commercial agent as one of the grandest proofs and illustrations of this truth which history has ever afforded. Not only another proof of the existence of the law, but also another forcible illustration of its con- stant application, is seen in the device of those peculiar in- stitutions of finance which mankind has designated by a title indicative of both their office and character the im- pressive, solid name of Bank. Banking institutions are indeed milestones in the progress of civilization indispen- sable adjuncts of even the most primeval commerce. The law of human progress which seized upon man in his pri- mal pursuit of the chase, transformed him into a nomad, and then, leading him through the intervening stage of a predial existence, opened to him the portals of commerce, and bade him in its pursuit reclaim the uttermost parts of the earth to civilization, also brought to his assistance in this momentous task the agency of metallic Money. The earlier behests of commerce are to a certain extent ade- quately served by this single agent of exchange, without the establishment of any especial means for its oversight and proper distribution ; but as civilization advances the necessity of such an adjunct to commerce soon becomes ap- parent. Money as an agent of exchange and producer of wealth is not only both scattered in small quantities among many holders and condensed in large sums in the hands of successful capitalists, but in both cases remains idle and useless, although demand for its service in the field of pro- ductive industry is constant and worthy of satisfaction. Here, then, are two reciprocal wants. Money seeks em- ployment, and industry awaits capital. But the small sums in the hands of the many holders require concretion, so to speak wait to be massed, banked before they can BANKS AND BANKING BUSINESS. 97 offer, and the accumulation of the capitalist demands secu- rity before it will give, assistance to industrial needs. An agency which can give such security is necessary to gather up these metallic idlers from their loafing-ground and as- sign them to duty in the attenuated ranks of commerce. How is this to be effected? History answers, By associa- tion by massing in short, by banking. The possession of wealth, as already seen, gives power and credit. An ap- plication of this truth is made by a joinder of these idle sums of Money in large amounts, by an association of these capitalists, who offer to collect the unemployed Money of community and assign it to safe and remunerative labor ; and as security for the faithful performance of their trust pledge their accumulated and associated wealth. This is the birth of banking. Let us follow it to a mature life. From the foregoing remarks it has doubtless become ap- parent that the offices of legitimate banking are to receive and distribute Money. The receipt of Money by banking institutions is evidenced by a certificate to that effect the distribution of it by taking a written promise of the dis- tributee to repay the same with interest. These two func- tions are properly designated deposit and discount. They will be discussed at length hereafter; in this connection they are only referred to incidentally. In the performance of this dual function banks act as equalizers of the supply and demand for Money. They constitute an interceding agent, so to speak, between capital and its borrowers, dis- pelling the doubt and insuring the safety of the former on the one hand, responding to the wants and necessities of the latter on the other, and thus keep the otherwise idle hoards in constant circulation in the unremitting service of productive industry. They are, in short, the fiscal agents of the mercantile world. The efficiency of banks in the service of commerce by the mere collection and distribution of metallic Money E 98 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. would be very inadequate and unsatisfactory. Whenever commercial pursuits assume proportions of the slightest magnitude they demand very frequent exchanges of the tokens which effect the purposes of sale. To consummate every transaction of the business world by an actual ma- nipulation and transfer of metallic Money would be wholly impracticable yes, more, entirely impossible unless com- mercial pursuits were restricted to the narrow limits of what could only be termed, so to speak, a refined bar- barism. The use of metallic Money as a sole circulating medium is, in fact, a conclusive badge of barbarism and ignorance. It is a denial of that faith in man for man with- out which neither commerce nor civilization can emerge from the swaddling-clothes of a society which makes the needs of physical subsistence the ultimate measure and limit of traffic. It, in short, ignores credit. This inefficiency of incipient banking leads to- the adoption of a system whereby these fiscal agents of the commercial world hold metallic Money as a pledge of their solvency, and issue their promises to pay Money on demand as a substitute for its circulation. The theory and basis of this custom is credit, and banking is thus traced to the assumption of a third function namely, circulation. The further line of discussion of this subject will be devoted to a separate con- sideration of these three present offices of banking, in the following order : I. Deposit; II. Discount; and III. Cir- culation. I. DEPOSIT. Deposit consists, as already seen, in gathering together massing banking the unemployed capital of the country for proper distribution through the various avenues of pro- ductive industry. Deposit, in the abstract, moreover as- sumes two forms. The idle capital of community may be massed or banked together either by an actual placing of metallic Money in the custody of banking institutions, or BANKS AND BANKING BUSINESS. 99 by giving them the care and keeping of the various certifi- cates of indebtedness, bills of exchange, promissory notes and convertible or inconvertible currency which circulate as substitutes for specie. By far the greater portion of deposits are of this latter character. Community at large, so far as its needs of a medium of exchange are concerned, may be divided into two classes the mercantile or com- mercial, and the consuming class. These two classes, more- over, comparatively speaking, make use of two distinct species of circulating medium. The latter, in supplying their daily and petty wants of physical subsistence, use the circulating equivalents of specie or a substituted currency, but the former, in effecting the transposition of the aggre- gate products of productive industry in supplying com- merce with motive-power resort to the circulation of the various evidences of indebtedness above named. Many individuals, it is true, may and do belong to both of these classes of community, but in each respective position they make use of these respective means of a circulating medium. As already indicated, the wheels of business would be blocked and commerce confined to its natal cradle if actual exchanges of Money or currency concluded every business transaction; and, as already noticed, moreover, the disenthrallment of community from such a rude species of commerce is one of the boundary-lines between civiliza- tion and barbarism. The business world buy and sell sometimes "on time" and again "for cash," as occasion and circumstances may require ; and in both instances not a dollar of Money or substituted currency is frequently employed in the transaction. In case of "time" transac- tions the same are concluded, either in the first instance by a promissory note, which, after often traversing almost countless avenues of the business world, knocks at the bank door of the maker at maturity for payment, and is canceled by a mere transfer of dei>osit, or they remain open till the 100 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. stated time for payment is at hand, when the bank check or draft, by another mere transfer of deposit, completes the contract of purchase and sale. This is credit faith be- tween man and man in their ability to execute their con- tracts, and belief that this ability is supplemented by hon- est intent. From the foregoing propositions it appears that deposit dispenses with the use of Money. This is, indeed, one of the principal offices of deposit, and will now receive consideration. The proposition that deposit constitutes a means for saving the use of Money should be also coupled with the statement which is, in fact, a logical deduction from such proposition that deposit is not itself Money, but a mere substitute for such a medium of exchange. A demon- stration of this deductive assertion will afford sufficient proof of the major proposition. Let the course of dealing among merchants be again taken .as an illustration. A buys of B $1000 worth of goods, to be paid for at the ex- piration of three months. The contract is concluded upon delivery of the goods, by A giving B a promissory note for the amount, the maturity of which is fixed at the date above mentioned. B will place this note with his banker by way of discount (to be examined hereafter), and the amount of the proceeds will be placed to the credit of B on the books of the bank as a deposit. This deposit is not Money ; it is merely the promise of A to pay money. Neither does the bank pass any money to B in the process of discount ; it merely makes an entry on its books giving B the right to draw checks upon the bank for the sum ; and when B draws his check or checks for such sum, in three cases out of five no Money will be passed from hand to hand in the process of payment, but the same be effected by a mere transfer of the deposit of the right to draw on the books of the bank from B to the party in whose favor the check runs. In this way the proceeds of the BANKS AND BANKING BUSINESS. IOI $1000 note of A will be drawn against the deposit will be transferred scores of times before the matured obligation calls at the bank of A for redemption. Its avails will in the interim have served the purposes of perhaps a hundred transactions. The same is true of sales for cash, except that the number of transfers will not usually be so many, on account of the fact that the check given for payment of a cash purchase is payable on demand, and will consequently usually reach the bank of the drawer sooner than an obli- gation the maturity of which is deferred. The truth of the foregoing is also substantiated by a recurrence to the discussion in the first chapter of this treatise, where the proposition was maintained that the amount of Money needed for commercial purposes was based upon the rela- tive rapidity with which Money and commodities circulate. The same principle precisely is here involved, the only difference being that we are here speaking of commercial substitutes for Money, instead of Money itself as the ex- changing agent. In the absence of further investigation, the questions naturally arise in this connection, Is the system of deposit entirely a myth ? does it assume to mass to bank Money, when in fact it only grasps the shadow ? is the whole scheme a visionary one, a constant make-shift, a stupendous fraud? By no means. Its basis is credit. It will be re- membered that in a prior part of this treatise we laid down and elucidated the proposition that the possession of wealth always gives to the holder a purchasing power far greater than is warranted by the actual amount of his imme- diate possessions. His capital consists, in other words, of the combined amount of his wealth and this credit power which springs from its ownership. It is the operation of this power of credit in three forms which explains the law and system of deposit; and as this credit power mani- fests itself in three distinct and separate, yet confluent, IO2 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. channels, so has it three distinct and separate yet associated bases. The working basis of the depositor, whereby he places his d r afts, checks, notes and evidences of indebted- ness with his bank, and by the means of discount (to be hereafter explained) obtains a right to draw on the bank for their proceeds, is the amount of his actual and credit capital. The basis of the bank, whereby it insures to the depositor the safety of his deposits until he shall draw his check against the same, is the actual amount of banking capital and extent of banking credit ; and the common basis of the business of both the bank and individual, with the qualification below named, is the amount of circulating medium of the country. The bank will not discount beyond what it considers the depositor can protect by means of his actual capital and credit power ; the depositor will not entrust the bank with his securities to a greater extent than he believes the bank, by means of its capital and credit power, can insure ; and the amount of the com- bined business of the depositor and the banker is measured by the amount of actual or substituted circulating medium, with a due regard to the relative rapidity with which Money (or its substitutes) and commodities circulate. These bases are all separate and distinct, and yet conjoint, for, both separate and joint, they are measured by the aggregate amount of the capital of the country. It has incidentally appeared in this discussion that de- posits are rarely moved in payment of the checks or bills that are drawn against them. This is perfectly apparent if we make, for illustration, the hypothesis that there is but one bank in the city of New York, thus compelling the en- tire business community of that city to transact their bank- ing business at this single institution. Under this condi- tion of things it is at once seen that all checks drawn for payment of city debts upon this single banking institution would require no actual transfer of the deposit unless the BANKS AND BANKING BUSINESS. 1 03 payee of the check was not a depositor of the bank ; at least, as between all depositors, no such transfer would be required. A would draw his check for $1000 in favor of B, and A's account at the bank would be debited and B's credited with this sum. A transfer of a deposit would only occur when the payee was not a depositor. This principle, with the single qualification where the payee of a check is not a depositor at any bank, applies, with but a yery little limitation, however great may be the number of these in- stitutions. A draws his check in favor of B for $1000 on the Union Bank of New York. B is a depositor at the Traders' Bank of the same city. Instead of presenting A's check at the Union Bank and demanding the money there- for, B will deposit it in the Traders' Bank, and when this institution demands payment of the same from the Union Bank, in nine cases out of ten the latter will also have a check on the former which it has taken on deposit from a customer, and only the difference between the two checks requires payment ; and for this, in the greater number of instances, the debtor bank will give a check in settlement, so that the greater portion of the checks and bills drawn against deposits are paid by mere entries on the books of the bank. This is illustrated by the report of the New York Clearing-House for 1869, heretofore cited, where it is seen that the aggregate amount of daily settlements between the banks of New York for that year amounted to $125,000,000, and that $120,000,000 of these settlements were daily made by this means of offset, leaving only $5,000,000 to be actually passed from hand to hand. In conclusion, then, deposit is not Money, but a substi- tute for it. The same is rarely ever transferred in payment of checks and bills drawn against it, but such payment is made by mere entries upon the books of the bank. The office of deposit is to gather together the loose, idle capital of the country to mass, bank it, and assign it to remune- IO4 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. rative labor in the field of productive industry, and in so doing to increase, by the operation of the credit power, heretofore explained, the extent of its working capacity. In the performance of this compound office deposit hus- bands circulation, and so economises the use of Money. II. DISCOUNT. The principles upon which discount rests are so intimately interwoven with, and so analogous to, those which form the basis of deposit that this topic will not, by itself, receive an extended discussion. Deposit and discount go hand in hand. Through the agency of the first, banking institutions marshal the straggling hoards of capital into an unbroken line, and by means of the second employ this moneyed force in the execution of the work which constitutes the sole legitimate source of banking profit. The former is a preparatory, the latter a terminative task. The one is a receptive, the other a creative agent. Discount is the pur- chase of unmatured obligations. The sum paid represents their present worth, and this is measured by the amount stamped upon the face of such obligations, less the legal or agreed interest for the time intervening between purchase and maturity. This interest, which springs into existence from the process of discount, as already indicated, is the sole remuneration for legitimate banking labor. The fund with which the business of discount is worked depends upon the character of the law under which banking institutions are organized. If the banking business of a country is con- trolled by the General Government, the legitimate fund which keeps the wheels of discount in motion is confined, for the most part, to the bank deposits. The entire or greater portion of the movable capital of banking institu- tions organized in this manner is almost invariably in the possession of Government as a protection against loss which may result from i:s guarantee of the circulation. This, in BANKS AND BANKING BUSINESS. 1 05 a partial manner, is the case under our present National banking system, as will hereafter appear. If the banking business of a country, however, is not controlled by the General Government, the discount fund is usually measured by the aggregate amount of capital and deposits, for in this case the banks usually issue and control their own circulation, and hence hold their entire capital, while in the former in- stance, as already seen, this state of things does not exist. In both cases the reserve fund held by banks for the conver- sion of circulation is sometimes trenched upon, perhaps frequently, to increase the discount fund. This, however, is not only illegal, but absolutely fraudulent. From the foregoing remarks in reference to the fund with which the business of discount is worked, the inference must not be drawn that invariably, where banking is a monopoly, this fund consists solely of deposits, and where it is free, of both deposits and capital. This does not follow as a necessary deduction from the preceding para- graph. The banking business of the United States at the present time is a monopoly for two reasons : first, because, in the abstract, it is under control of Federal authority; and second, because the amount of circulation is limited. Yet the business might still be retained under Federal con- trol, with no limit set upon the amount of circulation, and it would then be, in one sense, free, and in another a mo- nopoly. Still, although in one sense free, the Government would hold the banking capital to the same extent as now, as it would still be responsible for the redemption of the circulation, and the discount fund would thus continue to be measured by the amount of deposits. Again, the bank- ing business of London is a monopoly, but, unlike our own, a monopoly in the hands of a single institution instead of the Government, and the Hank of England, although a monopoly, both holds its own capital and issues its own circulation, whereby the fund which can be drawn upon for E2 106 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. discount 5s made up of the combined sum of capital and deposits. As deposits are merely temporary, simply placed in bank subject to the call, check or draft of the depositor, it may seem inexplicable how a banking institution can discount from this fund with safety. In other words, if the deposits are liable to be drawn out at any moment, in toto, what real basis is there upon which to work the business of discount ? It is found in the fact that, although the gross amount of deposits are liable to be drawn out, it is in no way prob- able that such an event will happen, and experience proves that an average amount will always remain uncalled for, barring war or financial disaster. The moneyed wants and resources of the community are constantly changing, and although one class of depositors may keep a very active account and draw very close upon their balance, another class, with greater means and less extended necessities, will keep a constant deposit of about a given sum. This average amount of deposit constitutes the discount fund, and is almost exactly appreciable by any institution of established business. The amount of deposits in the New York City banks has amounted for the last two years, upon an average, to about $200,000,000, and this average has not varied more than five per cent, during that period. An incidental statement may be made in this connection, that the aggre- gate amount of deposits in the United States at the close of the present year (1871) is about $600,000,000. From the foregoing remarks, which have shown the nature and extent of a discount fund, it is perfectly evident, without discus- sion, that it is no part of a legitimate discount business to furnish community with permanent capital for business pur- poses. In other words, it is not the office of discount to make loans upon long time to purchase obligations whose maturity is long deferred. This is the business of savings banks and similar institutions, not here under discussion. BANKS AND BANKING BUSINESS. IO/ III. CIRCULATION. It has been incidentally, if not directly, asserted in this discussion that the issue of circulation constitutes no part of the business of legitimate banking. As has been seen in the preceding chapters of this treatise, the charac- ter and management of a circulating medium are fraught with results, either for good or evil, incomparable to any save those which spring from the fundamental organism of government. Deposit and discount are mere agents for gathering and distributing capital. Their office is simply a ministerial one, and the duties of the same are simple and well defined. Their conduct can militate but very slightly against the interests of community, unless characterized by inexcusable ignorance or actual fraud. They act in a mere executive capacity, and, looking at them as abstract entities, they are enveloped with no mystery and are un- clouded with any of the occult surroundings of science or art. They are plain in theory, simple in practice, and bear upon the well-being of either commerce or individuals only in the most restricted manner as to either time, person or place. They are indispensable adjuncts of business pur- suits, it is true, but their existence, instead of being inde- pendent, is entirely dependent, and presupposes that of a healthy commerce, which is in turn an exponent of a well- organized and effective circulating medium. Deposit and discount, in short, are mere conventional, and in no sense political, institutions. They exist, as it were, by contract simple errand-boys in the employment of circulation. The issue of credit Money, however of circulation is an office of entirely different import. It is essentially a measure of public economics. There is not an interest of community or the individual which is not dependent upon the proper discharge of this office for maintenance and suc- cess. All-powerful as is the exercise of this function for IO8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. either good or evil upon commercial pursuits, embracing as it does not merely restricted portions of community or classes of men in its operation, creating as it does a me- dium of exchange the sole constituent essence of which is credit and a symbol of credit, moreover, which is to com- mand the respect and confidence of the entire public the issue of circulation is purely and peculiarly an act of a po- litical character, and, for reasons foreshadowed in this, and stated in full in the succeeding paragraph, one which prop- erly devolves upon the people at large, upon the supreme power, upon the General Government. The single fact that the issue of circulation is an act of credit develops sufficient reason for the assignment of this office to one general, responsible head. This circulation this credit Money seeking, ay more, demanding, as it does, the confidence and adoption of the entire commu- nity, should consequently possess all the elements of the most approved credit known to commercial usage. One of the most important of these elements is, that the accred- ited party should be well known throughout the entire ter- ritory wherein its promises circulate as a medium of ex- change. The identity of such a source of issue, indeed, should be so notorious (using the word in its non-prejudi- cial sense) as to be within the knowledge of the humblest peasant or most menial artisan. Coupled with or attached to this notoriety should be found, as other elements of credit, the characteristics of favor, reliability and strength. Its good name, in fact, should be a synonym of virtue, its in- tegrity a perfect exponent of truth, and its stability a par- agon of human endurance. These elements of credit must necessarily attach to every agency which invites universal faith in the purity and sacredness of its public acts. Such an agency is circulation, and the public presupposes, in its existence, that of the various characteristics above men- tioned. BANKS AND BANKING BUSINESS. I Op Another important element of credit for a medium of exchange for circulation is, that the issuing source should be sole, single and undivided. This is the argument of uni- formity. Neither the commercial nor consuming world, in their all-absorbing work the one of maintaining solvency and the other of securing means of subsistence wish to be hampered with the task of discriminating between the cur- rent value of competing bills of credit. Such discrimina- tion, so far as accuracy is concerned, is, in fact, impossible in countries which have a wide extent of territory, and the most acute observer will often find his judgment thwarted and purse depleted when obliged to make use of diverse forms of a circulating medium. This thought will find a more extended expression in our commendation and crit- icism of the National Banking System. These arguments of identity and responsibility on the one hand and uni- formity on the other are supported by many historical il- lustrations. The circulation of London and vicinity, for instance, although it does not emanate direct from Govern- ment, is issued by one colossal institution, the creature of Government, and one which is nearly as old, and certainly as stable, as the English Government itself. It presents the combined advantages of strength and uniformity. So also with the ancient Banks of Amsterdam, Genoa and Venice. These institutions will all receive a more ex- tended notice hereafter. The disadvantages of a diverse system of circulation, moreover, are instanced by our old State banking institutions. The evils of that system in these respects require no explanation or comment. They are within the knowledge of the entire community. They will, however, receive a little additional notice in the sec- ond division of this chapter. These are some of the reasons why the issue of circula- tion devolves upon the people at large, upon the supreme power, upon the General Government. It not only de- 10 1 10 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. volves upon this power as a peculiar, political duty it be- longs to it as a species of property. The fundamental idea of circulation is that it shall promote the public conveni- ence. It is a substitute for metallic Money, and is designed to redound to the good of the entire community, equally and indivisible. Community, moreover, is compelled to give it respect and confidence, to place credit in its repre- sentative value. As a substitute of metallic Money for universal convenience, as an evidence of credit which the entire population is forced to respect, the issue of circula- tion and the profits which accrue therefrom belong to the people at large, to the General Government. In other words, the issue of circulation should cost the people of any country no more than the bare expense of the labor and material which compose it and its necessary super- vision. In the foregoing remarks as to the proper source of issue of circulation the principal requisites of the same have in- cidentally appeared. A little additional comment upon this point will, however, now be made. The necessity of convertibility in respect to circulation will first engage at- tention. Convertibility as a requisite for circulation pre- sents itself in two aspects one initiate, the other consum- mate. The latter is consistent in both theory and practice, and denotes solvency, while the former is under all systems almost all theory, so to speak, and practically true only to a certain extent. The latter, per se, is an absolute (veil, stable and unsusrrpiiMr of any great change, except t'nmtjcauses which affect the value of all other species of property in a similar degree. 124 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. This requirement, in the second instance, provides an un- impeachable and indestructible fund for the protection of the note-holder, by reason of the fact that these securities are held in trust, for this sole, specific purpose, by the Na- tional Government. In this respect the note-holder re- ceives far more ample protection than under our old State bank system. By this last system, with the entire capital of each bank, in most cases, under its own control and in its immediate possession, the same was often trenched upon yes, frequently appropriated in toto for the enlargement of the discount fund ; and thus the note-holder of these State banks, with the exception of the time when the bank commissioners made their annual visit of inspection to these institutions, had no knowledge whether or not their currency was protected by a proper reserve. Under our present system, however, there is no fact more indispu- tably within the knowledge of every member of commu- nity than that for every dollar of National currency trav- ersing the avenues of commerce there is a corresponding dollar and more of Government bonds in the Treasury at Washington to insure its redemption. The reader will no- tice that the foregoing remarks make the inferential asser- tion that the discount fund of our National banks is limited by the amount of their deposits. The use of capital for the business of discount or for any collateral purpose is indeed expressly forbidden by the act. In these respects the National banking system furnishes a means of protec- tion to the holder of National currency for the redemp- tion of circulation as absolutely sumas human wisdom can provide, while that of its predecessor was vacillating and uncertain. This feature of our present banking system, however, has been strenuously objected to uMh the following grounds. The argument is made that, iri"case of war, these securities, by reason of the combined facts of the existence of war and THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. 12$ the consequent necessity of making new Government loans, would depreciate in value to the extent of driving the banks into suspension of specie payments and frequent bank- ruptcy, on account of their resulting obligation to increase their deposits of these securities at Washington for the pro- tection of their notes, and thus in the latter instance (bankruptcy) throw the additional burden upon Govern- ment of selling the bonds of the banks in its possession for the redemption of their circulation. The argument is spe- cious, but not solid. Its entire foundation is the assump- tion of a certain depreciation in our Government securi- ties, and this assumption, to the extent urged, is not war- ranted by historical facts. It is probably safe to suppose that this nation will never be involved in a more extensive and expensive war than that from which it has just emerged. The accompanying assertion is also admissible that, by reason of the successful termination of that war, and the more successful maintenance of our National credit by a steady reduction of the debt thereby incurred, greatly as revenue reformers may regret it, the securities of this Gov- ernment in case of future hostilities would not depreciate to the lowest point reached during the late rebellion. But grant, for the sake of argument, that they would, and their average value would be about seventy-eight cents to the dollar a depreciation of twenty-two per cent. The capi- tal of the National banks at the close of this year (1871) is about $500,000,000; circulation, $325,000,000; bonds on deposit at Washington to secure the same, $365,000,000. In the event of war these bonds, by the hypothesis, would depreciate twenty-two per cent., thus requiring an increase by the banks of their bond deposit in the sum of about $80,000,000. The amount of this increase does not equal the difference between the aggregate capital of the banks and that portion of it on deposit at Washington, as above stated, by over $50,000,000. In other words, in the event 11 1 26 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. of war, thereby depreciating Government securities twenty- two per cent., the National banks could make good their margin for the redemption of their entire circulation, and then have over $50,000,000 of their capital in their own possession intact. These are facts. They are certainly not fraught with vaticinations of bankruptcy for our Na- tional banks in either the event of civil disturbances or foreign war. The foundation of this argument being de- stroyed, the whole structure falls with it. If war will not force our banking institutions into bankruptcy, the fund for the protection of the National currency will not be jeop- ardized, and the Government not be obliged to sell the bonds of the banks in its possession for the redemption of the same. As for specie payments, their suspension in- variably follows the outbreak of extended hostilities under the most favorable circumstances. The next advantage resulting to community from the National banking system is found in the argument of uni- formity. Extended comment upon this point is entirely unnecessary. Its principal feature is that which renders the notes of a National bank as current in one portion of the country as another. This advantage, moreover, is an offshoot of the one which has just passed from discussion. The notes of the National banks possess this element of universal acceptability, for the simple reason that as they pass from hand to hand they convey the assurance that the lock of the National Treasury is turned upon an amount of Government bonds more than sufficient to warrant their redemption. The credit of the immediate bank of issue may be known or unknown, sound or uncertain, but the solvency of the indorser who has guaranteed their payment is everywhere notorious and undoubted. The lack of this uniformity was one of the cardinal defects of our State bank system. Despite the local character which was impressed upon the notes of these institutions, they found their way, THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. I2/ to a certain extent, through the deviating channels of traffic, to nearly every quarter of the Union. The reputation of the particular source of issue in these distant localities was, in a certain sense, entirely unknown, and the valuation of its currency diminished with the addition of every league to the distance which separated the paper wanderer from its birthplace. Unavoidable loss always resulted to the holder of such currency, and the published reports which presumed to furnish a criterion of its value often left the last state of their patrons worse than the first. Accuracy, in this respect, was impossible, and the legion of "bank- note detectives," "reporters," etc. which courted the ser- vice of the commercial world prior to 1863 were, in most instances, so many libels upon the credit of some of these institutions on the one hand, and seducers of public cre- dulity on the other. The evil of this lack of uniformity recoiled with terrible effect, at the outbreak of the war, upon the sections of country from which this doubtful currency, for the most part, had emanated. The merchants of the West, during the earlier years of the conflict, were not unfrequently obliged to pa'y for exchange on our Eastern cities as high as thirty per cent. That is, a Western merchant, in order to cancel obligations due Eastern houses, must make good the difference between the currency of Eastern and Western banks, which often reached the point above named. The National banking system, to such parties and they by no means constituted a small portion of our tax-paying popula- tion was a measure of almost incalculable benefit. This argument of uniformity, moreover, has been the subject of considerable objective discussion, and that in almost inex- cusable terms of derision In defence of the non-uniform- ity of the State bank circulation, despite the pernicious attendants of the same, as above stated, which could not be denied, the defenders of that system have cited the English, 128 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Irish and Scotch banks as precedents to support their theory. They say, ''Diverse species of circulation have proved a success in Great Britain ; ergo, they must be equally feasible in the United States." Has any one ever denied the feasibility of a plan of mixed circulation whose terri- torial limits would not include a nation larger in area than the State of New York? The comparison is an absurdity. A resident of Devon, Munster or Dumfries can shake the hand of his neighbor in Northumberland, Londonderry or Sutherland by means of a pleasure-trip from night to morn, but a traveler from the Atlantic seaboard can catch the sob of the waves at the Golden Gate only at the end of a continuous journey wherein he has witnessed seven re- currences of a rising and setting sun. Another advantage of immense importance resulting to community from the operation of the National banking system which has incidentally appeared in this discussion is found in the fact that under this system the circula- tion of our banking institutions cannot be in excess. In other words, the National banks, by the provisions of the act, can receive National currency for purposes of circula- tion only as they have deposited Government bonds at Washington for the redemption of the same, with an excess of ten per cent. Another safeguard against excessive cir- culation is here secured by an accompanying provision of the act, which forbids the issue of currency by any bank above the amount of its actually paid-up capital. These important principles require no elucidation or comment. The virtual absence of them in the old State bank system was the occasion of both official chicanery and individual loss. The line of this discussion will now pass to a criticism of the vulnerable points of our present system of banking. The defects in this system of sufficient dignity to provoke a direct and searching investigation are only two in num- THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. 12$ her. First, by virtue of the act establishing this system banking business in the United States is made a monopoly ; second, in pursuance of the same authority the National banks derive nearly the entire benefit of circulation. Of these in their order. In assuming that our present banking system is a mo- nopoly, it is only intended to convey the idea that by the act establishing the same an arbitrary limit is set upon the amount of circulation, and consequently upon the number of banking institutions. In other words, the proper bound- aries of our circulating medium and banking business are presumed to be ascertained by the artificial force of statute law. This is wrong in theory and perplexing in practice. The reader must not in this connection take this propo- sition to be contradictory of the principles discussed in the chapter wherein "Resumption of Specie Payments" con- stituted a topic of investigation. It will be remembered that in that discussion the plan of curtailing our present circulation was advocated as a means of resumption, which of course inferentially asserts that to a certain extent statute law must define the requisite volume of our medium of exchange ; and in the present state of things it must. The two propositions are harmonized by the statement that our protest against the application of statute law for the deter- mination of the proper boundaries of circulation presup- poses a status of specie payments. In other words, until currency becomes so inflated as to destroy, so to speak, the equilibrium between it and metallic Money, and in thus ousting the business of the country from a specie basis leave the prices of commodities to be measured by the amount of,currency in circulation in accordance with the law of scarcity and excess, hereinbefore explained, statute law should not assume to prescribe the amount of money requi- site for commercial purposes; but when that point is passed, this artificial force should be applied only to the extent of FJ I3O THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. replacing business upon the basis of metallic Money. Spe- cie payments, then, constitute the real boundary-line be- tween the dominion of natural and artificial force in the sphere of circulation. Returning to the main argument, that this monopoly, as heretofore explained, is wrong in theory and perplexing in practice, the proposition is asserted, which has inferentially appeared in the interlocutory issue just dismissed, that this monopoly is thus theoretically defective because it violates one of the fundamental principles which govern the rela- tions of Money to commerce. It is impossible for the ar- bitrary restraint of statute to regulate the necessary volume of circulation until, as before stated, the Rubicon of specie payments has been passed. Prior to this condition of things commerce is the only infallible conservator of its moneyed necessities. The natural law, already elucidated in this discussion, that plenty on the one hand drives prod- ucts to sell in fields of want, and scarcity on the other drives money to purchase in fields of plenty, operates with a relative, though not absolute, force in this connection. Our present banking system is no exception to this general law. With specie payments established by a retirement of our legal -tenders, the limit now placed upon the amount of our circulation should be removed, and the door of banking business opened to all who have the inclination, necessary capital and requisite ability to prosecute it. The banks under the present system cannot issue circulation without securing it with Government bonds; the note-holder is con- sequently protected to the utmost, and the security and profit which capital always seeks furnishes sufficient barrier against the possibility of excessive investments of the same in banking pursuits. The fallacy of these artificial restraints upon the business of banking and the volume of circulation is seen in the result of the recent attempt of Congress to "equalize the THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. 13! currency," the features of which were stated in the history of the paper Money of this country in the next preceding chapter. The theory of a general statute attempting to make proper local distribution of circulation has been conclusively shown in this instance to be entirely unsound. The "equalization" offered has never been appropriated by the community in the extent predicated, and had Con- gress retired the legal-tenders, thus securing specie pay- ments, and removed the limit upon circulation, the " equali- zation of the currency" would have taken care of itself. This matter of equalization cannot be appreciated by mere consideration of territorial area or extent of population. New England, with three millions of people, has always had four times as much circulation as the West with eight millions ; and when, in answer to the complaint of the lat- ter section of the country in this respect, in the winter of 1869 and 1870, the "equalization" was offered, it failed to avail itself of the privilege, for the simple reason that it then possessed all the circulation required for business purposes. In directing attention to the second and last defect of any importance in our National banking system, the pro- position is asserted that, in so far as the banks constitute the mediate, and the General Government the immediate, agency of circulation, the system is pre-eminently sound and wholesome ; but in so far as the profits of circulation result, for the most part, to the banking institutions, the system is undoubtedly and unqualifiedly wrong. This is the defect of the present system as to circulation. A dis- cussion of this phase of our circulation, in the manner indicated, savors a little of logical contradiction. The defects of the National banking system are assumed to be the immediate subject of inquiry, yet we are here coupling the statement of a benefit with the consideration of a defect. It could not well be otherwise. The two points 132 THE ISSUES QF AMERICAN POLITICS. are so intimately associated that a sacrifice of logical pro- priety (greatly as the author dislikes it) seemed preferable to an assignment of these points to different sub-subjects, when examination of one borders so closely upon that of the other. The abstract proposition that the circulation of a country devolves upon, and belongs to, the supreme power the General Government was sufficiently elucidated in the first division of this chapter to render argument unnecessary in support of the first point now under discussion namely, that the present circulation of the United States is rightly under the control of the General Government. A word of qualification, however, is pertinent in this connection. By the abstract proposition above stated it was not intended to convey the idea that the Government should perform the ministerial duties in reference 'to circulation now assigned to the banks. The proposition was merely intended to assert that every discretionary power as to circulation should be exercised by Government, leaving the detail of the same, as under our present system, to the various banking institutions of the country. That this is the proper theory, as already stated, was shown in the prior part of this chapter, and as already seen, moreover, this theory is put in practice under our present system. The second point mentioned under this last defect of the National banking system namely, that the profits of circu- lation should not result to the institutions organized there- under will now receive consideration. This feature of the scheme is a virtual taxation of one portion of the com- munity for the benefit of another. It is not a violation of the constitutional provision, which, in prohibiting the taking of private property for public uses without just com- pensation, impliedly forbids the taking of private property for private uses in all cases whatsoever, but it is a violation of legal ethics and good morals no less flagrant than it THE NA TIONAL BANKING S YSTEM. 1 3 3 would be if the inhibition of our organic law attached to its infringement. It appropriates public property for pri- vate uses without compensation, and in so doing constitutes a wrong of a dual character. The circulation of the coun- try involves grave principles of public economics; it is interwoven with all the interests of commerce and product- ive industry ; it is the motor-power which gives impetus to all public and private enterprises ; it is the means by which the community prosecutes productive labor ; and conse- quently not only devolves upon Government as a political duty of momentous import, but belongs to it that is, to the people at large as a quasi species of public property. By what color of right or reason is the exercise of this public function converted into an engine of profit in favor of a very limited portion of the community? It is not only wrong in principle, but unsupported by any extended precedent. The Bank of England, for instance, pays a tax to the English government upon its circulation equal to sixty-four per cent, of the profits derived therefrom, while our National banks at the close of the present year (1871) have a free gift of the interest of $325,000,000 of circulation annually, less one per cent, upon the same, which, at six per cent, interest, amounts to $19, 305,000. These institutions are taxed upon their deposits and that portion of their capital not invested in Government bonds, it is true, but it is a very meagre tax, as will be seen by reference to the provisions of the act before mentioned, and a burden, moreover, which has always been imposed upon these species of bank property. This tax on deposits and capital is, moreover, a just and equitable one, as there is no good reason for granting an exemption to such prop- erty from the duty of contributing to the maintenance of government and law. The tax upon the people, however, of $ 1 9> 305*000 in favor of the National banks, finds no extended authority in precedents of either law or economics, 12 134 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. and has no foundation in either reason or justice. The legitimate source of banking profit is found in the business of discount and exchange. Circulation belongs to the people. One or two defects in this system, of minor importance, will'now be noticed. It will be remembered that a provis- ion of the act requires the country banks to hold in reserve a sum of lawful Money equal to fifteen per cent, of their deposits and circulation, for the payment and redemption of the same. The act also permits three-fifths of this re- serve to consist of balances due from city banks. This per- mission is an unwise expedient. It creates a competition among the city banks for the possession of these balances, whereby heavy interest is paid for the same, which results in a loan of this fund by the city banks for speculative pur- poses, and consequently robs legitimate bosiness of a por- tion of the banking facilities that would otherwise accrue to it, and fosters speculative interests which are detrimental to general commercial prosperity. Another provision of the act, moreover, limits the capital of any one institution to $500,000. This is entirely faulty and impracticable. The true measure of the requisite capi- tal of the National banks is the extent of commercial inter- ests they are called upon to serve, and this depends wholly upon local causes and circumstances which are not in any way appreciable by statute law. The provision is an at- tempt to distribute the circulation among a greater number of banks, for as the amount of the same is limited, the larger the capital of any one institution the fewer will they be in number. As already claimed, the limit upon the circula- tion should be removed concurrently with a return to specie payments, and each institution left to decide upon its proper amount of capital in accordance with local needs and requirements. An examination of some miscellaneous points which THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. 135 bear upon this system in a general manner will conclude this discussion. In the first division of this chapter the proposition was maintained that primal convertibility of bank notes is en- tirely unimportant if the ultimate redemption of the same is assured that solvency of the source of issue, and not convertibility of the note, is the prime requisite of circula- tion. It was also shown, in the connection above referred to, that absolute convertibility that is, a dollar of specie in reserve for the conversion of every dollar of circulation has never existed in the entire history of banking; that it has always been a mockery and a myth. This discussion of convertibility does not require, and will not receive, repetition in this connection, but the force of the principle above maintained is peculiarly applicable to our National banking system. The feature of convertibility incorporated into this scheme is perfectly idle and inadequate, like all of its predecessors. The act requires the banks to hold in reserve a sum of lawful money equal, upon an average, to twenty per cent, of the amount of their deposits and circu- lation, for the payment and conversion of the same. The amount of bank deposits and circulation at the close of the present year (1871), as already stated, is $925,000,000. In accordance with the provision of the act above named, $185, 000,000 represent the fund which the banks must hold in reserve for the payment of this circulation and de- posit indebtedness. To what extent it would operate in this direction arithmetical calculation will determine. This feature of the system is not only idle and inadequate, but perfectly useless. The amount of lawful Money reserve required by the act is not necessary to furnish the banks with what ready cash must be had to meet such checks, bills and notes as cannot be paid by a mere transfer of de- posits, as explained in the first division of this chapter ; for, though even every dollar of circulation to which the banks 136 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. are entitled is absent from their vaults, the portion of their deposits which is made up of currency, instead of bills, notes and checks, is abundantly sufficient for this purpose. This amount of lawful Money reserve, moreover, is not needed to secure the final redemption of the circulation ; that is fully assured by the deposit of Government bonds at Washington. This feature of the system is, in every re- spect, mere surplusage, as the whole scheme of converti- bility in the abstract, so far as it has ever existed, is en- tirely unimportant and of no consequence so long as absolute solvency is assured, as under our present system. It merely tends to increase the amount of banking capital, and if the profits of circulation are to be reserved to the banks in the future, Congress had much better abolish the reserve system and direct these institutions to subscribe to the loans of Government to the extent of this reserve namely, $185,000,000 as a partial consideration for the profits of circulation. The objection may be here raised that the depositors of the banks have a right to demand that this reserve should be held for their protection. Before proceeding to com- bat this position, it is perhaps proper to say that (granting the claim, for the moment, to be a just one) even though the entire reserve now required by the act should be set aside and held inviolate for that purpose, it would be very inadequate therefor. The reserve fund at the present time (the close of the year 1871), as already seen, is $185,000,000, and the amount of deposits, as also already stated, $600,000,000. But the depositors have no color of right or title, so far as Government is concerned, to any reserve fund whatever for their protection, although, with the note-holders, they are theoretical participators in the assumed benefit of such a fund under our present system. There is no privity of contract, or even estate, if the last expression may be here used, between the depositors and THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. 137 Government. The banks in no respect constitute agencies between the Government and depositors, whereby, by force of law, the former is responsible to the latter for maladmin- istration of the banks in respect to their deposits. The matter of deposit is solely and entirely a contract between the banks and their depositing customers. The latter be- came a party to the same by their own volition, and not in pursuance of any compulsory measure, either direct or in- direct, of the General Government. They are bound to exercise their own discretion and judgment as to the effici- ency and honesty of the particular bank management with whom they entrust their funds. Moreover, this deposit fund, as already seen, constitutes the basis of the business of discount; and if the latter is properly worked the col- laterals placed with the banks as a prerequisite to the pro- curement of discount furnish ample protection to the own- ers of these deposits. Their safety merely depends upon the honesty and capacity of the bank directors, and of this, as already stated, the depositors are bound to be their own insurers. The only party between whom and the Govern- ment the banks occupy the position of agent, thereby mak- ing the former responsible for the validity of their transac- tions with such party, is the note-holder the possessor of circulation of the National currency. The Government is pledged for the faithful conduct of the banks in this direction, for it holds a portion of their capital as security therefor, and this guarantee of the Government, moreover, is made, by the National banking act, a condition precedent to the circulation of the National currency. There is a striking contrast here between the justice of our present, as compared with the injustice of the State bank, system. Under the latter, one fund, in most instances, was responsi- ble for both deposits and circulation, which placed the note-holder upon an equal footing with the depositor as a creditor of the insolvent institutions. The opposite charac- 12 138 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. ter of our present system in this respect has been already explained. In the second chapter of this treatise, where the legal- tender notes formed the subject of discussion, reference was made to the fact that the defenders of this particular species of our paper Money have ever demanded the abolition of the National banks, the consequent withdrawal of the cir- culation, and the substitution of additional legal-tenders in its room. The claim was in that connection pronounced unreasonable and impracticable, and the reader referred to this discussion for proof of the statement. It will now be afforded. Stating the proposition of these legal-tender romancers a little more in detail, they would withdraw the $325,000,000 of National bank currency, issue an equal amount of legal- tender notes in their room, and with these notes buy up $325,000,000 of Government securities, thereby reducing the interest on our public debt in the sum of $19,500,000. The first objection to the plan is, that it would inflate the ac- tual circulation of the country to the extent of $107,000,000 an end certainly not to be very devoutly wished, when we already have an excess, as already shown, of fifty per cent, of the same. It would result in this inflation in the following manner namely : the first step in the programme is to cancel the $325,000,000 of bank currency ; the second, to issue an equal amount of new legal-tenders, and with them buy in the bonds held at Washington to protect this currency. Practically speaking, the holders of the bank currency would get the new legal-tender notes in place of the former (the bank currency), and the Government by the operation would have canceled the bonds on deposit (and drawing interest, it is true) for its redemption. Very good ! So far there is no inflation or contraction. But the foregoing acts abolish the National banks ; and these insti- tutions are now holding, as already stated in a prior chapter, THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. 139 $107,000,000 of legal-tenders as a partial reserve for the payment of deposits and redemption of circulation. This sum lies inactive in the vaults of the banks, withdrawn from actual use as a medium of exchange ; but destroy the banks and you let loose from their prison-house the above amount of legal-tenders to swell the volume of our circulating me- dium. They are not wanted. The plan, in this respect, would create great disturbance in the commercial world, enhance the prices of commodities, thereby inducing reckless speculation, and inflict a loss upon community which $19,500,000 could by no means measure, allowing for the moment that this amount of interest would be saved by the operation. The scheme is faulty, in the second in- stance, moreover, because it would not result in the saving of this amount of interest. By just so much as the volume of legal-tenders is increased, in just that relative ratio will their value depreciate. The sum-total of the legal-tender issue is $357,500,000. Of this sum, $107,000,000, as al- ready stated, are held by the National banks as a partial re- serve for the protection of their deposits and circulation, thus leaving only $250,500,000 of these notes in actual use as lawful Money. But by the abolition of the National banks, and the consequent release of their legal-tender re- serve (namely, $107,000,000), the amount now in actual circulation ($250,500,000) would be increased to the extent of forty-one per cent. The value of these notes would consequently be subject to a relative depreciation. They are worth at the present time (the close of the year 1871) eighty-eight cents to the dollar. Reduce this valuation forty-one per cent, by an increase of the amount in actual circulation to that extent, and their current worth would be fifty-two cents to the dollar. $325,000,000 of new legal- tenders, in lieu of our bank currency, would consequently purchase $169,000,000 of Goverhment bonds. The saving of interest on these securities, as proposed by this scheme, I4O THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. is consequently measured by a sum equal to the interest on $169,000,000, which is $10,140,000. The Government would also gain by this scheme the profits of circulation that now result to the banks, which by prior circulation (namely, the interest on the amount of circulation, $325,000,000, at six per cent.) amounts to $19,500,000. The income resulting to Government from an annual tax of one per cent, on the circulation of the banks ($325,000,000), however, amounts to $3,250.000. Abolish the banks and this means of in- come to the Government would be destroyed. The Na- tional banks hold on deposit the sum of $600,000,000. On this sum the Government levies an annual duty of one-half of one per cent., which amounts to $3,000,000. Abolish the banks and this source of National revenue is lost. Of the gross sum of banking capital, $62,000,000 are not invested in National bonds. On this sum the Government imposes an annual burden of one-half of one per cent., which amounts to $310,000. Abolish the banks and this right of assess- ment is gone. The aggregate capital stock of the National banks is about $500,000,000. On this sum the several States lay a tax which yields a yearly return of about $12,000,000. Abolish the banks and this State tax partici- pates in the abolition. Let us now strike a balance between our legal-tender friends and the General Government in pursuance of this scheme, and see what will be the result : The Legal- Tender Notes In Accoimt with the National Government. To Loss of Tax on Circulation $3,250,000 To Loss of Tax on Deposits 3,000,000 To Loss of Tax on Capital not invested in Government bonds 31 0,000 To Loss of State Tax 12,000,000 Total $18,560,000 THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. 141 Contra. By Interest saved on Government bonds $10,140,000 By profits of Circulation 19,500,000 Total ^29,640,000 Balance in favor of Legal-tenders $11,080,000 The above sum of $11,080,000, not taking into consid- eration any collateral circumstances, represents the appar- ent immediate saving which would result to our Govern- ment from the adoption of this legal-tender scheme. The saving is, however, only apparent, and in no respect real. There are resulting circumstances of evil attendant upon this scheme for which the paltry sum above named fur- nishes no adequate offset. As already seen, the proposed abolition of our National banks and the substitution of Legal-tenders for their circulation would inflate our already excessive issue of paper Money in the sum of $107,000,000, or about sixteen per cent. Our entire commercial interests would suffer a relative disturbance and convulsion. Prices would be enhanced in a ratio commensurate with the in- crease of our paper currency, the creditor class of com- munity would be mulcted out of sixteen per cent, of their outstanding debts, the laboring and agricultural classes ^/ould be placed under heavier burdens, as shown in the next preceding chapter, and the country would be $ 107, ooo, ooo farther removed from a resumption of specie payments. $11,000,000 nor $11,000,000,000 would not adjust the loss arising in these various directions, saying nothing of the general clamper and discouragement which would be inevitably thrown upon all prospective enterprises. There is, moreover, another aspect of the question. Our National currency is secured by interest-bearing Government bonds. Our legal-tenders, materially speaking, rest upon no security whatever. A substitution of the latter for the former would be a compromise of the National honor, and 142 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. inflict merited and lasting injury upon the credit of the General Government. This concludes what was intended for an eminently im- partial discussion of the National banking system. Its merits have been portrayed, but not exaggerated ; its de- fects subjected to criticism, and not excused. It originated in necessity, and has proved itself worthy of credit, confi- dence and support. With the limit upon circulation re- moved and the profits of the same secured to the people, thereby divesting it of its character of a monopoly and restricting it to the legitimate offices of banking namely, deposit and discount it would reflect honor upon Amer- ican legislation and challenge comparison with the banking systems of the entire world. CHAPTER IV. PUBLIC DEBT AND FUNDING SCHEMES. r I "*HIS chapter will be divided into two divisions X namely, Division First will treat of Public Debts, and Divison Second of Funding Schemes. DIVISION FIRST. PUBLIC DEBTS. The -Origin of Public Debt Historical View of the Same The Causes which impel Nations to run in Debt Public Debt in Europe How Contracted in General The Different Expedients adopted for Pay- ment of the Same The Theory that a National Debt is a National Blessing, Examined It is for England, but not for the United States It Depends upon the form of Government Minor Comment. A National debt, although unknown to countries in the earlier stages of civilization, has almost invariably become the normal condition of nations that have made extended PUBLIC DEBTS. 143 advances from the confines of barbarism. The condition of things which surrounded a youthful state prior to and during the most of the period known in history as the Middle Ages was very different from that attendant upon an infant government since the dawn of the seventeenth century. During the earlier stages of human progress above referred to, the incentives to emulation in the estab- lishment of commercial pursuits, the aggrandizement of territory and attainment of political power were very in- significant as compared with those which were the natural outgrowth of the final demolition of the feudal system and the advent of the Reformation. In these days of limited knowledge, restricted culture and absolute subserviency to kingly and priestly rule the expense requisite for the main- tenance of government was, comparatively speaking, trivial in the extreme. An aspiration by the masses to either the right of property or the privilege of thought was treason on the one hand and heresy on the other. The feudal barons had choked the first, and an impious clergy throttled the last, beyond even the faintest show of resistance. As the income of the feudal barons was great, so was that of government perfectly enormous as compared with the meagre outlay necessary for purposes of state. The spirit which prompted the enslavement of both enterprise and thought was naturally associated with an inherent avarice and miserly greed. Governments prior to and during the Middle Ages are consequently seen to have been in many instances hoarders of metallic wealth and treasure. So far down as the reign of Frederick of Prussia, Henry VI. of England and Henry IV. of France accumulation of public wealth marks the progress of most of the kingdoms of Europe. The only notable exception is Spain, who was wretchedly in debt at the middle of the sixteenth century. With the shackles stricken from thought and action, how- ever, the standard of public as well as private morals is 144 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. strengthened, and incentives to national as well as individual emulation are interwoven with all the conditions of gov- ernment and its subjects. At this juncture is found the origin of public debt, which claims at least a passing allu- sion. As states or nations advance in commercial pursuits, their intercommunication becomes constantly extended, their projects cross each other in converging paths, and the material ends which different powers are in search of are, in many instances, identical. This produces a conflict of interest, a friendly strife to distance competitors, outlays for augmentation of means to secure the desired ends, the courting of foreign favor, an increased efficacy of home government, the establishment of internal improvements, and, very frequently, territorial extension. All this, to a certain extent, is absolutely imperative ; and in all this, moreover, public debt, in any great measure, is rarely in- curred, except through incompetent administration, as in the case of ancient Spain. Accumulation, however, in such stages of public advancement is next to. if not quite, impossible. But in these commercial strides the conflicting interests above named sometimes eventuate in war, and here, with the absence of accumulated treasure, is found the germ of national debt. The enormous expense attend- ant upon the prosecution of hostilities compels govern- ments unpossessed of hoards 'to anticipate their means of revenue and enter the money market among the list of borrowers. Their proposals for loans, particularly in com- mercial countries, are in most instances very easily acceded to. This is true for various reasons. The safety of com- merce and the fortunes of those who have embarked in commercial pursuits is entirely dependent upon the preser- vation of government. It consequently becomes a com- mercial people to see to it that the demands of state for Mon y to maintain not only its prestige among nations, but PUBLIC DEBTS. 145 its very existence even should be promptly responded to. It is, indeed, although a duty paramount to all others that require execution at the hands of every loyal citizen, a mere matter of individual and social policy the simplest act of self-preservation. Beside this more important reason for instantly supplying Government with one of the main sinews of war, there are several minor ones which are not prompted by a sense of public duty, but spring from mo- tives of individual greed and avarice. The demands of Government for supplies and ammunition always tend to stimulate productive enterprises and extend the limits of traffic the two motor and major forces of commercial states. The war-consols of Government always bear heavy interest, and form a means of security upon the hypotheca- tion of which their holders can always obtain loans to any amount and upon the most liberal terms. Commercial governments, accordingly, always give and accept the challenge of war with the utmost confidence that, even though their cause be not wholly just, the majority of their subjects will grant them abundant and immediate support. In addition to these forces of public duty, self-preservation and individual greed, which rush to the support of govern- ments engaged in war, there is always an element of national pride, akin to loyalty, which augments the willingness of a people to lend its rulers everyaccessory that will conduce to the assurance of ultimate triumph. This foreknowledge of Government, so to speak, that both material and moral aid will be placed at its command for the waging of either a just or an unjust war has dotted the records of the necrolo- gist with many a narrative of untimely death, clouded the escutcheon of both ancient and modern powers with shame and dishonor, and in many instances consigned them to a merited and endless oblivion. "The pathway of human improvement," in the language of an enthusiastic, not to say intemperate, writer, "may have been in all ages and 1.1 U 146 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. countries macadamized with bones and wet with blood," but it is a question not difficult of solution whether this "pathway" would not ere this have opened more extended fields of civilization, unfolded richer depths of science, and familiarized the world more generally with the beauty and usefulness of art, had it been laid, to some extent at least, with less costly and more inanimate treasure. This truth has received a merited and long-delayed appreciation by two of the principal nations of the world in the conclusion of the Treaty of Washington between the United States and Great Britain for the adjustment of divers and conflicting claims of territory, treasure and national honor. Our late civil war achieved the most sacred and justifiable victory that has ever been recorded in the annals of military strife. The Franco-Prussian conflict of 1870 resulted in a triumph which emblazoned upon the standard of Germany the most brilliant campaign since the days of the elder Napoleon, exalted the new empire to the foremost position in Europe, and taught both the Continent and the English isles that educated thought is a force far more powerful than a pro- scribed culture, an enslaved peasantry and half-starved artisans ; but the subjugation of assertion to proof, of pas- sion to reason, of violence to logic, of brute force to intel- ligent thought, which was witnessed in the submission of the grave and portentous differences between the United States and Great Britain to an international tribunal for final and irrevocable settlement, is a victory by the side of which military conquests pale into insignificance, and an event of more stupendous import for the cause of human progress than any that has drawn the attention of mankind since the advent of the Christian era. The principal nations of Europe established the custom of incurring national debt in the latter portion of the seventeenth century, and for the most part to relieve their finance departments from the pressure of existing war. PUBLIC DEBTS. 147 The exhaustive home and foreign struggles of that period involved France, England and Holland in expenditures far beyond the amount of their immediate revenues, and incumbered them with liabilities which have never yet been fully canceled. In the war which commenced on the continent of Europe in 1668, and afterward extended to the American colonies, and was finally terminated by the Peace of Ryswick in 1697, England for the first time assumed pecuniary obligation as a government. At the close of the period of hostilities above named the English Government was a debtor in the sum of about fifty millions sterling. The Seven Years' war, ending in 1762, increased this sum to about one hundred and fifty millions sterling, and the American Revolution swelled this amount by nearly one hundred and fifty millions more. The tremendous struggle with Napoleon at the close of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, however, was the cause of its present enormous extension. The banishment of the Corsican to St. Helena, indeed, cost the English Government over five hundred millions sterling, and its present indebtedness amounts to nearly $4, 000,000,000. Prussia, in fact, was the only kingdom of any considerable importance which emerged from the convulsions of the eighteenth century with insignificant pecuniary liabilities. Public debts have been contracted by nations in much the same form and manner as private ones by individuals. European nations have invariably borrowed, at first, with- out security, upon their mere corporate credit. This por- tion of the liabilities which are still outstanding against the different governments 'of Europe constitutes what is termed the unfunded debt of these countries. They consist of mere Government notes of hand, like the promissory note of an individual. From this incipient stage of national indebtedness the empires of the Old World have proceeded to make loans by mortgaging the public reve- 148 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. nues ; and this has been done by two different methods. The first of these methods has been to mortgage a particular source of revenue for a short period only, and the fund mortgaged was predicated to be sufficient to pay both the principal and interest of the debt at the expiration of such period. This is properly designated a loan by anticipation. The second of these methods has been to mortgage a par- ticular source of revenue for perpetuity, and the fund mortgaged was only predicated as sufficient to pay the interest upon the debt incurred. This method is properly known as funding, and will be fully considered in the second division of this chapter. An instance of the first method is seen in an ancient custom of France which was known by the title of ' ' farming the revenues. ' ' This was done by mort- gaging to capitalists the right to collect certain taxes from the people, in pursuance of an assessment of Government, for a given number of years. For instance, if the Govern- ment laid an annual tax upon distilleries or any other species of industry, which amounted, say, to $1,000,000, this tax would be " farmed " out to capitalists in the man- ner above named, for say twenty years, upon payment by them to Government of $20,000,000, less the amount of interest charged for the loan. A subsequent method adopted by European nations in contracting public debt has been by the sale of annuities for lives or years. This is also a species of funding, and its full consideration belongs to the second division of this chapter. A great portion of the early public debt of France was contracted in this manner. The United States have contracted public indebtedness, for the most part, upon their corporate credit as first above described, and by the sale of interest-bearing Government bonds, with the privilege of redemption at par at any time within certain specified limits. That por- tion of our debt contracted upon corporate credit corre- sponds to the unfunded debt of European nations, and is PUBLIC DEBTS. 149 very truthfully and emphatically illustrated by our legal- tender notes. Instances of the last-named species of United States indebtedness are found in the five-twenty and othe^r bonds of Government. The means for payment of national debts, and the ex- pediency of such a policy, have been prolific sources of both public and private discussion. Nations, like indi- viduals, have found it much easier to incur pecuniary liability than to obtain a release therefrom by a full dis- charge of such obligations. National debts, indeed, when augmented to any considerable extent, have never, with very few exceptions, been entirely paid. The attempts of governments in this direction, and the means resorted to for the attainment of such an end, have in many instances reflected great discredit, if not absolute dishonor, upon some of the leading powers of the Old World. History is replete with illustrations of this character, and a few of the most noticeable will receive a passing allusion. Reference will be first had to the plan adopted by European govern- ments of reducing their public debt by means of "raising the coin denomination." This is the technical term affixed to this would-be economic institution by its founders. It is a process, however, akin to "watering stock," and is an act which, "when done with a less dainty grace, plain folks call theft." It consists in a diminution of the quan- tity of precious metals which enter into the composition of the current coins of Government. For instance, if twenty grains of pure coined gold had passed current for one dollar, Government might "raise the denomination" by decreeing that fifteen grains of coined gold should there- after constitute a circulating symbol of the value above named. In this way Government would reduce its indebted- ness twenty-five per cent, or one-fourth, for, as the same was incurred upon a basis of twenty grains of gold to the dollar, it compels its creditors to receive fifteen grains of that is ISO THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. metal for the discharge of an obligation which originally promised twenty grains. The ancient republic of Rome furnishes history with one of the earliest instances of this method of canceling public indebtedness. The, as was the principal current coin of this nation, and by it the value of all the other Roman coins was estimated. It originally contained twelve ounces of copper, but at the close of the first Punic War, B. C. 256, which left the re- public greatly in debt, the denomination of this coin was "raised" by decreeing that two ounces of this metal should thereafter constitute the circulating symbol above named. This reduction of the Roman as of course re- duced the debt of the republic to one-sixth of its original amount. King John of France, in the fourteenth century, added not a little to the efficiency of this method of can- celing public indebtedness by associating an "adulteration of the standard" with the raising of the denomination; that is, he increased the amount of alloy in the current coinage of his kingdom. For example, if the composition of a five- franc piece consisted of four-fifths pure metal and one-fifth alloy, the standard would be adulterated by changing this composition to say three-fifths pure metal and two-fifths alloy. For the purpose of reducing his immense public debt the French king resorted to both these expedients of raising the denomination and adulterating the standard. The unique and creditable method of canceling a public debt by raising the denomination, which originated with the Roman republic, was seemingly of sufficient adequacy to commend itself to the judgment of all the nations of Europe ; but not till King John had nursed this youthful paymaster of the Romans to mature manhood, as above described, did our English cousins appreciate the desira- bleness of the institution. The idea, however, crossed the English Channel in 1545, and Henry VIII. fittingly con- cluded the long list of pious acts which had characterized PUBLIC DEBTS. I$I his reign by religiously following the example of his French neighbor, in raising the denomination and adulterating the standard of the English coin. Scotland, also, under the reign of James VI., adopted the same harmless expedient, but the mysteries of the science have not been sufficiently explored this side of the Atlantic to result in its adoption by the United States, although, as will be seen in the next succeeding chapter, plans no less subtle and comprehensive have been proposed for the payment of our present national debt. The period of their incubation, however,. measured the entire limit of their existence, and efforts for their re- suscitation seem wellnigh abandoned. The policy of paying, or even reducing, a public debt, as already indicated, has been gravely questioned by some of the oldest governments and most experienced statesmen. The idea of leaving the principal of such indebtedness for ever intact, and merely paying the interest, has received stronger indorsement from Great Britain than any other country. The theory is there upheld, familiar to all by its title at least, that "a national debt is a national blessing." The question is one of the gravest possible import, and an examination of the same may be safely prefaced with the as- sertion that the foregoing English doctrine will not admit of being reduced to a maxim which should have universal application. The question of the feasibility of a public debt is a matter of public policy, and the shaping of such policy is dependent upon the peculiar circumstances and conditions of both governments and people. As Chan- cellor Kent has tersely expressed it, " Policy is a series of calculations and combinations arising out of times, places and circumstances, and it cannot be reduced to absolute simplicity and certainty." The English Government is that of a constitutional monarchy. By force of tradition, and also its organic, constitutional and municipal law, it scouts every idea of change and innovation. It contemplates a 152 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. perpetual and changeless existence. It is, for all this, in a great measure, by force of guarantees in its organic law, a government of the people, and one of the grandest fabrics of government, moreover, which the mind of man has ever deduced from the experience of the civilized world. From the people, to a great extent, it derives its power, and upon them it is partially dependent for the continuance of its reign. In consequence of these facts it becomes the paramount interest of the English Government to make its continuance an absolute prerequisite to the prosperity of the people ; and for the attainment of this end it has, for a long period (nearly two hundred years), pursued and cherished the policy of having an outstanding public debt. Great Britain owes nearly $4,000,000,000. The Govern- ment obligations which form the evidences of this indebt- edness constitute the basis of many of the most stupendous industrial schemes of the English people, and make up a large portion of many of the fortunes of English capitalists. The continuance of the present Government of Great Britain has thus been made one of the dearest objects of the care of a major portion of her moneyed and aristocratic classes the motor forces of the English realm by foster- ing the policy of a public debt. The principle upon which the idea is founded, however, that "a national debt is a national blessing," tends to the seduction of national honor. A people whose individual interests are entirely merged in the existence of their gov- ernment usually protest against giving or accepting the challenge of war, however just may be the provocation, for fear of national, and consequently individual, overthrow. The Government of Great Britain has not escaped the evils of a public debt in this respect. The convention of 1856 which followed the close of the Crimean war, and to which the English and Russian Governments, with other Euro- pean powers, were parties, was peremptorily dissolved in PUBLIC DEBTS. 153 1870 by the emperor of Russia, so far as her exclusion from the Bosphorus was concerned, without even a prelimi- nary request for a modification of the treaty ; and this fla- grant violation of international law the English people would not suffer their Government to resent. Under a democratic or republican form of government the question of a public debt presents itself in an entirely different aspect ; and the claim that it is "a national bless- ing" may, in this connection, be gravely doubted, if not positively denied. The abstract proposition that the sup- port of government constitutes one of the most politic duties of every people admits of no contradiction. It is a self-evident truth. There is a marked distinction, however, in the application of this principle to republican or demo- cratic and monarchical forms of government. Republican and democratic institutions are based upon the theory that, while the form of government shall remain fixed and im- movable, the executive power which administers the gov- ernment shall be subject to frequent and regular changes. Monarchical institutions, however, whether absolute or limited, are based upon the theory that not only the form of government, but also the executive power which admin- isters it, shall be alike permanent and unchangeable. In the former case, the individual, comparatively speaking, is only interested in maintaining the government itself: the preservation of the same identical executive power is a matter of little or no consequence. The government can live though the executive die; the organic law can con- tinue though its administrator be changed. In the latter case, however, in most instances, the government and the executive power, speaking in the abstract, are wedded be- yond the possibility of divorcement, except at the expense of the former's annihilation. They are integral parts of one common whole, and are both requisite for its continu- ance. If the executive changes, it is only in response to G2 154 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. a demand for a change of organic law, and such executive variation consequently involves an inevitable revolution of the form of government. The individual, in this instance, is therefore interested not only to preserve the Government in its stability, but also to maintain the same identical exe- cutive power in perpetual continuance ; and this is done by legalized succession. These distinctive features in re- publican or democratic and monarchical forms of govern- ment destroy the universality of the would-be maxim that "a national debt is a national blessing." In the former instance a public debt is associated solely with the Govern- ment, and not in any inseparable manner with the execu- tive. The maintenance of Government or a due regard for the sacredness of its pecuniary liabilities does not in any way imply a maintenance or indorsement of the execu- tive power. This last must change, whether it will or no. In accordance with the genius and spirit of republican and democratic institutions, moreover, this change is effected without any shock to Government itself to organic con- stitutional law. A public debt in republican and demo- cratic countries, then, can only draw the support of the people to Government and not to executive power. The question is here pertinent, Can the support of a democratic or republican people for their Government only be assured by making them financial creditors of such Government? By no means ; and the reason is simple, plain and easy to be understood. A republican or democratic form of gov- ernment is the great desideratum of every people on the face of the globe. It is counted to be the synonym of the most perfect and unqualified personal liberty a liberty qualified by legal restraint only to the extent of giving security to life and property. Will a people who possess what is believed to be the most lenient and liberal govern- ment ever established wish for a different one ? Not at all. An affirmation of this question denies the most common PUBLIC DEBTS. 155 instinct of humanity. The law of change, either among individuals or nations, is based upon the hope of a better- ment of present condition. Destroy republican govern- ment, and where shall we find its superior? Neither the experience nor ingenuity of man can at present afford an answer. Is a public debt, then, necessary to increase the love of a people for a Government for whose superior they seek in vain ? Nay more : Will such an incumbrance enhance the splendor of an institution which without such incumbrance is esteemed perfect ? Perfection is not thus beautified. The argument that "a national debt is a national blessing," so far as republican and democratic institutions are concerned, recoils upon itself. A public debt for such governments is but a cloud upon the title of their desirability. In monarchical governments it is different. A public debt is here associated with both the government and the executive power. A maintenance of the first and a due regard for the sacredness of the second imply a continuance of the third. Destroy monarchical government, and its subjects implicitly believe they can find a better in repub- lican institutions ; but destroy monarchical government with the major portion of the wealth of its subjects invested in Government securities, and you also destroy the dearest interest of these subjects namely, their property. As a watchman who shall guard the door of exit between a mon- archy and a republic, "a national debt may be a national blessing," but what need of this watchman at the closing portal of republican government? The dim future is unex- plored by man and enveloped in all the mists of obscurity. These principles have found constant and continued prac- tical expression in the form into which monarchical and republican indebtedness has been funded. The former has ever been made perpetual, the latter finite and determin- able. 1 56 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. As public debts have been incurred, for the most part, only in time of war, and as history has proven, moreover, that the resources of nearly every country which has been involved in hostilities might have yielded a sufficient return from taxation without jeopardizing the solvency of the peo- ple to meet the expenses of war as they arose, the question is often asked, Why contract a public debt in any instance ? Why not pay as we go? There is only one reason, but that is a very grave and important one. In an era of ex- tended hostilities there is always more or less dissatisfaction with Government among a certain proportion of the popu- lation. The party opposed in politics to the one in power will always loudly protest against taxation for war-expenses, and as there is no point upon which the masses are so sen- sitive as the appropriation of their wages and profits, Gov- ernment is absolutely compelled to make its tax levies as light as possible, else the discontented element will reach such proportions as to entirely cripple the resources of Government and add civil revolution to the evils of foreign war. This thought will be farther pursued in the next suc- ceding chapter. DIVISION SECOND. FUNDING SCHEMES. Nature and Origin Funding defined Details examined Sinking Funds Historical View of the Subject The Results of Funding The Various Schemes fully examined Opinions of Eminent Writers upon the same. THE process of funding among nations has ever been a favorite method of escaping from the embarrassment of a floating debt of matured and dishonored obligations. It has always, moreover, been a very expensive means of re- lease from such embarrassments. Nations, like individu- FUNDING SCHEMES. 1 57 als, always place a high estimate upon the probabilities and possibilities of the future. In this land of the unseen they discover a panacea for all present difficulties, a full and final discharge from the struggle of surrounding circum- stances. The past is deemed a misfortune, if not an injus- tice ; the present is counted an anachronism ; and the future is alone credited as the agency which shall blot out the mis- fortunes of the past, banish the inconsistencies of the pres- ent and shower wealth upon the efforts which have hitherto been robbed of their just reward. As William Hamilton forcibly says, "The past does not interest, the present does not satisfy, the future alone is the object which engages us." In the funding of a public debt nations always dis- count these expectations of the future at a heavy rate of in- terest they mortgage its prospective returns at an almost ruinous sacrifice. This is true partly from compulsion and partly from causes above intimated. Human nature, in the presence of difficulties which must be removed by means of present exertion and self-denial, or else evaded by a pur- chased postponement wherein the period of payment for such purchase is also in futuro, is generally conservative in its action and adopts the latter alternative ; but in the pur- suance of this alternative it is radical in its conduct and pays dearly for the favor of time. These general remarks foreshadow the character, causes and evils of a funding scheme. They will now be examined in detail. The interrogatory, In what does a funding scheme con- sist ? may be answered in a general sense by the statement that it is the merger or conversion of a past due, unsecured debt into an interest-bearing obligation or security upon the predication of regular payments of the yearly interest thereon, with the time for payment of the principal post- poned either for perpetuity or a fixed determinate period. Funding schemes always assume one of these two forms, with the usual qualification that Government may redeem II 158 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. the obligation at option, within specified limits, upon pay- ment of the principal at par. This optional limit varies according as the date of maturity of the obligation is de- terminately fixed or postponed for perpetuity. In the first instance it usually embraces the time between the end of five, ten or any number of years, as the case may be, after the date of the obligation and the period fixed for its ma- turity. In the second instance this option usually attaches concurrently with the date of the security, and may be acted on at any time thereafter. These two forms of fund- ing, moreover, may either assume the shape of a mortgage of a particular source of revenue to the Government, or the execution of the Government's bond, which by force of law creates a lien, an incumbrance, upon all the material wealth of the country as security for its payment. In both in- stances, therefore, the security is abundant and unexcep- tionable, since, by exercise of the right of taxation, the Government can legally appropriate the entire wealth of the country on the one hand, and mortgage the same by its bond on the other. The par at which Government has the optional right of redemption may be, but is not neces- sarily, the sum of Money which Government originally re- ceived, but is the amount stamped upon its bond or mort- gage ; and these two sums are scarcely ever the same. For instance, Government may have an outstanding debt of $50,000,000 to fund, and for this purpose it will sell its bonds of say $1000 each at six per cent, interest, to pay the $50,000,000 of its past due liabilities. These bonds will usually sell at a discount, say ten per cent., so that for every $1000 bond issued Government would only receive $900. The par at which it would have the option to re- deem, however, would be $1000. The result of the trans- action is therefore seen to be, that Government gives its notes bonds and agrees to pay interest thereon, in the sum of nearly $56,000,000, and receives only $50,000,000 FUNDING SCHEMES. 159 in ready Money therefor. The foregoing propositions cover the ground and theory of both determinate and per- petual annuities which have so much prevailed in the fund- ing schemes of Europe, as well as the American system. Illustrations of the former might be adduced, but the prin- ciples involved are not sufficiently obscure to provoke such a line of discussion. A definition of what is known as a sinking fund finds an appropriate place in this connection. A sinking fund is raised by a transfer to commissioners, appointed for that purpose, of bonds or other obligations which Government has redeemed, upon which canceled securities such com- missioners are paid regular interest by Government. The sum thus received by the commissioners is appropriated for the purchase of additional securities of Government, to be by them held for the same purpose as above indicated namely, the collection of interest and the consequent aug- mentation of the original fund. In this way the amount of such a fund is regularly compounded. Returning to the more immediate topic of discussion, a brief space will be devoted to tracing the more important eras of funding as found upon the pages of history. The system was inaugurated by the Italian states in the latter portion of the seventeenth century, and eagerly followed by Spain, whose financial condition, as stated in the first division of this chapter, was wretched in the extreme. France soon after availed herself of its apparent advantages, and was in turn followed by England, and subsequently by most of the principal powers of Europe. The dawn of the eighteenth century, in fact, witnessed the sale or mort- gage of its expectations by nearly every kingdom of the Old World. The system found the initiative in France in the "farming of the revenues" hereinbefore explained. This led in 1661 to the first issue of perpetual annuities to the plan of funding which only contemplates a payment l6o THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. of interest, and puts the principal of a debt into the form of a perpetual loan. The idea found its origin in the fertile brain of Colbert, the astute and indomitable minister of Louis XIV. The excesses, wars and extravagances of his imperial master had flooded the kingdom with numer- ous species of unfunded obligations, and the public creditors were clamoring for redress. This unfunded indebtedness of France, moreover, consisted mostly of mortgages of particular sources of revenue, as already explained, which had been made at an enormous sacrifice ; that is, the Government had sold the prospective proceeds of its assessments for sums far below what such assessments would realize. The situation was mastered by the French minister with almost more than the accustomed determi- nation of purpose with which he is credited in history, and it is doubtful if a less resolute hand would have even proposed the scheme, much less put it into execution, without having been rewarded by a public demonstration in his favor at the Place de la Concorde, wherein he and a headsman would have proved the principal actors. Colbert imperatively demanded and compelled the public creditors to accept the proposal of Government to fund its outstand- ing debt in a perpetual loan, the par of which should be the actual sum which they had originally loaned the Government, and not the sum stamped upon the face of the outstanding obligations. The scheme, consequently, not only made a temporary loan a perpetual one, but denied the public creditors the profit which was promised them as measured by the difference between the sum they had paid the Government for its determinable securities and the amount which was promised on their face. The wily minister was loudly censured for breach of national honor, but only censured, and the scheme was carried to successful execution. The process of funding was established in Great Britain FUNDING SCHEMES. l6l in much the same manner as upon the Continent. It first assumed the form of terminable annuities, as already explained, but since the revolution of 1688 and the accession of William of Orange the pecuniary liabilities of Great Britain have always been funded in a perpetual loan. The above-named monarch inaugurated the principle in the English realm, as Colbert had done in France nearly thirty years before him, except that the par of the per- petual annuities of this country is the sum stamped upon their face, and not that actually received by Government, which has always been considerably less than the face of the obligation. William III. inaugurated this system of funding the public debt of Great Britain in a perpetual loan in 1694, by chartering the Bank of England with a per- petual annuity of ^80,000 in consideration of a loan to Government of ^1,200,000. This measure of the new king, moreover, was immediately preceded by a repudia- tion of the public debt incurred by his predecessors, the Stuarts, and upon those contracted during his own reign the English people are still paying interest. This examination of the nature and history of public debts and funding schemes, although necessarily brief, has been sufficiently extended to present a general and intelli- gible outline of the subject in the abstract preparatory to an investigation in the next succeeding chapter of the pub- lic debt and funding system of this country. A little ad- ditional comment will be made upon the general effects of funding, when the present chapter will be brought to a con- clusion. The system has always been enervating in its tendencies and prejudicial to the general welfare of community, except when conducted on the principle of making the Govern- ment securities into which a debt is funded terminable and not perpetual. In the first instance, the public consols will usually sell at a trivial discount, and thus avoid any 14 1 62 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. very material enhancement of the debt by the process of funding ; but in the second instance these securities have always been sold at an enormous sacrifice, and thus greatly augmented the amount of the original claim against Gov- ernment. It is only by such a deduction from the face of these perpetual annuities of Government, indeed, that their sale can be effected. Capitalists will not invest their funds in a security the form of which can never be changed ex- cept upon payment of a heavy consideration, and this they receive by buying the perpetual consols of Government for a considerably smaller sum than their face, and conse- quently a sum considerably less than that upon which they receive interest. In this manner of funding by perpetual annuities a public debt becomes very materially increased beyond its original proportions. The public debt of Great Britain, for instance, by means of the establishment of these perpetual funds since the reign of Queen Anne, has been increased nearly one-third ; and thus the only consid- eration which the British Government has received for con- siderably over $1,000,000,000 of its public consols has been the privilege of entailing a perpetual debt upon posterity, and the consequent assurance, as already explained, of a perpetuation of its peculiar form of government. This is not all. These perpetual annuities are but so many mort- gages upon the wealth of the British people. They are supported by no security save the general credit of Gov- ernment ; they constitute a lien an incumbrance upon all the private as well as public property of the realm, as already stated ; and if an attempt should be made for the payment of these perpetual annuities, the end could only be secured by an appropriation of private property through the exercise of the right of taxation. The principle upon which a perpetual public indebted- ness is based cannot but be perfectly apparent in the light of these indisputable facts. Such indebtedness has ever FUNDING SCHEMES. 163 prevailed in monarchical governments seldom in repub- lics and democracies. It has been fostered in the former instance in order to close the portals between monarchical and republican institutions. It has not found favor in the latter, because the world has as yet made no exploration into the science of government whereby it has found such effectual guarantees for individual liberty, personal security and right of property as are afforded in the scheme of a government by the people. And here, as already indicated in an earlier stage of this discussion, since no watchman in the form of a public debt is needed to cement the attach- ment of a republican population for their organic law to hold them prisoners of policy against the dictation of natural desire such indebtedness is not a national blessing, but an incumbrance upon the wealth and a damper upon the enterprise and virtue of community. The system of funding outstanding obligations of Govern- ment into a perpetual public debt has received merited and scathing rebuke, by reason of its disadvantages, above enumerated and explained, from the most eminent jurists and political economists of both the Old and New World. William Blackstone pronounced upon it the curse of the finest legal intellect which has graced the jurisprudence of England ; Adam Smith, after ten years of reflection and study thereon, declared it an anachronism and a reproach upon European and English politics; Ricardo reviewed it in terms of the most withering criticism ; Hume, McCulloch and Mill reiterated the same condemnation ; while in our own country Francis Bowen who ranks with William Elder among the ablest writers upon public econo- mics in either America or Europe has added the weight of his powerful name and scholarly pen to the forces which have urged the inconsistency of the theory that "a national debt is a national blessing." 164 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. CHAPTER V. PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. THIS chapter, like the next preceding one, will be divided into two divisions. Division First will treat of the financial measures of Government whereby our present public debt was incurred, and Division Second will be de- voted to an examination of such measures whereby this indebtedness has been, and is proposed to be, funded. DIVISION FIRST. The Public Debt prior to the Late War The first Financial Measures of Government at its Outbreak They show an utter Inappreciation of the Character of the Conflict The General Policy in this respect fully stated The various Evidences of Indebtedness, and the acts which authorized them, examined The evils of the Financial War Policy were Short Loans Loans in the form of Money The vari- ous Funding Acts stated and explained The Operations of the "Syndicate" examined Wholly Illegal Its Results A Failure Why the Debt should be Paid How the United States differ from Great Britain in this respect. ON the first day of July, 1861, nearly three months sub- sequent to the inauguration of our late civil war, the public debt of the United States was a little in excess of ^90,000,000 about one-thirtieth of its amount July i, 1866, and twenty-seven times less than at the close of the year 1871. The nucleus of this indebtedness arose from the assumption by the General Government, in 1 790, of the pecuniary liabilities incurred by both the Confeder- ate and State Governments during the war of the Revo- lution. These amounted to $54,000,000 and $25,000,000 respectively. The second struggle with Great Britain, in 1812, added $35,000,000 to the indebtedness already in PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 165 existence, and the Mexican war in 1845, including the sum paid for the cession of Texas, California and New Mexico, and the indemnity allowed to American citizens who had claims against the Mexican Government, placed the country under additional war-bonds to the extent of $170,000,000. By the Compromise of 1850, moreover, an indemnity was granted to Texas for all claims against the Government arising out of the annexation of that State as the cause of the Mexican struggle, in the sum of $10,000,000; and a further pecuniary liability of about $1,000,000 was incurred by the suppression of Indian hostilities in Oregon in 1856. In pursuance of a policy, however, adopted by Congress at the close of Madison's second administration, the aggregate indebtedness of the Federal Government at the commencement of the last decade had been reduced to the amount stated in the outset. The absolute inappreciation by Government of the prob- able extent of the struggle precipitated by the fire upon Sumter was no less evidenced in its first call for troops to resist the onslaught than in the character of its financial policy immediately subsequent to the opening of hostilities. The principle upon which the authorities at Washington seem to have acted in this connection was that, as the con- flict already inaugurated would be confined within narrow limits, both as to time and territorial area, neither large pecuniary resources nor long-deferred loans would be re- quired for its prosecution. The major premise was an error of conception hardly excusable in face of the fact, known to every observer of our political affairs, that the South had been constantly organizing its forces, both moral and ma- terial, since the Compromise of 1850, for the war of seces- sion of 1 86 1. The deduction made from the main prop- osition was, of course, erroneous in point of fact, but in direct pursuance of what may now be considered the estab- lished American principle, that the United States propose 1 66 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. to be a debtor no longer than compelled by the force of existing circumstances. It is both unnecessary and impracticable to give a detailed account of the separate acts of legislation by which our present indebtedness was authorized, or a complete and separate statement of the various evidences of the same which were issued and negotiated by our Department of Finance. The latter will sufficiently appear, for all practi- cal purposes, at the conclusion of this chapter, and the former will soon receive as extended comment as the re- stricted limits of this treatise will permit, giving a brief and separate history of the same for each year during the war, and deferring a discussion of the feasibility of said measures until such narrative shall be concluded. There will be no intentional omission of any important particular. The governmental belief in a short war resulted in the induction of financial measures already foreshadowed, which consisted in the issue of Federal obligations of small amounts, with the period of maturity not long deferred. Another feature of the financial policy of Government dur- ing the earlier part of the war was to issue its evidences of indebtedness in the form of Money or currency that is, legal-tender or Treasury notes with a provision for their conversion into interest-bearing bonds. The principle upor* which this action was based contemplated a supply of an alleged need of an increased volume of circulating medium. In some respects this measure was a wise, and in others a very impolitic, expedient, as already shown in a prior chapter of this treatise. The policy indicated in the preceding paragraphs first found expression in the acts of July 17 and August 5, 1861. These acts authorized an issue of demand and Treasury notes and interest-bearing bonds. The demand notes run without interest, and amounted to $60,000,000. The Treasury notes bore annual interest at the rate of seven and PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 1 67 three-tenths per cent., had three years to run and reached the sum of $140,000,000. The bonds had twenty years to run, bore interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, and were issued to the extent of $189,000,000. The Treasury notes above named were convertible into these bonds, and were entirely absorbed by these securities, with the excep- tion of $23,000,000 still outstanding (at the close of the year 1871). It is thus seen that for the opening year of a war which cost the United States, upon an average, over $700,000,000 per annum, and a year which, by reason of the necessity of a creation of an army and navy in toto, demanded an enormous financial resource, provision was made for the support of Government in prosecution of the struggle only to the extent of about $380,000,000. The acts of February 25, March i, March 17, July n and 17, 1862, give a further expression of the financial policy of Government in reference to the public debt, and show a more accurate appreciation of the magnitude of the task it was called upon to perform, but not of the proper financial measures requisite therefor. The first of these acts authorized an issue of interest-bearing bonds, legal- tender notes and temporary loan deposits ; the second, an issue of certificates of indebtedness ; the third, an additional issue of temporary loan deposits above named ; the fourth, an additional issue of this same temporary loan and legal- tenders ; and the fifth, an issue of postal afterward changed to fractional- currency. The bonds bore interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, had twenty years to run, with an option of Government to redeem at any time after the expiration of five years from their date, and were issued to the extent of $515,000,000. The legal-tender notes were payable on demand, without interest, convertible into bonds of the above character which last provision has been since repealed and with those issued by the act of March 3, 1863 (anticipating our narrative to this extent), amounted l68 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. to $357,500,000. The temporary loan deposits bore interest at the rate of four, five and six per cent, per annum, were pay- able at any time after ten days' notice, and reached the sum of $150,000,000. The certificates of indebtedness had one year to run, bore interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, and were issued to the amount of about $562,000,000. The postal afterward changed to fractional currency by the act of March 3, 1863, was payable on presentation, redeem- able in United States notes, and amounted to $50,000,000. The financial policy of 1863 is indicated by the act of March 3d of that year, which authorized an issue of interest- bearing bonds, Treasury notes, coin certificates and com- pound-interest notes. The bonds bore interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, were redeemable in not less than ten nor more than forty years from date, principal and in- terest payable in coin, and were issued to the extent of $75,000,000. Although the interest on all bonds of preced- ing issues was made payable in coin, the issue of this act was the first whereby the principal, by direct words of the statute by the letter of the law was declared redeemable in specie. The Treasury notes had one and two years to run, bore interest at the rate of five per cent, per annum, and were issued in various sums, and are now outstanding to the amount of about $200,000. The coin certificates were issued for deposits of coin or bullion with the Treasury, were payable on demand, without interest, and reached the sum of $443,000,000. The compound-interest notes had three years to run, bore compound interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, were a legal tender, and were issued to the amount of about $217,000,000. In 1864 our public debt still continued to be increased by the acts of March 3, June 30 and July i of that year, which authorized the issue of interest-bearing bonds and Treasury notes. The bonds were redeemable, part in not less than five nor more than twenty, and part in not less PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 169 than ten nor more than forty years. The former bore in- terest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, and were is- sued to the extent of about $130,000,000; while the latter, bearing the same rate of interest, reached the sum of $196,000,000. Both of these were payable, principal and interest, in coin. The Treasury notes had three years to run, bore interest at the rate of seven and three-tenths per cent., and reached the amount of nearly $830,000,000. The accumulation of our present public debt ceased with the issues of the various evidences of indebtedness under the respective acts above described. The subsequent finan- cial measures of Government are funding ones, and will find appropriate consideration in the second division of this chapter. The feasibility of the measures herein be- fore narrated will now receive attention. The policy of Government, induced by a belief in a short war, which led to the negotiation of short loans, and these, to a great extent, in the form of Money or currency that is, either legal-tender or Treasury notes resulted in two evils one of a comparatively superficial, the other of a very material, character. The first was not only a dis- turber of public convenience, but, to a certain degree, a traducer of public credit. The second was the uncompro- mising foe of nearly every individual interest and the ma- terial prosperity of nearly every class or portion of com- munity. By pursuance of the plan which deferred the ma- turity of Government obligations for only a short period, the Administration was constantly annoyed and embarrassed by the return of its bills of credit, demanding compliance with the letter of the bond, and this at times when even the existence of the Government was in absolute jeopardy. Thus, the certificates of indebtedness of March i, 1862, had only one year to run. The consequence was, that in the autumn of 1863 a period which was, in many respects, so to speak, the very midnight of the nation's struggle for 15 II THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. life nearly $400,000,000 of these certificates knocked at the door of the national Treasury and sought redemption from its already depleted coffers. So again in the autumn of 1864 a period when the ill-fated army of the Potomac was struggling through the marshes and swamps of Virginia, en route for Richmond, with one hundred thousand of its brave boys locked in the embrace of death $140,000,000 of three-year Treasury notes, issued under the act of July 17, 1861, imperatively claimed conversion into the "lawful money " for which the nation's faith was unqualifiedly and absolutely pledged. Further instances might be adduced, but such a course is quite unnecessary. These rapidly-ma- turing loans forced the authorities at Washington to fre- quent and various expedients, not to say makeshifts and yet that is the only proper term for much of the financial legislation of the war in their attempt to preserve the na- tional credit and abide by the Government's contracts with its creditors. Such forced and immature legislation, in- deed, could not be expected to be either wise or judicious. The National banking system is about the only wholesome measure of financial legislation during the war, and this, as already noticed, has grave defects. A very striking illus- tration of such unadvised action is found in connection with our legal-tender notes and fractional currency. The act of July n, 1862, authorized an issue of $150,000,000 of legal-tenders in addition to a like amount already in cir- culation, prohibiting a denomination of the same of less than one dollar. The issue, of course, so inflated the cur- rency prospectively, it is true that specie immediately sought the fellowship of Money-hoarders, and the country was left, comparatively speaking, without a dollar of " small change " for the petty uses of daily life. The con- sequence was, that in six days after its prohibition of paper currency in sums less than one dollar, Congress authorized an issue of $50,000,000 of the same to take the place of PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. I? I the specie which its action of a week before had driven from circulation. The second evil of the war-policy of Government in this connection was the negotiation of many of its largest loans in the form of Money, and thereby greatly augmenting the volume of our circulating medium. The evil effects of such a course have been already discussed in the consideration of abstract principles in preceding chapters. A brief ex- amination of those which resulted from the policy above named will now be made. A mere allusion to this topic is all that is necessary, as it has been fully examined in the second chapter of this treatise. Almost the sole idea which Congress and the Administration seem to have acted upon was, that Money, currency, circulating medium of some sort, constituted the chief requisite for prosecuting the war. In pursuance of this idea, as already seen in the chapter last above named, the circulating medium of the loyal sec- tion of the country was swelled from less than $300,000,000 to at one time $900,000,000. This action resulted in leav- ing paper Money the sole measure of value and medium of exchange, and, in accordance with the law of scarcity and excess, explained in the chapter just mentioned, the prices of all commodities advanced in a direct ratio with the in- crease in the volume of paper Money. The Government did not need this vast amount of paper Money, of circulating medium, although at first thought it may seem otherwise. Its proper course was to have issued its bonds for a long period, put them upon the market and sold them to the highest bidder. Instead of this, the act of February 25, 1863, directed that the bonds of Government must be sold at par, and excessive issues of paper Money were resorted to to supply the needs of Government. Two objections will be here raised to the above statement as to sale of bonds. The first, that there would have been no Money to have purchased them with; tlic- second, that they would have THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. sold at a great sacrifice, and so very materially enhanced our present indebtedness. The first objection will not stand for a moment. Our bonds found a market, and a very extended one, in Europe, beside those taken by our own population. If they had been offered to the high- est bidder, thus putting them in competition with other securities, capital from every foreign Money-market would have sought their possession as soon as they undersold other means of investment. The statement is apropos in this connection that it is an advantage, instead of a disad- vantage, if our securities are held by foreign capitalists, for the reason that it leaves our home capital in the exclusive service of productive industries. The second objection is only seemingly sound. Our present indebtedness would not have been unduly augmented by selling bonds forty per cent, below par in gold any more than it was unnecessarily ex- tended by selling them for paper Money, the value of which was depreciated forty per cent, or more. What is the dif- ference between having sixty cents in specie and one dollar in paper Money, when the exchangeable value of each is the same? The Government wanted Money to buy supplies and ammunition and pay its army and navy ; and so long as sixty cents in specie would have gone as far in this direc- tion as one dollar in currency, it would have taken no more bonds, sold below par in specie, to effect this purpose than it did, sold at par in currency, to accomplish the same end. The question is here asked, "What is the difference be- tween the two schemes when they both eventuate in the same result?" The difference in the first place is, that in consequence of Government having negotiated its loans in excessive issues of paper Money and the sale of bonds in currency at par, the price of commodities was enhanced one hundred per cent, and more, and the business of the country so far removed from a specie basis that seven years have not sufficed to effect a return to the same. This is PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 1/3 not all. The laboring classes of community suffered un- accountable privation by this policy. Their wages and salaries never increased in more than one-half the ratio with the advance in the cost of living expenses, as explained in the second chapter, already referred to. None of these re- sulting circumstances would have occurred under the oppo- site course, as above mentioned, to any great extent. In the absence of a material inflation of the circulating medium, prices of commodities would have been augmented only in accordance with the law of supply and demand, specie payments would not have been far removed, though prob- ably suspended, and our laboring population would have been protected from untold and inappreciable misery and want. These two elements of the financial policy of Govern- ment, whereby our public debt was incurred, constituted the fundamental defects of the entire system. There is much to be said in extenuation of the legislation above criticised, it is true. The exigencies which induced it were almost overwhelming, not to say distracting, but an impartial ex- amination of the matter could not offer for it the excuse of silence. Comment upon the policy of payment of our public debt, and the schemes which have been suggested for so doing, would be logically appropriate in this connection. The same, however, is deferred, as a fitting conclusion not only of this chapter, but of the portion of this treatise which has been devoted to " Monetary and Financial Topics." DIVISION SECOND. A consideration of the legislation by which the public debt has been and is proposed to be funded will now en- gage attention. The first funding act after the prccipita- 15* 1/4 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. tion of the late civil war bears date February 25, 1862. This act provided for the issue and sale of what are known as five-twenty bonds, and permitted the conversion of the Treasury notes and certificates of indebtedness of the pre- vious year into the same. This act, moreover, made pro- vision for a sinking fund as follows, namely : all duties on imports to be collected in coin or other lawful Money, and the coin so collected to be set apart as a special fund for the following purposes: "First. To the payment in coin of the interest on the bonds and notes of the United States. Second. To the purchase or payment of one per centum of the entire debt of the United States, to be made within each fiscal year after the first day of July, 1862, which is to be set apart as a sinking fund, and the interest of which shall in like manner be applied to the purchase or payment of the public debt, as the Secretary of the Treasury shall from time to time direct." This provision, although mod- ified in form by the funding act of July 14, 1870, is still intact in substance and of binding force upon Govern- ment. The next funding acts are those of March 3, 1865, and April 12, 1866, which are construed together. They au- thorize an issue of five-twenty bonds as before described, bearing interest at six per cent, per annum, for the purpose of absorbing, by way of exchange, any and all outstanding obligations of Government except the legal-tender notes ; these, by the original act which authorized their emission, were convertible into bonds of the above description, but that provision, as before stated, was subsequently repealed. These funding acts have all since been merged, so to speak, in those of July 14, 1870, and January 20, 1871. This last is amendatory of the first, and the leading provisions of the funding scheme evolved by these combined statutes are as follows: $1,500,000,000 of interest-bearing bonds, principal and interest payable in coin, are to be issued in PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 1/5 denominations of fifty dollars or some multiple thereof for the sole purpose of redeeming the five-twenty bonds out- standing at the date of the passage of the act first above named. Of this sum, $500,000,000 may bear interest at five per cent, per annum, and be redeemable at pleasure of Government "after ten years from the date of their issue." The remaining $1,000,000,000 authorized by these acts may bear interest at four and a half and four per cent, per an- num, and be redeemable at pleasure of Government "after fifteen and thirty years from their issue," respectively. Con- struing the above-named acts together, the limit of the four and a half per cent, bonds is $300,000,000, and that of the four per cents., consequently, $700,000,000. These bonds must be sold at par in coin, are exempt from every form of taxation, and a sum not exceeding one-half of one per cent, of the amount issued is appropriated to pay the expense of preparing, issuing, advertising and disposing of the same. The public debt is not to be increased by any action under these acts, and whenever any of the five- twenty bonds outstanding at the date of the passage of the act first above named are to be redeemed, three months' no- tice of the same must be given, designating the bonds by numbers, and interest on such bonds shall not cease until the expiration of the three months as aforesaid. In pursuance of this funding scheme, the Secretary of the Treasury, on the 28th of February, 1871, gave notice that on the 6th of March following books would be opened for subscription to the five per cent, bonds to the extent of $200,000,000. On the first of August next succeeding such subscriptions amounted to $65,075,550. This sum had mostly been subscribed by the National banks, and the subscriptions at the date above named, moreover, had entirely ceased. On the first of September, 1871, the Secretary of the Treasury, by virtue of authority conferred by the acts already cited, gave notice that certain five- THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. twenty bonds of the issue of 1862, designating the same by numbers, bearing interest at six per cent, per annum, to the amount of $100,000,000, would be paid on December ist of the same year, and that interest on the same would cease on that day. It will be remembered that on August ist of the same year (1871) the demand for the new five per cent, bonds had ceased. The Secretary of the Treasury, in his com- mendable zeal to make the new funding loan a success, in the early part of the said August entered into an agreement, through the agency of Jay Cooke & Co., with certain English and American bankers, who were christened by some one "The Syndicate" (but by whom history has thus far failed to determine, Secretary Boutwell having denied that the title was conferred by him), whereby these bankers should take the portion of the $200,000,000 of the five per cent, bonds still unsold namely, about $130,000,000 subject, however, to certain conditions. The terms of this agreement, using Secretary's Boutwell's own words, were as follows namely: "The parties repre- sented by Messrs. Jay Cooke & Co. had the right to sub- scribe for the remainder of the two hundred millions of said bonds by giving notice thereof at any time previous to the first of April next, and by subscribing for ten mil- lions at once, and for an average of at least five millions of bonds per month during the intervening time, subject to the right of the National banks to subscribe for fifty millions of dollars within sixty days from the 25th day of August." "It was also agreed that the subscriptions should be made through National banks, and certificates of deposit therefor issued by said banks to the Secretary of the Treasury, bonds to be lodged with the Treasurer of the United States for the amount of the deposit." A circular was also issued August 10, 1871, from the Treasury Department, quoting again from Secretary Bout- PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. well, whereof the tenor was as follows : " It was announced that National banks making or obtaining subscriptions pay- able in coin would be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury as depositaries of public Money, on the usual condition of placing in the hands of the Treasurer of the United States bonds of the United States for the security of such deposits ; and that at the commencement of each month notice would be given of the redemption of an amount of bonds equal to the amount of subscriptions in coin for the preceding month, interest to cease in ninety days from the date of such notice. "It was also stated in the circular that as the bonds called should mature the deposits would be drawn from the several banks proportionately. "It was further agreed that the subscribers to the loan should receive as commissions whatever might remain of the half of one per cent, allowed by law upon the two hun- dred millions, after paying the cost of paper for the bonds, for engraving, printing, advertising, delivery, and all other expenses of the same." Upon this basis the remaining $130, 000,000 of the five per cent, bonds were subscribed for by the Syndicate before the close of the same month (August, 1871) in which the agreement was made, with an accruing advantage allowed the Syndicate, however, whereby it was paid an extra com- mission of a little over $1,625,000, and the letter certainly, if not the spirit, of the funding act directly violated. The $130,000,000 of bonds subscribed for by the Syndicate were not to be delivered until the expiration of three months from the date of subscription, but they were con- sidered as sold and drawing interest during this period ; so that the Syndicate realized by the transaction a sum equal to the interest of $130,000,000 for three months, which amounts to a little more than $1,625,000, as already stated. The practical working of the arrangement was simply this : II 2 1/8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. " The Syndicate certified to the Treasury that they had de- posited with themselves coin for the purchase of the new bonds ; they forward to the Treasury a like amount of old five-twenties as security for the deposit; the new bonds are at once placed to their credit ; at the end of ninety days the five-twenties are canceled, they receive the three months' interest that has accrued upon them, and at the same time get their new bonds, upon which three months' interest has also accrued." The letter of the funding statute was violated by this proceeding in that this act positively prohibits any action thereunder whereby the public debt shall be increased, and by the foregoing arrangement, in pursuance of which $130,000,000 of bonds were placed to the credit of the Syndicate three months before delivery of the same, for the purpose of drawing interest, the public debt was increased in the sum and for the period named. The following is Secretary BoutwelPs excuse for the proceeding: " The act authorizing the refunding of the national debt directed the Secretary of the Treasury to give three months' notice of the payment of any bonds which in such notice might be specified and called for payment. In the same act it was provided that the Money received for the new bonds should be used only in payment of bonds outstanding, known as five-twenty bonds. The statute proceeded upon the idea that the holders of five-twenty bonds should have three months' interest upon their bonds after notice should be given by the Government. " As this notice could be given safely only upon subscrip- tions already made or secured, the general necessary result, even in case the Money were paid into and held in the Treasury of the United States, would be a loss of interest for three months. " On the ist of August last the demand for the new bonds had nearly ceased, but by the agreement referred to PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 1/9 the necessary loss to the Government incident to the re- funding of the public debt was made the means of securing subscriptions to the amount of about one hundred and thirty millions of dollars. ' ' The banks, or those represented by the banks, derived an advantage in the use of the amount of their subscrip- tions for three months, but this without other loss to the Government than what was incident to the negotiation of the loan under the law." That is, since by the funding act the Secretary of the Treasury is obliged to give three months' notice to holders of the old six per cent, five-twenty bonds of his intention to buy in the same before the interest thereon will cease, he could not have used the $130,000,000 due from the Syndi- cate if it had been paid at the time of its subscription for the new bonds until the expiration of the three months aforesaid, as the funding act forbids the appropriation of moneys derived from the sale of the new bonds to any purpose save the redemption of the old five-twenties ; therefore the Syndicate may properly have the use of the $130,000,000 for the three months in which their possession would have been of no avail to the Government. The Secretary, moreover, defends himself with the plea that the interest on $130,000,000 of the public debt was reduced from six to five per cent, by the operation. Materially speaking, the transaction with the Syndicate resulted in no loss to Government whatever, but it was a transaction nevertheless, although conceived and executed with the most honorable and upright intention on the part of the Secretary, in direct violation of a law of the United States, and tends to the establishment of a precedent which in less honorable hands might result not merely in a disre- gard of the authority of Congress, but in a total destruction of even Government itself. The creation of law is the province of legislation ; its execution devolves upon the ISO THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. executive : but construction thereof is the office of legal tri- bunals. It is here that Secretary Boutwell has erred. He has arrogated to himself the exercise of a judicial preroga- tive when he is possessed of mere executive power. If the door is opened for such executive usurpation, where shall we stop ? Who shall draw the line beyond which executive power shall not rebel ? What are the exigencies which shall excuse such transgression ? By what rule or principle are such exigencies to be determined ? The situation is preg- nant with evils of the gravest import. Speaking in the abstract, this simple defiance of law was the parent of the recent rebellion, which has consigned a million of men to premature death, and entailed upon Government the debt of $3,000,000,000 which Secretary Boutwell has been so persistently endeavoring to cancel. The country has had full enough of what may well be termed lay construction of self-constituted tribunals; and it behooves executive authority to keep within the limits prescribed for it by our organic law, as it does the department of legislation to re- frain from supplanting civil government with military force. This thought will be pursued at length in the second part of this treatise. Further comment thereon in this connec- tion would be illogical and improper. The result of the funding scheme of 1870 is thus seen to be the conversion of $200,000,000 of old six per cent, five- twenty bonds into the five per cent, securities authorized thereunder, and this upon payment of a sum of $1,625,000 in excess of the provision allowed by Congress therefor. This is not all. The remainder of the new loan will not, in all probability, be placed except at a similar additional and proportionate expense. The only real inducement held out by the present funding act to holders of the old six per cent, five-twenties to exchange the same for the new five per cents, is, that the principal of the latter is, by the letter of the statute, payable in coin, while with the former such PUBLIC DEB T OF THE UNITED STA TES. 1 8 1 is not the case. Faith in the sacredness of Government's purpose to pay the entire debt in coin, however, as pledged by the act of March 18, 1869, militates against the proba- bility of capitalists changing their six for five per cent, securities upon their own volition. It is a violation of common sense and reason to suppose otherwise. The com- mission allowed by Congress, moreover, for the absolute sale of the new five per cents, is too meagre to induce capi- talists to negotiate the loan, and thereby put the Treasury in funds for the purchase of the old five-twenties in accord- ance with the optional right it has so to do. The funding acts of 1870, therefore, in the light of experience, cannot be regarded as a success, and they will require material modification before the outstanding debt can be absorbed by issues thereunder, unless some such unwarranted expedi- ent as the Syndicate of August, 1871. is again resorted to. This discussion will be dismissed with a brief comment upon the feasibility and necessity of an immediate payment of the public debt, principal and interest, in coin. This comment, indeed, will be of the closest possible character, as the subject, in the abstract, was fully considered in the next preceding chapter. It will be remembered that the old six per cent, five- twenty bonds issued under the act of February 25, 1862, are not, by the strict letter of the statute, payable in specie, although it has been generally conceded that such was the intention of the legislators. The statutes subsequent to the one above named, whereby the amount of the public debt was increased by issues of bonds thereunder, although inex- cusably and culpably loose in their phraseology, have been, in a quasi manner, construed to pledge the faith of Gov- ernment for the payment of such bonds, principal and in- terest, in coin. The absence of an express provision to that effect, however, in the act of February 25, 1862, whereunder over $500,000,000 of five-twenties were issued, 16 1 82 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. has given rise to extended discussion as to the propriety of paying such five-twenties in legal-tender notes instead of specie. A full history of this discussion will not be essayed, as its details are familiar to every intelligent citizen. It has ceased to engage public attention, and the scheme is buried in the oblivion to which its treacherous and perfidi- ous character justly consigned it. It was a mere exponent of political capital, a part of the stock-in-trade of politicians who had personal ends to serve, and as such was originated by George H. Pendleton, and subsequently indorsed, in its cardinal features, by B. F. Butler, Oliver P. Morton and John Sherman. This "greenback swindle," as it has been justly termed, depressed the value of our securities and injured the public credit to such an extent that Congress, March 18, 1869, passed an act for the sole and express pur- pose of barring further agitation of the subject, whereby the faith of the United States is pledged for the payment of the entire public debt in coin, except in cases of obliga- tions issued under acts which distinctly provide for pay- ment of the same in other Money besides specie. The funding act of 1870, moreover, directs that the new loan into which the old five-twenty bonds are convertible shall be paid, principal and interest, in coin. That a national debt is not a national blessing, so far as the interests of this country, at least, are concerned, was strenuously maintained in the last chapter. That our pres- ent public debt, contracted in the main during our late civil war, could not, for certain reasons, have been canceled as it was incurred, was also demonstrated in that connec- tion. Comment upon these two points, therefore, is here unnecessary. The principal reasons for the immediate ex- tinguishment of the public debt are found in the possibility of future war and the necessary maintenance of public credit. This end should be persistently sought with all the rapidity consistent with a non-imposition of a too heavy PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 183 burden of taxation upon the people. What this measure of taxation should be will be discussed in the chapter de- voted to that subject in Part III. of this treatise. Secretary Boutvvell, in his report for 1871 the most admirably-ar- ranged report, by the way, which ever emanated from our Department of Finance gives expression to the sentiment of the great majority of the people upon this subject in the following words: "In my annual report to Congress for 1870 I expressed the opinion that the settled policy of the country should contemplate a revenue sufficient to meet the ordinary expenses of the Government, pay the interest on the public debt, and from twenty-five to fifty millions of dollars of the principal annually. To that opinion I adhere, with even a stronger conviction that the payment annually upon the principal of the public debt should not be less than fifty millions of dollars. " Large as the revenues of the country have been during the last three years, our system of taxation has not been oppressive to individuals, nor has it in any sensible degree embarrassed the business of the country ; and while relief from taxation is desirable, it is yet more desirable to main- tain the public credit in its present elevated position, not only as an example to other nations, but for its historical value in enabling the Government to make loans for large amounts upon favorable terms if, unhappily, in the future au exigency should require such loans to be made." The Secretary is correct. At the close of Madison's sec- ond administration Congress adopted a policy for the reduc- tion of the public debt which had been incurred in the wars of the Revolution and 1812, which contemplated its pay- ment in installments of $10,000,000 annually. The country at that period, in view of its comparative extent of popula- tion and material resource, was not so well able to bear the burden imposed upon it as it now is that suggested by the Secretary in his report above mentioned. 1 84 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. The public debt during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1871, was reduced in the sum of $94,327,764.84, and from the incoming of Grant's administration to January i, 1872, $281,624,848.87. The gross amount of the same at the time last above named, moreover, less the cash in the Treasury, was $2,243,838,411.14. The discussion of "Monetary and Financial Topics," and thereby Part I. of this treatise, is here concluded. PART II. EXISTING AND PROPOSED CHANGES IN OUR ORGANIC AND MUNICIPAL LAW. INDUCTIVE. IN passing from the consideration of the subjects which have thus far engaged attention to those into which the above-written title naturally resolves itself, the door is opened to an entirely different and far more fascinat- ing field of inquiry. The entire theme of political science, indeed, offers very little inducement to the mere pleasure- seeking mind, but that portion of it enclosed within the boundaries of Money and Finance is particularly uninviting for purposes of mental recreation. Its pathways are skirted with no flowers of imagination wherewith a playful intel- lect may satiate its love for a life of ceaseless imagery ; neither do they lead through occasional fields of fancy, wherein a vacillating spirit may here and there throw off the harness of dull investigation and regale itself with painting pictures of thought upon the canvas of ideality. They proffer entertainment to no one but the mere lover of absolute science, close their gates upon all save the tireless student in quest of knowledge and truth, and verify, in the mind which has acquainted itself with all their surround- ings, the force of the aphorism of Epicharmus, that "the gods sell us everything for toil." 16* 185 1 86 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Turning to that portion of political science, however, designated by the boundaries of Organic and Municipal Law, we stand upon the threshold of one of the grandest domains of reason and of thought. The study of matter is here abandoned for the study of man. Search is here made for the springs of human action, the agencies where- by these silent forces may be influenced, and the proper channels wherein they shall be directed. In short, the theme is Government; and this, in the abstract, receives an ample definition in the next preceding sentence, for all government consists, first, in an acquaintance with human motive ; second, a knowledge of the means whereby such motive may be influenced ; and third, the perfection of proper measures for the guidance thereof. It is a task, indeed, in which man is a coadjutor of God, and one that shall absorb his attention both for time and eternity. By it he seeks to obey the mandate of Omnipotence which attaches to all conditions of human existence "Know thy- self!" And as God, "in the beginning," established a fundamental law of Nature to which all His minor ordin- ances for the regulation of the material world are subservient, so in every epoch of civilization has man essayed the struc- ture of human government by framing one fundamental, organic law, whereon, guided by its principles, he has reared the superstructure of a municipal code. By the terms Organic and Municipal Law, therefore, which appear in the title by which the present part of this treatise is designated, are intended, in the first instance, constitutional law, and in the second the immense volume of statute law enacted and promulgated from time to time for the more immediate government of mankind. The first binds the legislature the state the supreme power, in its office of legislation, while the second bears alone upon individuals. The first is a rule whereby the people, in INDUCTIVE. 187 their sovereign capacity, create the second, and the second is a rule by which the people, in their several conditions, are bound to govern their individual acts. The topics, therefore, which will now demand considera- tion, although the offshoots of abstract principles of science, are pregnant with truths of the most engrossing interest and rich in their rewards of careful and studious investiga- tion. An acquaintance with the science of government, as already intimated, is, to a certain extent, indissolubly linked with a knowledge of the science of thought ; and the grandeur of the theme is by no means exaggerated in the matchless apophthegm of Phavorinus, " On earth there is nothing great but man ; in man there is nothing great but mind." The branch of political science, however, upon which, in the proposed discussion, we are about to enter, like the one we have just dismissed, presents neither a play- ground for the imagination nor a retreat for the lover of dreamland. Its principles and truths are not scattered upon the surface of the field of thought, but, like the rich- est veins of mineral wealth, lie deeply hidden from the su- perficial gaze, and are discernible only in the clear white light of intelligent reason. The investigation of these truths is a difficult yet captivating task; and to every citi- zen of our common country what more interesting or im- perative duty than that of sincerely and persistently en- deavoring to comprehend the causes, necessities, character and reason of the changes in an organic and municipal code whereunder the American republic is either advancing to the position of the most colossal nation upon which the sun has ever shone, or else hastening to a national over- throw more disastrous and insurmountable than any which has draped the pages of history since the downfall of the Roman empire? Familiarity with these truths, indeed, on the part of the American people, as elements of theoretical 1 88 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. science and their practical application as an art, constitutes the sole instrumentality whereby we are to prove the ability of man for self-government. In the discussion of organic and municipal law in the abstract, the former is entitled to precedence, both by reason of its prior creation and a due regard for logical propriety. In examining the existing and proposed changes in the organic and municipal law of the United States, there- fore, the line of argument naturally follows in the same channel. The topics into which the title of the present part of this treatise regularly resolves itself have been already stated in the introductory remarks thereof namely, The Consti- tutional Amendments, Reconstruction, Amnesty, Force Legislation and Civil Service. These will constitute the subjects of separate and distinct chapters. By the title with which the first chapter is designated reference is only had to the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to our national Constitution. It may seem a too general title for subject-matter restricted within such comparatively narrow limits, and yet it is consistent with the more general one which has been given to the entire treatise ; for, so far as constitutional changes are concerned, the present issues of American politics have their origin solely in the amend- ments above named. The prior ones, moreover, have not only been made matters of historical record, but been submitted to exhaustive discussion as to their character, legality and bearings upon the public weal. It may also seem suicidal to rules of logic to sever the constitutional amendments from the general subject of Reconstruction with which the second chapter is entitled. These amend- ments, it is true, are an integral part of the general recon- struction of our Government subsequent to the late civil war, but they are measures of reconstruction, however, INDUCTIVE. 1 89 aimed at the Constitution of the United States, while the remaining ones simply contemplate changes in our munici- pal code. Their separate consideration is therefore not only proper, but more conducive to a clear understanding of the same. The main inquiry will now be proceeded with. I9O THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. CHAPTER I. THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. The Importance of the Topic The Thirteenth Amendment The First Fruit of the Rebellion Indications of the Purpose of the North to Exterminate Slavery The Confiscation Acts and the Eman- cipation Proclamations the foundation of the Amendment The Origin of the Amendment The Manner and Legality of its Adop- tion The Question discussed at length The Legality of its Ratifi- cation by the States The Status of the States assuming to Ratify President Lincoln and Reconstruction President Johnson and Reconstruction The Constitutionality of the Amendment The same examined at length Minor Collateral Questions Presidents Lincoln and Johnson's courses on Reconstruction compared The same defended The Effect of the Amendment The Fourteenth Amendment Introductory Comment The Incompleteness of the Scheme Its Origin due to both Political and Moral Causes The Ends sought by the Change The History and Legality of both the Congressional Vote proposing the Amendment and its Ratification by the States The Status of the States assuming to Ratify The Ques- tion of Suffrage The Constitutionality of the Scheme Citizenship The Amendment analyzed Distinction between Civil and Politi- cal Rights and Privileges The Resulting Effect of the Amendment Monopolies The Rights of Corporations and Franchises under the Amendment The case of the New Orleans Slaughter-house Company The Full Effect of the Amendment stated The Fifteenth Amendment Its Cause and Origin The Enfranchisement of the Blacks The Legality of its Ratification The Status of the States assuming to Ratify The Right of a State to withdraw its Assent considered The Constitutionality of the Amendment Discussed at length The Extent of the Power of Amendment The Results of the Amendment fully defined Woman Suffrage under the Amend- ments The alleged Merits of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend- ments criticised in detail Deduction from Uie Criticism The Case of the Blacks Concluding Comment. THE assumption must not be made in the outset of this discussion that it will be conducted in detail as to THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 19 1 every phase of the subject presented for investigation. Such a course for the purposes of this treatise is absolute- ly impossible, for each of the amendments hereinbefore named in that respect furnishes ample material for an entire volume. Properly speaking, the question presents itself in five different aspects namely, the cause and origin of these amendments ; the history and legality of their adop- tion ; the purposes they were intended to serve ; their con- stitutionality ; and their resulting effect upon the public, with a criticism of their merits. Search for an appropriate place wherein this naturally-suggested line of discussion may be curtailed is attended with great difficulty and embarrassment, for every feature thereof, to every lover of political science at least, is so fascinating in its character that it seems almost a sacrilege to refuse it an acquaintance. The moral causes wherein these amendments are rooted were the growth of five hundred years of civilization and Christianity ; the period of their creation is laid in one of the most important epochs of the world's progress ; and the history thereof is a narrative of grave and ingenious legislation. The purposes they are intended to serve are linked with the future destinies of the universe ; their constitutionality furnishes a most captivating theme of dis- cussion ; while their resulting effect upon the national wel- fare is massing itself into a reservoir of facts from which moral forces are marshaling that will tell with tremendous import not only upon the future of this republic, but upon the science of government, the cause of civilization and the advancement of Christianity throughout the length and breadth of the entire glol>e. An intemlment will be made to scan the whole of this colossal subject, and no important particular will be inten- tionally omitted. Of these amendments separately and chronologically. 1 92 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT. The Thirteenth amendment to our Constitution is an embodiment of public sentiment germinated upon the ruins of Sumter in the spring of 1861, and crystallized into an article of organic law in the winter of 1865. It is the ex- ponent of a principle, it is true, for the national recogni- tion of which a small and respectable yet indiscreet and impolitic organization had incessantly striven from a period as remote as the autumn of 1833. The tenets of this or- ganization, however, in no respect were ever indorsed by anything but what seemed a hopeless minority, at the North even, until after the opening of hostilities, at which time the main principle of its creed, though not its minor doctrines, soon developed itself into the prime issue of the conflict, and received the affirmation of the major portion of the loyal population. It is peculiarly interesting to trace the growth of this public sentiment during the four years above named. It was only about thirty days prior to the inauguration of the war that the following joint resolution engaged the serious attention of both Houses of Congress as a compro- mise measure for the conciliation of the South, upon the propriety of which the national legislature and the loyal community at large were about equally divided : "Resolved, etc., That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the said Constitution namely : "ART. 13. No amendment shall be made to the Constitu- tion which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State." THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 193 This and other concurrent efforts for the prolongation of peace between the two sections, however, were dissolved by the smoke of battle in Charleston harbor, and the artil- lery of Beauregard, though it demolished the walls of a Federal fortress, swept the foundations from slavery, and sounded the death-knell of the institution whose extension it sought to accomplish. Important evidences of the change of public opinion at the North in this connection were seen during 1861 in the confiscation act of Congress, and in the following year in the abolition of the measures which had legalized slavery in New Mexico in 1859, a final extinction of the institution in the District of Columbia, additional measures of confiscation, and the initiatory proc- lamation of freedom for the slaves. The year 1863, more- over, witnessed the growth of this public sentiment in the second decree of emancipation and the abolition of slavery in the Territories, while the next succeeding year recorded the repeal of the fugitive slave law. In all these measures indication is seen of the tendency of the loyal will for an extermination of slavery, but the confiscation acts of 1861 and 1862, and the Emancipation Proclamations of 1862 and 1863, alone laid the foundations of the Thirteenth amendment, whereby that end was finally attained. In this connection these particular measures will not engage attention except for a mere statement of their general import; their full examination will be connected with a discussion of the constitutionality of the amendment now before us. The confiscation act of 1861, stating it very briefly, provided that any and every slaveholder who should require his slaves to engage, either directly or indi- rectly, in the military or naval service of the disloyal forces, should forfeit all further claim to service of said slaves in all cases whatsoever. The act of July, 1862, moreover, provided "that all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the Government of the United 17 I 194 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army ; and all slaves captured from such per- sons or deserted by them, and coming under the control of the Government of the United States ; and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterward occupied by the forces of the United States shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be for ever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves." The initiatory Emancipation Proclamation of September, 1862, contained the following provision : "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and for ever free ; and the executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual free- dom." The final proclamation of freedom of January i, 1863, declared all slaves in the rebellious section absolutely and for ever free. These executive measures will not be given in detail. Their substance is essentially as above stated. At the present stage of this preliminary narrative we find the proximate, immediate origin of the Thirteenth amend- ment. Congressional and executive action, the latter spurred by the former, and both urged on by the people at large, during the period of four years we have so hastily traversed, had constantly looked to a total extinction of slavery an eradication of the evil which had precipitated the war. The measures last above named had been devised and promulgated for this purpose simply as war-measures, THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 1$$ their authors for the most part claiming an authority for such action in the usual war-powers of Government, and not by reason of express authority conferred by the Con- stitution. This was entirely so as to the Emancipation Proclamations, and to a great extent as to the acts of con- fiscation. How far these measures are associated with, and form a basis for, the constitutionality of the Thirteenth amendment will hereafter appear. In view of a struggle forced by the South for the preservation and extension of slavery, which had cost, thus far, nearly a million of lives and seven thousand millions of treasure, the popular will of the loyal North was not content to leave the measures last above named the only insurers of its death. As a burial, therefore, from which there could be no resurrection, the perpetual inhibition of our national charter thereon was demanded and obtained. The history of the adoption of the Thirteenth amendment, and the legality of the form thereof (that is, the legality of the form of adoption, and not the constitutionality of the amendment itself), are now in order. The text of the amendment is as follows : " Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction. " Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." A joint resolution providing for the submission of a pro- posed amendment to the Constitution, as above, to the States for ratification, was taken up in the Senate February i, 1861, and after lengthy and varied discussion in the mean time, came to a final vote April 8 of the same year, and was thereby adopted. The same was called for con- sideration in the House June 15 of the same year, and after a desultory debate was rejected. The resolution came be- 196 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. fore the House again, however, December i5th of the same year, and on January 6, 1865, debate upon the same was resumed, which continued till the izth of that month, at which time further consideration of the measure was adjourned for two weeks. January 31, 1865, the resolution was again called and adopted. The only important objection made against the legality of the vote was, that a legal number of members did not participate in the proceedings. The protest was based upon that portion of the Fifth Article of the Constitution which provides that " Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amend- ments to the Constitution," etc. etc. The construction put upon the foregoing by the Democratic members of Congress was, that "two-thirds of both Houses" meant two-thirds of all the Senators and Representatives to which both the loyal and disloyal States would be entitled, and that a legal two-thirds, for the purposes of amendment, must be two-thirds of the total representation of all the States, as aforesaid. As the representation in Congress had been reduced to such an extent, by the secession of several States, that two-thirds of all the members to which both loyal and disloyal States would have been entitled were not present and voting upon the resolution, such a construction would have annulled the proceedings. Both the Senate and House, however, assumed the position that "two-thirds of both Houses of Congress" meant two- thirds of the number necessary for the transaction of busi- ness; that is, two-thirds of a quorum. The latter is defined to be, by the Constitution itself, "a majority of the mem- bers," and necessarily, moreover, a majority of the mem- bers recognized by the two Houses, for the Constitution declares that " each House shall be the judge of the elec- tions, returns and qualifications of its own members." A majority of the members of both Houses, as aforesaid, THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. were present on the occasion, and two-thirds of such ma- jority cast their ballot in favor of the resolution ; so that, by the rulings of the Chair in both branches of Congress, the vote was a legal one. These rulings, moreover, although apparently unknown to either the Senate or House (or per- haps we had better say, by them forgotten at least no notice was made thereof), were amply warranted by force of both ancient and modern precedent. At the first session of Congress, when the first ten amendments to the Consti- tution were proposed, the same objection was made in the Senate, and the Chair ruled that two-thirds of the mem- bers present that is, two- thirds of a quorum were suffici- ent to pass a resolution for the proposal of said amendments to the States. Again, in the spring of 1861, another pre- cedent which, as an historical incident, in the light of the peculiar positions wherein certain parties were placed, is to say the least amusing was put upon record in the major house of Congress. John C. Breckenridge was at that time President of the Senate, and on the second day of March of the year above named a joint resolution pro- posing, as an amendment to the Constitution, the article given in full at the commencement of this chapter, restrain- ing Congress from all subsequent legislation tending to the abolition of slavery, engaged the attention of that body. The representation in the Senate had then been reduced, by the effect of secession, to less than two-thirds of the number of members to which both the loyal and disloyal States would have been entitled, and Senator Trumbull (Republican) of Illinois raised the same objection which the Democrats did four years later at the time of the adop- tion of the resolution whereby the present Thirteenth amend- ment was to be proposed to the States for ratification. Senator Pugh (Democrat) of Ohio, however, made the point brought forward by the Republicans again at the time last above named, that "two-thirds of both Houses" meant 17 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. two-thirds of a majority of the members thereof, and President Breckenridge promptly sustained the same. Looking at the question in the abstract, without regard to precedent, the opinion held by the Democrats in 1861 and the Republicans in 1865 is pre-eminently the sounder doctrine. "Two-thirds of both Houses of Congress!" Can it mean a numerical two-thirds of fifty, sixty or one hundred/mvz//? individuals scattered about the country in a non-official capacity ? The Constitution had reference to a deliberative, legislative body, to Senators and Repre- sentatives assembled in an official capacity for the transaction of official business that is, legislation ; and seemingly to avoid the uncertainty which would arise from a non-def- inition of what should constitute such an official Senate and House, expressly provided that " a majority of the mem- bers ' ' of the individuals in their private capacity should constitute a legal official quorum a legal official Senate and a legal official House. This provision of the Constitution last above named is an implied denial of the position of the Republicans in 1861 and the Democrats in 1865. It determined what, numerically, should constitute a legislative Senate and House ; and a legislative Senate and House, constitutionally defined ("two-thirds of both Houses of Congress"), must mean two-thirds of such Houses as de- fined by the Constitution, and not two-thirds of the indi- vidual members, which the Constitution did not by its words at any time contemplate. The legality of the vote is beyond question. We now come to a consideration of a more difficult point namely, the legality of the ratification by the States. The Constitution of the United States provides that pro- posed amendments thereto must be "ratified by the legis- latures of three-fourths of the several States" before they shall become an integral part thereof. The Thirteenth amendment was promulgated by the Secretary of State THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 199 December 18, 1865. The loyal and insurrectionary States at that time were thirty-six in number twenty-five of the former and eleven of the latter. The question arose, in the application of the. clause " ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States," whether the assent of the legislatures of three-fourths of the whole number of States, both loyal and insurrectionary, or that of three- fourths of the loyal portion, would satisfy this constitutional requirement. In other words, Was the ratification of nineteen or twenty-seven State legislatures necessary for the adoption of the Thirteenth amendment? The latter alter- native received, in a quasi manner, executive approval, and the assent of eight quondam disloyal legislatures was in- voked to legalize the amendment. In the latter alterna- tive it will be perceived, moreover, that the legislative assent of two insurrectionary States was imperative to legalize the amendment, even if all the loyal States voted in the affirmative ; and in this latter aspect of the case, in view of the peculiar status of the eight insurrectionary States whose legislatures aided in the ratification, the ques- tion is a very grave one : If the assent of three-fourths of the legislatures of all the States was requisite for the adop- tion of the Thirteenth amendment, has such amendment ever received a legal ratification ? A glimpse at the reconstruction measures whereunder the legislatures of the eight insurrectionary States were organized which aided in the ratification of the amend- ment is here necessary for an intelligent pursuance of this discussion. The first attempt at reconstruction assumed the shape of an executive proclamation under date of December 8, 1863, whereby President Lincoln offered a pardon to the masses of the Southern people who had engaged in the rebellion, upon condition of their affirming allegiance to the United States Government and making oath to sustain all prior and subsequent executive and legis- 2OO THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. lative action in reference to slavery. This done, the pro- clamation provided for the organization of State legislatures and election of Senators and Representatives to Congress, without any intervention of the .General Government; whereupon any State upon such basis would be restored to its original position as before the war. Under this pro- clamation of President Lincoln, Arkansas, Virginia, Ten- nessee and Louisiana adopted free State constitutions and forms of government, and ratified, through their respective legislatures, the proposed Thirteenth amendment. The organization of the legislatures whereby the above-named measures were adopted was made in Arkansas, Virginia and Louisiana under the direction and supervision of Generals Steele, Weitzell and Banks, officers commanding therein ; while in Tennessee such organization was perfected under the orders of Andrew Johnson, military governor appointed for that State by President Lincoln. The legis- latures and constitutions of Arkansas and Louisiana, more- over, had been organized and formed prior to the act of Congress described in the next succeeding paragraph. Congress, however, in the summer of 1864, about six months subsequent to the issuing of the proclamation above described, passed a bill for the purposes of reconstruction, which provided for the appointment by the President of provisional governors for each of the insurrectionary States, who should proceed to call conventions, under certain forms, for the adoption of State constitutions and the organ- ization of State governments in their several departments. These constitutions were required by this bill to prohibit slavery, and the bill, moreover, by a special section, de- clared slavery absolutely abolished in all the insurrection- ary States. The bill was passed and submitted to the ex- ecutive for his approval only an hour before the final ad- journment of Congress. Mr. Lincoln withheld his signa- ture on account of the temperate and weighty reasons found THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 2OI in his proclamation following the bill, under date of July 8 of the same year, and the measure, consequently, never became a law. In the proclamation above named Mr. Lincoln fortified his position in regard to the bill on three grounds namely : First, he was unwilling to commit himself exclusively, without further deliberation, to any one plan of reconstruction. Second, he was averse to de- claring the free State constitutions of Arkansas and Louis- iana, above described, of no avail. Third, he was not pre- pared to commit himself to the opinion that Congress, by an act of legislation, had the power and authority to abol- ish slavery. The proclamation further declared, however, that any State wishing to adopt the measures of the bill for purposes of reconstruction would receive the cordial assist- ance of the executive. It is thus seen that three insurrec- tionary States Arkansas, Virginia and Louisiana reas- sumed the position of integral States of the Union under Lincoln's proclamation of December 8, 1863, with the intervention of the General Government as seen in the offi- cial acts of the executive and the generals before named, while Tennessee reassumed such a position under the same proclamation and with the intervention of the General Government, such intervention, however, being exercised by the President and a military'governor, instead of the of- ficer commanding the department; all four of the States, moreover, through their respective legislatures, giving their sanction to the Thirteenth amendment. Thus far, under President Lincoln, we have a dual policy of reconstruction, and a consequent duplex basis of ratification by the insur- rectionary States. At this juncture Mr. Lincoln died, and Andrew Johnson succeeded to the presidential chair. This official adopted a policy of reconstruction similar to the plan of Mr. Lin- coln, foreshadowed in his proclamation of December 8, 1863, but swerved, by reason of the changed condition of 12 202 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. things, from the course of his predecessor in putting the same into execution. President Johnson pursued a policy of reconstruction with the intervention of the General Gov- ernment, and thereby followed the course pursued by Mr. Lincoln ; but instead of exercising such intervention through commanding generals or military governors, he placed the insurrectionary States under the governorship of resident civilians. Under this policy of President Johnson, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama were recon- structed and ratified the proposed Thirteenth amendment. These, with the four States reconstructed under Mr. Lin- coln, already named, were counted in the "three-fourths of the several States" upon the ratification of whose legis- latures the amendment was officially promulgated. These eight States, it will be borne in mind, exercised the office of ratification upon three separate bases of reconstruction. Returning now to the main discussion, if the assent of three-fourths of the legislatures of the loyal States was alone necessary to legalize the adoption of the amendment, such legality was assured, as nineteen loyal States so put themselves upon record ; but if the concurrence of three- fourths of both loyal and insurrectionary States, through their legislatures, was necessary for the attainment of such an end, then the legality of the form of adoption of the amendment depends upon the legality of the reconstruction of the eight States hereinbefore named. Let us seek a so- lution of the question in the briefest manner possible. The proposition is asserted that, for the purposes of the Thirteenth amendment, "three-fourths of the legislatures of the several States" did mean three-fourths of the entire number, both loyal and insurrectionary. If the contrary principle is maintained, we admit at once the dogma of absolute State sovereignty, and the consequent doctrine of secession. A discussion of this doctrine is not relevant in this connection, but is nevertheless inferentially denied. THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 2O$ Our national Government is not a compact of the States, but a creation ab initio, distinct in itself, of the people at large. The truth of this is evidenced both in the causes which led to the formation of our present national Consti- tution and Government and in the letter of that instrument itself. The old Confederation which existed prior to our present Government was a State league. The General Government thereunder was powerless to enforce a solitary measure of diplomacy, legislation, war or any other pecu- liar policy of its own counter to the wishes of the several States. It was formed by the States, was responsible to, and acted through, the States had no sanction whatever for its laws, and no hold upon individuals. The national ruin to which the country was rapidly tending under the Confed- eration led the people of the several States to disenthrall themselves from its suicidal sway by the formation of our present Constitution ; and the grand idea which underlaid all the deliberations for that end was to establish a national government independent of the States, with an absolute possession of separate and supreme power, responsible alone to the people a government of individuals, and not of State corporations. The preamble of our national char- ter asserts this principle in the outset : " We, the people of the United States," etc. etc. Thus constituted by the people a distinct, separate and independent entity of itself, it is a unit, and consequently inseparable and indissoluble, except by means of absolute force by revolution. In this immediate connection the question arises around which crystallizes the germ of the issue now under discus- sion namely, At what point do " three-fourths of the leg- islatures of the several States " cease to mean three-fourths of the legislatures of all the States whose people have been once admitted to the Union? The question is plain and easy of solution : The Government being a unit, it is clearly at that point where a rebellious faction has conquered for 2O4 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. itself an independence and separate existence which is rec- ognized by the General Government against which it rebelled. This separate existence and independence our Government never accorded the rebellious faction -force had not over- come it; consequently, the Government being a unit, "three-fourths of the legislatures of the several States" for the purpose of ratifying the Thirteenth amendment meant three-fourths of all the States ever admitted to the Union. Our discussion of the legality of the form of the ratifica- tion of this amendment is now narrowed down to the ques- tion of the legality of the reconstruction of the eight se- ceded States whose legislatures participated therein. The abstract right of the General Government to reconstruct the insurrectionary States rested upon a very narrow foun- dation. The right of such action was derived from the constitutional authority of the United States to exercise its powers within State limits ; and this authority is confined within the following words of our national charter namely : " The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government." As to what constitutes "a republican form of government," the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Luther vs. Borden (7 Howard U. S. i), held that the President and both Houses of Congress formed the proper tribunal to decide. That is, it is a political and not a judicial ques- tion. The deduction is properly made from this proposi- tion that such a political reorganization of the insurrec- tionary States as gives them, in the opinion of the President and both Houses of Congress, a republican form of govern- ment, is a legal reconstruction of said States. That is, a plan of reconstruction approved by both Congress and the executive represents the constitutional means for placing the insurrectionary States in a position to legally ratify the proposed amendment. THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 2O$ At the time the present Thirteenth amendment was sub- mitted to the States for ratification the insurrectionary por- tions of the same were held either by the rebel authorities or else by the military power of the United States. Owing to this condition of things the point has been made that the only proper and legal means by which the executive could assume control of said States for purposes of reconstruction was through the exercise of his authority as commander-in- chief of the army and navy. This method, it is true, has been held a legal one by our Supreme Court, but it has not been held the only one. The sounder doctrine is, in ac- cordance with the discussion in the next preceding para- graph, that such means may be made use of for the pur- pose of reconstruction, for the purpose of guaranteeing to the States a republican form of government, as shall meet the approval of the executive and both Houses of Congress. It will be remembered that the legislatures of eight in- surrectionary States aided in the ratification of the present Thirteenth amendment. Of these, Arkansas, Virginia, Tennessee and Louisiana were reconstructed under a mere proclamation of President Lincoln, unsupported by any bill or measure of Congress, and North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama under a similar policy of President Johnson, differing from that of President Lincoln only in the manner of execution. Upon the premise, then, as here- inbefore maintained, that such a reconstruction is alone legal as is approved by both Congress and the executive, the conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing would at first glance appear to be that none of the eight insurrec- tionary States above named were legally reorganized at the time of the ratification of the Thirteenth amendment. Congress, however, failed to express any disapproval of such reorganization until March 2, 1867, as will hereafter appear; that is, it did not until then declare against the 18 206 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. same in a legal, official method namely, legislation. The act last above named, moreover, which consigns the lately insurrectionary States to a second reconstruction and de- clares their governments illegal, has no restrospective effect ; which fact, in connection with the prior passive approval by Congress of the executive policy of reconstruction, legally as well as reasonably implied from its official silence thereon, validates all measures instituted for the restoration of the South and acts done thereunder, thus removing the apparent difficulty in the due ratification of the amend- ment. In the case of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Articles no such difficulty exists, as will be seen in the examination thereof. The one first named, indeed, has been declared valid by a joint resolution of Congress, which action re- moves all possibility of doubt, as an approval of the article itself sanctions all the means whereby the ratification of the same was secured. A similar resolution in reference to the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Articles would be eminently proper, and render the validity of the last three amend- ments to the Constitution invulnerable in every respect, although, it must be confessed, by a somewhat slovenly process. A preconcerted and perfected plan of reconstruc- tion between President Lincoln and Congress in 1864 would have avoided a great deal of confusion and disorder, and rendered unnecessary no small amount of roundabout legislation. The validity of the vote in Congress proposing the amendment, and the legality of the ratification thereof by the States having been sustained, an examination of the constitutionality of the amendment itself is now in order. A discussion of this phase of the subject, although entirely legal in its bearings, cannot, of course, in consideration of the purpose of this treatise, be conducted in a purely legal manner, with full citations of authorities and precedents, THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 2O/ nor in the style, moreover, of a text-book upon legal topics. This examination of the constitutionality of the amend- ment, then, will be made almost wholly in the light of principle, and such principles, moreover, as require no in- vocation of either cases or precedents to corroborate their truth or validity, but which, by reason of their long adju- dication, are everywhere regarded as fundamental elements of constitutional law. This, too, is the most immovable basis of all legal discussion whatsoever. The power and authority, as well as the form, for amend- ing the Constitution is conferred and prescribed solely by that instrument itself in the words of the Fifth Article, reference to which may be had if desired. The pur- pose which the Thirteenth amendment was intended to serve was the abolition of slavery. The main inquiry in the outset of this discussion consequently is, Does the Con- stitution authorize an amendment thereto which shall ac- complish that result ? An answer to this interrogatory ne- cessitates a brief preliminary statement of the kind of powers which the Constitution confers, and the principles which apply to the exercise thereof. These powers are special, general and implied ; and they exist either affirma- tively or negatively affirmatively, when they are vested in certain parties by a direct affirmative grant ; negatively, when they are vested in such parties by reason of" their pos- session and exercise being forbidden and prohibited to all others. In the case of special and general powers, if both bear upon the same subject-matter the force of the former overrides the latter, in reference to such subject-matter, to the extent which the letter and spirit of such special power o|>erates thereon. In the case of general and implied pow- ers the same rule applies, and the former supersede the lat- ter, in reference to the same subject-matter, to the extent above named. The same principle attaches to the exercise of these powers, moreover, when their aid is invoked for 2C>8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. the sanction of some general act which with difficulty finds authority in the letter of the Constitution. It is thus seen that in all cases special have the precedence of general, and the latter supersede implied, powers as conferred by our or- ganic law. Another principle of vital importance which demands association herewith is, that every constitutional power is independent and untrammeled, and the legal ex- ercise thereof may be invoked in all cases without any re- striction save that which is found in the letter of the Con- stitution itself. In the case of Gibbons vs. Ogden, in the United States Supreme Court, Chief-Justice Marshall laid down the foregoing proposition in his usual terse, graceful and inimitable rhetoric, as follows namely : " Every power granted by the Constitution is complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknowledges no limita- tion except that which is written in the Constitution." As an answer to the objection often raised of the probable evils which may flow from the right to such an unqualified exercise of constitutional power, Justice Marshall in the same case further says: "The wisdom and the discretion of Congress, their identity with the people, and the influ- ence which their constituents possess at elections, are in this, as in many other instances as that, for example, of de- claring war the sole restraints on which the people have relied to secure them from its abuse. They are the re- straints on which the people must often rely in all repre- sentative governments." In the light of these general, fundamental principles at- tention is now recalled to the interrogatory propounded at the commencement of the next preceding paragraph namely : " Does the Constitution authorize an amendment thereto which shall abolish slavery?" What is the general power of amendment conferred by the Constitution ? It is contained in the Fifth Article thereof that is : THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 2OQ "ARTICLE V. "The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be pro- posed by the Congress ; provided, that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the First Article ; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." Article I. , Section 9, clauses first and fourth. First clause: "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight." Fourth clause: " No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken." Down to the word "Provided" in Article V. a general unlimited power of amendment is therein conferred. The remaining portion of this article, and the first and fourth clauses of the ninth section of Article I. which follow it, are to be read and construed together, and thus read and construed they constitute a special, passive power of amend- ment. These general and special powers, it will be ob- served, bear upon the same subject-matter. Recalling the proposition hereinbefore laid down, that when general and 18* 2IO THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. special powers are considered together as bearing upon the same subject, the latter supersede the former to the extent with which by their letter and spirit they operate, there- on To what extent is the general power of amendment conferred by Article V., down to the word "Provided," abridged ? Recourse to the remaining portion of Article V., and to the first and fourth clauses of the ninth section of Article I., replies: "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution whereby either the African slave-trade shall be prohibited prior to the year 1808, a capitation or other direct tax be laid disproportionately to the census, or by which a State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." The foregoing are the only special powers (passive, to be sure) in the Constitu- tion upon the subject of amendment. Neither by Fetter nor spirit can they be construed to so abridge the general power of amendment conferred in Article V. as to pro- hibit an amendment thereunder whereby slavery shall be abolished. Thus much as to the general and special powers of the Constitution in this respect. Let us see if an inhibition upon such amendment can be found in the implied powers of our organic law. It is here, indeed, that most of the assaults have been made upon the constitutionality of the Thirteenth amendment, and the principal form of attack thereunder has been upon the theory that the abolition of slavery by a constitutional amendment interfered with the rights of property as guaranteed in our national charter. The plea is specious, but not solid. The words of the Constitution upon which this argument is based are found in Article V. of the amendments thereto namely: "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property with- out due process of law." Up to the time that the Thirteenth amendment was promulgated the Constitution impliedly, and to the opening of hostilities the United THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 211 States courts expressly, had recognized and affirmed the right of property in slaves. Leaving the confiscation acts of Congress and the Emancipation Proclamations of Presi- dent Lincoln for the present out of this inquiry, and the question now arises, Does the Thirteenth amendment work such a deprivation of property in the case of former owners of slaves as the Constitution, in the guarantee above cited, contemplates? The clause quoted contains three distinct guarantees. The first two are purely of a personal character, and the last one, as to property, alone requires our consideration, except so far as analogous reasoning will assist the investigation. An interpretation of the letter of the clause above named, followed by a construction of its spirit, constitutes the path through which we may be led to a solution of the point in issue. The meaning of the letter has received repeated and consistent definitions in our courts, and for the husbanding of space a discussion of this meaning in the abstract will be waived, and reliance placed upon these adjudications therefor, as they are in no respect contradictory or antagonistic. The substance of these decisions finds correct expression in the following words namely : That the rights of personal security, personal liberty and private property shall not be interfered with, infringed upon or destroyed except in pursuance of a judgment of a regularly-constituted court of law, obtained through the medium of a regularly-conducted suit or prose- cution therein, according to the legally-prescribed rules therefor. Or, as Justice Bronson of New York expresses it in 4 Hill. 146: "The meaning of the section, then, seems to be that no member of the Sfate shall be dis- franchised or deprived of any of his rights or privileges unless the matter shall be adjudged against him upon trial had according to the course of common law. The words 'due process of law' in this place cannot mean less than a prosecution or suit instituted and conducted according to 212 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. the prescribed forms and solemnities for ascertaining guilt or determining the title to property." In the light of this interpretation of the letter of this con- stitutional guarantee, the question is here pertinent : Can slavery be constitutionally abolished only by means of the enforcement of a judgment -of a court of law obtained in a suit against the several owners of this peculiar species of property ? A construction of the spirit of the constitutional clause under discussion now in order will furnish an answer to the interrogatory. The rule of constitutional construc- tion announced and continuously maintained, without any deviation, by the Supreme Court of the United States, is, that no meaning shall be placed upon the words of any particular portion of the instrument which shall defeat the exercise of another power therein conferred, unless such words are in the form of a special power upon the same subject-matter. Therefore, although individuals under the Constitution shall not be immediately deprived of property only in the form as defined by Justice Bronson above, still, another separate and distinct power of the Constitution, like the power of amendment, may be exercised, even though, in its secondary and more remote effect, it works a deprivation of property. That is, notwithstanding the Constitution by one power prohibits the deprivation of property except by due process of law, as hereinbefore de- fined, nevertheless that instrument may be amended under a separate and distinct power, even though such amend- ment eventuates, in a remote connection, in the destruction of the property in slaves. Any other construction of the Constitution, indeed, would defeat the operation of the en- tire instrument. There is hardly a power in it the exercise of which might not be totally checked by setting up against it the words of some other power upon a different subject- matter which seemingly contradict it. The line of divis- ion is that heretofore announced namely, the exercise of THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 21 3 every constitutional power is distinct and independent of itself, except when restricted by a more special power upon the same subject. The words of Chief-Justice Marshall in Gibbons vs. Ogden, in fact, as already stated, dispose of the whole question summarily and conclusively namely : "Every power granted by the Constitution is complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknow- ledges no limitation except that which is written in the Con- stitution." The principle herein contended for, moreover, has received a very recent reiteration by Justice Strong of the Supreme Court, in sustaining the constitutionality of the legal-tender act. We have taken exceptions to this opinion, as a whole, in a prior chapter, but the soundness of the following declaration is beyond impeachment namely : " The provision referred to has always been under- stood to refer only to a direct appropriation, and not to consequential injuries resulting from the exercise of a law- ful power." The constitutionality of the amendment has also been questioned on the ground that it violated another provision of our organic law, which forbids the taking of private pro- perty for public uses without just compensation. The ar- gument just dismissed is a sufficient rebuttal of this position, and renders a detailed discussion thereof entirely unneces- sary. The amendment has also been attacked by the objection that, as the General Government is a compact of the States, it must be assented to by the legislature of every State be- fore it can be made binding thereon. This view, of course, is a perfect absurdity, as the allowance of the claim would set at defiance the entire right of amendment as conferred in Article V., which declares that the assent of the legisla- tures of "three-fourths of the several States" only is re- quired to constitute a legal ratification. But granting, for the moment, the conclusion of the argument correct, the 214 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. premise that this Government is a State league has already been proved erroneous. The main proposition destroyed, all conclusions therefrom share in the demolition. The argument that the amendment interferes with the implied constitutional guarantee that each State shall be the conservator of its own domestic relations is also an- swered by the position maintained as to the force of gene- ral, special and implied powers upon the same and differ- ent subject-matter, and in the decision of Chief-Justice Marshall in Gibbons vs. Ogden, already cited. In reference to these implied powers of the Constitution in this connection, allusion has thus far been made only to those which have been alleged to militate against the con- stitutionality of the amendment. Brief reference will now be had to one or two powers of this character which seem to operate conclusively in its support. The special power as to amendment resulting from a concurrent construction of the proviso of Article V., and the first clause of the ninth section of Article I., prohibits an inhibition upon the Af- rican slave-trade prior to the year 1808, plainly anticipating that by that time the Constitution would be changed in reference to this institution of slavery, the existence of which its framers would not admit in actual words, and which obtained a prolongation of its existence thereunder as being the only immediate basis whereby the Confedera- tion could be abandoned for our present Government. There are historical incidents, moreover, which corrobo- rate this view of the question. In the debates upon the formation of the Constitution, when the clause, " No per- son shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law," was under discussion, the South Car- olina and Virginia delegation insisted that "freeman" should be substituted for "person," and "the law of the land" for "due process of law." The proposition failed THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 21$ of support, the intention of the convention tending plainly to a refusal of any permanent recognition of slavery. The validity of the amendment, moreover, stands upon other grounds. It merely proclaimed in an article of con- stitutional law the existence of a fact already accomplished by the legal exercise of the war-powers of Government, the confiscation acts and the Emancipation Proclamations. The exercise of these measures was in direct and legal pur- suance of war-powers which attach to every government as a means of weakening the strength of its enemies in arms. The first aimed to destroy the property, the second to de- feat a moral means of support, of the enemies of our Gov- ernment. The only question in this connection is, Were the insurrectionary masses of the South the enemies of the United States? This question as to who shall be regarded the enemies of our Government has been repeatedly held by the Supreme Court to be a political question, and, like all other political questions, in accordance with a long series of adjudications, the proper tribunal to decide upon the merits thereof is Congress and the executive. These de- partments of our Government, the one by legislation and the other by official proclamations and orders, repeatedly hekl the insurrectionary masses of the South, during the years 1861-64 inclusive, to be enemies of the United States. As enemies of our Government the latter had undoubted right, by force of the war-powers vested therein, to adopt and enforce any measure which would tend to the exhaus- tion of the rebellious faction. The Emancipation Procla- mations operated in this direction, as they enlisted the sym- pathies of four millions of blacks in the enemy's territory in our favor created, indeed, an army of occupation to that extent in the heart of the enemy's country. As to the form of exercising this war-power, it was wholly in the dis- cretion of the executive, there being no legal precedent for his guidance. The confiscation acts operated in the same 216 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. direction, as they gave freedom to all slaves who should escape from the enemy's territory or be found in any portion thereof by our advancing forces. These acts could not operate beyond this. Confiscation means an appropriation of property, and the latter implies pos- session. These acts, therefore, were powerless to lay hold of slaves under the immediate control of the enemies of our Government, but when they had escaped from, or were found by our armies in, the enemy's country, there was a possession which warranted a resort to confiscation. The manner in which this war-power shall be exercised has been judicially defined in the case of the Schooner Juniata (i Newberry Adm. 352) namely, by a special act of Congress; and this was the course our Government pursued. The combined operation of these two war-powers of Gov- ernment, therefore, had virtually accomplished what the Thirteenth amendment to our organic law constitutionally declared. The latter, as it were, merely made a statute which by a succeeding statute would have been capable of repeal an article of our Constitution, which would not be subject to reversal save in the prescribed constitutional form. It simply husbanded the fruits of our victories. We are thus, by force of this discussion, warranted in asserting that the resolution proposing the Thirteenth amendment was legally adopted by Congress, that the same was legally ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, and that its constitutionality is beyond sus- picion. Of its eminent desirability no words are needed in support. It removed the only stain from our national escutcheon ; the lips of the republic ceased thereby to utter a libel upon liberty, falsify its record and court the con- demnation of God. We can perhaps summon no more THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 2 1/ weighty, elegant or scholarly authority to our support in the conclusion of this discussion than to quote the words of William Whiting, the able solicitor of the War Department under Lincoln, who, in his "War-Powers of Government," speaks as follows : "Among the war-measures sanctioned by the President, to which he has more than once pledged his sacred honor, and which Congress has enforced by solemn laws, is the liberation of slaves. The Government has invited them to share the dangers, the honor and the advantages of sustain- ing the Union, and has pledged itself to the world for their freedom. Whatever disasters may befall our arms, what- ever humiliation may be in store for us, it is earnestly hoped that we may be saved the unfathomable infamy of break- ing the nation's faith with Europe and with colored citizens and slaves in the Union. "If the rebellious States shall attempt to return to the Union with constitutions guaranteeing the perpetuity of slavery, if the laws of these States shall be again revived and put in force against free blacks and slaves, we shall at once have reinstated in the Union, in all its force and wickedness, that very curse which has brought on the war and all its terrible train of sufferings. The war is fought by slaveholders for the perpetuity of slavery. Shall we hand over to them, at the end of the war, just what they have been fighting for? Shall all our blood and treasure be spilled uselessly upon the ground ? Shall the country not protect itself against the evil which has caused all our woes? Will you breathe new life into the strangled serpent, when without your aid he will perish ? "If you concede State rights to your enemies, what security can you have that traitors will not pass State laws which will render the position of the blacks intolerable or rfi/ncf them all io slavery ? " Would it be honorable on the part of the United States i K 218 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. to free these men and then hand them over to the tender mercy of slave laws ? " Will it be possible that State slave laws should exist and be enforced by slave States without overriding the rights guaranteed by the United States law to men, irrespective of color, in the slave States ? " Will you run the risk of these angry collisions of State and national laws while you have the remedy and antidote in your hands?" An allusion will here be made which, in some respects, would find a more appropriate place at the close of our chapter on Reconstruction, but which, for many reasons, and principally that of the death of Mr. Lincoln at this period, is more pertinent in this connection. Reference is had to the respective reconstruction measures of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson. We propose by no means to inter- pose a defence for the obstinate indiscretions of the latter official, but he who calmly and dispassionately reviews our political history in this one particular will be powerless to detect any material difference in the measures pursued by these two executives for the restoration of the South. Under Mr. Lincoln a reorganization of the legislatures and State governments of Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee was effected. This end was accomplished, moreover, by a line of action within the States above named in direct pursuance of Mr. Lincoln's proclamation of December 8. 1863, the gist of which, in reference to recon- struction, is as follows namely : "And I do further proclaim, declare and make known, that whenever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such States at the presidential election of the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, each THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 2ig having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having since vio- lated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall re-establish a State government which shall be republican and in no wise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision which declares that ' the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on applica- tion of the legislature, or the executive (when the legisla- ture cannot be convened), against domestic violence.' "And it is suggested as not improper that, in construct- ing a loyal State government in any State, the name of the State, the boundary, the sub-divisions, the constitution and the general code of laws, as before the rebellion, be main- tained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the new State g6vern- ment." Mr. Lincoln hereby plainly contemplated that the people of the South should be left to the exercise of the utmost freedom in complying with the conditions imposed for their restoration. True it is that in the first three States Mr. Lincoln placed the supervision of the work under the generals commanding the departments, and in Tennessee under the military governor of the State. A very import- ant fact, however, is to be remembered in this connection. All the States above named were restored, so to speak, under Mr. Lincoln, prior to the close of the war, before Lee 1 s surrender, and in the midst of existing and open hostili- ties in the identical territory undergoing the process of recon- struction. In this condition of things Mr. Lincoln could 22O THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. do no other way, with any show of reason whatever, but entrust the supervision of the work to either the military officials in command or a military governor who for nearly three years had been at the head of the State government. With the war virtually closed, and the Southern people no longer in arms against the Government, whether Mr. Lin- coln would have pursued the reconstruction of the South through the immediate supervision of military or civil agencies no one can affirm. The tenor of his proclama- tions of December 8, 1863, and of July 8, 1864, by the latter of which he explained his refusal to sign the recon- struction act of Congress passed at the last session thereof, foreshadows a policy of leaving reconstruction entirely in the hands of the Southern people, accompanied by abundant and adequate protection for all citizens in the exercise of their political rights. This last he would have undoubtedly com- pelled at whatever cost, but that he would have initiated or pursued, after the cessation of hostilities, a plan of re- construction under the guidance of military authority, as desired and finally compelled by Congress, except so far as would have been necessary to protect all classes in the exer- cise of the elective franchise, is a claim which finds no warrant in his official acts in this connection. In his pro- clamation of July 8, 1864, in explaining his reasons for withholding his signature to the measure of Congress before cited, he expressly states that he was unwilling to commit himself inflexibly to the Congressional measure, but yet, as "one very proper plan," he would heartily co-operate with any Southern State that might choose to adopt it. The proclamation last alluded to is an instance of the most wise and temperate deliberation that has ever characterized a state paper of our Government, and was invulnerable to the bitter personal attack which it afterward called forth from the leaders of the Congressional measure. The re- construction war, so bitterly waged between the legislative THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 221 and executive branches of our Government after the induc- tion to office of President Johnson, was opened, indeed, prior to the lamented death of Mr. Lincoln, and in a man- ner inconsiderate, if not extremely unwise. A quasi circular letter was published in the New York Tribune, August 5, 1864, by B. F. Wade and Henry Winter Davis, the leaders of the Congressional measure, wherein Mr. Lincoln was attacked with much of the undignified bearing which cha- racterized the subsequent reconstruction conflict. The let- ter flatly accused him of military usurpation in Louisiana (a policy he was strenuously striving to avoid) and of the most notorious violation of the constitutional powers of Congress ever instanced by any prior executive. The violence of the assault destroyed its moral force. It is, however, in all probability, a tenable position to assume that Mr. Lincoln died when he had reached the very pinnacle of his popularity at least, if not the utmost limit of his usefulness. The people would have doubtless sus- tained him in acts which in any other executive would have been stamped as almost unwarrantable, but it would have been hardly possible for him to emerge from the "impending conflict" with his reputation unscathed and his power for good uninjured. When President Johnson inaugurated his policy of re- construction rebellion was crushed, hostilities had for the most part ceased, and the Southern people had in most in- stances laid down their arms. His line of action in this direction has been already defined, and, as already stated, differed from his predecessor's only in the manner of its execution. Mr. Johnson placed the remaining work of re- construction in the charge of resident civilians provisional governors appointed expressly for that purpose. It was a policy, moreover, which Mr. Lincoln would have in all probability adopted had he lived, but which, unlike his successor, he would have manfully swerved from had it 222 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. proved deficient. This was Mr. Johnson's fault. He failed to fully protect the people in the exercise of their legal rights, and stubbornly refused to cure the defects of his system when laid open to his inspection. His policy of reconstruction, like Mr. Lincoln's, was, in the abstract, pre-eminently sound, wholesome and legitimate. Concurrently with every cessation of hostilities civil gov- ernment should supersede military rule. If such civil gov- ernment is unable to sustain itself, then the military arm may be rightly invoked to preserve its existence. Such civil government, moreover, should be formed from, and es- tablished by, the people within the territory lately in insur- rection, with all needed protection, of course, to every class therein, and the imposition of as stringent conditions as the conqueror may see fit to prescribe. It is in this connection that the reconstruction error of Congress is apparent. It should have provided a policy of reconstruction upon a civil basis immediately after the ces- sation of hostilities, thereby removing much of the bitter- ness of feeling from the Southern mind, and supplemented it with whatever protection, armed or otherwise, the insu- rance of its life and the civil and political rights of all classes might afterward demand. This would have allayed Southern discontent, avoided legislative and executive col- lision, placed reconstruction upon a legal foundation, and rendered unnecessary the voluminous legislation of Con- gress afterward resorted to. THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. Powers and privileges are peculiar elements of political organism. In monarchical governments the road to either is long, steep and difficult of ascent, but, the meridian once passed, the descending journey is very short and easy of transit. As an English writer and jurist has tersely put the corollary truth last above named: "Between the prisons THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 22$ and graves of princes the distance is very small." Not so, entirely, with democratic or republican institutions. The summit of political position once reached, the decline is here no less rapid, nor the period of its limitation farther removed. The element of decay under all conditions and circumstances is subject to very similar and kindred influ- ences. As falling bodies, by the law of gravitation, ever gather fresh impetus with each bodily measurement of space in their downward course, so is material, moral or physical dissolution equally accelerated with every remove from an incipient decline. It is the universal and inevitable law of death. The lapse of political power and privilege is in all cases, consequently, equally swift, but when we come to consider its growth the conditions thereof are by no means the same. While it is purely exotic in monarchical, it is emphatically indigenous to democratic or republican, coun- tries. The mobility of the latter is advantageous for its ad- vancement, and often affords it a premature maturity. This easy growth of political status in some respects is one of the greatest drawbacks to the real prosperity of free institutions, and does much to place them in a prejudicial light when compared with stronger forms of government. The Fourteenth amendment, viewing it in a non-partisan sense, whereby four millions of ignorant blacks were un- qualifiedly, and without any discrimination as to intellectual fitness, put upon the high road to suffragan power, is one of the most forcible illustrations of the unhealthy growth of political privilege which the annals of this country af- ford. It was by no means the first one. In many instances through the North equally ignorant native and prematurely naturalized whites had been endowed with the same high prerogative, but the period of the proposal of the Four- teenth amendment was peculiarly available for placing the elective franchise throughout the entire country upon a uni- form, sensible and durable basis. This thought will be pur- 224 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. sued more at length at the close of this chapter ; at present indorsement will be merely given to one of the wisest ex- pressions that ever fell from the lips of Thaddeus Stevens, and that unwittingly of its just import, when in the House debate advocating the amendment he said, "Forty acres of land and a hut would be more valuable to the negro than the immediate right to vote." The amendment had its origin, morally speaking, in the wise, commendable, Christian and thereby imperative mo- tive of advancing the condition of, and doing justice to, a resident native race which had long been cruelly and inhu- manly enslaved. Politically speaking, it had its origin in the desire of its official movers to control the future, or at least the immediate future, representation in Congress from the South a desire, under the then existing circumstances, by no means unreasonable or improper. These were the ends in view. They might and should have been secured by more utilitarian means, but so far as the last-named pur- pose is concerned, the amendment, although crude in some respects, is a piece of very ingenious legislation. Prior to the rebellion the Southern representation in Congress was based upon the whole number of whites, and three-fifths of the slave population in addition. The the- ory of the slave-basis was that slaves were a species of prop- erty subject to taxation. They were a kind of property, moreover, subject to a direct tax (which last will be dis- cussed in the chapter upon that subject), and consequently all levies thereon had to be laid in accordance with the provision of the Constitution which requires that direct taxes shall be apportioned upon the basis of the represent- ative population. The abolition of slavery, destroying in its consequent effect the property in slaves, and thereby relieving their former owners of the tax formerly imposed upon them in this direction, put an end, of course, to the three-fifths principle of representation in Congress. THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 22$ For the philanthropic and politic purposes before men- tioned the immediate enfranchisement of the blacks was resorted to, though not in a direct and affirmative form. Public sentiment, at the North even, at the time of the proposal of the Fourteenth amendment for ratification, would not have countenanced the immediate bestowal of an unqualified and unrestricted right of suffrage upon our former slave population. The amendment (which see in the Appendix) was, so to speak, a provision of suffrage for the blacks in a negative form. Its provisions are mostly punitive, and are, in the main, as follows : First. All native and naturalized persons are declared citizens; their privileges shall not be abridged by State laws, nor shall any such statutes deprive any such persons of life, liberty or property without due process of law ; nor shall any such persons be denied the equal protection of such State ordinances.* Second. Representatives shall be apportioned in the States according to their respective numbers, excluding In- dians not taxed. If any such person, twenty-one years of age, shall be denied by any State the right to vote at any United States or State election, except for crime, the basis of representation therein shall be proportionately reduced. Third. Imposes political disabilities upon certain classes of the South, with power of removal thereof by a two-thirds vote of Congress. Fourth. Declares the validity of the public debt, denies that of the Confederate one, forbidding the assumption of the latter by any State or the United States, as also com- pensation for the loss of property in slaves. We have thus briefly stated the cause, origin and purposes of the amendment. Reasserting the latter, the grand ends which the measure sought to accomplish were the advance- ment of the Diacks by their initiatory enfranchisement, and the consequent control by its movers of the immediate K 2 226 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Southern representation in Congress. The minor points are contained in the last two preceding paragraphs. The discussion will now be conducted in the following order namely : The history and legality of the Congressional vote proposing the amendment and its ratification by the States ; its constitutionality, resulting effect upon community, and a criticism of its merits. Much of this ground has been already traversed in our examination of the Thirteenth amendment, whereby considerable detail will be obviated in this connection. When Congress assembled in December, 1865, there was no inconsiderable feeling of dissatisfaction, North as well as South, in reference to the unsettled condition of the country. The Thirteenth amendment was promulgated a few days after the opening of Congress (December 18), and although the legislatures of eight insurrectionary States had aided in the ratification thereof, four of which had been restored under President Lincoln and four under President Johnson, none of them had been admitted to their representation in Congress. The business community was peevish and restless over the delay in reconstruction, trade was stagnant, and all commercial and manufacturing pursuits, in fact, were anxiously and impatiently waiting for a permanent readjustment of political, social and mercantile relations. It was, to say the least, a grave inconsistency to accept the acts of a people through their legislatures as valid for the purpose of legalizing an amendment to the national Constitution, and then deny the legality of their action in returning a representation to Congress. That certain classes were not allowed a free exercise of their political rights in this last proceeding at the South, it is true. Neither were they in the first; and while no intention is here made to censure the refusal of admission of this Southern representa- tion to Congress, neither can the plea of silence be given to excuse the inconsistency of accepting the action of South- THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 22/ ern legislatures formed and organized under similar cir- cumstances, simply because such action chanced to be sat- isfactory. During the recess prior to the session of Congress just re- ferred to (December, 1865) the political opinion of our national legislators had resolved itself into the necessity of a measure whereby the blacks should share in the Southern elections as a sine qua non, a condition precedent for the return of a delegation to Congress which should be allowed admission thereto. Owing to the growing discontent among the people, the necessity for determinate, was no greater than that for immediate, action which should lead to a final solution of the reconstruction problem. Numer- ous resolutions embodying the gist of the measure above noticed were consequently pressed upon the attention of Congress at the commencement of the session, with a view of having them submitted to the legislatures of the several States for ratification as amendments to the Constitution. The debates upon these resolutions, in both Senate and House, were desultory as usual, until finally, the whole matter having been referred to a joint select committee, the first draft of the present amendment was reported to the House by Thaddeus Stevens, April 30, 1866. It was called up for consideration May 10 following, and, on a demand for the previous question by Mr. Stevens, was adopted. The same was amended in the Senate and passed June 8th, the amendment of that body concurred in by the House the 1 3th of the same month, and the amendment as it now stands deposited in the State Department June 16. On the zoth of the same month a certified copy thereof was forwarded by the Department to the governors of the several States. A similar debate occurred as to the legality of the vote upon the resolution in Congress as that already referred to in our examination of the Thirteenth amendment. As the points raised were precisely the same, our discussion in the 228 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. prior connection upon this matter is equally applicable here, and need not be repeated. At this juncture the war-cloud of reconstruction, which had been so long gathering between Congress and the ex- ecutive, manifested itself in open hostility, and not till June 20, after a resolution passed for that purpose by both Houses, did the President submit the amendment, and then under a message to Congress of his disapproval thereof. Before proceeding to consider the legality of the ratifica- tion of this amendment by the legislatures of the several States, it is necessary, for a clear understanding of the sub- ject, to trace the progress of reconstruction from the time of the submission of the same to its final promulgation. It will be remembered that when President Johnson assumed the duties of chief executive in April, 1865, four of the in- surrectionary States had been restored, so to speak, under the policy of his predecessor. At the time of the submis- sion of the Fourteenth amendment for ratification the re- maining seven insurrectionary States had all been recon- structed under President Johnson, but none of the whole number (eleven) had been admitted to a representation in Congress. As the whole number of States was thirty-seven, twenty-six loyal and eleven insurrectionary, thus requiring the assent of twenty-eight to legalize the amendment, and the assent, moreover, of two of the insurrectionary number, the same anomalous condition of things hereinbefore al- luded to still existed namely : Congress was denying certain States a representation therein, and yet depending upon the action of their legislatures to stamp the Fourteenth amendment as a legal and integral portion of our Consti- tution. The amendment, as before stated, was submitted for ratification June 20, 1866. The legislature of Tennessee ratified the same on the igth of the following month, where- upon Congress, which had not adjourned since the passage THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 22g of the resolution proposing the amendment and the sub- mission of the same, by a special act declared this State fully restored and entitled to her representation in that body. Shortly after this date Congress adjourned sine die. When it assembled again in December (1866) the prospects for the ratification of the amendment were by no means en- couraging. Several Southern State legislatures had rejected it, and at the close of January, 1867, the following State legislatures had pronounced against it namely : Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Ken- tucky and Delaware. As the legislatures of the remaining insurrectionary States, together with the loyal ones of Mary- land, New Jersey, and possibly one or two others, were looked upon as sure to declare themselves of the same opinion, the ratification of the amendment under the then existing circumstances was of course impossible. In view of this condition of things, Congress resorted to the decisive measure of March 2, 1867, the principal features of which are as follows : It declared the non-exist- ence of a legal government in all of the lately insur- rectionary States except Tennessee, consigned them to military rule for the purpose of reorganization, directed the character of the government which should be organized therein and the constitutions thereof the latter to be sub- mitted to Congress for approval and made the ratification of the Fourteenth amendment, among other things, an abso- lute condition for their restoration to a civil basis and the recognition of their representation in Congress. This act was amended by subsequent ones under date of March 23 and July 19, 1867, and March n, 1868. These last, how- ever, were mere enforcement measures of the scheme of the original act, and do not require particular notice. They did not change the substance of the original plan. In our allusion to these various reconstruction measures throughout 20 230 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. the present chapter as little comment thereon has been and will be made as possible, the same being reserved for the chapter solely devoted to that subject. By this plan of reconstruction, Congress, among other things, compelled the establishment of a doctrine, at the hands of the insurrectionary States, which it hoped would have been granted by their own volition the enfranchise- ment of the blacks. It merely declared, in this respect, in an express form, what it impliedly decreed when the Fourteenth amendment was submitted namely : that its sanction by the insurrectionary States must unlock the door for their representation in Congress. All of the recon- struction acts referred to in the last preceding paragraph, moreover, became laws without the approval of the execu- tive by means of the usual two-thirds vote. The process of ratification of this amendment, both North and South, was much more tardy than that of the one which preceded it. It will be remembered that the assent of twenty-eight States was required to give it validity as a part of our Constitution. On the 2oth of June, 1868, Secretary Seward certified the amendment as an integral part of the Constitution, provided the ratification thereof by the legislatures of the States of Ohio and New Jersey was not annulled by their alleged subsequent withdrawal of the same. As the whole number having assented at this period, counting Ohio and New Jersey, was twenty-nine, one more than necessary, all doubt would be removed as to the completeness of the ratification, so far as number was concerned, by the accession of a single State to the list. That is, thirty States would have then given in their adhe- sion to the amendment, two more than requisite, which would have rendered it unnecessary to include Ohio and New Jersey in the list. The following week after the certi- ficate of Mr. Seward above mentioned was promulgated, Georgia proclaimed her approval, and thus the numerical THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 2$l doubt was removed. Congress, in the mean time, the day next succeeding the certificate of Mr. Seward, had passed the following joint resolution for the purpose of removing the doubts expressed and intimated by that official : " Re- solved, by the Senate (the House of Representatives con- curring), That said Fourteenth Article is hereby declared to be a part of the Constitution of the United States, and it shall be duly promulgated as such by the Secretary of State." This action on the part of Congress, for reasons stated when the ratification of the Thirteenth Article en- gaged attention, was an exceedingly proper course to pur- sue, and should be adopted in connection with the Thir- teenth and Fifteenth amendments. By force of this resolution, together with that of the subsequent action of Georgia, Secretary Seward, July 28, 1868, issued a second certificate, declaring the amendment absolutely and unqualifiedly an integral part of the national Constitution. The legislatures of the States of Ohio and New Jersey having alleged their withdrawal from the ratification of the amendment, an examination of the legality of such action demands an incidental place in this discussion. It will receive it, but as the same question arises in the case of the Fifteenth amendment, such examination will be postponed until a consideration of the latter measure shall be assumed. Attention is now directed more particularly to the validity of the ratification as already announced. The only question which arises in this connection is the legality of the political status of the insurrectionary States whose legislatures aided, in pursuance of the reconstruction act of March 2, 1867, in legalizing the amendment. These States, it will be remembered, had been once reconstructed under the measures of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, the legislatures of a portion of them had helped to incor- porate the Thirteenth amendment into our Constitution, 232 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. and yet the above-mentioned act declared their govern- ments all illegal, with the exception of Tennessee, con- signed them again to military rule, and ordered an entire reconstruction of their political organization. This decla- ration by Congress of the illegality of these State govern- ments did not, of course, act retrospectively and overreach the dates whereat the legislatures thereof had ratified the Thirteenth amendment, and thus render their action in this respect invalid. These governments, in contemplation of law, in the absence of any retrospective clause, were not illegal until the act above named became a law of the land by virtue of the two-thirds vote of Congress which passed it over the President's veto. Taking all the facts into con- sideration as stated in this paragraph, however, and the question as to the exact time when, in point of fact as con- tradistinguished from law, the aforesaid governments, in the opinion of Congress, became tainted with illegality, is one not very easy of solution. The main inquiry, however, as to the legality of the ratifi- cation of the Fourteenth amendment, as dependent upon the legal status of the reorganized insurrectionary States whose legislatures aided in such ratification, in the light of our dis- cussion upon the preceding article of the Constitution is appre- ciable of proximate solution by mere statement of principles hereinbefore established. We have seen, in the connection above referred to, that the General Government derived its power to reconstruct the Southern States by virtue of its constitutional prerogative to enforce its legislation, to a cer- tain extent, within State limits. This power of reconstruc- tion, moreover, was seen to be measured by that clause of the Constitution which declares that the United States shall guarantee to every State a republican form of government. As to what constitutes a republican form of government, it was also shown that Congress and the executive form the proper and sole tribunal. The proposition was also main- THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 233 tained that such a reconstruction of the Southern States as met the approval of Congress and the executive gave to such States a government republican in form, and so put them in a legal position to ratify a constitutional amend- ment. These respective propositions were laid down and maintained without any qualification whatever. In the light of these principles, then, without any quali- fication, the legality of the ratification of the amendment, as dependent upon the legal status of the Southern States whose legislatures aided therein, can in no way be asserted. Let us look at the facts. Ten insurrectionary States which had been once reconstructed under executive supervision, the legislatures of seven of which had aided in legalizing a change in our organic law, were declared to be existing under governments non-republican in form by a measure of Congress passed over the President's veto. In pursu- ance of this measure, moreover, all of these insurrection- ary States whose legislatures finally aided in ratifying the amendment namely, Georgia, North Carolina, South Car- olina, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Alabama were declared to be reorganized under republican forms of gov- ernment by another measure of Congress adopted over the disapproval of the executive. In other words, the gov- ernments of these States were adjudged non-republican, and subsequently republican in form, by the sole tribunal of Congress. That the question as to what constitutes a re- publican form of government in the several States is a po- litical one, and legally comes before the joint tribunal of Congress and the executive, and that both of these proposi- tions have been so declared by the Supreme Court of the United States, was shown in our discussion of the legality of the ratification of the Thirteenth amendment, and reite- rated, in brief, in the next preceding paragraph. Reason- ing from these established principles, moreover, the propo- sition was maintained in the prior connection above referred J0 234 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. to. and briefly reasserted in the paragraph next preceding, that such a reconstruction of the Southern States as met the approval of both Congress and the executive was a legal reconstruction was a valid organization of a republican form of government therein upon which basis the said States could legitimately aid in changing our organic law. In the present case, however, these principles are both ap- parently subverted. The States aiding in the ratification of the amendment in pursuance of the reconstruction act of March 2, 1867, were adjudged non-republican in form, de- nied representation in Congress, and again readjudged of a republican stamp and admitted to such representation, by a sole Congressional and not a joint Congressional and executive tribunal, as all our constitutional precedents appear to require. At the present stage of this discussion the legality of the ratification of the amendment cannot be affirmed, and such legality, indeed, finds warrant, if at all, by force of a sin- gle principle of constitutional law. A little repetition of what has been before remarked will assist the present inves- tigation. The General Government derives its right to reconstruct insurrectionary States by force of the constitu- tional power conferred thereon to exercise its authority within State limits. This authority, for the purposes of reconstruction, is measured by the constitutional provision that "the United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of government." The legit- imate tribunal to declare what State government is republi- can inform is composed of Congress and the executive. Of all this there is no dispute. The last two propositions, though so intimately associated as to almost overreach each other, are somewhat different in character. The first con- stitutes an administrative, the second a discretionary, judi- cial power. The latter decides, the former acts. Let us here remember that the office of the executive is to enforce THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 235 the laws of Congress and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and that the duty of Congress is legislation. Let the constitutional words of the administrative power above cited in quotation-marks be now referred to. Keep- ing these in mind, can the President, as a sworn supporter of the Constitution, exercise this power alone? In cases of extended or uncontrollable insurrection, as commander- in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, un- doubtedly. But how does the matter stand in respect to Congress ? Can // represent the United States for this guarantee to the States of a republican government? Now, Congress can alone enact laws, and the latter, moreover, the executive is bound by his constitutional oath to enforce. The requisites of a law of the United States are either a measure of Congress approved by the President or one passed over his veto by a two-thirds vote of that body. Such a law, created in either of these forms, the executive must execute. The reconstruction act of March, 1867, whereunder the insurrectionary States ratified the Four- teenth amendment, became a law in the manner last above named, and President Johnson put the same in execution. Turn, for a moment, from this administrative to the ju- dicial power before referred to namely, the adjudgment by the joint tribunal of Congress and the executive of what constitutes a republican form of government. Can the President exercise this power alone? Clearly not. In no phase is it solely an executive or military act, of which pre- rogatives he is alone possessed. Can Congress? This body, as before seen, can make a law of the land in spite of the executive, and the latter must enforce it. The all- important question here arises, Can a law of the land ad- judge a certain form of government republican, although the Supreme Court of the United States has held that the tribunal for that purpose is Congress and the executive? Probably yes. The Supreme Court, in the above opinion, 236 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. merely decides that the question therein involved is purely a political and not a judicial one. It moreover defines the court which has legal jurisdiction of this political question. The court, moreover, wherein the jurisdiction of this po- litical question is vested by the ruling of the Supreme Court is a political tribunal. How does this political tribunal act ? The Constitution has decided namely, by measures of Congress assuming the form of law, either with the President's approval or by a two-thirds vote of that body against his disapproval, which in both cases are put in exe- cution by the executive arm. We are thus led to the following proposition namely, that the guarantee by the United States to the States of re- publican forms of government, and the adjudgment of the question as to what constitutes such a government that a legal reconstruction of insurrectionary States for the pur- poses of ratifying an amendment to our Constitution, ex- cepting the exercise of the war-prerogative of the President as to the active power above named merely intends the en- forcement of legalized legislation. Upon no other ground rests the validity of the ratification of the Fourteenth amend- ment. That end was only obtained by the enforcement of such legalized legislation namely, the reconstruction act of Congress of March 2, 1867, and the acts amendatory thereof, which became laws over the President's vetoes, and were by "him executed, and the subsequent acts of Congress which readmitted the insurrectionary States named in this discussion to their representation in Congress, which also became laws in the manner last above named, and which required no actual execution at the hands of the ex- ecutive. It will be noticed that the legality of the ratification of the Fourteenth stands upon a totally different ground from that of the Thirteenth amendment. In the last-named in- stance the insurrectionary States whose legislatures aided in THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 237 the adoption thereof were reconstructed under a mere ex- ecutive policy, having only the passive approval of Con- gress, while in the present case such States were restored by virtue of the enforcement of legalized legislation at the hands of the executive where such enforcement was necessary, although such legislation did not meet his approval. The constitutionality of the amendment itself is the sub- ject which, logically speaking, next requires consideration. The only important point here in issue is, whether the right of suffrage in the States can be in any way interfered with by means of a constitutional amendment. The Four- teenth amendment, as will be remembered, assumes such interference only in a negative and minatory form. The Fifteenth amendment, however, although also of a negative character, tends directly to an extension of the elective franchise. The first contemplates a means of punishment for a denial of the privilege to certain classes (the prior slave population) ; the second declares that such classes shall not be denied the same, except for crime, under any circumstances whatever. A full discussion of the constitu- tionality of such a measure pertains more properly to the consideration of the Fifteenth amendment, and it is there- fore postponed until that article of organic law shall engage attention. In examining the amendment itself, and tracing the record of events which has been made since its promulga- tion for the resulting effects of this change in our Constitu- tion upon community, two or three points of peculiar interest challenge our acquaintance. The first that will be noticed is the claim which has been made that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments establish the principle of woman suffrage. That the claim is purely ephemeral a brief ex- amination will abundantly prove. As the Fifteenth amend- ment has not been reached as yet in this discussion, the present examination of this topic may seem an anticipation 238 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. of subject-matter which is unwarranted. The arguments both pro and con, however, spring almost from the first- named article, and as an understanding of the last-named amendment, in the abstract, is not an absolute prerequisite in this connection, the alleged doctrine may be here dis- posed of without any breach of logical propriety. The only portions of the two amendments which refer, either directly or indirectly, to the question of suffrage in the abstract is the second section of the Fourteenth and the first section of the Fifteenth Article, as will be seen by reference thereto. The first section of the Fourteenth Article simply decrees citizenship, forbids the abridgment of its privileges or im- munities, reiterates the constitutional warrant as to depriva- tion of life, liberty or property without due process of law, and prohibits the denial to any person of the equal protec- tion of the laws. The second apportions Representatives among the States, and provides a means of punishment for denying, in any State, the right of certain male inhabitants to vote at any State or United States election. The Fifteenth amendment is substantially as follows : "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude." The fundamental rule of statutory interpretation, and one which overrides all others, is to seek the intention of the legislators who framed the law. This intention as to the first article of the Fourteenth amendment is a matter of history, and not surrounded with doubt. After the aboli- tion of slavery by the Thirteenth amendment, Congress passed a measure called the civil rights bill, for the purpose of bestowing citizenship upon the colored population. The validity of this measure was questioned. The point was THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 239 raised that the end sought by the civil rights bill was legally attainable only by a constitutional amendment, and the first section of the Fourteenth Article (see Appendix) was provided merely to validate the bill above named. This fact appeared not only in private political discussions, but the debates in Congress on the amendment fully show that this was the intention of that body. The section last above named in the outset decrees citi- zenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States; and the primal claim of the woman -suffrage advo- cates is that citizenship implies suffrage. It does not, nor never has, under this or any other form of government. The question is a res adjudicata even of the common law of England and the United States. As such, the elements of citizenship have been defined by Blackstone and other English, and Kent and other American, law-writers, and as such it has been subsequently reiterated and reaffirmed over and over again by English and American tribunals ; namely, the fundamental elements and sole essence of citizenship are the rights of personal liberty, personal security and the right of property. These three rights, moreover, are all that are embraced in the civil rights bill, which the first section of the Fourteenth amendment was designed to sup- plement. This very section of this amendment, moreover, proclaims, in almost so many words, that the citizenship which it decrees means exactly the possession of these three rights, and no more ; for after the declaration of such citi- zenship it immediately says by way of protecting what it has just decreed by way of defining the general right it has just guaranteed : " Nor shall any State deprive any per- son of life, liberty, or property " (that is, citizenship) " with- out due process of law." Every child but a moment born is by the law of the land just as much a citizen of the United States as a man who has voted for every President thereof. In that state, and through his legal infancy, before the 240 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. period when an express statute declares that he may be en- dowed with the distinct right of suffrage, he is just as much protected by law in the rights of life, liberty and property the rights of citizenship as at any time thereafter. Citi- zenship, indeed, by force of our organic municipal and ad- judicated code, is the normal condition of every person, man, woman or child, and by reason of precisely the same force it means the rights of personal liberty, personal se- curity and the right of property. The only question on this first claim of the advocates of the doctrine that citi- zenship implies suffrage is, whether the principles of the common law of England, which have existed for five hundred years, been adopted into our jurisprudence, reaf- firmed by law-writers and tribunals on both sides of the Atlantic, shall give way to the opinion of a class whose leaders are a woman who claims to be the mundane abode of the spirit of Demosthenes, and a member of the House of Representatives, the basis of whose political principles is his own individual advancement. Passing from the first to the second section of the Four- teenth amendment, the only one which speaks directly upon suffrage, an examination thereof shows its provisions to be merely punitive. It provides a means of punishment for States who shall deny the right of suffrage to a certain por- tion of its population. But if suffrage is impliedly granted in the bestowal of citizenship in the first section, as the ad- vocates of the doctrine claim and if it were so granted as an amendment to our national Constitution, State legisla- tion could not deny it to any class why have a second sec- tion in immediate connection therewith, providing a means of punishment for every State which should deny such right of suffrage to a portion of its inhabitants ? If suffrage is granted by the national Constitution, State legislation cannot take it away; and if so granted by the first section of the Fourteenth amendment, why have the second one, provid- THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 24! ing punishment for the withholding of a right by a State which is already given beyond the power of such State to either refuse or withdraw ? Moreover, if the first section of the Fourteenth amendment confers suffrage upon all per- sons born or naturalized in the United States by the be- stowal of citizenship, it reaches all males in its operation as well as women. But the second section only provides pun- ishment for a State which denies suffrage to a certain por- tion of its "male" population; therefore, according to the advocates of the doctrine, either the first section of the article enfranchises women alone in conferring citizenship upon " all persons born or naturalized in the United States," or the second section, by providing punishment for a State which denies the elective franchise to a portion of its "male" population, assumes either that women are not in- cluded in the operation of the amendment at all, or that a State may deny them the right of suffrage without coming within the punitive provisions of the article. In any way we may view the question, the second section of the Four- teenth Article, according to the advocates of women suffrage under the Constitution, is not only unnecessary, but abso- lutely suicidal. Looking now to the Fifteenth amendment, a moment's ".onsideration thereof for the purposes of the present dis- cussion will amply suffice. The intention of the legislators who framed this article of our organic law is no less a matter of history than is the case of the one which preceded it. The penalties of the Fourteenth amendment which certain States would lay themselves liable to incur by deny- ing their colored population the right of suffrage were not sufficient to deter such States from the adoption of such a policy. The right of suffrage was denied the blacks throughout the South, and the incidental penalties endured. In order to give to the Southern blacks what the punitive provisions of the Fourteenth amendment failed to secure 21 L 242 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. for them namely, enfranchisement the Fifteenth Article was established. The whole gist of the Congressional and State legislative debates thereon expressly declares that this was the intention, the scope, the purport of the article. Remembering that citizenship does not imply enfranchise- ment, what does the Fifteenth amendment prescribe? " The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude." That is, stating it affirmatively so far as this article is con- cerned, any State in the Union, or the United States, may deny or abridge the right of citizens to vote except on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. Now, unless women are a distinct race, or unless the element of woman- hood constitutes color, or unless women as a class have been held in a. prior condition of servitude (which last can hardly be argued, save perhaps in the case of marriage), the right of suffrage is not conferred upon them by any words of the Fifteenth amendment. The entire argument, indeed, is based upon the assertion that the decreal of citizenship in the first section of the Fourteenth Article impliedly bestows the right to exercise the elective franchise ; and this proposition has been proved to have no foundation in either our political or constitutional law, and to be in direct contra- vention of all abstract, fundamental principles of citizenship. The general tenor of the original Constitution, in fact, refutes the theory. Citizenship as therein regarded is purely a possession of civil rights, and by the incorporation of the substance of the English bill of rights into that instru- ment such citizenship is virtually defined to be the right of protection to life, liberty and property. Suffrage, on the other hand, was viewed by the framers of our Constitution as a distinct political right, separated entirely from citizen- ship ; for while the latter was considered as the normal condition of the free native population by that instrument, THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 243 the former was impliedly left to the judgment and super- vision of the several States. The opinions advanced in this discussion have all been recently held legitimate and consistent with established principle and precedent, in suits brought under these amendments to test the validity of the woman-suffrage doc- trine, by the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and one of the most eminent jurists of Pennsylvania, Judge Sharswood, as well as Judge Jameson of Illinois, and have not been denied by any American jurist except Judge Underwood of Virginia, and his was a mere extra-judicial opinion, not given in the course of a legal proceeding. The next topic which presses itself upon our attention in this discussion of the resulting effect of the Fourteenth amendment upon the community is in reference to the status, under the operation of this article of our organic law, of what are in a general way termed "monopolies." This term, however, must be regarded in a very general sense, for the grant of exclusive privileges to corporations and individuals by our State and United States Govern- ments, to which the term "monopolies" is somewhat loosely applied, differs materially from the old English statute of monopolies whereby such exclusive grants were first established. In the latter case such grants were abso- lute and unqualified, while in the former they are both rela- tive and conditioned. The difference may be best seen by illustration. The English statute, for instance, would vest in a certain individual, class or guild the exclusive right of manufacturing a peculiar article or pursuing a particular industry under all possible forms, while the present system vests such an exclusive right under only one form, leaving the same result to be obtained by different methods, free and open to any who may have the ability to devise them. The term "monopolies," then, in the general sense in which it is now used, is intended to cover both franchises 244 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS, and patents ; whereas in its original legal signification it referred alone to grants of the last-named character, and that in the manner above described. Under the operation of the Fourteenth amendment the principle has been asserted that such exclusive grants tend to a subversion of the first section of this article. The foundation of this claim may be best seen in the narration of a very important case now awaiting final adjudication. Prior to the year 1869 the slaughter-houses of New Orleans were in very many of the most densely-populated portions of the city. Under the declared intention of promoting the sanitary condition of New Orleans, and by virtue of the State right to exercise police regulations within State limits, the legislature of Louisiana incorporated the Crescent City Live-Stock Landing and Slaughtering Company. The act of incorporation conferred upon the company an exclusive right to prosecute the business within certain limits for twenty-five years, discontinued all other yards, slaughter- houses and stock-landings, and gave said company the right to levy a stated assessment upon all cattle slaughtered at their establishments. A number of suits were brought by injured parties to test the legality of the monopoly, and the Supreme Court of the State sustained the same. Upon ap- peal to the United States Circuit, however, Justices Bradley and Woods presiding, the grant by the legislature of Lou- isiana was declared unconstitutional, by reason of the fact that the following provision of the Fourteenth amendment was violated thereby namely: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immu- nities of citizens of the United States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdic- tion the equal protection of the laws." The gist of the opinion is, that while the immunities and privileges of citi- zens with which the Fourteenth amendment forbids inter- THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 245 ference are somewhat inappreciable of exact definition, the right to follow any legal vocation is certainly one of them ; that such a right, indeed, is the mere right of labor ; and that, as the act of the Louisiana legislature deprived certain butchers of New Orleans of this right, the same was uncon- stitutional. Anticipating the objection which would be raised to this opinion by holders of patents and franchises, the court remarked, obiter dicta, that the former were valid, because to holders thereof "society only gives the tempo- rary use of that which, without them, it would not have had the benefit of, as a consideration of that benefit and to encourage others to make use of their powers." In refer- ence to the latter, the court also remarked upon their validity, on the ground that the privileges thus conferred could not be exercised by individuals to any extent except through the means of corporate associations established by legislative act, and that " society obtains a consideration for the grant of these franchises in the investment of large amounts of capital in public improvements which are re- quired for the development of the country and its re- sources." The New York Nation, in its issue of December i, 1870, in its usual able and forcible manner (to whose article we are indebted for the foregoing analysis of the case), com- bats this opinion of the United States Court, and pro- nounces it unsound. The limits of this treatise will not permit an extended discussion of this case or the topic to which it belongs. The statement is ventured, however, that the conclusion arrived at by the court is correct, al- though its reasoning is, with all due deference, if we may be allowed the remark, somewhat superficial, and its premises are hardly tenable. The act of the Louisiana leg- islature appears to be unconstitutional for a very plain and simple reason, but not by reason of a particular violation of the Fourteenth amendment. The Constitution guaran- II 246 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. tees the right of property to all persons within the limits of the United States. This guarantee of the right of property, moreover, has been invariably considered by judicial au- thority to preclude the existence of absolute and unqualified monopolies. The general spirit and genius of our institu- tions is utterly opposed to them. By "absolute and unquali- fied monopolies" is intended such exclusive grants as were conferred by the original English statute of monopolies namely, an exclusive privilege to exercise a particular voca- tion or industry in all possible forms. And this is precisely such a privilege as the legislature of Louisiana conferred upon the company before named. It not only gave a cor- poration a right to prosecute not a particular but a very gen- eral industry by one special, but every possible means. If the act of the Louisiana legislature had incorporated the com- pany with the exclusive right of slaughtering cattle within certain districts, leaving the same vocation open for prose- cution by other parties, who could locate in certain other districts which would not jeopardize the sanitary condition of the city, with a provision, if it seemed advisable, that such other parties must also become incorporated, the measure would have been sound and constitutional, for such a grant would have been a relative and conditioned monopoly, in ac- cordance with our institutions and organic law, and not an absolute and unqualified one, in pursuance of the old Eng- lish statute. The force of this distinction was intimated in the outset, and the absence of it in the Nation' s article before referred to constitutes, with all the respect to which the character of the authority is entitled, its vulnerable point. This distinction, moreover, embraces every case which may arise under the Fourteenth amendment in reference to the prejudice thereby of the rights of holders of patents and franchises. The operation of the article merely pro- hibits, if it prohibits anything in this direction, and that THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 247 impliedly, the granting of absolute and unqualified mo- noplies in distinction from relative and conditioned ones. If the Louisiana case comes before the Supreme Court, the conclusion of the lower tribunal might properly be sus- tained, though not the particular premises upon which the same is founded. Briefly to recapitulate, the result of the operation of the amendment is First. To bestow citizenship upon all persons born or naturalized in the United States, forbidding by any State the abridgment of the privileges of such citizenship, the deprivation of life, liberty or property without due process of law, the denial of the protection of State laws to any person therein, and effecting monopolies as already de- scribed. Second. To apportion Representatives among the several States, and punish States who shall deny any male inhabit- ant, twenty-one years of age, the right to vote at any State or United States election, except for crime, by a propor- tionate diminution of its representation in Congress. Third. Imposes disabilities upon certain classes of the South, with privilege of removal thereof by a two-thirds vote of Congress. Fourth. Affirms the validity of the public debt, denies that of the Confederate one, forbids the assumption of the latter by any State or the United States, as well as pay- ment for emancipated slaves. A criticism of the merits of the amendment, in the ab- stract, is now logically but not conveniently in order. The Fourteenth Article initiates in a minatory form a scheme which the Fifteenth carries to a final execution. The de- fects of the one are the defects of the other, and as a discus- sion of the same in this connection would require repeti- tion at the close of this chapter, such an examination will be to that time and place deferred. 248 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT. The causes and origin of the Fifteenth amendment have incidentally appeared in the preceding pages of the present Chapter. The Fourteenth Article of our organic law, as already stated, did not, by a direct affirmative grant, con- fer upon the colored race the right of suffrage. It aimed to accomplish that end in an indirect manner, by imposing political proscription upon all States which should withhold the right from their colored population. An absolute en- franchisement of the colored masses at this juncture the public sentiment of the nation condemned instead of in- dorsed. The scheme of the Fourteenth amendment in respect to suffrage proved not only inadequate, but in most cases entirely inoperative. The Southern States, for the most part, left the blacks in their former condition of disfran- chisement, and submitted to the consequent political pen- alty, as what seemed to them the lesser evil. To actually establish what the Fourteenth Article, by its punitive pro- visions, failed to secure namely, the right of suffrage for the colored race the Fifteenth amendment was devised and promulgated. This is the only end which this article has in view. It is in a negative form merely prohibits the denial of the right to vote to any citizen on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. For all causes, therefore, except the three above named, the elec- tive franchise, so far as this article is concerned, may be still withheld. The text of the amendment is as follows : "SECTION i. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color or previous con- dition of servitude. " SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." At the opening of Congress in December, 1868, various THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 249 resolutions embracing the substance of the amendment as above written were presented to that body for adoption, and after about the usual amount of debate, reference and con- ference, a resolution proposing the present article for ratifi- cation passed the Senate and House February 25, 1869, and was submitted immediately thereafter to the legislatures of the several States. March 30, 1870, the ratification of the amendment was certified by the State Department, and the same declared valid, for all intents and purposes, as an in- tegral part of our Constitution. As to the legality of the ratification of this amendment by the States, argument is entirely unnecessary. Such legality depends wholly upon the status of the late insurrectionary States whose legislatures aided therein ; and as the political relations of these States to the Union were, in every respect, of a similar character as when the Thirteenth Article was promulgated, the discussion upon this point, as seen in the examination of the last-named amendment, is both perti- nent and adequate in this connection, and may be referred to if occasion requires. An additional word of comment upon one or two points, however, may be deemed neces- sary for the sake of completeness. At the time of the submission of the amendment to the legislatures of the several States for ratification, although all of the lately insurrectionary ones had been re-reconstructed under the Congressional policy of March 2, 1867, Virginia, Mississippi, Texas and Georgia had not been admitted to their representation in Congress. That body consequently passed an act making it a prerequisite for the admission of such representation that the legislatures of the States above named should ratify the proposed amendment, which con- dition was complied with. At the time of the promulga- tion of this article, moreover, the legislature of New York, which State had been counted in the necessary three-fourths, alleged a withdrawal of its assent thereto ; but as Georgia, I, 2 250 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. through its legislature, had announced its approval subse- quent to this action of New York, and after the necessary three-fourths had been obtained, barring the doubt in refer- ence to the latter, this possible numerical taint upon the validity of the amendment was thereby removed. There was also a doubt of prior origin in reference to the ratifica- tion of the legislature of New York. That body neglected to instruct the governor of the State to forward the usual statement of its ratification of the amendment to Washing- ton, as had been the custom in former cases of this cha- racter, and the same was received by the State Department from another official. The opponents of the article raised the point that the transmission thereof to the national au- thorities by the governor was an essential element of the legal ratification of the amendment by the legislature. The objection, as it was everywhere regarded by intelligent and non-partisan members of both parties, was a sheer absurdity, and is answered by a mere statement of a simple and well- defined principle of legal science namely, a discretionary judicial power must be always exercised by the party in whom the law has vested the same, while the performance of ministerial duties is valid at the hands of any agency acting for the time being in that particular capacity. Com- ment is unnecessary. There was apparent difficulty, in the outset, in the case of Indiana. When the amendment came before the legis- lature of that State for ratification, the Democratic members of the House of Representatives thereof resigned with a view of destroying an official quorum, and so prevent action upon the amendment. The number of Representa- tives before the resignation above named was one hundred and one. The number resigning was forty-one, thus leav- ing sixty in their official positions. Fifty-seven members were present when the amendment was ratified. The con- stitution of the State requires two-thirds of the House to THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 25 I be present for purposes of legislation, which, before the resignation of the Democratic members, would have been sixty-seven. As their resignation reduced the original number below this (sixty-seven), the faction argued that the ratification was illegal. The Speaker's ruling upon the vote was as follows namely: "For ordinary legislation the State constitution prescribes that two-thirds of the House (or sixty-seven members) constitute a quorum, but it does not define what number of members, more than a simple majority of the legislature, shall be sufficient to act upon a proposed amendment to the United States Constitu- tion. The amendment is therefore adopted." Unless the constitution of the State fixes the House of Representatives at an arbitrary number, the validity of the above action rests upon other grounds. Members cannot resign and still be members ; and when the forty- one Democrats resigned (not merely absented themselves), unless the constitution of the State gives a numerical definition of the House, the remaining sixty constituted the entire branch of the legis- lature, and all but three of this sixty were present on the occasion not only a majority, but more even than two- thirds or three-fourths. Upon the ratification of the amendment by the legislature of Georgia, however which occurred, as hereinbefore stated, after the necessary three- fourths had been obtained the doubt as to New York hav- ing been removed, Indiana was not needed to make up the necessary number of twenty-nine States; so this point is not enveloped in uncertainty. When the Fourteenth amendment was under considera- tion it appeared that the legislatures of New Jersey and Ohio alleged a withdrawal of their ratification of that arti- cle. In the present instance, moreover, it has been seen that the legislature of New York assumed a similar position. The soundness of the doctrine thereby alleged' will now receive examination, when the constitutionality of the 252 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. amendment will form the subject of discussion. The anal- ysis of the question is very simple, and the same will there- fore not require extended comment. The subject-matter upon which the legislature of a State assumes to act in an alleged withdrawal, as above stated, is a proposed article to the Constitution of the United States. The question is here pertinent, From what source does a State legislature derive its power to take action upon such subject-matters? The answer furnishes a key to a solution of the whole inquiry : It derives such power from the Con- stitution from the organic law of the nation and the ex- tent of its power in this direction is consequently measured by the words of our national charter whereby such power is conferred. These are : Proposed amendments "shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitu- tion, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States," etc. etc. The above is the only clause of the Constitution which gives a warrant for action of State legislatures upon proposed amendments thereto. Such action, as already stated, must be confined within the scope of the power raised thereby. Now, this power is an affirmative and not a negative one, except in the first in- stance, and that impliedly. It provides for affirmation, for ratification expressly, and thereby, impliedly, for rejection in the first instance; but it does not authorize, either expressly or impliedly, a negation in the second instance that is, recision. The right of rejection in the first instance is necessarily implied in the right to vote upon the proposed amendment conferred by the Constitution upon the State legislature, for the vote may be aye .or nay; but beyond this upon this point the instrument speaks npt, either in express words or by implication. Too much force cannot be laid upon the thought just expressed. Rejection is always implied in a power of affirmation, but recision never. Affirmation and rejection are component parts of one stage THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 253 of parliamentary action. Recision is an entirely separate element of such action, and one remove in advance of an affirmative or rcjective vote. The term recision must not, moreover, be confounded with rejection or negation. The latter intend a primal conclusion upon any subject-matter the former a second conclusion, whereby such primal one is reversed. Applying the most liberal interpretation and construction possible to the constitutional clause above cited, no power of recision lies hid in the words thereof. It is a simple express power of affirmation, of ratification, carrying with it, impliedly, the additional one of a simple negative in the first instance the mere right of rejection. Such an alleged withdrawal, as already stated, as the legislatures of Ohio, New York and New Jersey assumed to make, is the baldest kind of brainless parliamentary ac- tion, and reflects anything but credit upon the intelligence of the deliberative bodies above named. Look, for a moment, at the full effect which would result from the operation of this alleged power of recision which its claimants hold they are entitled to exercise. Where is the limit to be placed upon such action ? There is no bound set upon it by the United States or any State con- stitution ; therefore it may be pursued to any and every possible extent to which the whim or caprice of any par- ticular legislature of a particular period may see fit to com- mit itself. In the absence of an express bar, there is no point beyond which this power of recision may not be invoked. What is to hinder, then, a State legislature from withdrawing its ratification of an amendment after pro- mulgation by the national authorities as well as before? Clearly nothing. Admit this right of recision, then, upon the basis of its claimants, and there is not one of the fif- teen amendments to our Constitution which cannot, even at this late day, be set aside by this abortive species of legislative action on the part of the States. 22 254 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Under the power to act upon proposed amendments to the national Constitution conferred upon the State legisla- tures by that instrument, the ultimate boundary of which power is the implied right of rejection negation in the first instance, a ratification of any such amendment by a particular legislature vests a right in the people of the United States, for the withdrawal of which the sanction of constitutional or statute law or precedent is sought in vain. The only method of disposing of an objectionable amendment in a legal and constitutional form is to again amend. A discussion of the constitutionality of the Fifteenth, and thereby of the Fourteenth amendment, in so far as the latter bears upon the subject of suffrage, is now in order. Many of the principles advanced in the examination of the Thir- teenth Article upon this point are pertinent in this connec- tion. In the light of these principles the inquiry is, Is an amendment to the national Constitution, whereby the right of suffrage in the several States is interfered with, constitu- tionally valid ? Referring to the discussion above named, it was seen in that connection that the powers granted by the Constitution are special, general and implied ; that upon the same subject-matter the first override the second to the extent which such special powers operate thereon ; that the second override the third in the same degree under the same relative conditions ; and that the same rules apply where the sanction of constitutional authority is invoked to legalize the exercise of some very general power for which it is difficult to find authority, in any of the three forms above named, in the letter or spirit of our organic law. For a fuller statement of these principles reference may be had to the discussion already noticed. Recurring still further to the same portion of this treatise, it is seen that the sole powers declared in the Constitution for amend- ment thereof are found in the Fifth Article, and in the first THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 255 and fourth clauses of the ninth section of the First Article namely : "ARTICLE V. "The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Con- stitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two- thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for pro- posing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode' of ratification may be pro- posed by the Congress ; provided, that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand and eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the First Article; and that no State, without its consent, shall be de- prived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." Article /., Section 9, clauses first and fourth. First clause: "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceed- ing ten dollars for each person." Fourth clause : "No capitation, or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken." Keeping in mind the line of discussion upon this point as connected with the Thirteenth Article, the words of the Fifth Article above named, down to the word " Provided," constitute a general power of amendment, while the re- maining portion of said article, together with the clauses 256 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. of the first one which follow it, forms a special power of amendment, and supersedes the general power just stated to the extent of its operation. How does this special power limit the general power of amendment as to suffrage? It places a perpetual inhibition upon an amendment which shall deprive any State, without its consent, of its equal suffrage in the Senate. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments trench upon this inhibition in no single par- ticular, and thus far, at least, their constitutionality is not open to question. In this connection, however, the second section of the First Article is cited to combat our position namely : Second Section of Article I. " The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature." Here is a general power, containing also an implied one, which leaves the regulation of the privilege of suffrage to the several States ; and how shall this general power of suffrage be superseded by another general power of amend- ment ? Allusion to the same discussion already cited recalls the principle asserted by Chief-Justice Marshall of the Supreme Court in Gibbons vs. Ogden, that "every power granted by the Constitution is complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknowledges no limit- ation except that which is written in the Constitution." That is, every general power of the Constitution may be exercised to its fullest extent unless some special power upon the same subject-matter steps in and supersedes it. The power in reference to suffrage, above named, is a general one ; so is the power of amendment now under discussion. Either may be exercised ad infinitum, barring inhibitions THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. of special powers in the same direction. The only inhi- bition of this sort in this connection is that which prohibits an amendment which shall deny a State, without its con- sent, its equal suffrage in the Senate. Again, the Tenth Article is invoked to defeat the legality of these amendments namely : "ARTICLE X. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The power over suffrage is not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, it is true, but the general power of amendment is ; and the same may be exercised indefi- nitely, except as it shall run counter to inhibitions thereon in the shape of special powers, and defeat the operation of one abstract principle underlying the whole Constitution, which will be noticed in the next particular. Intemperate advocates of these amendments have claimed that the power over suffrage was left directly with the Gen- eral Government by our organic law. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The infant colonies that were formed under the auspices of the mother-country regulated the elective franchise as seemed best for the peculiar con- ditions of each respective company, and the same held true in the case of the States under the Confederation. As to the status of suffrage under the present Constitution, the matter is one of history as well as law. In the convention which framed the Constitution, when the subject of suffrage engrossed the attention of that body, two schemes of gov- ernment for the elective franchise were presented for adop- tion. The first contemplated a uniform basis of suffrage throughout the entire country that is, suffrage as a national and not as a State institution. The second had for its object a continuance of the plan which had existed under the Colo- 22 258 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. nial and Confederate Governments namely, the right of the several States to regulate the elective franchise within their respective limits. The latter, although the former was advocated by many of the best minds of the convention, was approved upon the final vote. It was one of the con- cessions made by the federal to the democratic element, in order to release itself from the suicidal sway of the Confederation. That the power over suffrage was left to the several States by the Constitution was expressly asserted, indeed, in the platform of the Chicago Convention which nominated General Grant for the presidency; and when the Fourteenth amendment was proposed in Congress the fact was cited by the Democratic members as an estoppel upon the Republican party in its proposed action of framing that article. The point is not particularly perti- nent, as the constitutionality of the amendments rests upon other grounds, already stated. As to the ultimate extent to which the power of amend- ment may be exercised, a little additional comment may not be wearisome. The Constitution of the United States contemplates a republican form of government. The en- tire spirit and genius of our institutions is stamped with its impress, the debates of the convention from which ema- nated our primal organic code, as well as the letter of the instrument itself, give indisputable evidence of this inten- tion, and every amendment thereto has sought to extend the benefits and perfect the workings of a republican sys- tem. To attempt by a constitutional amendment to abso- lutely change our form of government would therefore be regarded by the people of this republic as almost a sacri- lege ; and such a measure, moreover, would find no war- rant in the precedents and principles of our constitutional law. The British Parliament undoubtedly has authority to entirely remodel the government of Great Britain by a simple act of legislation, as the constitution, the organic THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 2 59 law thereof, consists entirely of acts of Parliament and sundry and quasi bills of rights allmued, at the instance of Parliament, by the Crown. The fundamental law of the English realm, in other words, is a mere creature of Par- liament, and by it may be either abridged, extended, amended or entirely abrogated. Not so with the United States. Our Government is a creation of the people, and not of Congress ; and while the former alone if the right of a numerical majority to rule is conceded as an abstract principle of the science of government may legally de- cide to change our form of government by an abrogation of our present Constitution, neither the one nor the other, separately or conjointly, can secure such an end by an amendment thereto. Such a course would be a mere at- tempt to abolish republican institutions under an authority alleged to be derived from a constitution which impliedly declares that republican institutions never shall be abolished, and would not only be a betrayal of the most sacred trust, but an ignorant abuse of the hermeneutical principles of both legal and political science. The general power of amendment to our Constitution, then, may be exercised to the fullest possible extent so long as it neither infringes upon the inhibition of a special power, like that which prohibits a denial to the States of their equal suffrage in the Senate without their consent, nor tends to subvert or overthrow our present republican form of government. This latter point has been dwelt upon somewhat at length, as an honorable member of the United States Senate, at the time the proposed Fourteenth amendment was discussed by that body, hazarded the statement that an amendment to the Constitution might absolutely and legally change the character of the General Government. The position was a grave departure from law. To conclude this examination of the constitutional va- 260 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. lidity of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, the same may be undoubtedly affirmed. The discussion has been close and seemingly curtailed. There was no neces- sity for its being otherwise, as the various points were elabo- rated in detail when the Thirteenth Article engaged atten- tion, to which reference may be had for particulars. In respect to the results effected by the operation of the Fifteenth amendment very little need be said, except in one particular. The article merely forbids the political pro- scription of any male citizen of twenty-one years of age by the States or the United States for three causes race, color or prior condition of servitude. For all other causes, so far as the operation of the Fifteenth Article alone is con- cerned, suffrage may be legally restricted, the elective fran- chise legally denied to any citizen, throughout the several States, in accordance with their own peculiar tenets. It will be remembered, however, in this connection, that for a denial of the right to vote to such male citizens of twenty- one years of age as the Fifteenth Article aims to enfranchise, and to all male citizens of that age in fact, except crimi- nals, the Fourteenth amendment imposes a penalty of a relative diminution of the Congressional representation of any and every State that enforces such restriction. In other words, the Fourteenth Article provides a means of punish- ment for the political proscription of certain male citizens who have attained their majority, and the Fifteenth amend- ment declares such proscription shall not exist in respect to our prior slave population. The consequences are first, a State may still illegally deny the elective franchise to citizens who come within the purview of these amendments ; and, second, notwithstanding such proscription, the citizens contemplated by the Fifteenth Article, at least, may vote .by reason of the paramount authority of the same as conferred by the Gen- eral Government. The question is then pertinent, If a State proscribes certain of its citizens in violation of the THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 26 1 Fifteenth amendment, shall the penalties of the Fourteenth Article be imposed, notwithstanding the proscribed citizens, by virtue of the paramount authority of the Fifteenth amend- ment, cast their ballots in spite of such State proscription ? In other words, Shall a State proscription, rendered perfectly powerless by the Fifteenth Article, suffer the punishment pro- vided by the Fourteenth amendment, or does the Fifteenth Article, in annulling such proscription, repeal these puni- tive provisions of the preceding one? As restrictions upon the privilege of exercising the elective franchise, contrary to the letter of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Articles, still exist in several of the State constitutions, a solution of this problem makes quite a material difference in the numerical character of the House of Representatives. The alternative, that the Fifteenth Article repealed the punitive provisions of the preceding one, was insisted upon by some of the States whose constitutions were repugnant to these new provisions of our organic law. The opposite opinion has, however, obtained precedence, and in the re- cent apportionment of Representatives by Congress under the census of 1870, a section of the act provides that for all future proscription by the States in violation of the Four- teenth and Fifteenth Articles the penalties of the first- named amendment shall be enforced. This rule of appor- tionment is undoubtedly correct. The grounds of the conclusion above stated, which in- deed was the only one that could be arrived at without doing violence to the plainest rules of legal construction, are substantially as follows : The Fifteenth amendment in no way repeals the punitive provisions of the Fourteenth Article by express words. If there is any such repeal, therefore, it is by implication. A repeal by implication is never allowed unless the prior statute is so repugnant to the subsequent one that both cannot stand together. There is no such clash in the practical workings of these two 262 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. articles. Both may be enforced to the fullest extent, and result in no contradiction of one by the other. Moreover, the Fifteenth Article does not literally abolish although it ultimately renders powerless those portions of State organic law which are in opposition thereto. The measures of Congress which have been adopted for the so-called en- forcement of this article cannot be legally construed to contemplate that the organic or statute law of any State is paramount thereto. That would be a surrender of the su- premacy of the national Constitution as established by ex- press words of that charter. The measures in question are mere agencies for the prevention of delay which State resi- dents would suffer in establishing the unconstitutionality of local law which might contravene the provisions of the amendment. The article, abstractly speaking, contains its own coercive power, and legislation therefor is bounded by the limits above stated. The concluding remarks, not only of this immediate sub- ject of discussion, but of the present chapter, are now in order. As announced in the outset, they will consist in a criticism of the merits of the last two articles of our organic law. While the Thirteenth Article of the Constitution had for its foundation the plainest principles of reason and justice, and was, moreover, a stroke of politic legislation, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, so far as they affect the elective franchise, are not only unreasonable and unjust they are evidences of an immature policy and a superficial statesmanship. The intention of these amend- ments is in no way vulnerable. Their conception is alone at fault. They contemplate the establishment of justice and equality in respect to the dearest boon of the American people, but they sadly mistake the means for the attainment of the desired end. As remarked in a prior stage of this discussion, the period of the proposal of these changes in our organic law was peculiarly available for placing the THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 263 privilege of the elective franchise not the abstract right, for such a right suffrage is not upon a national basis, and one, moreover, which would not only command the respect of all classes and conditions of men, and stamp the position of an elector as one to be earnestly desired and sought after on account of its elevating and ennobling character, but a basis, moreover, in respect to which the necessity of change could scarce ever exist. What is government, a voice in the direction of which the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments have given to every male citizen of the United States, not guilty of crime, that has attained his majority ? Let Burke answer: "Government has been deemed a prac- tical thing, made for the happiness of mankind, and not to furnish out a spectacle of uniformity to gratify the schemes of visionary politicians." Can the proper management and control of an institution which indeed does have for its legitimate end "the happiness of mankind " strangely as the definition may sound to Congressional packers of every political gathering, from a village caucus up to a State legislature can such a task be deemed appreciable by every male citizen simply because he has become twenty- one years of age, without any regard to collateral circum- stances ? It would seem to require but a moment of calm and sober reflection to induce a negative response. The mere element of age, strictly speaking, is the last requisite which enters into the component parts of a well-qualified elector. True it is that an arbitrary line must of necessity be drawn in this direction before a man shall be allowed the privilege to vote, but the constitutional assertion of the United States that age is the first, last and only requisite of a legitimate electoral estate is an absolute burlesque upon civilization and a libel upon the science and aims of gov- ernment. Call it what we will, either sin or misfortune, the grand defect of our suffragan policy the cancer which is gnawing its way to the very vitals of American institu- 264 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. tions is that the corner-stone thereof is Ignorance. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, indeed, offer a premium upon ignorance, and put a lie in the mouth of the General Government. Through these measures the United States, the American republic the nation which proclaims to the world that it has established and is perfecting an institution of government by means of knowledge wrung from the experience of past ages by its scholars and states- men, whose names upon our necrological record are indeed a galaxy of stars, this nation, with this its boast of intel- ligence as to governmental knowledge, issues an invitation which indeed is broad: "Ho, all ye that thirst for polit- ical power, of whatever race, tongue, nation or people, irrespective of antecedent conditions, minding not your character in any respect, except as to crime whether a savan or a boor, whether cultured or illiterate, even to ab- solute ignorance of the alphabet, come ye, convince us that you are twenty-one years of age and were either born or naturalized in the United States, and take an equal share in maintaining and perfecting the institutions founded by Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin, Randolph and Washington, saved to the nineteenth century by the genuis of Webster, Clay and their compatriots, and defended to the present moment at the cost of a million and a half of lives and over ten thousand millions of treasure !" There is doubtless ample warrant for the statement that, as a general rule, ignorance has its price, while intelligence has not. There are, of course, exceptions to both corolla- ries of the proposition ; still, relatively speaking, they are few in number. Proof of the assertion is afforded, indeed, in the experience of this country in regard to suffrage. It would be a very difficult if not absolutely impossible task to point to any extended instance of the purchase of votes from our intelligent enfranchised population. It is a sacri- fice of manhood which nothing but ignorance, and the at- THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 26$ tendant inability to comprehend the real turpitude of the act, will for a moment contemplate ; but at the immediate period of the proposal and ratification of these amendments a glaring exhibition of the evil results of an unrestricted suffrage in this direction was attracting the attention of our entire country and of Europe, and still thwarts the efforts put forth for its removal. The State of. New York, at that juncture the foremost of all the United States in point of population, commerce, wealth and advantages of every name and nature, both natural and artificial, was bound hand and foot by a gang of the veriest robbers and free- booters that ever disgraced the history of any nation upon the face of the earth. How ? By means of the purchase of from twenty-five to forty thousand votes of ignorant natural- ized citizens, whose knowledge did not even cover a proper use of a spade, and whose self-respect was measured by the extent of their bribes. It is for these and many kindred reasons that the Four- teenth and Fifteenth amendments are unreasonable; that an unrestricted suffrage is unsound and unwholesome ; nay more, that an unrestricted suffrage is not an "impartial" suffrage. Its injustice is manifested in the evidence of its unreasonableness, and although everywhere apparent in the simple fact that the vote of a citizen of the class that has for years directed and controlled the government of the State of New York is equal in force with that of an elector of ordinary knowledge, it is peculiarly demonstrated in the present political condition of the South. Four-fifths of the enfranchised people of that section of our country are per- sons whose lamentably unfortunate past condition was only equaled by their present ignorance. Their intellectual weakness only adds to their credulity, and the electoral power of which at present they are so unfittingly possessed is made the means, through gross imposition, of foisting into the controlling positions of the governments of the 23 M 266 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Southern States unscrupulous and reckless adventurers from the North (nativity in the latter section operating as a blind upon the freedmen), who illegally and exorbitantly assess a proscribed and a major portion of the tax-paying popula- tion, formerly rebels, it is true, flood the money-marts with unwarranted issues of government securities, and plunge the States into almost hopeless and irretrievable bankruptcy. The argument tin.a.t justice to the blacks demanded their immediate enfranchisement, no matter what their intel- lectual condition, is extremely untenable. Generosity may have required it, but justice never. This collateral point in respect to these amendments opens the door for an examination of their impolitic cha- racter. They were devised, in part, for the purpose of continuing the Republican party, for a while at least, in the control of the General Government an end, as already remarked, under the then existing circumstances, entirely commendable and greatly to be desired. It could have been assured, however, by more just and far more politic means. An establishment of suffrage upon a national basis, with a stringent qualification of intelligence, accompanied by a measure providing for a universal amnesty, together with a rigorous election law for the prevention of fraudu- lent voting, would have secured the just and proper demand of the dominant party above named. The first (the suffrage measure) would have thrown the control of some of the Southern States', though not all of them, into the hands of the former rebel element. This, however, would have been fully offset by the consequent disfranchisement of Democratic ignorant native and naturalized whites at the North and West, such as have controlled the State of New York and are rapidly gaining the ascendency in Connecti- cut. The second (the amnesty measure) would have done more to reconcile the former rebellious faction, disperse the Ku-klux and restore the South than all the reconstruc- THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 267 tion acts and Ku-klux legislation which have ever emanated from Congress. Such a constitutional measure, moreover, could have been adopted. The Southern and the Middle (together with those of the Northern) States which rejected the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments would have given it unqualified support, and the remaining num- ber necessary for its ratification could have been easily secured from the Northern States which approved the last two articles above named. That would have been univer- sal amnesty and impartial suffrage, indeed. The deduction from this criticism constitutes, of course, an advocacy of intelligent suffrage. The plea is here urged that an unrestricted suffrage is its own incentive to the education of those who exercise it. The assertion betrays an unpardonable ignorance of one of the most prominent characteristics of human nature. Frail humanity is so constituted that when it has presented to it two ways of effecting its purposes, one with effort and the other without, it invariably chooses the latter. Equality, as a fundamental element of republican institutions, is also urged. Let such a sciolist read his conviction in the quota- tion from Burke already cited. Equality, moreover, is only a possession of such rights and privileges as are available by all, and such a privilege is a degree of intelligence sufficient to qualify any one for a proper legal elector. The claim for intelligent suffrage is not based upon prejudice to a particular class, race or nationality. It operates upon all alike the native, the foreigner, the white and the black and is conducive to a just appreciation of the trust. Com- munity descant loudly of their rights. A right has never yet existed not preceded by a duty ; and the duty which precedes the privilege of suffrage, and alone transforms it into a right, is education. The argument must not be construed into a perpetual political yoke of bondage for the blacks. This unfortunate 268 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. portion of our population is entitled by every reason of justice and humanity to the fullest protection of the Gene- ral Government in the immediate right of citizenship and the prospective privilege of the elective franchise. They are possessed of both the one justly, the other by no show of reason, except so far as exceptional portions of them are educated and thereby entitled thereto. The plea that the prior slave population has had no opportunity for education is a mere argument of generosity. The law of self-preser- vation, in the case of governments as individuals, is para- mount to all others, and forbids gratuities at the expense of the public weal. The same is true of our foreign element. Argument upon the time of probation which should properly precede citizenship is not here pertinent our laws in this respect, however, are far too lax but the door to suffragan power should remain to them invariably closed till they are far better fitted by education therefor than three-fourths of our present foreign class, who are fully endowed with the elect- ive franchise. The same also of our native whites. Looking at this subject in any light we may, if regard is had for the teachings of experience, the principles of gov- ernmental science and the advancement of civilization, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, so far as they affect the elective franchise, are anachronisms in our political history and a detriment to our material and political pros- perity. Their sanction was a grave mistake of a political party whose name is an exponent of many noble deeds, a power which piloted the country safely through the most terrible ordeal it has ever witnessed, and one which, when purged of an intensely illiberal and party-proscribing ele- ment, it is to be most sincerely hoped may long maintain its present supremacy. RECONSTRUCTION. 269 CHAPTER II. RECONSTR UCTION. Executive Proclamation Congressional Legislation The Freedmen's Bureau Virginia and Tennessee Reconstructed Death of Mr. Lincoln President Johnson's Policy Progress of State Restora- tion Congress upon Reconstruction in 1866 The Opening of the Executive and Legislative Conflict Contest upon the Freedmen's Bureau Bill The Same reviewed Disagreement upon the Civil Rights Bill Its Constitutionality considered The Status of the late Disloyal States in this Connection Citizenship considered The Civil Rights Bill Unconstitutional President Johnson Officially Declares the Rebellion Concluded Continued Disagreement be- tween the President and Congress The Freedmen's Bureau Bill again in Question The Same Vetoed Neither Party entitled to Credit A mere Fight of Policies The Final Reconstruction Meas- ures of Congress The Same stated and fully considered What Might have Been Collateral Comment Constitutionality of the Scheme Vetoed by the President Legality of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson's Measures Conclusion of Reconstruction. THE subject-matter of this chapter, for various reasons, will be confined within very narrow limits. Strictly speaking, the subjects of the first four chapters of the pres- ent part of this treatise are constituent elements of the general topic of Reconstruction, and are, one with the other, more or less directly connected. For reasons stated in the remarks inductive to this discussion of our organic and municipal code, however, a separate examination of the more important measures of reconstruction was therein announced. The investigation of the constitutional amend- ments necessarily led to an incidental statement of the different plans which were put into execution for the restora- tion of the South, the action taken thereunder, and a some- what extended criticism of the same. It was, in short, a 23 270 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. treatment of reconstruction as connected with the Southern people in their corporate capacity of State governments the reorganization of the Southern States. The succeeding chapters upon Amnesty and Force Legislation will embrace the greater portion of the subject of reconstruction as con- nected with the Southern people in their individual status the reinvestment of the former rebellious masses with the duties, privileges and rights of suffragan citizenship. The design of the present chapter is to traverse the ground of both State and individual restoration, which is untouched by the first and next two succeeding ones, together with a mere chronological reference to the events which in these other chapters are fully noticed. It will consequently serve as a complete, consecutive narrative of reconstruction, with a full discussion thereof, except so far as the latter is ac- complished in the collateral connections above named. The initiatory measure of reconstruction assumed the form of an executive proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, Decem- ber 8, 1863. This measure (see Appendix) provided that when the people of any rebellious State should lay down their arms, swear allegiance to the General Government and organize free State constitutions, etc. etc., such State should be entitled to its former position in the tTnion meaning, of course, its representation in Congress. Between the date of this proclamation and July 8, 1864, Arkansas and Louisiana had complied with the conditions thereof, the former under the supervision of General Steele, the latter under that of General Banks, officers command- ing therein. At the date last above named Congress sub- mitted a bill for the approval of President Lincoln pro- posing a plan of reconstruction, whereby the executive should assign provisional governors to all States in which rebellion should be crushed, under whose control the people thereof, having subscribed to an oath of allegiance, framed free constitutions, etc. etc., should be restored to RECOXSTR UCTION. 2/ 1 their original position as before the war, including their representation in Congress. The bill moreover assumed to abolish slavery. Mr. Lincoln withheld his approval thereto for reasons already given, but expressed his willing- ness in a proclamation of the date last above named (see Appendix) to co-operate with any State wishing to avail itself of its privileges. Subsequent to July 8, 1864, and prior to April 25, 1869 namely, February i, 1865 the Thirteenth amendment had been submitted to the States for ratification, a bureau for the relief of freedmen had been established the third of the preceding month, and Virginia and Tennessee, the former under the supervision of General Weitzell, the command- ing officer therein, the latter under that of Andrew John- son, military governor appointed by the President, had complied with the conditions of Mr. Lincoln's proclama- tion of December 8, 1863. None of the four States here- inbefore mentioned, however, had been admitted to their representation in Congress. At this juncture Mr. Lincoln died and Andrew Johnson assumed the duties of the chief magistrate. Mr. Johnson determined upon a policy of reconstruction very similar to that proclaimed by his predecessor Decem- ber 8, 1863, with this difference: Mr. Lincoln, Lee not having surrendered, entrusted the execution of his policy to the commanding generals and military governors in the in- surrectionary States ; his successor, the war, to all intents and purposes, having entirely ended, assigned this task to provisional governors appointed from resident civilians. From April, 1865, to January i, 1868, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi reconstructed under the policy of President Johnson, and the following- named measures of restoration were also promulgated : April 29, commercial intercourse was restored, by means of executive proclamation, between the North and South, 2/2 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. . excepting a few districts still without the possession of the national forces, barring trade in all articles contraband of war. May 22, in the same manner, restrictions upon foreign commerce with the lately rebellious States were removed, excepting the ports of Galveston, La Salle, Brazos de San- tiago (Point Isabel) and Brownsville in the State of Texas. May 29, President Johnson issued a proclamation of qualified amnesty. June 13, restrictions upon commercial intercourse with Tennessee were removed by executive order. June 23, blockade raised by presidential proclamation, except as to all ports west of the Mississippi River. October 12, the President suspended the operation of martial law in Kentucky. December i, executive order restored the writ of habeas corpus to all States and Territories except the lately insur- rectionary ones, Kentucky, the District of Columbia, New Mexico and Arizona, the same having been suspended Sep- tember 15, 1863, throughout the entire country. December 18, the Thirteenth amendment was promul- gated, the States of Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennes- see, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama hav- ing aided in the ratification thereof; the first four having been reconstructed under President Lincoln's proclamation of December 8, 1863, the last four under the policy of President Johnson, as above described. With the opening of the year 1866 the position of Con- gress upon the subject of reconstruction is hardly capable of definition. It had not given an open protest, so to speak, by any direct legislation, against the policy which had been pursued by the executive, yet none of the lately insurrectionary States, as restored under Mr. Johnson and his predecessor, had been admitted to their representation in that body. This last fact, together with unofficial state- RECONSTRUCTION. 2/3 ments of Senators and Representatives, gave evidence of the legislative and executive conflict that afterward ensued upon the policy of reconstruction. The whole subject had been referred to a joint committee of both Houses of the national legislature, December 13, 1865, whose report thereon not only Congress but the entire people were awaiting with the utmost anxiety. This report, however, was delayed till midsummer of 1866, and in the mean time the President and Congress assumed an attitude of open hostility. It will be remembered that, March 3, 1865, a bureau for the protection and relief of freedmen in the South was es- tablished by the General Government. As the measure, by experience, had proved somewhat inadequate for the ends in view, Congress, in the early part of February, 1866, submitted an act amendatory of the one last above named for executive approval. Its main features consisted in the reservation of three millions of acres of public land in the South from the operation of the homestead and pre-emption laws for occupation by former slaves at a rental to be ap- proved by designated authorities, an extension of the former means of relief in the way of food and clothing, and the punishment, by tribunals composed of the agents and officials of the bureau, of all persons who should violate the rights under this act of its designated beneficiaries. As the bu- reau was to be placed by this bill under the control of the executive and War Department, and the agents and offi- cials thereof appointed from the army, the court upon which the measure conferred jurisdiction for trial of offences there- under to which, moreover, a criminal penalty was at- tached was in fact a military tribunal, a purely martial court. The President, chafing under the non-admission to their representation in Congress of the Southern States which under his policy had been restored, vetoed the bill Febru- M 2 2/4 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. ary 19 on various grounds, among the more important of which, and the only ones of particular import, were that the measure violated constitutional guarantees in that no person by our organic code should be deprived of life, lib- erty or property without due process of law, and that taxa- tion should never be imposed without representation. The veto message was temperate and politic in tone, clear and concise in expression, logical in argument, and was doubt- less shaped by the consummate diplomat who from 1861 to 1869 presided over the Department of State with an ability far greater than any which has graced the position since the retirement of Daniel Webster therefrom. As to the two grounds of objection above stated, they were not at least without a comparative show of reason. Although the Southern people could not be said to be immediately subject to taxation for the support of the Freedmen's Bureau, they were prospectively so in their accruing liability to share in the payment of the public debt incurred for this and other war-purposes ; and granting, moreover, for the sake of ar- gument, that they were not at this period entitled to repre- sentation in Congress, still, they had complied with the con- ditions of the only policy for such restoration which the Gen- eral Government had then prescribed ; and to say the least it would have been eminently fitting for Congress, while denying the validity of such restoration, to have provided a plan whereby the same might be effected before imposing upon the late insurrectionary States anything which might seem to be even but a constructive burden. The objection to the martial courts was sound and wholesome. The bill proposed to establish military tribunals in a comparatively peaceful country, and confer such jurisdiction upon persons who could not be presumed impartial (the agents and of- ficers of the bureau) by reason of their wishes to see the institution maintain its supremacy. The scheme, in fact, was like giving a plaintiff in a cause a right to sit in judg- RECONSTRUCTION. 2/5 ment thereon. Offenders under the act, moreover, the violation thereof having been declared a criminal offence, were certainly entitled to a trial by jury instead of by mere officers of war. Such jurisdiction should have been given to regular civil courts, even though constituted of non-resi- dent officials. February 2ist the bill was again put upon its passage, but not obtaining a two-thirds vote in the Sen- ate, consequently failed to become a law. It was designed for a worthy and highly commendable purpose, and, with the exceptions above noticed, was an adequate mean for the attainment of a humane and philanthropic end. Congress retaliated upon the executive by the adoption, February 20, of the following resolution namely: "Re- solved, That in order to close agitation upon a question which seems likely to disturb the action of the Government, as well as to quiet the uncertainty which is agitating the minds of the people of the eleven States which have been declared to be in insurrection, no Senator or Representa- tive shall be admitted into either branch of Congress from any of said States until Congress shall have declared such States entitled to such representation." The war of reconstruction was thus fully inaugurated, and proved a bitter and long-protracted struggle. The next battle-ground in the conflict was that covered by the measure popularly known as the "Civil Rights Bill;" and here Congress was destined to prove victorious. The measure was submitted for the approval of the President about the middle of March, 1866, vetoed the 27th of the same month, and April Qth, having received the requisite two-thirds vote of Congress, was duly declared a law. The bill, reducing it to simple terms, provides in the main as follows namely : First. Declares all persons born and naturalized in the United States, excluding Indians not taxed, to be citizens thereof, and gives them protection in the usual rights of 276 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. citizenship namely, those of personal security, personal liberty and the right of property. The remaining sections of the bill merely provide means for the enforcement of the one just stated. It is also ap- parent upon the face of the measure that its sole design and purpose was to afford the prior slave population the privileges of citizenship. Stating it very briefly, the position assumed by the veto message was, that the bill was unconstitutional, both as to the bestowal of citizenship and its attendant privileges, and also as to the means provided for the enforcement thereof. To put the question in the form of an 'interrog- atory, it amounts to simply this : Can the General Gov- ernment confer citizenship beyond that originally granted by our organic law, and establish means for the enforce- ment of its accruing rights and privileges, except by an amendment to the Constitution ? Looking at the matter in the abstract, neither point of the inquiry is perhaps entirely clear ; but viewing it as connected with the bill under consideration, while the first point may still be con- sidered somewhat uncertain, the latter is beyond a doubt outside the pale of constitutional authority. To the whole inquiry, moreover, whether generally in the abstract, or relatively as confined within the scope of this particular measure of Congress, the better and sounder doctrine is probably found in a negative response. Both points of the question will be briefly considered in the order in which they appear in the foregoing interrogatory, and in their rela- tive and abstract connection as above described. In pur- suance of this plan of discussion, the main question resolves itself into four minor ones namely : First. Can the General Government confer citizenship and its attendant rights and privileges upon the prior slave population except by a change in our organic law? Second. Can the same power enlarge the status of citizen- RECONSTRUCTION. 2JJ ship, in a general sense, either as to persons or the rights and privileges thereof (citizenship) as it exists under the original Constitution, save by an amendment thereto? Third. Can the General Government establish means for the enforcement of the rights and privileges of citizenship in behalf of the prior slave population unless such citizen- ship has been first decreed by the Constitution ? Fourth. Can the same power provide such means for the enforcement of such rights unless the extended limits of citizenship to which such rights and privileges attach are first declared by a constitutional enactment ? First. To so late a period as the outbreak of our late civil war (and somewhat later; that point is designated for convenience' sake, on account of its prominence) our Federal charter impliedly, and the United States Supreme Court expressly, denied the status, privileges and rights of citizenship to the prior slave population. By the letter of this instrument, indeed, as interpreted by the highest judicial tribunal of the land, the colored inhabitants of the slave States were considered as mere " persons," with "no rights which a white man was bound to respect." The Thirteenth amendment merely transferred these "persons" from a state of slavery to one of freedom incidentally converting property into men but it left them "persons" still. Relatively speaking, they were as far from citizenship as ever. In view of the law of the land there was not a single antecedent or immediate element of citizenship attached to their condition. How were they to be raised to that position? Was a mere act of Congress sufficient for the attainment of that end ? In what direction and with what effect does such an act of Congress operate ? An answer to the last interrogatory solves the immediate sub- ject of investigation. Such an act operates to regulate the internal domestic relations of several States of the Union, and precludes the governments of such States from any 24 278 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. control over the matter whatever. Has the General Gov- ernment a legal right to enforce a measure eventuating in such results ? Seemingly not. The authority of the United States is measured by the provisions of our organic law, and when it seeks to enforce its legislation in respect to the internal domestic relations of the States, it must con- fine itself within the constitutional power leading in that direction. What is that power? With the exception of authority to legislate in reference to forts, armories, dock- yards, etc., located in State territory, the only power of this character is found in the clause of the Constitution which declares that "the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican government. ' ' Now, unless the investment of the Southern blacks with the status, rights and privileges of citizenship was necessary to guarantee to that section of the country a government re- publican in form, the measure of Congress elevating our prior slave element to that position apparently looks in vain to the Constitution for support ; for, in the words of an eminent jurist, "a republican form of government is one which derives all powers directly or indirectly from the people, and administered by officers for a limited period or good behavior." Congress and the executive constitute the tribunal to decide as to what government is republican in form, it is true, but Congress did not declare the civil rights bill a measure necessary for that purpose. The point is raised in this connection that the rebellious States forfeited all their rights under the Constitution ; there- fore Congress may legislate in respect to them as it sees fit. The proposition invokes the statement of principles which have been proved in a prior part of this discussion namely : This Government is a unit, and not a State league. It cannot be diminished, dissolved or destroyed except by absolute force, by revolution. The point at which, by this means, this Government becomes dissolved, destroyed, is RECONSTRUCTION. 279 that where a rebellious faction has conquered for itself such a position that the national authorities recognize and grant its independence. This point was not reached by the Southern States ; consequently, all measures which were designed to regulate their internal relations required adop- tion in the usual manner that is, by constitutional amend- ment instead of an act of Congress. To admit the claim just stated would be an acknowledgment of the legality and right of secession, which is itself refuted in the prin- ciples above announced, and explained in full in a prior connection. The ends sought by the civil rights bill and the Thir- teenth amendment, in fact, so far as the means requisite for their procurement were concerned, were perfectly parallel. They both sought to regulate the internal relations of the Southern States ; and if a constitutional amendment was necessary to effect one, so was it the other. The General Government might as properly attempt to abolish slavery by mere legislation as to invest the former victims thereof with citizenship and its rights and privileges. It did, in fact, attempt this, as will be remembered, in its reconstruc- tion measure of July 8, 1864 and Mr. Lincoln's grave and appropriate doubt of the legality and validity of the scheme, as expressed in his proclamation of that date, already stated, was one of the reasons for the refusal of his approval thereof. Second. As to the extension of the status, rights and privileges of citizenship in general, in the abstract, as they exist under our original organic law. Prior to the adop- tion of the Fourteenth amendment, citizenship, under the Constitution, attached solely to our free native and natur- alized population. The ground covered was very broad. With a qualifying remark in respect to the probation required at the hands of foreigners, it included all per- sons except our slave and savage element. Over the sub- 280 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. ject of naturalization Congress, under the Constitution, has the exclusive oversight and control. As to what shall constitute citizenship of the United States, moreover, the authority of the General Government is likewise supreme and exclusive. There is in this connection, however, a collateral point which demands attention. Notwithstand- ing the authority of the General Government as to what shall make persons citizens is sole and undivided, still, each State, under the Constitution, has an authority equally undoubted to define the position of persons within its juris- diction before they become citizens, as it may deem most proper and advantageous. For instance, it may deny them the right to hold property, sue and be sued, etc., and the General Government is powerless to interfere. Now, although Congress, by means of an express power of the Constitution, can set the will of the States at defiance in this direction as to foreigners, yet when the General Gov- ernment assumes to extend the status and rights of citizen- ship beyond the limits thereof, as found in the Constitu- tion, in respect to uncitizenized natives, if we may use the expression, it seeks to enforce its will as to the internal relations of the States in a manner which, as has before appeared, seems to be authorized only by means of a change in our organic law. The point is not of much practical importance, as the limits of citizenship in respect to our native population, either as to persons or its attend- ant privileges, are hardly admissible of farther extension in any direction whatever. The affirmation or negation of the third and fourth minor interrogatories stated in the outset of this discussion hinges entirely upon the disposition of the two preceding ones. If the General Government cannot bestow citizenship, either relatively or in the abstract, except by constitutional amendment, it cannot provide means for the enforcement RECONSTRUCTION. 28 1 of the rights and privileges thereof except in pursuance of such changes in our organic law. Considering the matter candidly and dispassionately, the veto of the civil rights bill of March, 1866, by President Johnson, was perfectly sound and wholesome, and in no sense a violation of his duties as chief executive of the United States. Congress itself has made a tacit admission of the same in its proposal of the Fourteenth amendment to the States for ratification. The first section of that article is but a reiteration, in substance, of the abstract principles of the civil rights bill, and aims to, and does, accomplish the same noble, humane and in every way com- mendable end which the last-named measure unwarrantably essayed to effect. To resume the main narrative. In the interim between the submission of the civil rights bill to the executive for his approval, and his veto of the same namely, April 2, 1866 that official issued a proclamation declaring the late rebellion, in all the States excepting Texas, entirely con- cluded. It will be remembered that, December 13, 1865, Con- gress referred the matter of reconstruction to a joint com- mittee of both Houses to take action thereon. June, 1866, the committee returned a majority and minority report neither of which demands an extended consideration in this connection, as the ultimate will of Congress in refer- ence to reconstruction was not expressed till the passage of the act of March 2, 1867, and the ground covered by the reports, moreover, has been mostly traversed in a prior part of this discussion. The points thereof which have not received such attention will be submitted to an in- cidental consideration farther on. A glaring inconsistency in each report, however, provokes an immediate allu- sion. The majority report dwells at length and with great emphasis upon the alleged fact that the lately rebellious 24 282 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. States are without any legitimate form of government, totally disorganized, and yet, at a period earlier than the date of this report by nearly a year, these same States had aided in the ratification of the Thirteenth amendment, and such action had been deemed entirely valid by Congress. The minority report insists upon the dogma of secession as a constitutional right, and in almost the next paragraph sur- prises if not insults the intelligence of the reader with the claim that the lately rebellious States are integral parts of the Union, notwithstanding for four years they had ex- hausted every resource in maintaining the dogma above named. That they were integral parts of the Union has been shown in our discussion of the legality of the ratifica- tion of the constitutional amendments, and recently asserted when the civil rights bill formed the subject of considera- tion. In the proof of this fact, however, secession finds death, and not life, as maintained by the minority report of the committee on reconstruction. The two principles are perfectly antithetic, antagonistic in character, and the maintenance of the one is the refutation of the other. The remaining narrative of reconstruction for the year 1866 is barren in events of any special importance which have not already been properly alluded to. June 16 the Fourteenth amendment was proposed by Congress for rati- fication, and the next collision between the executive and legislative departments, subsequent to the one upon civil rights for the blacks, occurred in respect to the third Freed- men's Bureau bill on the i6th of the following month. The original Freedmen's Bureau bill of March 3, 1865, which received the approval of President Lincoln, and thereby became a law, had none of the objectionable fea- tures of the bill amendatory thereof which was vetoed by President Johnson March 27, 1866. Even the plea of a constructive taxation of the South without representation could not be urged against the original measure, as the re- RECONSTRUCTION. 283 bellious faction was at that period in a position of open hostility to the General Government, the result of the struggle was still enveloped with doubt, and the so-called Confederate States could not be said, either actually or prospect ively, to be subject to the levies of the national authority. The last-named power, moreover, was under every obligation of justice and honor to protect the unfor- tunate freedmen, whom both by executive and legislative action it had arrayed against the forces of the rebellion. This original bill simply aimed to give the freedmen food and clothing, and to locate them upon the abandoned and confiscated lands of the insurrectionary States. It was de- fective in that it provided no tribunal before which violators of the law could be brought for trial. The bill vetoed by President Johnson March 27, 1866, was designed mainly to heal this defect, and essayed to accomplish that end by the establishment of military tribunals constituted of the agents and officers of the bureau military men, and not civilians, and only responsible to the Secretary of War. Offences against the bill, moreover, were thereby declared criminal, and the right of trial by jury was denied. This was the principal ground of the veto message refusing the executive approval, and was wise, tenable and sound. The intention of Congress to amend the original law by estab- lishing courts to enforce its provisions was commendable and proper, but giving military courts jurisdiction in the premises, and denying the right of trial by jury to persons charged with a criminal offence, was not only impolitic, but clearly illegal. The late war was entirely concluded. The action of the legislatures of the States wherein these mar- tial courts were established had been accepted by Congress for the ratification of the Thirteenth amendment, and the pro- posed further continuance of courts-martial in the room of civil tribunals was unnecessary and in direct violation of our organic law. 284 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. The third Freedmen's Bureau bill, of July, 1866, was another attempt to amend the original law of March 3, 1865, as to juridical measures for the enforcement thereof, and to perfect the distribution of the abandoned and con- fiscated lands of the South among the blacks. It was much milder in form than the one vetoed in February of the same year, as it did not make violations of the proposed law a criminal offence. It proposed to give jurisdiction of such violations, however, to military tribunals, made up of the agents and officers of the bureau, until the Southern States had been restored to their representation in Congress. This was the only vulnerable point in this humane and necessary measure of legislation. There was no necessity for giving the bureau both ministerial and judicial powers. It was a grave inconsistency. It placed an offender in the hands of the offended for trial, judgment, and the execution thereof. It was a much graver inconsistency, moreover, to establish military courts in States until they should "be duly rep- resented in the Congress of the United States," when such States had complied with the only conditions for such rep- resentation which the Government had announced Con- gress not having passed any reconstruction measure and when the legislative action of such States had been ac- cepted for the sanction of a change in our organic law. July 1 6, 1866, the President vetoed the bill as a matter of course. He could have pursued no other action without self-contradiction. Congress, moreover, could not have reasonably expected a different result. It framed the bill not with an eye for executive approval, but with regard to its ability to pass it over the disapproval of that official, which it did on the same day the veto message was received, thereby making it a law of the land. In this immediate connection, saving the criticism as to the Congressional military courts hereinbefore given, and the matter of representation in Congress, no especial blame RECONSTRUCTION. 285 or credit attaches to either that body or the executive. It was a mere fight of "policies," and Congress proved the strongest party in the conflict. History has fully shown that the bestowal of juridical power upon the agents and officers of the bureau was an unwise and impolitic measure. By reason thereof its administration has been made the ve- hicle of many corrupt and unlawful transactions, whereby private pecuniary aims were served and the public interests subverted. July 25, 1866, Tennessee, having ratified the Fourteenth amendment, was admitted to her representation in Congress. August 20, 1866, the President issued a proclamation de- claring the rebellion at an end in the State of Texas, and civil authority fully restored throughout the entire country. December 3, 1866, the following section of the act of July 17, 1862, was repealed, in order to bar anticipated proclamations of pardon for the late rebels by the execu- tive. The repealing bill became a law by reason of the failure of the President to sign or return it with his objec- tions within ten days after the same was submitted to him for approval : "That the President is hereby authorized at any time hereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion, in any State or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions, and at such time and on such conditions, as he may deem expedient for the public welfare." During this year, 1866, moreover, Florida and Texas, the only remaining insurrectionary States which had not recon- structed under President Johnson's policy, complied with the conditions of the same and awaited the admission of their representation to Congress. The first reconstruction measure of any importance in 1867 was the act of March 2d of that year whereby Con- gress declared its policy in reference to the restoration of 286 THE JSSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. the South. It is thus seen that very nearly two years had elapsed since the surrender of Lee before our legislative de- partment pointed a way to the lately insurrectionary States whereby they could resume their original positions in the Union, including the privilege of participating in the leg- islation of the General Government. The principal provi- sions of the act received an incidental statement in our dis- cussion of the constitutional amendments. Asserting in the outset that no legal governments or protection for life or property exist in the lately rebellious States, excepting Ten- nessee, it consigns them to military rule, directs the Presi- dent to appoint commanders for the districts into which said States are divided, with full power to organize mar- tial courts in lieu of the regular civil tribunals in case ex- isting circumstances should so require. The bill further provides, that when the States above named shall have ratified the proposed Fourteenth 'amendment, and estab- lished free constitutions which shall meet the approval of Congress and not conflict with that of the United States, they shall be entitled to resume their original status with the General Government as before the war, and their Sena- tors and Representatives allowed their seats in the national legislature. The minor points of the act do not require particular mention. The act, so far as it went, essayed a plain, appropriate, sensible plan of reconstruction, and had it been framed and promulgated two years earlier, or even directly after the assembling of Congress in the winter of 1865-66, not a word of objection could have been offered thereto except for its incompleteness. Simple in its terms, direct in its intended application, its comparative necessity since the summer of 1865 perfectly apparent to every intelligent citizen, its provisions would seemingly have been the result of an hour's conference of any deliberative body of ordi- nary capacity at any time subsequent to Lee's surrender; RECONSTRUCTION. 287 substituting, perhaps, civil for military forms of provisional government. Thus much in commendation of the act. No credit for even ordinary wisdom, however, attaches to its invention, and the entire scheme is to be regarded with the following important qualifications. The act asserts that there are no legal governments in ten of the lately rebellious States. Neither admitting nor denying the claim in this connection, the question is pertinent, If not, why not ? For the simple reason that Congress by its inaction had prevented the formation of governments in these States which, in its opinion, would be of a legal character. This same legislative body, however, had considered these illegal governments sufficiently legal to give a valid ratification of the Thirteenth amendment. The act, moreover, declares that there is no adequate protection for life or property in these States. Partially true. But why? Merely because the non-committal attitude of Congress had enveloped the entire situation at the South with doubt and uncertainty. The act imposes military governments upon the people of the ten States before named. For good reasons? With a show thereof, for the incongruous masses were in a normal condition of revolt, owing entirely, however, to the absence of a firm, settled policy on the part of the General Govern- ment. But this act, in its essential features, could have been passed over the President's veto in 1865 as well as in 1867. Why was it not done? Solely for the reason that Congress was trusting to fortune. If at the opening of the year 1867 the Southern States had ratified the proposed Fourteenth amendment, which had been submitted in June, 1866, instead of rejecting it, the act of March 2, 1867, would never have been devised. When Congress assembled in December, 1865, it did so with the intention of making the enfranchisement of the blacks a sine qua non for the ad- mission of a Southern delegation to Congress. For the attainment of this end it proposed the Fourteenth amend- 288 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. ment, which essayed to effect such enfranchisement in a negative form by imposing penalties for the denial of the same. This amendment was not sanctioned by the ten States before named ; hence the act now under considera- tion, compelling them to perform what the threat of the Fourteenth amendment failed to accomplish. The claim is by no means intended in this connection that the General Government had no right to demand the performance of such conditions precedent from these States as it saw fit as a requisite for their restoration. It had the undoubted right so to do ; but instead of prospecting about from April, 1865, to March, 1867, inflicting almost immeasurable injury upon the commerce and industries of the country, Congress should have squarely met the issue at least as early as the winter of 1865-66, and, if it could not have agreed upon intelligent suffrage, incorporated the substance of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments into one article of organic law, barring the prescriptive provision, submitted it to the States for ratification, with a reconstruction measure saying to the lately insurrectionary section, "Your people, without exception, are granted full and complete amnesty ; ratify the proposed amendment to the national charter, establish free constitutions and govern- ments within your territory, and then, but not till then, resume your original position as integral States of the Union." The next succeeding session of Congress would have witnessed the full consummation of such a plan of restoration, the recomposition of elements still violently discordant, and a general revival of commercial and indus- trial pursuits. The President, as was fully anticipated by Congress, vetoed the bill March 2, 1867. The principal ground of his message expressing his disapproval of the scheme con- sisted in the assumption that the imposition of military governments upon the ten States named in the bill was a RECONSTRUCTION. 289 violation of the Constitution of the United States. Probably not. It may have been impolitic the legislative record which preceded and finally induced it was certainly slovenly in the extreme, and the measure itself, considering the time which had elapsed between the close of the war and its adoption, was a grave and dilatory assumption of a power which lies at the extreme outpost of constitutional warrant but the taint of illegality laid to its charge the veto message of the executive does not conclusively prove. The constitution- ality of the act is based upon that power of our organic law which declares that the United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of govern- ment. The warrant which this power gives for the act of March 2, 1867, may be seen by a mere statement of princi- ples which were fully discussed and proven in the next pre- ceding chapter. The power above named is of a twofold character discretionary or judicial, and ministerial; namely, the United States shall decide what governments are republican in form, and upon such decision shall see that they are guaranteed. In its ministerial aspect the President, in case of invasion or immediate danger, by reason of his prerogative as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, can exercise this power without authority from any other branch of government. In its judicial or discretionary aspect, however, the Supreme Court has de- cided that the right to its exercise is jointly vested in Con- gress and the executive. That is, the President and Con- gress constitute the tribunal which is to decide what govern- ments are republican in form. This tribunal is of a politi- cal character. It acts under political and not judicial rules and precedents. These rules and precedents consist in the enactment of laws by Congress and the enforcement thereof by the executive. In other words, the manner in which this political tribunal declares its judgment is by the enforcement of legalized legislation. The Constitution 25 X 2QO THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. has defined two methods therefor: First, legislation shall be legalized by the approval thereof of the executive, or by its receiving a two-thirds vote of Congress against his dis- approval. When legalized in either of the above forms, the President, by his official oath, is bound to enforce it. The regularly-constituted tribunal therefor, the President and Congress, held the governments of the ten States named in the act of March 2, 1867, to be non-republican in form in one of the two legal and proper methods namely, the one last above described ; and, not to recur to this sub- ject again, the reconstruction of the States under the act above named was, like the act itself, perfectly legitimate. The political tribunal above described has an undoubted constitutional power to hold the government of any State non-republican, however wrong may be its decision ; and when so held in either of the two constitutional methods above described namely, legislation legalized by the ap- proval of the executive, or by a two-thirds vote of Congress against his disapproval and the same is enforced by the chief magistrate, as by his official oath he is bound to do, every step of the process, though barely is still fully within the pale of our constitutional law. All this occurred in reference to the act of March 2, 1867, and the proceedings thereunder, and the legality of both is not susceptible of just accusation. The President, in view of his prior official course, might very properly have vetoed the bill as a rashly impolitic scheme, but not on the ground of its violation of our or- ganic law. As to the propriety, policy and desirability of the act, generally speaking, little need be said in addition to what has already inferentially appeared. The exigencies of the moment demanded some such decisive measure, but these exigencies had their origin in the inability or unwillingness of Congress to appreciate the true situation at the proper time. RECONSTR UCTION. 29 1 The then disturbed and incongruous condition of affairs at the South was the legitimate offspring of the inactive policy of our legislative department. It possessed the constitu- tional power to reconstruct the lately insurrectionary States in accordance with the act of March 2, 1867, at any time subsequent to the cessation of hostilities therein, and at this long-deferred period probably no more efficient or suitable scheme could have been resorted to ; but at an ear- lier date the ends achieved by the act above named might, in all probability, have been secured in pursuance of a policy similar to that initiated by Mr. Lincoln, and pur- sued in all important respects by his successor namely, a policy of reconstruction under civil local authority, with full protection, military if necessary, to all classes of people, of whatever race, creed or political belief . With universal am- nesty such ends might certainly have been obtained. The bill was passed over the President's veto on the day of the announcement thereof to Congress (March 2, 1867). A word is pertinent in this connection as to whether the reconstruction of the lately insurrectionary States by Presi- dents Lincoln and Johnson, without a subsequent approval of Congress, was legitimate whether, by force of such recon- struction, their original status with the General Government, as before the war, was duly resumed. It was not. The twofold constitutional power, hereinbefore discussed, for the restoration of States to republican forms of government, the executive can exercise only in its ministerial aspect. With its judicial discretionary bearings the President, ex- clusive of Congress, has nothing to do whatever. With Congress, in this direction, the President can act, and either with or without this official, as already stated, in the two legal methods defined by the Constitution that is, legislation legalized by the approval of the executive, or a two-thirds vote against his disapproval the will of Con- gress is alone supreme. THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. March 11,12 and 15, the President assigned commanders to the military districts composed of the lately insurrec- tionary States, in pursuance of the Congressional plan of reconstruction, as follows : First District. State of Virginia, Brevet Major-General J. M. Schofield ; head-quarters, Richmond, Virginia. Second District. North Carolina and South Carolina, Major-General D. E. Sickles; head-quarters, Columbia, South Carolina. Third District. Georgia, Florida and Alabama, Major- General G. H. Thomas ; head -quarters, Montgomery, Ala- bama. Fourth District. Mississippi and Arkansas, Brevet Major- General E. O. C. Ord; head-quarters, Vicksburg, Missis- sippi. Fifth District. Louisiana and Texas, Major-General P. H. Sheridan ; head-quarters, New Orleans, Louisiana. The act of March 2, 1867, contained no provisions as to the manner of its enforcement. A supplemental measure for this purpose was submitted to the President, vetoed the 23d of the same month, and adopted over the veto on the same day. March 30, 1867, the President approved a joint resolu- tion limiting the amount of money to be paid from the Treasury for the purposes of reconstruction to the sum of $500,000. The district commanders above named, in pursuance of their duties as designated by the reconstruction acts of Congress, removed the civil officials of the States elected under President Johnson's reconstruction policy in cases where they refused to acknowledge the paramount authority of these officers. This conflict of civil and military rule induced a further measure of reconstruction, vesting the power of removal in cases as above intimated in the dis- trict commanders, subject to the disapproval of the general RECONSTRUCTION. 293 of the army, and in the last-named officer unqualifiedly, and construed certain portions of the former acts to which this was supplemental. In other respects it is not import- ant. The bill was submitted to the executive for approval in July, 1867, vetoed, and adopted by Congress over such veto, on the ipth of the same month. The examination of the subject of the present chapter is now brought to a point beyond which little is required save a mere chronological statement of events which were con- sequent to the reconstruction policy of Congress. September 7, 1867, the President extended the classes of beneficiaries of his amnesty proclamation of May 29, 1865. March n, 1868, an amendatory reconstruction measure was passed over the executive veto, regulating the matter of elections under the original act. June 22, 1868, Arkansas having complied with the re- quirements of Congress, provision was made for her resto- ration to the Union, allowing her Senators and Represent- atives seats in the national legislature. The declaratory bill was passed over the executive veto, and needs no special examination. July 21, 1868, Congress passed a joint resolution declar- ing the proposed Fourteenth amendment an integral part of our organic law, and on the 28th of the same month the same was duly promulgated by the State Department. June 25, 1868, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louis- iana, Georgia, Alabama and Florida were, for the same reasons, placed upon the same footing with Arkansas, with a single qualification as to Georgia. July 4, 1868, President Johnson proclaimed a general amnesty for all participants in the late rebellion, with cer- tain exceptions as to crime, and December 25th of the year, in the same manner, made this amnesty universal and unqualified. The question of the legality of these various 25* 294 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. amnesty proclamations of Mr. Johnson will be considered in the next succeeding chapter. February 27, 1869, the proposed Fifteenth amendment was submitted to the States for ratification. The next measure of reconstruction requiring record dates subsequent to the inauguration of President Grant namely, April 10, 1869. At this time, by an act of Con- gress bearing executive approval, the President was author- ized to submit the newly-formed constitutions of Virginia, Mississippi and Texas to the people of those States for ratification. On December 22d of the same year further means were provided for the restoration of Georgia. January 26, 1870, an act of Congress was approved by the executive restoring Virginia to her original status with the General Government, and giving her a representation in the national legislature. On February 23d and March 3oth of the same year simi- lar action was taken in reference to Mississippi and Texas, respectively. March 30, 1870, the Fifteenth amendment was promul- gated, and President Grant forwarded a special message to Congress thereon. May 27, 1870, an act was adopted providing for the enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Articles of the Constitution. July 15, 1870, an act of Congress bearing executive approval declared Georgia, the last of the lately insurrec- tionary States, reconstructed under the Congressional policy, restored to her original position as before the war, and entitled to a representation in that body. The discussion of reconstruction, so far as the purposes of this chapter are concerned, as stated in the outset, is now complete. Trivial omissions of minor details have been intentionally made, as the subjects of such omissions AMNESTY. 295 were not of sufficient dignity to require consideration. One correction in this respect, however, will be made in this connection. The restoration of Virginia, Texas, Mis- sissippi and Georgia not having been effected when the proposed Fifteenth amendment was submitted to the States for ratification, the additional duty of sanctioning this change in our organic law was imposed upon them by Congress as a further requisite for the admission of their representation to that body. This fact delayed the restora- tion of these States to the periods hereinbefore mentioned. The author wishes to make the acknowledgment that the examination of the statutes of the United States, as con- nected with the subject of the present chapter, has been greatly facilitated by reference to the "Political Manuals" of Edward McPherson. CHAPTER III. AMNESTY. The Question stated The Several Measures of Proscription Official Proscription The Iron-clad Oath Act The Prescriptive Feature of the Fourteenth Amendment The Same construed with the Iron-clad Oath Act, and their Operation and Effect considered The Constitu- tional Oath Act Suffragan Proscription The Abstract Causes which render Amnesty Necessary The Direct and Collateral Ends sought by its Institution The I>ast fully equal to the First The So-called Moral Argument against Amnesty refuted The Various Prescriptive Measures criticised The Same based upon Policy Not needed to Secure the Results of the I^ite War Prejudicial in their Tenden- cies to the Welfare of the Entire Nation Proscription as a Means of Punishment Inadequate and Indefensible The Policy of Hate Universal Amnesty Required The Problem now before the People The Ku-klux Klans The Pathway out of Present Difficulties Executive Action in respect to Amnesty Partly I>egal and Partly Illegal President Johnson Dismissed Interlocutory Comment upon 296 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. his Impeachment The Status of Missouri The United States Supreme Court on Test Oaths. OEVEN years have elapsed since Lee's surrender, six vZ5 since executive proclamation declared the late rebel- lion concluded throughout our entire domain, four more have intervened since a majority, and two since the last, of the so-called seceded States were restored to their original position with the General Government as before the war ; and yet a numerous portion of the thinking, educated and intelligent men of the above-named States are under the ban of political proscription. They cannot hold office, neither, in some instances, can they vote. The record of such a fact at this period is a humiliating commentary upon the statesmanship of the legislators who assume to represent the American people in the halls of Congress. The asser- tion embodied in their assumption, that the majority of the Northern population are averse to universal amnesty, is, to say the least, a grave mistake of a patent fact, and a slander upon the mature judgment and sound discretion of an in- telligent constituency. It is, indeed, a condition of things truly lamentable that it is still necessary to argue the prop- osition that the continued political proscription of the most capable, experienced portion of the Southern masses, the official ostracism of the greater part of the educated community of eleven of these United States, the political, commercial and industrial interests of one of which are the interests of all, is exceedingly detrimental to our gene- ral prosperity ; that universal amnesty, in short, is impera- tively demanded by every principle of private and public policy ; yea more, that it is absolutely indispensable for the prevention of internal strife and the joinder of present dis- cordant elements for the promotion of both local and national weal. Such, however, is the fact, and the pur- pose of this chapter is to affirm the proposition above stated. AMNESTY. 297 Before proceeding to discuss the subject, either in its abstract or relative bearings, it will be conducive to a better understanding of the same to take a brief survey of the measures whereon the present system of proscription is founded, and trace the limits of its practical operation through the various stages of its existence. This proscrip- tion, as already stated, is of a twofold character namely, official, that is, incapacity to hold office ; and suffragan, that is, inability to vote. Of these in their order. The superficial opinion is 'quite prevalent that the only original official proscription ever imposed upon the late re- bellious portion of our population was by virtue of the third section of the Fourteenth amendment. Nothing could well be farther from the truth. The prescriptive policy was inaugurated and, the element of time being taken into consideration, very properly inaugurated by the act of Congress of July 2, 1862. This act embodies an oath of office of such stringent character, to which, by the terms thereof, "every person elected or appointed to any office of honor or profit under the Government of the United States" must subscribe, that it has been pro- perly denominated the "iron-clad oath." The operation of this act excluded all persons from holding office under the General Government who had participated in or sup- ported the late rebellion. With the exception of the blacks and a very small number of whites, this act consequently incapacitated the entire population of the recently rebel- lious section for holding office under the United States. Thus stood official proscription down to the adoption of the Fourteenth amendment. With the close of the war and the commencement of re- construction Congress conceived the alleged necessity of a more stringent proscription than that created by the act of 1862, above described. For this end the third section of the Fourteenth amendment was devised, the importance of N 1 298 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. which in this connection demands its bodily incorporation herewith namely : " SECTION 3. No person shall be a Senator or Represent- ative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-Presi- dent, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House remove such disability." It will be remembered that the provisions of the test-oath act of 1862 merely precluded all persons of a prior rebel status from holding office under the General Government. The prescriptive feature of the Fourteenth Article, however, although it embraces, it is true, a much smaller yet far more important class, covers a much wider field of official status. It contemplates both official and suffragan proscription. Confining our attention to the former at present, it is seen that this change in our organic law barred all participants in the late rebellion who, as prior members of Congress, officers of the United States, members of State legislatures or executive or judicial officers of any State, had taken an oath to support the national Constitution, from holding any office whatever, either under a State or the United States Government. The third section of the Fourteenth amend- ment, therefore, taken with the test-oath act of 1862, is a cumulative measure of proscription. The test-oath act in- capacitates all late rebels for holding office under the Gen- eral Government ; the Fourteenth Article leaves the test- oath intact, and furthermore denies to all persons named in the third section thereof a very important element the privilege of holding office under either the government of AMNESTY. 299 any State or of the United States. From this official ostra- cism, moreover, so far as these two measures were concerned, there was no exit whatever ; for, although the Fourteenth amendment provided for the removal of disabilities by a two-thirds vote of Congress, still, the original offender, purged in this manner of his contempt, was obliged by the act of 1862 to subscribe to the iron-clad oath therein con- tained namely, that he had never rebelled against the General Government which was, of course, absolutely impossible. Perceiving that the clause of the Fourteenth amendment which provided for the removal of disabilities would thus prove a dead letter, Congress, as soon as the adoption of this article was assured namely, in the spring of 1868 provided by its act of July n of that year that all persons proscribed by the Fourteenth amendment, after procuring a removal of their disabilities by a two- thirds vote of Congress in accordance therewith, might qualify for office by subscribing to a mere oath to support the Constitution of the United States, instead of the iron- clad oath of 1862. Thus in the summer of 1868 stood official proscription in the second stage of its existence namely, the masses of prior rebels were incapacitated by the test-oath act of 1862 for holding office under the Gen- eral Government. A portion of these masses (the parties named in the third section of the Fourteenth amendment) were further disqualified for holding office under any State government, as well as under that of the United States. For the masses proscribed under the test-oath act of 1862 there was no relief. For that portion proscribed under the Fourteenth amendment a door was opened from their offi- cial ostracism by a two-thirds vote of Congress and the privilege of taking the constitutional oath of 1868, instead of the iron-clad oath of 1862. The scheme worked an in- justice, for the masses proscribed under the test-oath act . of 1862 were the rank and file, so to speak, of the late in- 3OO THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. surrectionary faction, and comparatively innocent, while the limited class disqualified by the Fourteenth amendment were the leaders of the rebellion, and pre-eminently guilty. The next change in this system of official proscription was effected by the act of February 15, 1871. This measure provided that all persons elected to office, not incapacitated by the Fourteenth amendment, might qualify therefor by taking the mild constitutional oath of 1868, instead of the iron-clad one of 1862. This removed the cause of injustice above referred to, and placed all offenders, relatively speak- ing, upon a more equal footing. The inconsistency was allowed to stand, however, for nearly three years without the slightest modification. Thus stood official proscription in the spring of 1871, in the third stage of its existence, and thus it stands at the present moment (February, 1872); that is, the great mass of prior rebels under the act of 1871 may qualify for office without any difficulty whatever; the portion proscribed by the Fourteenth amendment may qualify by first procuring the removal of their disabilities by a two-thirds vote of Congress ; and then both classes all prior rebels may be inducted into any office, under the government of any late insurrectionary State or that of the United States, by subscribing to a simple oath to support the national Constitution ; while all non-participants in the late rebellion can enter upon the duties of such offices only by taking the iron-clad oath of 1862. Absurdity so patent requires no remark whatever. Turning now to the matter of suffragan proscription, the gist of the system is found in the third section of the Four- teenth amendment and the reconstruction act of March 2, 1867, and those amendatory thereof. This amendment works suffragan proscription that is, denies the privilege of voting only to the extent of precluding the parties named therein from becoming electors of a President and Vice-President of the United States. In reference to the AMNESTY. 301 restriction placed upon suffrage by the reconstruction acts, a preliminary remark may not be deemed wholly unneces- sary. As the right to regulate suffrage is impliedly left by the national Constitution to the several States, it is evident that when the lately insurrectionary ones were once restored to their original position as before the war no restriction could be placed upon suffrage within their limits except by an amendment to our organic law. As Congress did not see fit to propose such an amendment for ratification, it se- cured, in an indirect manner, a very considerable restric- tion of suffrage in the late rebellious section by means of the reconstruction measures inaugurated by the act of March 2, 1867. These acts provided that the lately insurrection- ary States should not be admitted to their representation in Congress until, among other things, they should have adopted State constitutions which should meet the approval of the national legislature. Acting upon this requirement, these prior rebel States, for the most part, framed constitu- tions whereby a considerable portion of the population who participated in the rebellion are denied the privilege of the elective franchise. These constitutions, in respect to suf- fragan proscription, have been materially modified by sub- sequent amendments. The way is now opened for the examination of Amnesty in both its abstract and relative conditions. At the outset of the present branch of this discussion the inquiry is peculiarly pertinent, What are the causes which render the institution of amnesty necessary, or even desirable? The answer is no less simple than the inter- rogatory is pointed : Amnesty assumes a place in the polity of a nation solely because offences have been com- mitted against its government. The only beneficiaries of such a policy, moreover, are the parties guilty of the offences which amnesty proposes to condone. Amnesty, in short, is pardon for an offending class. These are plain, 26 302 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. homely truths so plain and homely, indeed, that they have been entirely overlooked by men who stand in the halls of Congress and hold the welfare of the country in their grasp. The sentiment, in fact in substance, if not in words has repeatedly found expression from the lips of parties who respond to the appellation of statesmen, that the guilt of our prior rebel population precludes them from laying any claim to amnesty whatever. Does frail humanity seek forgiveness of its Maker on the score of virtue ? Does innocence put up a prayer for pardon ? The affirmative of these inquiries is the precise ground whereon a majority of the opponents of amnesty take their stand. Their position is both an abuse of terms and a stultification of law munici- pal as well as law divine. The deduction is warrantably made from the next pre- ceding paragraph that the direct end of amnesty is pardon by government to offenders against its authority. The thought suggests itself, however, in this connection : Are there no collateral results obtained by the institution of amnesty ? Is the absolution of the guilty the only end which government contemplates in the establishment of such a policy? " 'Who that is not with me is against me,' fell from the same lips which taught that love is the first duty of man," is one of the many elegant apothegms of Frederick Spielhagen, but forgiveness prompted by pure motives of affection is not an attribute of states and govern- ments. It belongs to individuals and God alone. The springs of amnesty, of governmental pardon, are found in the expectation of contingent gain. Nations, so to speak, are but concretions of individuals. Their strength lies in the harmony of the component masses, and their prosperity is dependent, in a great measure, upon the existence of a feeling of common loyalty among its several members. The promotion of this strength and the augmentation of this loyal sentiment are the indirect ends and contingent AMNESTY. 303 gains which amnesty seeks to secure. The existence of this state of harmony and loyal sentiment among the inhabit- ants of a state, moreover, is brought about by the opera- tion of law. Law eventuates in these results in a twofold method. The first is by imperative command ; the second is by the institution of a condition of things whereby the motives which lead to individual action are voluntarily re- formed or changed. Is the first the most productive of the greatest good ? No ! Humanity is not thus constituted. Inducements are far more potent than arbitrary edicts. It is in the second method above defined that amnesty seeks the contingent gains above expressed. Now, how shall it seek the greatest gain? Or, in other words, what grade of amnesty, what measure of pardon, gives the most abundant warrant for national prosperity ? There is but one reply, in the light of the foregoing truths namely : The most complete pardon the fullest amnesty universal amnesty. There is a so-called moral argument put forward in this connection which holds that an absolute refusal of amnesty is in some instances obligatory upon governments, in order to deter the commission of future offences against their authority. The argument is out of place, foreign to the subject to which its authors would tack it. It belongs to the science of purely criminal law, the infliction of penalties upon parties guilty of crime involving moral turpitude un- mixed with political motives. Political offences, under every government and in all countries, have never been classed or treated as absolute crimes. Their treatment has always been in the light of policy much more than with a view of punishment. In connection with unqualified crime this so-called moral argument is both pertinent and whole- some. In connection with political offence it is, so to speak, entirely per gratia, an enforcement of dwarfed states- manship, a mere argument of simple selfish vengeance. It is the treatment of political offences merely, and not crimes, 304 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. with which amnesty has to do. The remembrance of this fact avoids the mistake of the promulgators of the theory above described. In the light of these abstract principles we are prepared to examine the subject of amnesty as connected with the immediate status of political affairs in these United States. The reason why future amnesty is sought by offenders against our national authority is due to the fact of past pro- scription. The method of such proscription was detailed in the opening remarks of this discussion. A brief exami- nation of the merits of this proscriptive policy, and of the ends it sought to accomplish, is necessary in this connec- tion. The initiatory measure of proscription as provided in the test-oath act of 1862 was purely a politic institution. It in no way contemplated a punishment of the faction engaged in the rebellion. It was designed to bar the participants therein from obtaining office and power under the General Governmeirt, whereby their unjust and rebel- lious schemes might be carried to a more successful issue. At that crisis of our history, moreover, the measure was eminently sound and wholesome. It was a simple compli- ance with the law of self-preservation. The country was in the midst of unprecedented and indeterminate civil war, and its chosen guardians were bound by their official oaths, as well as by every reason of justice, to closely hedge the gateways which led to places of official honor and trust. The next succeeding measures of this proscriptive policy are found in the third section of the Fourteenth amend- ment and the constitutional oath act of 1868. The charac- ter of these institutions was fully stated in the early part of this discussion. At the period of their conception even, without reference to the time of their adoption, the late rebellion was, to all intents and purposes, entirely con- cluded. With this fact in view the inquiry is pertinent, AMNESTY. 3O5 What were the ends contemplated by these second measures of our prescriptive policy? Were they devised as a mea- sure of punishment, or for purely politic purposes, or for both combined? Undoubtedly the latter, and in both respects they were pre-eminently defective. These meas- ures were characterized by motives of policy, in that they sought the continued ascendency of the party in power. They contemplated a means of punishment in the proscrip- tion of the more prominent classes of the South. Let us look, for a moment, at the feasibility of these measures in this double aspect and in the order above named. At the date of their contemplated procurement the paramount need of the entire country was the establishment of a firm, comprehensive, conciliatory government for the Southern States one which should afford ample protection for every class, it is true, but one, moreover, which should not alien- ate or estrange any section. This was the policy which imperatively demanded adoption in the spring of 1866. Was its perfection properly provided for in the two prescrip- tive measures last named, the third section of the Four- teenth amendment and the constitutional oath act of 1868? In no possible manner can the inquiry be affirmed. These features of our more general reconstruction scheme gave the entire control of the delicate and stupendous task of re-establishing State governments throughout the South into the hands of people who, for the most part, although just released from the bonds of slavery, were completely ham- pered with the fetters of ignorance. From all share in this important work the intelligent and experienced masses of the South were entirely excluded. It would seem to re- quire no argument to prove that the delicate machinery of government could not be organized by such a motive- poxver. At the present epoch of our history it is certainly not required. The governmental status of the lately re- IxMlious states is an all-sufficient commentary thereon. 3O6 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. The point is raised in this connection that the substantial results of the war would have been virtually abandoned without the proscription imposed by the third section of the Fourteenth Article of our organic law. Taking from the Fourteenth amendment its prescriptive section, and substituting nothing in its stead, the proposition is perfectly tenable and correct. Otherwise not. The gist of the ar- gument is, that in the absence of this proscription the State governments of the South would have passed entirely under the control of the old promulgators and leaders of the re- bellion that the blacks would have been denied a voice in their construction and management, and the ascendency of the Republican party put in jeopardy. The continued as- cendency of that party in 1866, as now or rather the principles of which the party was and is declared to be the exponent was an end greatly to be desired. But neither a continued lease of power to this political organization nor the political status of the blacks was secured by proscrip- tion. On the contrary, both were imperiled. These pre- scriptive measures arrayed the intelligent masses of the South the arch-rebels, if this appellation is more satis- factory in direct and open hostility against not only the prior slave element, but the General Government, and there- by the Republican party. It was like establishing a hostile army of occupation, composed of the very forces necessary for co-operation in the general work of reconstruction, in our own territory. The scheme failed, and it deserved to fail, ignobly and irretrievably. The pathway out of the surrounding difficulties of 1866 (that is, if we were to have universal suffrage) was perfectly simple and apparent. No proscription, universal amnesty, the direct declaratory pro- vision of the Fifteenth amendment instead of the hesitating, indirect threatening voice of the Fourteenth Article as to suf- frage for the blacks, and a rigorous election law to protect voters at the polls and render fraudulent ballots impossible. AMNESTY. SO/ A plain, firm and yet conciliatory policy of this sort would have made the Southern people a unit, promoted a spirit of loyalty for the General Government, sustained the Repub- lican party, and immeasurably enhanced the general pros- perity of the country. Turning now to this proscriptive policy as a means of punishment, very little need be said. It was wholly in- adequate. If punishment was to be meted out to the par- ticipants in the late rebellion, the scheme of proscription was in no way appreciable of its necessary extent. As a punitive measure it was merely tantalizing, annoying and productive of sectional strife and discord. If the prior rebel population were to suffer a penalty for their revolt, the only one of sufficient dignity to demand enforcement, on the score of barring future rebellion, was either banish- ment or death. Opposed to this alternative there was no other tenable ground but absolute and unlimited pardon. For governments, at least, if not for individuals, enemies are best despatched or made friends. It was of all follies the most absurd to place thousands of intelligent and think- ing men, who were to live under the Government of the United States, and form innumerable and indissoluble com- mercial and social relations with the inhabitants of other sections, in a position where they could be possessed of no othei possible motive but to rebel. Moreover, many of the proscribed masses of the South, indeed, regarded their political ostracism as a sort of grim dignity, an insignia of paramount importance, while in the remaining portion it only engenders feelings of hatred on account of its trivial import as compared with the gravity of their offence. Thus much for the measures of proscription and their al- leged merits. Attention will now be directed to present and future needs as connected with their further existence. The problem now demanding solution at the hands of American statesmen is the present and future material pros- 308 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. perity of the country. We are dealing or rather should deal with the promotion of present and future interests, instead of remembrance of past misfortunes or the nature and existence of prior disagreements. The more especial wants of the country, as suggested by this question of material weal, are best seen in the present condition of affairs at the South. A more humiliating burlesque upon government could scarce be imagined than that presented by several of the lately rebellious States. The ignorant masses into whose hands was exclusively committed the work of reconstructing governments for this section of the country have, as a matter of course, proved wholly incom- petent for the task. It is difficult to determine whether the country has suffered most by their ignorance or credu- lity. The former has rendered them entirely incompetent for the places of trust to which our prescriptive policy has elected them, and the latter has opened a door through which Northern adventurers of the most contemptible stamp have been able to secure appointments to public office, and make use of their official positions for the sole purpose of advancing their individual and nefarious schemes. The States of Georgia and South Carolina, indeed, have been plunged into almost hopeless and irremediable bank- ruptcy by reason of the fact that Northern men, claiming to represent the principles and honesty of the Republican party, have warily invested themselves with the control of their governments, unwarrantably and illegally issued cer- tificates of public indebtedness, negotiated them at a ruin- ous sacrifice, and, it is openly alleged and not disproved, largely availed themselves of the proceeds. These are a part of the legitimate fruits of proscription. But only a part. The Ku-klux Klans which have for the past year infested portions of the Southern States are the natural off- spring of our prescriptive policy. Their diabolical creeds and practices were immediately suggested by the system . AMNESTY. 309 which consigned them to political banishment and invested their former subordinates with the exclusive possession of official power. If we pause at this juncture and cast about us for the initiatory remedy which shall remove this ulcer from the heart of our material prosperity, the search can eventuate but in one result. The pathway out of these difficulties is the same now as it was in the spring of 1866, with the ex- ception that one obstruction to its passage has been re- moved. At that period, and after the ratification of the Fourteenth amendment even, the blacks were not secure in the exercise of the elective franchise. Whether they should vote or no depended entirely upon the peculiar policy of the particular State wherein they were resident. The Fif- teenth amendment, and the act of Congress for its enforce- ment, however, have placed the suffragan privilege of the prior slave population beyond the reach of State or local supervision, and transformed it into an absolute right. This change defeats the alleged force of the 'objection noticed in a prior part of this discussion, that proscription is necessary to secure the substantial benefits of the war that without it the former rebel element would mould the struc- ture and shape the policy of the governments of the Southern States in accordance with their own exclusive will. The question is not susceptible of doubt. The preliminary step which will most effectually inaugurate a return of the ma- terial prosperity of the entire country is the remedy which should have been applied in 1866, as hereinbefore stated. The appropriation for further space of its represcription is entirely unnecessary. It is universal amnesty. Its institution at this late day, even, would disband the Ku-klux, render further and similar organizations absolutely impossible, conciliate the now opposing factions of the South, trans- form the present and powerful proscribed classes from enemies to friends, give honest intelligence a share in the 3IO THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. administration of the public business and politics of the lately rebellious States, and completely reunite the indus- trial and commercial interests of the whole repoblic. There is nothing to be gained and much to be lost by making even a single exception. If we mistal-e not, every applicant at least very nearly every one who has applied to Congress for the removal of disabilities imposed by the proscriptive section of the Fourteenth amendment has been granted his prayer. Even General Longstreet, one of the most powerful leaders of the rebelli jn, was not denied ; and the closer the lines of our prosci - hc opinion had forced to resign on account of alleged 30 354 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. irregular and disgraceful practices, which charges were not at the time, and never have been, disproved. The motive- power, let it be remembered, which induces this unwhole- some conduct is a prospect of a position in the civil ser- vice of the nation. Strictly germane to this general sub-subject is the matter of political assessments. They constitute, indeed, one of the most powerful levers by which the irregular measures of the civil service scheme are carried to a successful con- summation. It is wholly unnecessary to indulge in a spe- cific statement of details in this particular. The system is not a secret, but an open and defiant institution of itself, and the Federal servants are annually taxed in a sum equal in amount to from two to ten per cent, of their yearly in- come for purposes already described. The matter is here alluded to, for the sake of completeness, as one of the glar- ing defects of the present system. It will again receive attention when the essentials of a needed reform shall en- gage our consideration. To conclude this brief examination of the defects of this system, a slight allusion will be made to the enervating effect it has upon individual character, the consequent at- tendant prejudice to the service, and the propriety of a healthy esprit de corps in political organizations. In reference to the first, relatively speaking, there is not a position in which an individual can be placed which is so derogatory to every sense of manhood, so prejudicial to every feeling of personal responsibility, so destructive to every sentiment of honest independence, as a place in the civil service of the United States. The above is of course impliedly qualified by the hypothesis that the members maintain an undoubted spirit of party- fealty. Upon this supposition an escape from the total demolition of the at- tributes of private character above mentioned is wellnigh impossible. The system, indeed, is a slavery of the most CIVIL SERVICE. 355 contemptible sort namely, that of honest thought and in- dividual opinion. The assertion of the right to differ even, although such difference may not be declared, with the leaders of the party upon any matter of political concern, means an expulsion from the service without any other cause or pretext whatever. There are honorable excep- tions, of course, but in view of this fact, this utter subser- vience of thought and action which is demanded from its members, the service attracts to the performance of its duties men of a mere time-serving spirit, parties who are willing to sacrifice their political principles, if necessary, for the promotion of party weal. It cannot be otherwise. Intelligent citizens, generally speaking, have too high a regard for the right of mental liberty to offer it as a com- modity in exchange for the means of an ordinary subsist- ence. The consequence is, that the system not only mili- tates against the stability of private character, but its defects recoil upon the interests of the nation which the service is intended to promote, by reason of the reputation of the parties who are alone willing to assume the discharge of its duties. The foregoing receives abundant corroboration in the admitted fact that one-fourth of the public revenues is squandered in the process of collection. In no respect whatever, in the prior consideration of this subject, has an intendment been made to criticise private individuals or the separate, several members of our civil service. The general statements hereinbefore declared are, all of them, of course, subject to frequent and important exceptions. There are very many instances where both important and unimportant positions in this branch of the Government are not only occupied but adorned by men of sterling integrity, practical acquirements and unquestion- able ability. Wherever such exceptions occur, however, they are wholly due to the fact that their political senti- ments are in actual and voluntary instead of forced accord 356 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. with those of the party which directs the General Govern- ment. This discussion must not be construed, moreover, into a declaration against party organization and the fostering of party spirit in the management of political affairs. Such organization and such an esprit de corps are absolutely indispensable, both for the ennoblement of politics and the welfare of the nation. There are two bases, however, to which party fealty and organism owe their origin. One is essentially sound and wholesome the other is intrinsically defective and corrupt. One is unqualifiedly right the other is absolutely wrong. The first is the maintenance and promotion of a principle the second is the advance- ment of individual gain. That the former shall exist in party limits to the total exclusion of the latter is one of the problems which republican institutions are expected to solve. That this end is being removed, instead of approx- imated, by our present system of civil service, is what the foregoing remarks have essayed to maintain, and not that party spirit and organism are enemies of the public weal. Abstractly, they are a blessing relatively, they may be a curse. An approximate statement will now be made -of the number of officials engaged in the civil service, and their aggregate salaries, when the requirements of a needed reform in this department will engage attention : State. No. Service. Compensation. 5 Executive Attaches $13,800.00 1 Secretary of Stale 8,000.00 2 Assistant Secretaries of State.. 7,000.00 46 Attaches of State Department 59,520.00 35 Foreign Ministers 331,750.00 310 Consuls and Consular Agents 400,000.00 52 Ministerial and Consular Attaches 84,825.00 CIVIL SERVICE. 357 No. Service. Compensation. 1 8 Officials of Territories (Governors, etc.).... 40,000.00 225 Attaches of Senate and House 355,144.40 694 Total $1,300,039.40 Mail. I Postmaster-General $8,000.00 3 Assistant Postmasters-General 10,500.00 31,000 Postmasters 6,000,000.00 6,292 Miscellaneous officials 5,500,000.00 37,296 Total $11,518,500.00 Interior. I Secretary of the Interior $8,000.00 I Assistant Secretary 3,500.00 1650 Miscellaneous officials 2,000,000.00 1652 Total $2,011,500.00 Military. I Secretary of War $8,000.00 350 Attaches of Department 450,000.00 351 Total $458,000.00 Naval. I Secretary of the Navy $8,000.00 89 Attaches of Department 120,000.00 90 Total ...$128,000.00 Judicial. I Attorney-General $8,000.00 I Solicitor-General 7,500.00 3 Assistant Attorneys-General 5,000.00 I Solicitor of Internal Revenue 5,000.00 I Naval Solicitor 3,500.00 I Solicitor of the Treasury 5,000.00 I Assistant Solicitor of the Treasury 3,000.00 34 Attaches of Department of Justice 46,570.00 I Chief- Justice of United Slates Supreme Court 8,500.00 358 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. No. Service. Compensation. 8 Associate Justices $64,000.00 9 Circuit Court Judges 54,000.00 52 District " " .... 189,500.00 I Reporter of United States Supreme Court.... 2,500.00 I Marshal " " " " 3,500.00 I Chief- Justice Supreme Court of Dist. Columbia 4,500.00 4 Associate Judges 16,000.00 5 Judges of United States Court of Claims. 20,000.00 4 Attaches of " " " " 7,340.00 27 Judges of Territorial Courts 81,000.00 63 United States District Attorneys 19,150.00 56 " " Marshals 11,700.00 275 Total $575,260.00 Treasury. 1 Secretary of Treasury $8,000.00 2 Assistant Secretaries 7,000.00 2 Comptrollers 8,000.00 I Commissioner of Customs 3,000.00 6 Auditors 18,000.00 I Treasurer 6,500.00 1 Assistant Treasurer 2,800.00 2 Cashiers 5,300.00 2 Registers of Treasury 5,000.00 2 Comptrollers of Currency 7,500.00 4 Commissioners of Internal Revenue 15,500.00 2300 Attaches of Treasury Department proper.. 2,760,000.00 100 Attaches of Coast Survey 120,000.00 650 Attaches of Lighthouses 585,000.00 140 Assessors of Internal Revenue 350,000.00 241 Collectors of Internal Revenue 723,000.00 157 Local Treasury officials 251,200.00 48 United States Depositaries 72,000.00 50 United States Mail officials 100,000.00 198 Port Appraisers of Merchandise & Attaches 237,600.00 3500 Customs officials 6,500,000.00 300 Miscellaneous 450,000.00 7708 Total $12,235,400.00 CIVIL SERVICE. 359 Recapitulation. Service. Number of Officials. Compensation. State 694 $1,300,039.40 Mail ,. 37,296 11,518,500.00 Interior 1,652 2,011,500.00 Military 351 458,000.00 Naval 90 128,000.00 Judicial 275 575,260.00 Treasury 7Jo8 12,235,400.00 Grand Total 48,066 $28,226.699.40 The foregoing statement, as intimated in the outset, does not assume to be strictly accurate. Such a statement, for various reasons, would be quite impossible. The service is constantly varying in every particular above alluded to, and the means of information are not only more or less uncer- tain, but somewhat difficult of access. The preceding details, to some extent, have been reached by estimate, but such estimates, confined as they are within comparatively narrow limits, are based upon data furnished the author by the several Departments of the General Government, and the table may be relied on as approximately correct. The remark is ventured with the utmost confidence that its errors are not those of exaggeration. At every step of the tedious investigation by which this statement was secured the utmost care was taken to confine the enumeration and salaries of officials within the maximum limit, and whenever doubt or uncertainty arose the conclusion was that of a minimum character. The table, moreover, only includes such mem- bers of the service as secure their positions by appointment, and does not embrace those who are less directly in Gov- ernment employ. For instance, there are eight thousand mail contractors, and many sub-officials of the postal ser- vice, who are employed by regular appointees of the De- partment, that do not appear in the foregoing table. The same is true of all the other branches of the service, such 360 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. as deputy collectors and mere ministerial assistants to local officials. The author has made an estimate, upon Depart- mental data, of the number actually engaged in the civil service of the Government, both directly by appointment and otherwise, and the conclusion arrived at warrants the statement that fully one hundred thousand people are so employed. The Post-office Department alone was of the opinion that its attaches would equal the number above given, but the author's estimate, guided at all times by minimum calculations, resulted in the conclusion above stated. It will be noticed that the table does not assume to give a detailed statement of either the manner of appointment or the different grades of the members of the service. Such a course would have both exceeded the limits and pre- judiced the relevancy of this discussion. In reference to the first, the President appoints all the more prominent officials separately named under the different headings of the table, subject to the confirmation of the Senate. These iriclude cabinet and foreign ministers, consuls and consular agents, heads of bureaus, collectors of customs, major internal revenue officials, postmasters whose salaries exceed one thousand dollars per annum, land commissioners, superintendents of Indian affairs, Indian agents, etc. etc. These presidential appointments are about two thousand eight hundred in number, and the same consist of about twelve hundred postmasters, two hundred and twenty-five officials of the three classes last above named, three hun- dred and fifty members of the diplomatic service, two hun- dred and seventy-five members of the judiciary, and the remainder mostly relate to the business connected with the Department of Finance. The other members of the ser- vice are appointed by heads of Departments or major local officials, subject, in most cases, to the approval of some official of a higher rank, such as the chief of one particular CIVIL SERVICE. 361 Department, bureau or branch. For instance, the attaches of the customs service are appointed by the collectors of the various ports, subject to the confirmation of the Secre- tary of the Treasury. So far as the grades of these officials are concerned, it is only in the Mail and Interior services that the same are very much condensed by the enumeration in the table. The first includes clerks in post-offices, letter- carriers, route-agents, railway-office clerks, mail-route mes- sengers, and local and special agents, while the second embraces the attaches of the Pension, Patent, Indian, Agricultural and Educational bureaus. The way is now opened for the discussion of a reform in the present system. This branch of the general topic has been made the subject of extended comment by various journals and periodicals, and although necessarily, for the most part, of a somewhat vague and desultory character, many valuable suggestions have thereby been brought to the attention of the public mind. Up to the present time, however (the spring of 1872), the assertion is ventured that a feasible, practical system of civil service, in extenso, has not resulted from the labors of those who have given the matter special thought and consideration. The author's treatment of the subject may eventuate in suggestions equally if not more impracticable than those above men- tioned. . The problem is not easy of solution, and the annexed remarks are offered, not as the expression of means which would put our civil service upon an entirely healthy footing, but as those which would closely approximate to that end. Perfection is the result of experience and not of theory, and here, as in every instance of a similar nature, such an end must be reached by the double process of analysis and synthesis, and not by either alone. In other words, a system must be built upon existing facts, instead of speculative or hypothetical propositions. Consti- tutions, charters, governments, and all rules of action 31 Q 362 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. which stand the test of time, are learned and not devised. A reform in our system of civil service, if it is to live, must be based upon the idea of removing the past causes which have created its present evils, and not be predicated upon the basis of mere invention. The first is indeed reform the latter is merely change. These prefatory statements will most rigorously govern the following discussion. The evils of the present system are due entirely to the motives which direct its management. There are- two methods of attempting their correction. One is by arbi- trary, prohibitory law the other by removing the cause which generates the motive by changing the springs of action which control the management of the service. The first is never, the latter always, entirely effective. This general principle has received repeated expression in prior discussions in this work, but its importance gives abundant excuse for its reiteration whenever its application is deemed advisable. In pursuance of this principle, a series of propositions will now be stated, which, if put in practice, would greatly reform our present system, if not entirely cure it of its many defects. These propositions, which will be discussed sufficiently at length hereafter, are 1. One term for the President of the United States; 2. Forbid Congressional recommendation for office ; 3. Make heads of Departments and other appointing agencies ineligible for office under the General Govern- ment during the next succeeding Administration ; 4. Elect such local officials as postmasters, collectors of customs and assessors and collectors of internal revenue ; 5. Forbid members of the service from holding any other office, under either a State or the United States, during the rule of the Administration by which they are appointed, and also from engaging in State politics further than exer- cising the right of suffrage ; CIVIL SERVICE. 363 6. Forbid political assessments upon members of the service ; 7. Establish a tenure of office for members of the service, to hold, upon condition of good behavior, till removal by the next Administration ; 8. Pay larger salaries ; 9. Apportion all offices, except cabinet ministers, foreign ministers, Territorial and scientific officials, members of the judiciary, heads of bureaus and branches, and such per- sonal assistants as private secretaries, among the several States ; 10. Fill all offices, except those mentioned in the fourth and ninth paragraphs, by drawing names, upon the basis of an apportionment as above stated, from the inhabitants of the several States, counties, cities, towns and villages, irrespective of party, upon a principle similar to that by which trial-juries are selected, and from such list let the appointing agency make its nomination ; 11. Exclude all newspaper attache's from positions in the service ; 12. Establish a Government journal or periodical for the publication of the laws. Comment will now be offered on each of these proposi- tions, with the attempt to show not only that, taken to- gether, they conform to the general principle of successful reform stated in the outset, but also that they strike at the root of all the major evils of the present system, and tend to the establishment of a civil service institution for the General Government which would be at the same time healthy, satisfactory, adequate and substantial. Before at- tention is separately directed to the propositions above stated a little general remark is pertinent as to the feasi- bility of the entire scheme. It will be readily noticed that the same cannot be legally effected by the interposition of mere statute law. For the attainment of this end a change 364 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. in the national Constitution would be imperative. The change, however, would not be difficult to secure, as it would operate to establish equality of opportunity, and would be, in every respect, in perfect consonance with the genius and spirit of our institutions. The precise limits of this change will be hereafter noticed ; the point is here alluded to for the purpose of disarming unnecessary and fruitless criticism. Of the several propositions in their respective order. I . One Term for the President of the United States. This is a principle which requires no discussion at the hands of the author to prove either its necessity or advan- tage. It draws to its consideration no charm of novelty, but its eminent desirability has waxed instead of waned under the almost ceaseless criticism which its maintenance has provoked. If the prejudicial effect of the present sys- tem upon the chief executive, and through him upon the politics and national prosperity of the nation, as stated in a prior portion of this chapter, is for a moment recalled, a little impartial reflection cannot possibly fail to show how complete an eradication of the evils there stated the adop- tion of this provision would secure. Humanity is, at best, imperfect, and the President of the United States cannot be reasonably supposed to form an exception to the general rule. With the possibility placed before him of occupying the administrative chair of the nation for a second term, history proves that much of his time and attention is de- voted to the attainment of that end. The hope of such success, indeed, shapes the entire policy of his Government, and the record of every Administration since 1829, with the exception perhaps of Mr. Lincoln's, is impartially given in the statement that the civil service of the nation has been completely prostituted by the chief executive to CIVIL SERVICE. 365 the purpose of re-election. The power which he wields in this direction, in the way of Governmental patronage, is al- most inappreciable, for although he directly appoints only about three thousand members of the service, yet his imme- diate appointees select the remainder, and his influence is thus felt to the extreme outpost of the army of officials which makes up the entire force. Taking into considera- tion the amount of money obtained by political assessments of civil service officials, and the sum paid for salaries, the President's power for re-election is measured by the efforts of one hundred thousand sworn supporters and the annual distribution of one hundred millions of dollars. This power is used, shamefully used, and never so much so as at present. The effect of making the President of the United States ineligible for a second term is self-apparent. His leading ambition in that event, instead of an aim to extend the term of his personal elevation, would be to so administer the affairs of the nation that, when the insignia of his of- fice should be laid aside, no man could point to a blot upon his official record or give evidence of a mistake in his Ad- ministration. He would, in short, to use a homely but ex- pressive phrase, be put upon his honor, and entirely beyond the reach of sinister motives or unscrupulous men. Con- gressmen might clamor, politicians might importune, and friends even might press their claims fora place in the civil service of the nation, but all alike would be powerless to mould the will or gain, the favor of executive power. Aside from his meagre salary, reputation would be the President's sole emolument, and his position (purely selfish, but emphatically wholesome) would be, "Gentlemen, stand aloof! I hold the highest honor in the gift of the world, and that for the only time. My official career is drawing to a close, and no man shall be appointed to a place of public duty or trust unless he can answer the demands of II 306 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. the people who elected me, reflect honor upon my Admin- istration and credit upon myself." There is one objection which will be made to this propo- sition, which, if tenable, would attach to more of the re- maining ones above stated. It will be referred to now in a general sense, once for all, although circumstances will require its more special attention hereafter. It is this : The plea is made that a man who has served in an offiqial position for a single term is better fitted for the discharge of its duties than one who is inexperi- enced, and therefore a re-election should not be made impossible. Applied to the legislative department of our Government, the point is partially pertinent, and is fully met by the constitutional provision which bars a change in the Senate at the same time beyond the limit of one- third of its members. This, moreover, is abundantly suf- ficient, and should not be extended to the lower branch of the national legislature. The American republic is one of progress, and is constantly developing new interests, which our history has proved are better served by changes in legislative representation than by continued adherence to the same officials of this particular description. This is not all. Intelligence is the only true title of nobility in the United States. Its possession is the greatest desideratum of every well-balanced American mind, and the extent of intellectual attainments is augmented with the passage of every decade and doubled with every successive generation. We know no impossibility, and present servants of the na- tion are, with us, never the only ones who can adequately fill the position. Buffon has with partial truth remarked, that "genius is only a protracted patience." However defect- ive the philosopher's aphorism as an unqualified rule, cer- tain it is that genius, whatever it is, is greatly enhanced by education, and to this end American institutions are con- stantly tending. Whenever occasion requires there may CIVIL SERVICE. 367 always be found, in the educated ranks of the American people, Presidents, Senators and Representatives equally as able, efficient and honest as the then present incumbents, and with our present system of civil service, by means of which all three are the component parts of a political bar- gain, a good deal more so. As applied to the chief execu- tive, moreover, the argument is entirely overborne by the advantages, already expressed, to be derived from a one- term principle. The ground traversed will not be re- viewed. The prejudice, if any, sustained by the public service during the brief interval in which a newly-elected President is grasping the reins of government is as nothing compared with that which results from the abuses already described under our present system. Beside all this, there is an argument of a purely abstract character. Rotation in office is one of the fundamental elements of republican gov- ernments. It is one of the boundary-lines, indeed, be- tween republican and monarchical rule. An argument for a continued fixity of official tenure is an argument for a change from the former to the latter a plea for power in the hands of a few to the exclusion of the many, for oligar- chy and aristocracy instead of self-government and equality. It cannot have force this side of the Atlantic. "The sea of liberty is always stormy," it is true, but it is an element of agitation which always purifies and never corrupts an exponent of healthy life instead of withering decay. 2. Forbid Congressional Recommendation for Office. Upon this isolated point very little need be said. The proposition does not have its origin here, but is due to Lyman Trumbull. It is perfectly germane to the one-term principle just dismissed, and with it goes hand in hand. In this connection, as in the next preceding one, a detailed recurrence will not be had to the evils of the present system as connected with our national legislators. They arc well 368 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. remembered. They may be all summed up in the single statement that the first and best efforts of Senators and Rep- resentatives are given to the procurement of places in the civil service for their constituents in order to secure a re- election, and that the real interests of the country are thereby neglected. The effect of the proposed regulation is capable of a definition equally brief with the evils of the opposite rule now in force. The members of Congress would be placed upon an independent and immovable foot- ing, and would be judged of solely by their merit, instead of by their services in begging offices of the President and several Departments. Upon their fidelity, ability and ac- tual fitness for their high positions would alone hinge their prospects of re-election, and they would go before the people and the country upon no collateral or inferior issues. There would be no official debit-and-credit account between them and the electors, and the rivals who would essay to succeed them would have no bribe of "spoils" to hold out for votes to accomplish their purpose. A single objection is yet to be raised to the proposition, but a quasi one will be anticipated before the same is dismissed. The question may be asked, Why should not members of Congress be made ineligible for a second term as well as the chief executive? The cases are not at all parellel. They are indeed hardly similar. Members of Congress can never actually appoint the President of the United States always can. The above fact furnishes a key to the entire position. The President appoints, Congressmen recom- mend. The former made ineligible for re-election, the motive for bad appointments is destroyed. The latter for- bidden to recommend, improper means for the continuance of their official status are placed beyond their reach. The evil is removed. The scheme goes to the extent of existing facts. Beyond that, as stated in the outset, this discussion does not tend. CIVIL SERVICE. 369 3. Make Heads of Departments and other Appoint- ing Agencies Ineligible for Office under the General Government during the Next Succeeding Adminis- tration. The principle which underlies this proposition is precisely similar to that upon which a single term of office for the chief executive is demanded. The cases are not in every or even many respects parallel, but the same motives govern the action of one as the other. The President seeks a re- election to the same official position the parties above named are looking for an advancement of their political status. As already seen, these last named hold the gift of twenty-five thousand offices in their hands. They hold this prerogative, however, with an express condition attached to the exercise thereof namely, that they so use it as to secure the promotion of the personal aims of their chief. In any event his success is theirs, so far as the assurance of their immediate official tenure is concerned, for the next succeed- ing Administration. The power of these officials upon the politics of the nation is, in fact, twofold. Their appoint- ments to office, while they tend to advance the interests of the chief executive, operate still more forcibly to promote their own, and the immense patronage of Government which it is their privilege to bestow is abundantly sufficient to secure for them almost any reasonable advancement to which they may aspire. The result is injurious in the ex- treme. With the exception, here and there, of an isolated instance, there is a constant bargaining of spoils and place between these officials and their constituents, the considera- tion of which is unremitting effort for the personal aggrand- izement of the former, for which labor, moreover, the Gen- eral Government that is, the people pay the stipulated com- pensation. A little reflection cannot but make it apparent that such a change as this would do away with much of the evil of the present system. This proposition, indeed, is in Q2 37O THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. two respects a cumulative remedy. Taken in connection with the first one above stated, it helps to remove the President from the influence of improper motives by taking from him powerful means of advancement; and within itself it operates not only to check these officials from giving aid to the chief executive, but also from securing their personal elevation. And this for the simple reason that, as they would be ineligible to official position under the General Government for the next succeeding four years, the sole benefit to be obtained from their office, aside from their petty salary, would be the safety of their good name and the enhancement of their individual honor. Any difficulty which seemingly attaches to the working of this principle is entirely dispelled by the operation of the eighth and ninth propositions above stated. The first, properly adjusted, would overbear the reluctance to be banished from official power under the General Govern- ment for a period of four years, and the latter would render offence to any party or class absolutely impossible, save through the inherent meanness or moral turpitude of the ruling official. A single word as to the period and character of official ineligibility prescribed by the proposition now under con- sideration. It will be noticed that the proscription does not attach to official place under the government of any State. That would seem both wholly unnecessary and manifestly unwarrantable. The remedy, in preventing im- proper elevation to office under the General Government, goes to the extent of the evil under examination, and be- yond that this discussion has nothing to do. The period of such proscription, moreover, is sufficiently long to ren- der wholly unavailable any effort of these officials while in office to further their own ends when such period shall have passed, and yet not so greatly extended as to exclude men of proper capacity and reputation from accepting appoint- CIVIL SERVICE. 3/1 ments to such positions, provided the pecuniary emoluments are made reasonably adequate. 4. Elect such Local Officials as Postmasters, Collectors of Customs and Assessors and Collectors of Internal Revenue. The principle which characterizes this proposition is two- fold namely : it gives to the people the right of choosing such officials as are intrusted with the discharge of duties of a purely local character, and takes from the executive department of Government the distribution of a large amount of official patronage. It not only gives to the people what is manifestly an essential right namely, that of choosing such persons as they see fit to administer the restricted internal affairs of their respective localities but also takes from the national Administration some of the most powerful levers which have ever been applied to con- tinue its ascendency. The appointment of the members of the service above named by the executive department ever has and in a great measure during the latter portion of the present Administration been entirely governed by the sup- posed ability of the appointees to manipulate the machinery of local politics in the interest of the chief executive and his sworn adherents. This is especially true of the customs department. This discussion assumes to deal with princi- ples alone, and not with individuals in any single particular (to such a course it cannot condescend), and the following citation of facts in support of the proposition now under consideration must be viewed strictly from such a stand- point. Reference is had to the abuse of the customs ser- vice by the present Administration at the ports of New York, Troy, New Orleans and those of Alabama. If our political history was entirely barren of other instances of maladministration in this direction, the course of our exe- cutive department since the commencement of the year 3/2 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 1871 has more than sufficed to render the change here ad- vocated absolutely imperative. To say that the policy pur- sued has been merely unwise and injudicious would be simply an abuse of terms. It has been positively disgrace- ful, scandalous and defiantly illegal. The management of the customs business of the ports above named, to say nothing of similar proceedings in other States, since the period above named, furnishes one of the most revolting exhibitions of the prostitution of the public business and the squandering the people's money for. the promotion of personal aims which this or any other country has ever witnessed. It is a pungent commentary upon the present system an unanswerable argument to the theory that influ- ence shall govern the appointments to our civil service a striking illustration of the exchange of spoils for political labor an open, unblushing example of the employment of adventurers by the executive department of the United States to further the personal interests of its chiefs ; for >yhich end the people have been taxed and the public revenues misapplied. Extension of this particular argument is wholly unneces- sary. The benefit to be derived from the change now proposed has been clearly foreshadowed by the considera- tion of the three prior propositions. They are integral and indissoluble parts of a system which has for its end the destruction of motives for improper conduct, the removal of both appointors and appointees from unwholesome influ- ence, and the neutralization of personal ambition for future individual- gain. A single word is pertinent upon the subject of civil ser- vice elections in the abstract. They should be closely confined within the designated limits of this discussion ; that is, they should only attach to the choice of officials who administer purely local interests, as distinguished from those with which the people of the collective States are co^ CIVIL SERVICE. 373 cerned. In not a single instance should they extend to either the choice of members of the judiciary or to the selection of officers who are to serve the country at large, such as foreign ministers, consuls general, etc. etc. The reason of this is evident and unimpeachable. The evils of an elective judiciary are too well and generally known to require recital in this connection, and the intimate rela- tions of such officials as are above named with the execu- tive department, from which they receive both general and special instructions, render it eminently fitting that their choice should rest with the President, while the ineligibility of the latter for a second term gives abundant warrant of wise and discreet appointments. 5. Forbid Members of the Service from holding any other Office, under either a State or the United States, during the Rule of the Administration by 'which they were Appointed, and also from Engaging in State Politics further than Exercising the Right of Suf- frage. The above principle, to what extent it is unnecessary to detail, is partially provided for by existing laws. Its object is sole, single and clearly apparent. It seeks to prevent the possibility of making civil service officials tools in the hands of the appointing agencies for the attainment of their personal ends. With the various provisions of ineligibility stated in the outset, this proposition is a cumu- lative remedy, and the seventh one renders the otherwise objectionable character of the quasi proscription entirely nugatory. It has, like some other features of the entire scheme, a constitutional aspect, which, in connection with the others, will receive a collective consideration farther on. 6. Forbid Political Assessments. Upon this point also very little need be said. As to its justice, argument is quite unnecessary, ami its jxilicy the 32 374 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. slightest reflection will readily affirm. It is designed to place the members of the service upon an independent footing, bar the appointing agencies from securing illegal means for their future aggrandizement, and, with the pro- visions of ineligibility before mentioned, together with the tenure established by the seventh proposition of the scheme, would not run counter to a single interest or clash with any direct or collateral institution of the service. 7. Establish a Tenure of Office for Members of the Service, to hold, upon Condition of Good Behavior, till Removal by the next Succeeding Administration. The object hereby sought is identical with that described in the next preceding paragraph, and is an essential feature of the entire scheme now under discussion. The conditions thereby imposed upon members of the service are, in some respects, somewhat exacting, and should be offset with an assurance of a well-defined permanence of official position. Its tendency, however, to place the officials upon such a footing, by removing them beyond the whim or caprice of the appointing agency, as will only require at their hands a faithful performance of their duties, is the cardinal point of the proposition. It requires neither discussion nor extended statement to establish its pertinence and desira- bility. 8. Pay Larger Salaries. In repelling an attack made upon the system of awarding heavy compensation to the judges of the English courts, Lord Brougham gave utterance to the quaint but truthful expression, that "dear justice is very much to be preferred to cheap injustice." The declaration is a monument of economic wisdom, and is applicable to every department of every form of government. The scope of the aphorism of the English publicist may well, indeed, be so extended as to include every branch of the public service. The CIVIL SERVICE. -?75 idea that public economy consists in awarding the smallest possible compensation for the services required by Govern- ment is a grave mistake, and has and ever will result in irreparable injury to the national weal. It is, in short, the worst kind of extravagance. There is not an office in the K'fl f the American people to-day which offers sufficient com- pensation to those who are capable of discharging its duties. The honor which attaches to these positions is, of course, a sufficient inducement to men who have, either by ancestral labor or forethought, or their own wisdom or good-fortune, possessed themselves of moneyed advantages ; but all able men are not wealthy men : the greater portion of American talent, indeed, is associated with comparative poverty. It has fallen heir to no landed or personal estates, like the aris- tocracy of the English realm or continental Europe, but through the mobility of republican institutions has hewn its way to genuine greatness intelligence and has had no time for the accumulation of wealth. To invite it to serve the public for less reward than it can realize from private business is not alone bad policy and insulting : it oflers a premium upon ignorance. The working of the principle is clearly evidenced by historical facts. Honor is tempting, but wealth, to men of moderate means, is the most seduc- tive of the two. The first stands alone the latter, under our present system of civil service, can command the former. The consequence is, that the Government in isolated instances is ably served by able, wealthy men, but in the majority of cases is poorly, and too often dishonestly, served by men whose inferior talents render the acceptance of places in the public service an advantage instead of a sacrifice. It is a policy which any intelligent management of private interests would not for a moment contemplate. This assertion is pointedly illustrated by a somewhat recent action of the legislature of the State of Illinois. After the adoption of the new State constitution it became necessary THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. to have a thorough reorganization of the railroad policy of the State. A commission was decided upon for the work, and the State legislature, after a good deal of moralizing upon retrenchment and kindred topics, ordered the employ- ment of three commissioners at the annual salary, each, of $3500. The railroad corporations of the State also em- ployed a "commission" to look after their interests in the proposed reorganization, and directed their agent to employ the best men who could be obtained for a several salary of $25,000 per annum. It need not be very much doubted whether the State of Illinois or its railroad companies will advantage most by the new institution. Let attention be directed for a moment to the salaries of our judicial officials, as seen in the table hereinbefore con- tained. They are absolutely contemptible in their littleness when the character of the required service is taken into consideration. The chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the United States receives an annual salary of $8500. A police judge of the city of New York, whose business it is to hear cases involving petty crimes and misdemeanors, receives $10,000 for his yearly stipend. Hundreds of pri- vate corporations throughout the country, moreover, pay equally large, and oftentimes greater, salaries for legal coun- sel and advice. The force of the remark is equally appli- cable to the compensation allowed the chief executive and members of Congress. In both departments the country is, in isolated instances, it is true, efficiently, honestly and brilliantly served, but all have had incumbents whom the people would have profited by paying them their legal dues for remaining in private life, and employing capable men to perform the duties of the office at five times the regular allowance. These general remarks contain nearly everything which is specially involved in the particular point now under con- sideration. The proportion, however, is indispensable to CIVIL SERVICE. 377 the general scheme herein submitted. There are elements of personal and political proscription therein contained which must be offset by inducements sufficient to neutralize the force of their restrictions. This end would be obtained by the payment of larger salaries than private vocations will afford, and, more desirable than all, would bring to the places of public trust men who would adorn the positions, honor the nation and actually diminish the expense of Gov- ernment. This particular proposition disarms all criticism which some discriminative mind may have ere this bestowed upon the general scheme. The plan was announced as one which would reform our civil service by acting upon the motives of men, and not by arbitrary command. Some features of this scheme, taken alone, are, as has been doubtless no- ticed, in the form of positive, unyielding law, but, associated with the remaining ones, they appeal to the personal interest and welfare of those which the Government service would invite to its ranks. This fundamental principle of the scheme is preserved inviolate by the proposition herewith dismissed. 9. Apportion all offices, except Cabinet Ministers, For- eign Ministers, Territorial and Scientific Officials, Members of the Jztdiciary, Heads of Bureaus and Branches, and such Personal Assistants as Private Secretaries, among the several States. As to the general principle involved in this proposition, it aims to equalize the advantages resulting from the civil service among the several States of the Union. It would tend to make impossible any complaint of locality so often raised in the distribution of political emoluments and the choice of Representatives by the people at large. The proposed apportionment, moreover, is confined within such limits as not to prejudice the efficiency of the force in any 32* 3/8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. single particular. It will be noticed, by a little reflection (all the more prominent local officials having been chosen by election, in accordance with the proposition hereinbefore advanced), that by reason of the exceptions above noted this feature of the scheme attaches solely to officials of a purely ministerial character, as distinguished from those who are charged with the performance of discretionary du- ties. While it is eminently fitting, and absolutely impera- tive even, that the appointing agency should be allowed the utmost latitude in the selection of officials of the latter class, the choice of the former rests upon an entirely dif- ferent foundation. The interests of the public demand that the comparatively petty claim of locality shall have no force in the appointment of servants who are called upon to ex- ercise discretionary powers. Parties fit for such positions are more frequently congregated within restricted territorial limits than scattered over different sections of the country. In the case of ministerial officials, however, no such fact appears. Such inhabitants of every State or locality as are contemplated by the proposition next to be discussed are, without exception, fully competent for the discharge of the official duties pertinent to the present feature of the scheme. The proposition not only equalizes opportunity, in a rel- ative degree, among the people at large, but operates, in connection with its associates, to prevent the negotiation of official place for political service and influence. The necessity and propriety of leaving the choice of such per- sonal assistants as private secretaries wholly in the hands of the appointing power requires, of course, no argument whatever. 10. Fill all Offices, except those mentioned in the Fourth and Ninth Propositions, by Drawing Names, upon the Basis of the Apportionment as stated above, from the Inhabitants of the several States, Counties, CIVIL SERVICE. 379 Cities, Towns and Villages, Irrespective of Party, upon a Principle similar to that by "which Trial- Juries are selected, and from such L,ist let the Ap- pointing Agency make its Nomination. This proposal, as above stated, requires a little amplifica- tion. First, as to the offices embraced by this proposition. As to this point, it will be noticed that the same attaches to the merely ministerial officials of the service as described in the next preceding paragraph. Second, as to the basis upon which the proposed drawing should be made. In the examination of a proposed reform system a discussion of a bill by which such reform shall be secured is neither relevant nor practicable. Suffice it to say, in this connection, that the apportionment above alluded to is predicated upon the idea of giving to the sev- eral States a number of offices in the civil service propor- tionate to their representative population ; that is, the num- ber of voters in each State shall decide the number of of- fices to be awarded. This number having been obtained by an apportionment of Congress, the drawing is to be made by the several States from their inhabitants. This drawing would of course be necessarily preceded by a second apportionment by the States among their several cities, towns and villages, upon the same basis as the Con- gressional apportionment above mentioned. Third, as to the particular element of population from which the drawing should be made. This is a point of considerable nicety if the fundamental element of the gen- eral scheme is to be preserved inviolate. The paramount aim of this scheme, as frequently asserted, is to place every ramification of our civil service beyond the reach of influ- ence. It will be remembered that the proposition now under discussion advocates a drawing of officials upon a 380 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. plan "similar to that by which trial -juries arc selected." It does not say upon the same plan. Trial-juries are usu- ally or quite generally drawn from names of individuals selected by designated authority for the purpose on the score of intelligence. This element of intelligence must be preserved in the proposed drawing of civil service officials. It must not, however, be left to the direction or decision of a board of apportionment or other State authority. The delegated authority of a State, under this scheme, must not be empowered to say what element of the State population is suf- ficiently intelligent, and what is not. Such a rule, although to some extent objectionable (to what extent is irrelevant), is, in a certain sense, well enough for the selection of trial- juries. The duties of such officials are undesirable, and consequently there is no influence brought to bear to secure the position. Under the proposed system of civil service, however, the condition of things would be entirely differ- ent. The scheme contemplates the payment of heavy sal- aries, and therefore renders the service attractive. To leave a board of apportionment or other State authority to decide upon the persons of sufficient intelligence to have their names enrolled for a drawing would leave an open door for the perpetration, upon a smaller scale, of the same abuses which attach to the present system. It would be a reduction, but not an abrogation, of existing evils. The authority vested with such power would be subjected to both the importunities and misrepresentations of applicants, as well as the seductive powers of influence. It would, in short, be polluted by bribes. There is but one way out of this difficulty, and that is rigid, sensible and well denned. Let the names enrolled for a drawing be those of voters who can furnish the consti- tuted authorities a diploma of some reputable academic or other higher institution. With this requirement make no com- promise whatever. Refuse without exception all other evi- CIVIL SERVICE. 381 clences of intelligence, such as certificates of private indi- viduals, and make the rule unqualified and irrefragable. Is this proscription ? To a certain extent, but, all things considered, a very limited one, and that of a most whole- some and beneficial tendency. The grade of education required is by no means high, and entirely available by the masses. The Government by this scheme offers a compen- sation for the service it requires greatly in excess of what private parties can or will allow. It is entitled to the most absolute warrant of capacity in return. The basis of this drawing, moreover, would be a healthful and powerful in- centive to the education of the masses. // -would, in fact, in a passive, silent manner, accomplish for the United States what the educational laws of Germany do for that country namely, educate the entire population. Fourth, as to the number of names to be drawn. Of this little need be said. Make the number double or treble that of the offices required to be filled, and from this num- ber let the appointing agency make its choice. The inel- igibility of the latter for a second term of office gives ample warrant that this very restricted discretion would not be abused. Several of the more prominent features of a bill requisite to effect such changes suggested by the entire scheme, as could be secured otherwise than by a constitutional amend- ment, will be briefly stated in another connection. The importance of the present proposition required an anticipa- tion of this statement to the extent of giving the points above defined. The meaning of this proposition having been somewhat explained, it will now receive a more general consideration. It is, in almost every particular, mainly supplemental of the one which precedes it. Taken together, the chief end sought by their institution is the equalization of opportu- nity. They also tend in the general direction of the entire 382 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. scheme that is, the separation of the service from influence of every sort, whether individual or local. The equal- ization of opportunity hereby sought is imperatively de- manded in order that the politics of the country may be saved from total corruption. The superior advantages which are obtained by a select class under our present sys- tem by means which are always unmanly and disgraceful, not to say dishonest, occasion more disturbance to the material prosperity of the country than almost all other causes combined. The remedy advanced by these features of the general scheme seems not only adequate, but entirely practicable. It provides for an apportionment and draw- ing, as will be remembered, irrespective of party. This point will of course meet the objection of the technical politician, as will every plan other than that of an unadul- terated spoil-system like the present. It will, however, commend itself to reflecting and impartial intelligence. Its merit is enclosed within a very small compass, but the force of it is almost inappreciable. It abolishes the present slavery of political opinion. The present system generates pre- cisely such a slavery, and one which will outlive every force marshaled for its destruction save that which seeks to destroy the motive that perpetuates it. Office under the General Government at present crystallizes itself into the mandate, " Imbibe the political creed of the Administration, and follow wherever it leads." This, so far as discretionary officials are concerned, is entirely proper yes, absolutely necessary. The Government directors must, of necessity, harmonize in their opinion of public matters in general, however much they may vary upon minor and unimportant details. With its ministerial service, however, this princi- ple, as a matter of policy, has nothing to do. It is wholly irrelevant. A Democrat would poorly represent the inter- ests of the country as a minister at the court of St. James under a Republican Administration, it is true, but he could CIVIL SERVICE. 383 post the Government's ledgers precisely as well as though of an opposite political belief. The beneficial result which would flow from this particu- lar feature cannot be over-estimated. The thirst for office under our present policy bribes the political opinion and conduct of a good percentage of the voters of the entire country. The influence in this direction is most pernicious and prejudicial, and the precedents established are still more lamentable. It is of the utmost importance to repub- lican institutions, it is indeed the very soul of their exist- ence, that the thought of their people shall be wholly un- trammeled. In the absence of such perfect freedom of opinion reforms of abuses are entirely impossible until they sink, indeed, by the weight of their own iniquity. Reforms, sorely-needed ones, in American politics, to-day, are wellnigh hopeless by virtue, of precisely this state of facts. Independent thought and action is asserted in only isolated instances, for the simple reason that the loss of pres- ent or prospective Government patronage is feared as the con- sequence. But let the opposing political parties of the country understand that every man, whatever his political belief, with the evidence of intelligence already stated, can have his name enrolled for a drawing which will without prejudice place him upon an equal footing with all other aspirants as to his chances of securing an appointment to office, and the political acts and utterances of the entire masses would be in accordance with their real convictions, and in every way honest and sincere. Abuses would then be reformed as soon as discovered. They would gain ex- istence only to suffer immediate death. It could not be otherwise. The majority of mankind are defenders of prob- , ity and good morals, followers of right instead of wrong, and with the assurance that the maintenance of the former could in no way subject them to personal hazard, they would ever compel its ascendency. 384 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. A watchful reader may say in this connection, Suppose a drawing as above proposed produces the names of the op- posing parties in about an equal number, would not the ap- pointing agency first exhaust the list of names of those who indorsed the politics of the Administration? We think not. The ineligibility of these appointors for a second term of office puts them under bonds for good behavior, and they would have nothing to gain, but much to lose, by such a course. If the law allowed political opponents to enroll themselves for appointment, it would plainly con- template that they should be appointed, and a refusal so to ap- point would be a breach of upright, manly action, and a constructive defiance of law which could not result to the advantage of the appointing agency. The Speaker of the House of Representatives selects the standing committees proportionately from all the political elements of that body. The cases are precisely parallel, but the seeming uncertain- ty, if such there be, could be removed by a provision di- recting that the appointing agency shall make its selections proportionately from the names of all political parties pro- duced by the drawing. ii and 12. Exclude all Newspaper Attaches from Po- sitions in the Service, Establish a Government Journal or Periodical for the Publication of Laws. These two propositions may be appropriately considered together. They have precisely the same end in view, and remarks which are relevant to the one are equally pertinent to the other. Their object- is to prevent the subsidy of the press by the party in power, and thus destroy its efficiency 1 and usefulness. Comment in this connection will be re- stricted within very narrow limits. The opposite course is quite unnecessary. The fact is as notorious as it is lament- able that the press of the country is almost immeasurably influenced in its policy by its dealings with the Administra- CIVIL SERVICE. 385 tion. The newspaper-men of the country to-day who have appointments in the civil service, many of them mere sine- cures, are numbered by thousands, who are diligent in season and out of season, unhesitatingly and unreasoningly defend- ing the Administration in acts which, to say the least, are closely akin to lawlessness. They are absolutely pledged, indeed, to stand by the Administration, right or wrong. Another class are equally obsequious and self-stultifying, with the hope that their insincerity may be rewarded by official preferment. The evil of this condition of things is threefold. It gives the Administration the use of an un- warranted power, corrupts the press and deceives the public. The last-mentioned point is the greatest evil of the three. A goodly portion of the voters of the country depend upon "their paper" for the whole of their information upon public affairs. The demands of labor and business bar them from going outside of these disseminators of intelli- gence in quest of facts. Habit is powerful, and none more so than the one which people have of accepting the state- ments of their journal as unqualifiedly and invariably cor- rect. Newspaper editorials, indeed, control the individual opinions of two-thirds of the voters of the entire country. In view of these facts, can there be a more disastrous state of affairs than that which places a majority of the journals and periodicals of the country in a position where, in many in- stances, they are daily scattering falsehood and withholding truth? This particular discussion need not be farther ex- tended. The Government should withdraw the publication of its laws from the newspapers of the country, and news- paper attache's should be excluded from the public service. An extended discussion of the constitutionality of this scheme is not pertinent to the purposes of this chapter. Remarks in this connection will be confined within the limits of a statement showing the utmost possible change 33 R 386 . THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. in our organic law which the adoption of this system would necessitate. Such a change would, without doubt, embrace the one-term principle for the President of the United State, the prohibition upon members of the service from engaging in State politics further than exercising the privilege of the elective franchise, arid possibly the other provisions of ineligibility for appointing agencies besides that which attaches to the chief executive. Beyond this we are of the opinion that no constitutional change would be required. The claim, however, might be advanced that the exclusion of newspaper attaches from positions in the service would be a violation of our organic law. We think not. At all events, the attainment of these four points would be the extreme outpost of a constitutional amendment requisite to perfect the scheme. An outline of the most prominent features of an act of Congress necessary to accompany the constitutional change above defined in order to establish the proposed system will now be given. The same should provide a bar upon Congressional recommendation to office ; the ineligibility of heads of Departments and other appointing agencies for office under the General Government during the next suc- ceeding Administration, unless secured by constitutional amendment ; the election of local officials as stated ; the exclusion of members of the service from other offices under a State or the United States during the rule of the Administration by which they were appointed ; a rule against political assessments ; a tenure of office for mem- bers of the service, conditioned upon good behavior, to last until removal by the next succeeding Administration ; the payment of larger salaries, at least double the present allowance ; the exclusion of newspaper attaches from posi- tions in the service, unless secured by constitutional amend- ment ; the establishment of a Government journal or periodical for the publication of laws ; and, lastly, as to CIVIL SERVICE. 387 the feature of apportionment and its collateral require- ments. At the opening of the session of Congress next preceding the close of every Administration the several Departments of the General Government should be re- quired to furnish that body full data in reference to the present and prospective wants of the service, upon the basis of which an apportionment of offices should be made by Congress among the several States in proportion to their representative population as shown by the last census of the General Government. Upon this general apportion- ment of Congress the legislatures of the several States should be empowered to make, either directly or indirectly, a sub-apportionment among their respective cities, towns and villages in accordance with the census above stated. At any time after the adjournment of the session of Con- gress above named, prior to the inauguration of the next succeeding Administration, a section of the law should pro- vide for the registration of the names of all applicants with some constituted United States authority like the district courts, each person registering to put the character of his politics upon record, that the appointments might be made proportionately from all parties, and no registration to be allowed except with the evidence of intelligence already stated. Immediately after the inauguration of the new Ad- ministration a drawing should be made, under the direction of the same United States authority, of a number of regis- tered names two or three times greater than that of the offices to be filled, and from the list so resulting the ap- pointing agency to make its selection j in case the regis- tration of any State should not equal its allotment, the appointing agency to make up the deficiency by propor- tionate selections from the unexhausted list of drawn names of the other States ; and in case the service should require additional force between the Congressional apportionments and drawings above stated, the appointing agency to supply 388 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. such demands in the same manner. As intimated in a prior connection, a provision of the law might direct the appointors to make their selections proportionately from the respective political parties as shown by the registration. A provision would also be extremely pertinent and whole- some that the space of one year should be absorbed in effecting this regular change of officials, an equal number of appointments to be made each month of the year, and removals to be made in the order of appointments. This would bar the possibility of doing violence to the interests of the service and the country through the presence of an entire force of inexperienced officials, witheut destroying the tenure of office in respect to the element of time. The advantages claimed for this scheme of civil service are nearly all embraced in the statement that it would entirely separate it from politics without prejudice to any party or class, remove its officials wholly beyond the reach of influence of every description, equalize opportunity, and prevent the possibility of its being made the means of per- sonal or party aggrandizement. Its basis is merit. It leaves nothing to discretion, and consequently, relatively speaking, bars every door for the perpetration of fraud or the use of bribes It abolishes favoritism, and puts all parties, classes and individuals upon an equal footing. //, in short, tends to inspire a motive in every one connected -with the service, whether appointor or appointee, to do right instead of wrong. In addition to all this, it is perfectly simple, practicable and capable of adoption. The beneficial results of such a system would find ex- pression in many collateral circumstances. The President of the United States would be dispossessed of every vestige of power for influencing the masses and controlling the politics of the country, be placed under the heaviest bonds to govern his official action by considerations for the material prosperity of the people and the nation, and at CIVIL SERVICE. 389 the same time be able to command the respect which the dignity of his office imperatively demands. Instead of a dealer in political haberdashery, he would be an executive whose only aim would be the promotion of the public weal. The same with the members of the national legis- lature. They would be relieved from the importunity of office-seekers, elevated to a position of perfect independence, and spurred to the utmost diligence in the performance of their legitimate duties, for by this means alone, and not by begging favors of the executive and heads of Departments, could they secure a continuance of their official status. The heads of bureaus and other appointing agencies would cease to barter place for personal political support ; the members of the service, instead of facile sycophants, would be free-thinking, intelligent men ; the exercise of the elec- tive franchise would be in accordance with actual convic- tion, and elections consequently no longer a lie ; primary meetings, State and national conventions would have for their object the advancement of local and general welfare, instead of a chance at the "spoils;" Federal interference in State elections would cease ; a genuine freedom of the press be secured ; the national Administrations would cease to be dealers in the stock of newspaper corporations, as occasion required, for the purpose of directing the tone of the journals of the country ; and private character would be elevated, emulated and duly esteemed. III. CRITICISM OF THE REPORT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION. An act of Congress of March 4, 1871, authorized the President of the United States to appoint a commission for the purpose of devising rules for the reformation of the civil service. The commission was appointed at an early day after the passage of the act, and consisted of George William Curtis, Alexander G. Cattell, Joseph S3* 39 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Medill, Dawson A. Walker, E. B. Elliott, Joseph H. Black- fan and David C. Cox. During the latter portion of the same year (the report is not dated) the commission reported to the President. Upon the prominent characteristics of this report a little comment is now proposed. It is but simple justice to state, in the outset, that the power of the commission was limited, impliedly at least, to the formation of a system under existing laws ; or, in other words, it was expected to devise a scheme which would not require any legislation to put it in operation, save an appropriation for the payment of incidental expenses. Its office, in short, was simply to mark out a line of action for the President under an existing statute. // was to tell the chief executive how to do his duty. Criticism upon the work of the com- mission, consequently, must not touch upon matters out- side the scope of its office as above defined, must not declaim against the absence of reform measures attainable only by legislation or constitutional changes, but be con- fined to a search for defects in the means prescribed by the report. The general statement is now advanced that the scheme devised by the commission is, to a great extent, both inadequate and impracticable. Its fundamental element is a plan of competitive examination as to the fitness of appli- cants for positions in the service, both the character and method of such examination to be directed by creatures of the President alone. To more fully state the proposition and defend the next preceding sentence from any possible charge of unfairness, let the report of the commission speak for itself namely : " We propose, therefore, that under the section of the act already quoted he (the President) shall employ suitable persons to act as an advisory board, which shall regulate and supervise all the examinations mentioned ; and that he shall further designate three per- sons in each Department as a board of examiners, who CIVIL SERVICE. 391 shall conduct the examination personally or by persons approved by the advisory board and under its immediate supervision." A brief consideration of both the principle of competitive examination in the abstract, and its appli- cation to a system of civil service, will portray the inade- quacy of the general scheme. Its impracticability will also appear in the discussion of its application. Of these in their order. The worth of oral or written examinations as a test of intelligence or merit, whether conducted upon a competi- tive basis or otherwise, is measured entirely by the extent of their operation. If an attempt is made to push them outside of restricted limits, they speedily degenerate into nothing less than an ostentatious farce. It cannot be other- wise. As applied to the purposes of admission to institu- tions of learning, where the number of applicants is com- paratively small, or to those of graduation, where the list of aspirants is similarly curtailed, the principle is, for the most part, both adequate and practicable. It is so simply because it can be applied with approximate completeness. But when it is invoked, so to speak, to open the door to any public or quasi public position of whatever sort, the ap- plicants are generally so numerous that a thorough, and consequently a just, examination is wholly impossible. The result is, that the capacity of those submitted to ex- amination is guessed at, but never ascertained. These are not mere naked assertions. Their truth is attested by ex- perience in very many directions. As a single illustration, let the examination of applicants for permission to practice in the courts of the several States be briefly alluded to. These examinations, numerically speaking, are mostly con- fined to cities, and it is no exaggeration to say that they are a libel upon truth, a disgrace to American education, and an insult both to the profession and the general intelligence of community. In the city of New York there are at least 39 2 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. two hundred applicants annually admitted to the Bar of the State after an examination by the Supreme Court, one-half of whom are wholly incapable, and of the balance not more than one-third are ordinarily prepared for the discharge of the duties incumbent upon the position. The same is equally true, relatively speaking, of legal examinations in the provincial cities throughout the entire country. The foregoing finds ample warrant in the fact that out of the aggregate number of admissions to the Bar in the United States, only forty per cent, are able to sustain themselves in the profession, and that three-fourths of the law-business of the country is prosecuted by one-fourth of the lawyers in active practice. Illustrations need not be multiplied. Turn for a moment from this more general view of the principle of examination as a test of intelligence to a rela- tive discussion of the same as applied to our civil service. The number of offices which could be secured only by passing a prescribed examination in accordance with the report of the commission is at least fifteen thousand. There are seven great Departments of the General Government, and from each of these three men are to be selected to con- duct the examination, making twenty-one in all. The scheme contemplates, moreover, that the examination shall at least find three capable applicants for every office, from which list the appointments are ultimately to be made, which would be forty-five thousand. The inquiry is per- tinent, How many applicants would be submitted to an ex- amination for the purpose of making up this list? Of course all that might present themselves, as directed by one of the rules of the scheme, and it is perfectly safe to say that they would number two hundred thousand. The pre- mise is also a fair one that by reason of the usual mutations of time the personnel of the service would entirely change with the lapse of every decade, so that the examiners would annually be obliged to pass, on an average, upon the ca- CIVIL SERVICE. 393 pacity of twenty thousand applicants. Now, is it in the possibility of things to declare the supposition in any way tenable that twenty-one men wmild or could, either directly or indirectly, make an examination of the capacity of twenty thousand individuals which would be anything more than a stupendous fraud? The term is not used as an imputation upon personal character, but as the only one which rightly defines the natural result of such an impossible task. These are two features of the inadequacy of the scheme of the commission. They are inherent in the plan itself. The third, last and worst of all is extraneous not intrinsic to the principle of competitive examination. It appears in the machinery by which the examination is to be conducted, the motive-power which is to direct and manage the entire institution, and the evil results which will flow therefrom. Let recourse again be had to the words of the commission before cited. The President is to appoint both the advisory board and the examiners. The advisory board possesses the exclusive right to define the character of the examination, and the examiners may conduct it either directly or indirectly. These provisions alone condemn the entire scheme. They do not remove nay more, they do not even palliate the evils of the present system. They simply change the chan- nel through which present abuses make their way. They merely add two more links to the chain which encircles the defects of the present institution. The truth of this state- ment is seemingly self-apparent, but a brief examination may render it a little more plain. The report of the commission lays great stress .upon the point that the scheme defeats the possibility or probability, at least of " political pressure ." That the scheme leaves the service entirely unprotected from "political pressure" is precisely what the present portion of this discussion en- deavors to maintain. The scheme leaves the service, in fact, as wholly subject to influence as much an appendage R2 394 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. and instrument of party politics as where it finds it. It only establishes a little more circumlocution. It leaves everything to discretion, and to the discretion of whom ? The President of the United States. The entire machinery of the system, in every part and parcel, is the direct crea- ture of the chief executive, and his simple mandate, so far as the civil service is concerned, may transform ignorance to intelligence and capacity to inefficiency. Is the ques- tion asked, Does not the force of the foregoing rest entirely upon the anticipation of fraud and corruption ? Precisely. Were it not for fraud and corruption we would need no reform. It is just these elements which the commission was formed to exterminate, and it is just these elements which have prostituted the entire service for the last forty years, and never so shamefully as at present. It is these identical forces, moreover, which will ever make the ser- vice a by-word and a reproach, a huge auction-block for the sale of office for a consideration of political support, until the motive is destroyed which suggests this institution. And this result is not even approximated by the scheme. It is perfect folly to suppose that the executive and legisla- tive departments and the leading politicians of the party in power are going to abandon the "spoil "-system of the last half century, simply because the red tape of an advisory board and a bureau of examiners in all not thirty per- sons are to be added to the details of the present plan. The system would be manipulated in the interest of the party in power in less than six months after its inaugura- tion. The President would want a re-election and would still court the favor of Congress. Members of this body would also want a continuance of official status, and they would be called upon by their constituents to prove their capacity before the examining board, or else give way to a man who would. The vast details of party politics, from the duties and aspirations of the chief executive to the or- CIVIL SERVICE. 395 ganization of a village caucus, would be as closely wedded as now, and the new system of civil service would be the most potent agency for the execution of their schemes. The President would appoint an advisory board and a bu- reau of examiners who would do his bidding ; Congressmen would tell these officials who were capable and who were not; and upon this foundation alone would this system of competitive examination rest. It would, in short, be a sys- tem with the old slogan, "To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy." The foregoing comment must not be taken as an imputation upon individuals in any single particular. The parties engaged in the interest of the present system are all honorable men, with names above reproach and reputation unscathed. Such men, indeed, are always em- ployed to give character to any new institution of whatever sort, but what is the warrant of their ascendency ? None. And it is for the distant future, not alone the immediate present, which a genuine civil service reform must necessa- rily provide. Thus far, the inadequacy of the system has alone been considered. In respect to its impracticability not a word need be offered. It fully appeared when the application of the principle of competitive examination to a scheme of civil service was under discussion, in the impossibility of a score of officials to correctly pass, either directly or indi- rectly, upon the capacity of twenty thousand individuals annually. The scheme is as unwieldy as it is inefficient. There are several minor defects which might properly furnish a theme for discussion were they not rendered, relatively sneaking, entirely insignificant by the gravity of the ones already alluded to. With this brief reference, therefore, they will be summarily dismissed, together with the report of the commission in general, with the additional remark that -the deliberations of this body re- sulted in all that could be reasonably anticipated, since it 396 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. was not called upon to suggest changes in our organic or statute law. It is perhaps proper to add in this connection that the system suggested by the report of the commission has proved a failure in the outset, not so much by reason of the causes hereinbefore mentioned as from the insincerity of the executive department in its enforcement. It has been ostensibly put in operation when convenient, and dis- regarded when its institution would prejudice the interests of the party now in power. The course of the executive in this respect, however, so far as the proposed scheme of the commission is concerned, has merely operated as a dis- count of time. The defects of the system were positively certain to secure it an ultimate demise. The President has merely provided it with a premature death and anticipated the day of its interment; for which, so far as the plan of the commission is at issue, let him have thanks. Past abuses were sure of gathering strength instead of suffering decay under its operation, and the President's obligations of courtesy to the commissioners is a matter of their exclu- sive concern. PART III. INDUSTRIAL AND REVENUE LEGISLATION. PRELIMINARY. THE subject-matter of the present Part of this treatise naturally resolves itself into a somewhat restricted compass. Particularly as applied to the purposes of the entire work, the separate topics which it presents for con- sideration are few in number. The issues of American pol- itics in this direction are indeed all embraced within the limits of the discussion growing out of the subjects of Pro- tection and Free Trade, Tariffs and Taxation. Of these, both in the abstract and also relatively, as applied to the present exigencies of the United States, and in the order above named. 34 397 39^ THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. CHAPTER I. PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. The Inherent Difficulties of the Question Like the Entire Theme of Political Economy, it is not Responsive to the Rules of Pure Science The Statement Corroborated by Eminent Authority The Method of the Opposing Forces Protection and Free Trade Defined The Conditions upon which the Opposing Doctrines Rest The Limits of the Respective Systems Free Trade is Passive, Protection Active Protection Merely Secures the Possibilities of Capital and Industry Cheapness and the Law of Price considered The Effect of Pro- tection thereon Protection Seeks its Ends by Means of Tariffs upon Imports Protective Tariffs do not Enhance the Price of Imports to the Extent of the Burden Laid upon the Same The Law of Com- petition makes such Enhancement Impossible The Principle Illus- trated Protection does not Divert the Employment of Capital and Industry to their Prejudice The Point considered at Length The Same of National Prosperity Protection does not Foster Monopolies, either Individual or Local Protection does not Encourage Ignor- ance Protection is not Taxation Protection does not Bar Exporta- tion The Force of Natural Law in this Connection National Pros- perity based upon Producing Power Protection should be Stable John Stuart Mill in Support of the System The Moral Aspect of the Question Rude and Skilled Labor Agriculture and Manufactures Cities and Villages It is a Question of Civilization or Barbarism, Progress or Decay The Proper Policy for the United States The Absolute and Relative Conditions of the Country stated In View thereof Free Trade Points to the almost Universal Pursuit of Agri- culture Free Trade, by Reducing Cost of Raw Material, would not put our Industries on an Equal Footing with European Ones The Case of England Cited Its Position Dissimilar to that of the United States No Analogy between them The Reason England advo- cates Free Trade The Question of the Laboring Classes in this Connection England Owes her present Commercial Status to Pro- 38 PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 399 tection Skilled Labor never a Drug Protection at Present the Pro- per Policy of the American Republic. r I "HE exposition of the subject above named is perhaps J. the most difficult task assumed within the limits of this treatise. The writer who essays its elucidation, how- ever facile his pen, extended his information or mature his judgment, finds no little difficulty in defining the bound- aries of his proposed discussion. The topic is intricate in character, comprehensive in operation, voluminous in de- tail, prolific in results, and utterly unsusceptible of a reduc- tion to such genera/ principles as will admit of a uniform application. Do the words above italicized deny the claim of this theme to be ranked among scientific subjects? In one sense, no ; in another, yes. The fundamental princi- ples of protection and free trade the reason of their adop- tion are everywhere identical, but, this point passed, the events consequent upon their inauguration under different conditions and circumstances are so perfectly inconsistent that it is entirely impossible to predicate, upon either of these doctrines, a law of cause and effect which shall be changeless and universal. The same may be truthfully said of the entire science of political economy. The reason of the institution of its laws is always the same, but the results of their application vary with every' occasion which invokes their aid. The reason of this is not occult, but on the con- trary entirely manifest. Pure, legitimate science, in its restricted sense, not only deals with entities which are always precisely similar in character in their component parts but which are also always subject to precisely similar extraneous forces. In political economy this duplex princi- ple has only partial sway. The elements grasped by its laws, as in the case of pure science, are ever identical, but the collateral agencies with which they are brought in contact are dissimilar and indeterminable. These are rigorous statements, but they point, in substance, 400 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. for corroboration to authorities which few will presume to question. Said Samuel Laing : "Political economy is not a universal science, of which the principles are applicable to all men under all circumstances, and equally good and true for all nations." But more emphatic still are the words of America's greatest statesman, Daniel Webster. Said Mr. Webster: "Though I like the investigation of particular questions, I give up what is called the science of political economy. There is no such science. There are no rules on these subjects so fixed and invariable as that their aggregate constitutes a science." Within the scope of these remarks is found the cause of the widely-varying opinions upon the doctrines of protec- tion and free trade. The supporters of the latter invariably argue upon the premise of a changeless law of cause and effect. They lay down a proposition, and declare that the results of its operation will be the same under all conditions and circumstances. They proceed, in short, by deduction, and their conclusions are purely theoretical. The advo- cates of protection, however (let not the reader be here misled Protection has not yet been defined), reason from exactly the opposite basis. They start with particular facts and circumstances with special conditions and there- from mould their law: Their method, in fact, is that of induction, and their conclusions are the results of expe- rience. In view of these conflicting lines of thought it ceases, perhaps, to be a subject of surprise that the discussions of the opposing parties often degenerate into acrimonious charges of "absurdity," instead of intelligently resorting to logic and the teachings of reason for the purpose of rendering their respective positions untenable. The state- ment is by no means an exaggeration, that not only have the discussions of protection and free trade been exceed- ingly prolix with matter entirely irrelevant, but also that PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 40 1 they have been characterized by the fiercest partisanship, bigotry and unreasonableness. Without a commission at present to either of these doc- trines, the limits of both this and the next succeeding chap- ter will first be stated, the order of argument for the present one then given, and the same pursued with the utmost pos- sible conciseness and logical precision. The scope of both chapters will be here defined, by reason of the fact that, so far as the purposes of this treatise are concerned, they are component parts of the same general discussion. The present chapter will consist of an exposition of general principles, and the following one upon Tariffs, after a brief consideration of that topic in the abstract, will be devoted to a view of their application. In other words, this imme- diate discussion will deal with the fundamental truths alleged as the embodiment of the doctrines of protection and free trade, while that upon Tariffs, the abstract question having been first disposed of, will have to do with their de- tailed employment in the form of law. The discussion now in order will be conducted as fol- lows namely : I. Protection and Free Trade Defined ; II. The Conditions upon which the Opposing Doc- trines Rest ; III. The Limits of the Respective Systems ; IV. The Collateral Tendencies of the Two Institutions ; V. The Proper Policy for the United States. I. PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE DEFINED. The meaning of free trade is in no respect ambiguous. The doctrine is susceptible, in a very few words, of a defi- nition which is both exact and comprehensive. Its name, in fact, clearly indicates its character. It means an absolute, unqualified right in every individual to buy and sell any and every commodity in any and every market of the 34 402 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. world, without any legal restriction whatever. In other words, it demands that traffic shall never be made the subject of legislation. It is a plea, pure and simple, for the universal enforcement of the maxim Laissez faire. It is emphatically a "let-alone" system. This, and only this, is free trade. Institutions such as "tariffs for revenue" are, in theory and principle, as dissimilar to it as the rival doctrine of protection. They simply approximate to, but do not represent, the system. Any condition of things, in short, which imposes the slightest restriction upon the absolute right of traffic stated in the outset ends the exist- ence of free trade. A perfect appreciation of the real nature of this doctrine, as above defined, will greatly assist the further investigation of the present subject. The theory of protection, substantially speaking, is equally well defined by the name which designates it. The term "protection," however, differs from that of "free trade" in that it is complex, while the latter is simple. The first is the nominal representative of a combination of ideas, while the latter is the exponent of only one. Protection, therefore, will require a more extended exposition. Protection is not merely the reverse of free trade. The latter, in its restricted, legitimate signification, attaches solely to the purchase and sale of commodities. The first, single and ultimate end which it seeks to accomplish is absolute freedom in respect to such purchase and sale. The former not only places an inhibition upon this absolute freedom of traffic, but in so doing lays its hand upon capi- tal and industry. It is only to grasp these two latter ele- ments, indeed, that it reverses the wheels of the free trade system that it restricts the freedom of traffic. A hold upon these two elements is its ultimate purpose, and for the attainment of this end it pursues a course, it is true, exactly opposite to that of its antagonist. The distinction in re- spect to these characteristics of the opposing systems is al] PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 403 important, and may be reduced to the following proposi- tion : The end of free trade is freedom of traffic, while that of protection is the guardianship of capital and industry by means of restricting such freedom. The above comparison prepares the way for a general definition of protection, and the position is here assumed that protection is the security of the possibilities of capital and industry. II. THE CONDITIONS UPON WHICH THE OPPOSING DOC- TRINES REST. The present sub-subject will be disposed of nearly as briefly as the next preceding one. It is only intended, in this connection, to point out the peculiar status of things which can alone decide between the different systems as the proper policy for a nation to pursue. The determination of this question seems in no way difficult. Upon the premise that the definitions of the opposing doctrines above given are correct, a key is thereby furnished for the speedy solution of this inquiry. Referring to the meaning of the doctrine of free trade as stated in the outset (purely unrestricted traffic), the propo- sition is ventured that the system constitutes a perfectly sound and defensible national policy where the relative position of the country which adopts it is, in all respects, equal to that of those with which it may hold commercial intercourse. Superior it may be, equal it must be, but infe- rior never. It cannot be otherwise. The simple idea of free trade is indicative of strength. It is suggestive of fear- lessness of independence of position by virtue of the fact that natural or artificial causes have given a status of either superiority or equality. Free trade is in every respect amenable to natural law. This law, in common with all superhuman forces, never works its own stultification. Both the rules of its application and the results thereof, abstractly 404 THE ISSUES OF A At ERIC AN POLITICS. speaking, are ever the same ; and as free trade is a pure, simple, unqualified trial of strength in one direction, the same principle which attaches to the contests of power in general is impossible of avoidance in this single particular : the stronger party will triumph, and the weaker will bite the dust. Is the premise denied ? Is not free trade a mere battle of abstract power ? The affirmation of the last interroga- tory seems entirely tenable. The system of free trade attaches to traffic the latter deals with commodities ; and the ability of an individual or a nation to successfully com- pete in their exchange depends entirely upon the advantages possessed for their production. This ability to produce this creative power governs the entire question, and the rival possessing this power to the greatest extent in the most perfect degree will occupy the foremost position among the competitors of the trafficking world, by reason of the fact that this superior producing force stamps its products with a characteristic which attracts universal patronage cheapness. The elements which make up the position of equality necessary to permit a nation to safely incorporate the doctrine of free trade into its economic law are numer- ous, and, in the abstract, unsusceptible of exact definition. In the light of comparison they are, in no respect, un- clouded. They consist of age, extent of territory, cost of carriage, perfection and expense of labor, value of capital, the ease with which indigenous climatic or local products are secured, and other considerations dependent upon peculiar circumstances and conditions. They will appear more in detail in a subsequent portion of this discussion. The gist of the foregoing remarks may be reduced to the simple proposition that the only minimum condition upon which the system of free trade is defensible is that of abso- lute equality, that the institution of the system is a mere trial of strength, and that, as a natural consequence, the PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 405 competitor possessed of the greatest creative power will worst all other rivals in the strife. If an advocate of the system demands, in this connec- tion, the allowance of the claim that when the position of equality above stated has been reached by a state or nation, free trade is the only proper, legitimate law of traffic, his prayer, upon general principles, is granted. A detailed discussion of the question, with an examination of the ex- ceptions to the rule, is not particularly pertinent to the pur- poses of this investigation. The conditions of protection, in a general sense, are, for the most part, the reverse of those of free trade, but the line of reasoning which makes these conditions apparent is inverse to that which demonstrates the basis of the oppo- sing doctrine. Free trade is defensible because the nation which adopts the policy is able to stamp its own products with the impress of cheapness, and the plea of defence be- gins with the assertion of such cheapness. Protection, on the other hand, commands respect by virtue of the fact that such cheapness of home products does not exist, but the argument which presents the system to public favor starts with the declaration of inadequate production, and not with the allegation of the high price of home com- modities. This is no libel upon logic. The advocates of the opposing theories by these arguments state the cause which induces their demand. The claimants of the one plead cheapness the soul-essence of the system as the foundation of their claim for free traffic ; while the support- ers of the other urge inability to assure such cheapness that is, inadequate production. The adoption of protection denotes relative infancy and weakness. It is a confession of inequality, of inferior status. It is a frank acknowledgment of amenability to natural law by an admission of inability to cope with the strength which a free-trading nation opposes to its compel- 406 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. itors. It is a sound and defensible policy for a nation to pursue when its facilities for the production of commodi- ties are unequal to those of other countries with whom it may hold commercial intercourse. The conditions upon which the system rests, in short, are the necessities of a people to protect the weakness and imperfections of their producing, creative power against the superior force and strength of their rivals. The badges of inequality which render the institution of the system a necessity fully ap- peared in the comparison made between free trade and protective nations in a prior portion of the examination of this sub-subject. Further space will not be devoted to this immediate topic of consideration. Like its predecessor, it has been dis- posed of with intentional brevity. The object of the re- spective inquiries was to ascertain what free trade and pro- tection are, what they mean, and to define the basis of the opposing systems. Have the definitions and conditions of these two laws of economics been too summarily dismissed ? Possibly. The subject of this chapter, however, is a much- abused one, and its examination has many times been characterized by the interpolation of irrelevant inquiry. Its intricacy cannot be thus removed. On the other hand, it is thereby increased. The less the record is cumbered with redundant matter, the more satisfactory will be the result of the investigation. What protection and free trade are not, what are the results of their operation, or what are the objections raised against the respective systems, was not the object of these two disquisitions. Those considerations are of paramount import, but thus far they are irrelevant, and nothing was to be gained by their anticipation. They will by no means be omitted, but the brief analytical state- ment above made of what are thought to be unimpeachable truths was looked upon as the most efficient pilot to the open sea of discussion upon which the contending theories PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 407 have so long and so hotly waged their unremitting war. Upon this stormy sea we are now afloat, and, with our knowledge of the character and requirements of the sail which traverse its waters, an attempt will be made to fathom the under-current of truth that sleeps beneath the tempest of the surface wave. III. THE LIMITS OF THE RESPECTIVE SYSTEMS. In respect to this branch of the main discussion, the treatment thereof (if the paradox may be allowed) will be single and yet duplex. The line of argument to be pursued, moreover, is natural and not artificial. Free trade, so to speak, is a passive policy. It exists, as it were, by virtue of the absence of legislation, and its derelictions, if any, are those of omission. Protection, on the other hand, is an active institution, and owes its life to the generating power of statute law. Its excesses, if any, are those of commission. This investigation, therefore, will seek, for the most part, to trace the boundary-lines beyond which the active, aggressive policy of protection should never pass. By this method the limits of protection will not only be as- certained, but also those of free trade, for outside of the scope of protection the rival system has undoubted, exclu- sive right. In other words, free trade, relatively speaking, is the law of nature. How far, by reason of uncontrol- lable causes, this law shall be curtailed by protection, gives us the legitimate sphere of both systems. If the definition of protection is for a moment recalled the security of the possibilities of capital and industry we find a beacon-light whose reflection clearly and sharply designates the boundaries of its rightful domain. The security of the possibilities of capital and industry consists in the equalization of producing, creative power. The equalization of producing power, moreover, consists in the establishment of a uniform degree of cheapness. The 4O8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. control of this last element (if the expression may be al- lowed) is and must be associated with goodness, the chief and great aim of successful production. As cheapness, with the above qualification, is the chief end of commodity-creating power, we are forced at this point, in order to proceed intelligibly, to make a brief examination of the abstract law of price. Price is of two kinds, market and natural. The market price of com- modities is artificial, and depends upon the law of supply and demand. Demand, moreover, as to its extent, is governed by the excess or deficiency of the supply. The natural price of commodities is the true exponent of their intrinsic value for purposes of use, consumption or exchange. The factors, the component parts, of this natural price are three in number namely, rent, profit and wages. The first denotes the compensation paid for the use of premises and capital ; the second, the remuneration necessary to insure a continuance of production ; and the third, the expense of labor. It cannot but be evident that all these forces are weights upon the power of production, and the greater the weight the higher the price of the commodities in which such production eventuates. A diminution of these burdens is followed by a reduction of price. Resuming, for a moment, the line of thought dismissed with the commencement of the next preceding paragraph, as cheapness must be the aim of successful production, and as the advantages of the producing power determine the extent of price, we are prepared for the proposition that the limit of the office of protection is such an enhancement of the price of foreign commodities, by force of statute law, as will in the outset give them the same degree of cheapness as those of home production. As to what com- modities the law of protection should attach, the same will appear hereafter. At this juncture various attacks are made upon the sound- PROTECTION AMD FREE TRADE. 409 ness and feasibility of the protective system. A repulsion of these attacks will now be essayed, together with a main- tenance of both the correctness and desirability of the proposition above stated. The system of protection, as already intimated and is well known, seeks the attainment of its end by means of a tariff upon imported goods. The discussion of tariffs, in either their abstract or relative bearings, is not necessary in this connection. The same has been set apart for the next succeeding chapter, and the nature of the institution is too familiar to require its anticipation. One of the principal objections raised by the opponents of protection against the system consists in the charge that the tariffs imposed upon foreign goods by such a policy enhance the price of domestic commodities of the same kind in a sum equal to that of the impost, and that until such impost is removed. This is, indeed, the chief onslaught upon the system. The free trade theorists mar- shal the majority of their forces at this point of attack, and dignify it as the object of ceaseless hostility. It is, in short, a rendezvous for the assemblage of the entire host whenever sallies upon other defensive positions are unsuc- cessful. The favorite language of the combatants, "The position is absurd," will not be adopted in this connection. It is simply pronounced wholly untenable, and in refutation thereof the proposition is declared that the sole ultimate agency which governs price, under all circumstances, is the cost of production. This truth fully appeared, although somewhat indirectly, in a prior portion of this discussion. Its proper elucidation, if only brief, will effectually destroy the force of the free trade position above named, and attention will now be directed to that end. A restatement of the /////// of the office of protection will best prepare the way for this inquiry namely, such an enhancement of the price of foreign commodities, by force 35 S 41 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. of statute law, as will in the outset give them the same degree of cheapness as those of home production. The deduction is properly made from this proposition, that at the commencement in the outset of the adoption of a protective system the general price of commodities grasped by this impost law is proportionately augmented. Let not the reader be here misled ; the words above italicized form an important qualification to the truth embodied in the above remark. By an enhancement of general price is intended simply this. A protective tariff presupposes a state of relative weakness on the part of the nation which adopts it ; which is a statement in another form that certain commodities can be had cheaper in the foreign than in the home market. The price in the foreign market, free trade ruling, is the "general" price, because the cheapest, by virtue of the fact that all other prices must conform to it. A protective impost, therefore, as it increases in the outset the price of tariffed commodities of foreign ones increases temporarily the general price. This is not, in the main, however, a prejudicial fact of sufficient force to be looked upon in the light of an obstacle. Relatively speaking, it is entirely without weight, and the reason thereof will hereafter appear. At present it is a side issue, and a digression for its discussion will not be tol- erated. The statement of its unworthiness must be here taken upon trust : proof of the same will be had in another connection. The element which renders the continuance of the en- hanced cost of tariffed commodities impossible, and one also which wholly neutralizes the charge of the free trade theorists now under consideration, is the law of competi- tion. Without this the enhanced cost above noted would prove coextensive with the reign of protection. This sal- utary agency, however, bars the transformation of a tempo- rary mean into a continuing evil. It is an inseparable at- PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 4!! tendant of production, and makes the cost thereof the ruler of price. Let the statement and the law receive an illustration. Let it be supposed that, owing to inferior advantages, iron cannot be produced in the United States at a price less than $20 per ton, but that Europe, by virtue of superior facili- ties, can lay it upon our shores for 15 per ton. Let the further supposition be made that the former nation imposes a duty of $10 per ton upon European iron, and under such a condition of things what, so far as the United States are concerned, would control the general price of iron ? The general price of iron, in accordance with principles herein- before explained, would be that of the market which could furnish it the cheapest, and that market, by force of the tariff above premised, would be found in this country. But press the inquiry a step farther, and what would be the moneyed measure of this general price ? How many dol- lars would the purchase of a ton of iron require ? A recur- rence to the price of American iron at the time of the adop- tion of the supposed tariff is requisite for a solution of the problem, which, it will be remembered, was $20 per ton. Immediately with the imposition of the tariff the importa- tion of European iron would be, to some extent, restricted. The call for American iron would consequently increase, the law of supply and demand would assert itself, and just in proportion to the extent of increase of demand would the price of American iron which for the United States would also be the general price be advanced beyond $20 per ton. The advanced price, however, would be artificial and tem- porary. The former price of $20 per ton yielded a paying profit (else the iron would not have been produced at all), and the advance caused by the restriction of importation, rendering the production of iron attractive by reason of its extraordinary returns, would speedily draw to the business additional capital ; production would be increased, the law 412 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. of supply and demand would again interfere, and the gen- eral price of iron would recede to $20 a ton. In other words, the law of competition, which forces all producers of commodities of an equal goodness to make the cost of production the basis of the price they affix to their wares, would render it absolutely impossible for the general price of iron under the hypothesis to stand at $25 per ton a sum equal to the original general price (that of European iron, $15) and the amount of the impost. The exact point to which the price would advance, as stated in a prior connec- tion, would depend solely upon the extent of the increase of the demand, and this advance, as also already noted, would be purely temporary. This is not all. By reason of this inducement to production the means therefor would be in- evitably multiplied and perfected, the cost thereof thereby lessened, the price of the commodity consequently dimin- ished; thus requiring nothing but the element of time to place the price of the home product at a point which would equal in cheapness that of any and all rivals, when protec- tion may be properly withdrawn. In the light of unprejudiced, dispassionate reason there seems to be no escape from these conclusions. The above illustration is equally applicable to any commodity to which an impost may attach. It gives proof of a general princi- ple, and not alone of an isolated particular. It is only a simple adherence to the natural law of cause and effect. Individuals are ever watching for opportunity, and capital is always ready to lend itself for what is considered an ade- quate consideration. The former represent the latter, and competition, the desire for extended traffic, is constantly tending to reduce the price of all products to the minimum point of living profit. These are not theories. They are notorious facts of the history of every-day life. Combina- tions for the maintenance of artificial prices have always resulted in failure. The attempt of any class of producers PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 413 to regularly obtain a price for their products which is meas- ured by the rate of a protective impost, without regard to the cost of production, is nothing more or less than such a combination, and there is not an instance of its success upon record. There always have been, and always will be, plenty of business-projects which do not adequately remu- nerate capital. It is one of the inevitable consequences of chance. The owners of capital thus employed are ever looking with a restless eye for an opportunity to give it more profitable employment, and by virtue of this fact, with the exception of parties holding such exclusive privileges as patents and franchises obtained by statute law, there is not a producer or trafficker in any section of Christendom who is not compelled to reduce the profits of his business to a limit within from five to fifteen per cent, in advance of the rate of interest which the use of money will command in the country wherein he operates. An artificial force like a tariff is powerless to destroy this law of nature, this prin- ciple of competition; and, as stated in the outset, with sim- ply declaring the position of the free trade theorists upon the point in issue untenable, and relying upon the foregoing comment for a verification of the statement, the same is hereby dismissed. The foregoing considerations are naturally suggestive of another charge made by the free trade supporters against the policy of protection a charge, in short, which is a logical sequence of the one above examined. Reference is had to the argument that a protective system, in addition to unduly enhancing prices, directs capital and industry from their natural channels, and in so doing not only works the injury of these particular forces, but also discour- ages and prejudices the entire machinery of the community of commerce. The claim is of a double character, and each aspect of the case requires, although but a brief, a separate consideration. 35* 4H THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. As to the diversion of capital and industry from their natural channels, the inquiry is pertinent, What are the natural channels of these forces of the body politic ? There is but one answer to the interrogatory namely : The oc- cupation naturally sought by these agencies is that which affords the greatest remuneration. If the system of protec- tion points in such directions, they will undoubtedly avail themselves of its guidance. But does this fact work the injury of the respective forces ? The affirmation of the ques- tion cannot be even speciously maintained. A betterment of present condition can by no manner of means be deno- minated an evil, at least so far as the direct beneficiaries are concerned. Individual and national prosperity are not thus jeopardized. The extreme limit of the free trade argument in this direction, however, is not yet refuted. The addi- tional point is made that although in the outset the interests of capital and industry may be advanced by accepting the lead of the protective system, they will encounter ultimate defeat by reason of the extended competition which is sure to attach to all employments that are unusually lucrative. The free trade supporters are here placed in an unhappy position. In a prior connection it appeared that the power of this law of competition was denied, and the price of tariffed commodities was claimed to be regulated by the extent of the impost, without regard to the effect of com- petition, which makes the cost of production the basis of price. In the present instance, however, the advocates of free trade summon this law of competition to their aid, and argue the overthrow of capital and industry by reason of its operation. The former discussion will not be resumed. The force of the law of competition, however, is here allowed, as it was in the former instance maintained. But this allowance will not substantiate the point above ad- vanced. Capital is timid of hazard, and industry views change with suspicion. The owners of the one and direct- PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 415 ors of the other are fully cognizant of the rivalry which characterizes all highly remunerative projects. They need no writer upon either free trade or protection to advise them of the probabilities of failure and success therein. They strictly abide by the law of safety. With a full know- ledge that the profits of all pursuits must be eventually reduced to within a compass hereinbefore defined, they will not embrace the vocations which protection allegedly fosters unless the average possibilities of success in that direction seem palpably more certain than in their present fields of operation. Errors of judgment, as a matter of course, there are here as elsewhere, but the majority of cases proves the correctness of the above ideas, and the greater portion of capital and industry drawn to new pur- suits by a protective system is that which is not earning an adequate consideration in present employment that which is not paying a living profit. In respect to the second aspect of the charge in question, that the alleged diversion of capital and industry from their natural channels discourages and prejudices the entire ma- chinery of the community of commerce, the same can be disposed of with equal brevity. The movers of this theory always associate the argument with the statement that the industrial pursuits of a country cannot be extended beyond the ability of the aggregate amount of capital in the country to support them ; and that as the capital of a nation is always all employed in the working of some industrial enter- prise, any shifting of the same tends to the pernicious re- sults above defined. That the extent of the industries of every people is measured by the amount of their capital, there is no denial. That a protective system, moreover, tends to change in a certain degree the employment of such capital, is equally clear; but that the commercial world is jeopardized by the existence of these facts, does not neces- sarily follow. It is in no respect a natural sequence. The 41 6 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. argument recoils upon itself. The simple fact that a pro- tective system or any other cause entices capital from its former uses is proof conclusive that its prior field of opera- tion was not ordinarily remunerative. It is, in short, the most direct evidence that the limits of its old vocation were crowded that the particular business was overworked. As stated in a prior connection, capital and industry will not be induced to make new adventures without fully contem- plating the possibility and probability of success. By virtue of their assurance that every industrial pursuit must eventually be content, by reason of competition, with the receipt of ordinary profits (hereinbefore defined), they will not assume the hazard of a new undertaking unless the average profits of their present employment are less than ordinary. The office of protection in reference to the point here at issue is within these precise limits. It diverts capital and industry from former channels, it is true. The cause of the diversion, however, is the less than ordinary remuneration received therein, and the reason of this in- adequate compensation of this less than ordinary profit is simply because the old fields of employment were over- crowded and overworked. Protection, in short, directs capital and industry from unremunerative to remunerative production. It relieves the crowded and overworked avenues of industry by opening a way to the prosecution of new indus- trial pursuits -pursuits which have previously been monopo- lized by foreign countries to the exclusion of the one which is led to invoke the aid of protection. Are the interests of the community of commerce jeopardized by such conditions ? The inquiry cannot be affirmed. Intimately associated with this exact point, indeed, is the very germ of national prosperity. The real strength of every people is measured by the extent of their produ- cing power. Production, in short, is the sole stepping-stone to a successful commerce, and it is consequently of the PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 417 most vital importance that the productive enterprises of a nation shall afford an adequate return for the employment of capital and labor shall eventuate in products the sale and exchange of which will yield the maximum amount of commercial profit. The operation of protection, as seen in the words last italicized, guides a nation with its capital and industry in precisely this direction. It is not an in- fringement of liberty. Liberty is but a relative term ; it is simply freedom from compulsion. Protection compels neither interests nor individuals. It merely offers induce- ments, and leaves their acceptance to discretion. So far as it lays its hand upon capital and industry, the foregoing truths, viewed dispassionately and candidly, give ample warrant for the assertion that the system is a mere compli- ance with the law of self-preservation, a simple position of defence, an equalizer of opportunity, a guardian of infancy against age, a shield for the security of natural advantages. From these general objections against a protective system the advocates of free trade descend to those which are more special and less comprehensive. One of the most favorite of these minor claims is, that the law of protection is a system of monopoly. The argument has a double aspect, individual and local. Of these in their order. In refer- ence to individuals the point is made that protection en- riches the few at the expense of the many. The simple meaning of the term "monopoly" constitutes a perfect refutation of the charge. Strictly speaking, monopolies have no existence whatever in the United States. A mo- nopoly is a vested right to accomplish certain ends by all possible means. It is absolute exclusion. Such monopolies, in a relative sense, were incident to the early English law, but have ever been regarded as foreign to the genius and spirit of our institutions. The nearest approximation to a system of monopolies in this country is found in the law of patents and franchises. By virtue of these institutions an 82 41 8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. individual, or an association of individuals in a corporate form, can obtain a vested but limited right to accomplish certain ends by one particular mean. For example, a patent may be obtained upon one method of making steel or communicating intelligence by electricity, but not upon the abstract principle itself. A corporation may obtain a franchise to build a railroad or establish a line of water- travel between two given points within certain bounds, but not within all bounds. A subsequent inventor of an addi- tional method of making steel or communicating intelli- gence by electricity, on the one hand, and a projector of a new line of travel between the same points, within different bounds, on the other, can obtain their respective patent and franchise ; and so on indefinitely. These are only com- parative monopolies. But even such monopolies protec- tion neither creates nor fosters. The system does not establish a law whereby parties by individual and corporate name can secure such comparative exclusive privileges as those above named. It opens the door to vocations which afford an ordinary profit. Through that door any who choose may pass, but with the express condition that in the avenues of industry beyond all parties must be subject to the law of universal competition. Is that monopoly ? Not at all. The opportunities afforded by protection are open to the entire public, and if they seem unusually attractive, every one is at perfect liberty to avail himself of their privileges. Competition is monarch of the field, and monopoly is im- possible. Thus much for the individual aspect of the argument. A word in respect to the local. Upon this phase of the ques- tion the claim is advanced that protection builds up par- ticular to the prejudice of general localities. It is difficult to refrain from denominating the position one of absolute selfishness. If a recurrence is had to the discussion of the law of competition, it will be remembered that the indus- PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 419 trial pursuits opened by a protective system are only sought by capital and industry engaged in enterprises that fail to realize ordinary returns. Now, let it be supposed that a given locality has latent advantages for the production of iron, but that the artificial facilities of foreign countries render its manufacture impossible. A protective tariff is imposed, and capital and industry unprofitably employed (no other will) essay the smelting of iron ore. The enter- prise will undoubtedly give the locality a marked ascend- ency over others less favored by Nature. The comparison to the latter will be disagreeable. But is this a reason why the natural advantages of one point advantages which are the germ of enterprises exclusively conducted by foreign nations shall be undeveloped ? The system of protection contemplates national not local weal. It does not assume to equalize the prosperity of all sections of the country. It does not assume to make a garden of the wilderness. It does not assume to create, but to develop, national strength ; and for this purpose it yokes its forces to natural advan- tages, natural means, wherever it finds them, and in as many localities as possible. The more the better. This is national prosperity, general advancement. The charge that protection advances one section at the expense of others is simply to make it responsible for the favoritisms of Nature. Akin to this claim of the opponents of protection is the one which charges that the system supports ignorance. It does not. Such support is impossible. So far as industrial pursuits are concerned, ignorance is death. Goodness (quality) is an indispensable requisite in all products, whether natural or artificial. No matter how great the con- trast in price, the great majority of the consuming world seek a market which offers the best commodities, for that alone is real economy. Cheapness, it is true, is the chief aim of all production, but never at the expense of goodness 420 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. if the production is to be successful. If capital and in- dustry, diverted to new channels of enterprise by pro- tection, offer the consuming world commodities of such quality as will stand ordinary inspection, they will be pat- ronized otherwise, not. Self-interest makes the opposite impossible. . The line of this discussion for two remaining purposes must be still defensive namely, a refutation of the claims that protection is taxation and a bar upon exports. Of these in their order. In respect to the first, the gist of the argument lies in the claim that a protective tariff enhances the general price of all commodities to which it attaches, together with that of all products of which they form a part. If the primal charge were true, the latter as a natural consequence would be correct. And on the other hand, if the main propo- sition is false, the corollary one is also untenable. The only necessary position to maintain in this connection, therefore, is that protection does not enhance the general price of tariffed commodities. This has been already proven in a prior connection, when it was shown that by force of the law of competition the cost of production under all circumstances is the sole basis of price that pro- tection, in other words, is not taxation. The points of that discussion will not be reaffirmed. The same can be referred to at option. Relying thereon, it is sufficient here to simply say that neither does a protective impost augment nor its removal reduce the general price of tariffed com- modities. The final aggressive point made by the opponents of protection embodies the theory that the system prevents the exportation of home products. A nation, they say, must buy if it expects to sell. Relatively speaking, the last proposition is correct. The position of the free trade theorists thereon, however, is deceptive. The idea they PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 421 essay to clothe with this language is that if by a protective tariff the importation of special commodities is diminished, the aggregate exportation of all products is proportionately reduced. That is, for example, if the United States by an impost upon iron prevent the importation of a quantity of that metal to the value of $50,000,000 per annum, our total moneyed exportation of coal, cotton, cereals, manu- factured goods, and everything, in short, which helps to make up the list of our salable products, will experience a corresponding or greater yearly diminution. The argu- ment is specious, but not defensible. It is a violation of the fundamental principles of the law of exchange. There may be, as there have been, it is true, isolated instances in which, simply as a measure of retaliation, nations have resorted to acts of legislation looking to a total or partial prohibition of the purchase of products of other countries which have shielded their industries with a system of pro- tection. An impost which is imposed merely as a lex tal- i&nis, however, instead of a needed measure of protection to home industry, will be allowed but a brief existence ; for, as it fails to promote either individual or national pros- perity (as it is not protection), it amounts to nothing more or less than self-inflicted punishment. It is a contradiction of self-interest, of ordinary prudence. The incentives to profitable traffic will work the speedy destruction of a barrier so purely artificial and unnecessary. But in the absence of such retaliative measures the opponents of pro- tection press the point that politic considerations will induce the former purchasers of a protective state to with- draw their patronage, and prevent the addition of new names to its list of customers. Impossible ! An illus- tration, prefaced by the statement of a general principle, will best serve the inquiry. A protective tariff is only imposed upon such commodities as those in the production of which a particular nation is obliged to engage in an 86 422 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. unequal strife with other countries. Or, to state it nega- tively, the system of protection never lays an impost upon such commodities as are not or cannot be produced within the country subject to its laws. Now, for the example promised, take the cases of the United States and England. Both countries are engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel. The former, relatively speaking, is alone a producer of cotton and tobacco. The United States lays a protective impost upon iron and steel in order to neutralize the force of the superior facilities, resulting alone from age, which England possesses for their production. The sales of iron and steel from England to the United States are conse- quently very materially diminished ; but will England, by reason of that fact, cease to buy cotton and tobacco of this country? Only in one event namely, when the United States cease to put in market cotton and tobacco of equal quality for a less price than other producers of these staples. Man, as Aristotle says, is a reasoning animal, and in pecu- niary matters, at least, adheres rigidly to the maxim of the English classic, that "The better part of valor is dis- cretion." Nations are made up of individuals. The former act only as the latter direct. Government exists only as its people prosper, and in the case above mentioned the English people England are not going to increase the cost of their annual supply of cotton and tobacco by, say, $50,000,000 or any other sum, by buying their staples in a dearer market than the United States, simply to spite us for protecting the manufacture of our steel and iron. The elements of quality and cheapness, associated with the general principle which prefaced the above illustration, govern the entire question. The same general law as is embodied in the foregoing will apply to all products of our own or other countries to which the system of protection does not attach. Nearly every nation has a climatic or local patent of Nature for PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 423 the exclusive, or very nearly the exclusive, production of certain commodities. Competition with it, if not impossi- ble, is useless. For these special products it is the market of the world. God, by the law of Nature, has so ordained. The sale of such commodities, relatively speaking, constitutes under all circumstances the whole of a nation' s export trade. What is the agency that can prevent such sale ? None. Both protection and free trade are powerless in the premises. If the world has only one market in which to purchase coal, in that market it must buy. If it has two or more markets, quality considered, it will buy in that which is the cheap- est. But allow, for the moment, that the system of retalia- tion will be adopted. It makes no difference. Those prod- ucts which bear the impress of a local or climatic patent will be bought by some one. Commerce will not nor can- not be restricted by such means, and it is only a question whether the sales shall be direct or indirect, or, in the language of traffic, whether there shall be a "middleman " in the transaction; that is, in the case above stated, shall England buy cotton and tobacco of the United States, or of another nation which has purchased therefrom? The discussion of this immediate sub-subject will be con- cluded with two general allusions, both of which are of paramount import. Material prosperity is the real founda- tion of national greatness. The former is measured by the extent of a nation's producing force. Production, in short, relatively speaking, is the sole means for the promotion of the general welfare. The absence of it in new countries denotes repose, and in old ones is conclusive evidence of decay. Commerce is but the world's vehicle for the trans- portation of the products of industry : production is the supply-store from which it gathers its freight. It is the boundary-line between a purely nomadic life, which is but one remove from barbarism, and a general status of ex- change, which is the primal exponent of civilization. It is 424 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. the origin of both individual and national wealth. These are condensed statements of general truths which have been so fully elaborated in prior connections that their correct- ness will hardly be assailed. A maintenance of the general proposition that production is an absolute prerequisite of national prosperity is certainly wholly unnecessary. From this premise the deduction is both logical and forcible that the greater the resources, so to speak, of pro- duction, the more rapid the pace of general development that the more numerous the agencies which are placed at its disposal, the more commanding the position of the country wherein they operate. This brief comment is now narrowed down to the single point that the most vital element of a true economic policy is the enlistment of the largest pos- sible amount of labor in the ranks of productive industry. This is the precise end of protection ; and for the simple reason that it concentrates the forces of production and commerce places the producer and consumer side by side. These two forces, as already seen, are wholly dependent one upon the other. Unless the commodities of production are devoured by commercial consumption, the forces of the former must stay their hand; and if productive industry ceases its toil, the wheels of commerce can no longer re- volve. Now, if these interests are widely separated in point of locality, the agencies which will be required to furnish means of communication between them, to place the commodities of production in the possession of com- merce, will be greater in number than those engaged in their immediate service; and by just the extent of the force engaged in this work of transportation, in a proportionate ratio will production be curtailed minus the additional attendance which its increase would require and, rela- tively speaking, the growth of the nation suffer delay. The point requires no further amplification. The character and rapidity of national development are defined and meas- PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE, 425 ured by the limit of producing power. This latter protec- tion augments by reason of the fact that it gives production and consumption an immediate territorial acquaintance, and releases the forces which would otherwise be required to provide them with means of communication. The other general allusion referred to in a prior connec- tion is simply the statement of a self-evident truth, instead of the assertion or maintenance of an economic proposition. It is simply this : Protection, to accomplish its legitimate purpose, should be characterized by stability. It should never be vacillating. The effect of a periodical system of protection is plainly apparent. Capital and industry not only suffer by its actual changes, but the fear of its possible mutations possesses them with distrust, till they eventually refuse to prosecute the industries which the true system is designed to develop, and thereby render the institution not only mythical instead of real, but an injury instead of an aid. This investigation of the limits of protection (and there- by of free trade) cannot receive a more forcible conclusion than to summon the words of John Stuart Mill, one of the ablest defenders of the latter doctrine, to their support. Says Mr. Mill: "The only case in which, on mere princi- ples of political economy, protecting duties can be defensi- ble is when they are imposed temporarily (especially in a young and rising nation) in hopes of naturalizing a foreign industry in itself perfectly suitable to the circumstances of the country. The superiority of one country over another in a branch of production often arises only from having begun it sooner. There may be no inherent advantage on the one part or disadvantage on the other, but only a pres- ent superiority of acquired skill and experience. A country which has this skill and experience yet to acquire may in other respects be better adapted to the production than those which were earlier in the field ; and besides, it is a 36* 426 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. just remark that nothing has a greater tendency to promote improvement in any branch of production than its trial under a new set of conditions. But it cannot be expected that individuals should, at their own risk, or rather to their certain loss, introduce a new manufacture and bear the burden of carrying it on until the producers have been educated up to the level of those with whom the processes are traditional. A protecting duty, continued for a reason- able time, will sometimes be the least inconvenient mode in which the nation can tax itself for the support of such an experiment." IV. THE COLLATERAL TENDENCIES OF THE Two INSTITU- TIONS. The foregoing comment has relied, for the most part, upon the force of mere material, pecuniary considerations to commend itself to the judgment of the reader and in- sure it the warrant of his affirmation. That it will receive a general indorsement is not, of course, for a moment an- ticipated. The subject is too abstruse to admit of the pos- sibility of universal agreement thereon. It presents itself, however, upon other grounds than those which have just passed from consideration. It is intimately associated with the foremost aims of an intelligent civilization, and is not a mere question of material wealth. As with individuals so with nations, there is a certain status, so to speak, of moral strength which moneyed possessions are powerless to command. The importance thereof it is impossible to over-estimate. It is something more than a mere ally of abstract wealth in the attainment of national greatness. A just appreciation of patent facts places it far above a simple peerage with pecuniary power. Its superiority is undoubted and unimpeachable, for by virtue of its possession material greatness, with all its attendant and collateral advantages, are ever wholly at command. It is, in short, the leading PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 427 force of social science, and is hardly susceptible of defini- tion by a single phrase. It will not answer to simply des- ignate it by the term intelligence ; neither does the word culture adequately portray its character. Its nature par- takes of both, and yet the principle has a far more extended compass. If we were compelled to summon a single word to stand as an exponent of its meaning, that word would be acquisition. It is a status which consists in the education of both the head and the hand, the development of physical and mental strength. The proposition resolves itself into several minor con- siderations, a brief investigation of one or more of which will render more apparent the force of the general principle herein maintained. And first as to its relations to manual labor. The truth is perfectly self-evident, and yet frequently lost sight of, that the power of physical as well as mental labor is measured by the extent of the education with which it has been favored. This education of the hand is of course somewhat different from that of the head. The former has but one stage the acquisition of physical skill by simple practice, and may be called a process of training only ; while the latter has two the mental collation of ab- stract facts, and their application to purposes of practical import. The first is skill in creation, and may be styled an art ; while the latter is skill in creation and reception as well, and may be termed a science. Yet both are educa- tion, and the extent thereof fixes the limit of the usefulness of the respective pupils. The thought is now reduced to a closer compass, and presents the naked question of rude and skilled labor; and in this connection let it be remembered that reference is had alone to manual labor as distinguished from mental. In the opening chapter of this treatise the different stages of human progress from barbarism to civilization were traced and defined namely, the finding, the pastoral or 428 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. nomadic, and the agricultural stages. A moment's reflec- tion will show that the labor incident to the first two was of the rudest possible character, but with the inauguration of the agricultural period man became a producer, the dawn of civilization first lent light to his barbaric state, and he began to educate his hand in the habits of skilled labor, as seen in the pursuit of tillage. An additional ad- vance step, it will be remembered, was here induced namely, the acquisition of skill for the fabrication of agri- cultural implements. The gist of this question of rude and skilled labor, as connected with the doctrines of protection and free trade, is now arrived at. On the supposition that a country has a large territorial area, is it policy for its people to confine their labor exclusively to its cultivation ? An affirmation of the inquiry is fraught with collateral results of the gravest possible character. It amounts to a simple asser- tion that the education of labor shall cease ; that it shall be confined within the swaddling-clothes of its natal existence ; that latent talents and forces with which God had possessed a common humanity shall cease to be developed : that hu- man progress shall stay its march of civilization. If we look for the authority by which legislation shall passively assume to set its fetters upon this natural law of advance- ment, the search will be poorly rewarded. It resolves itself into a quest for a law which says that man shall direct the will of God. If the Creator has endowed His creatures with inherent capacity to fill the advanced stages of social existence, we must admit that He intended such strength to be developed and employed, or else assent to the proposi- tion that He has indulged in creation without a purpose, which is equivalent to denying His attributes of God. The employment of portions of humanity in following the plough who are by Nature fitted for the facture of wares which are demanded for the good of the community, and PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 429 whose creation is more productive of material wealth, is, to say the least, a policy of waste, if not the commission of absolute sin. The same truth is applicable to all the suc- cessive stages of human progress, whether physical or men- tal, and its further extension is wholly unnecessary. The reasoning is not to be confined to the solitary in- stances of agriculture and manufactures, as above stated, and yet the tendencies for good or evil in this direction alone are almost boundless. The pursuit of agriculture, to the comparative or total exclusion of other industrial enter- prises, bears directly upon the extent and rapidity with which a country is peopled. The statement is warranted by all past history, and its truthfulness, indeed, is self-evi- dent, that purely agricultural countries are not only sparsely settled, but also in a very isolated manner. The very nature of the vocation renders an opposite condition of things entirely impossible. The status of our Southern country pertinently illustrates the position. The South has always been, in a comparative degree, exclusively engaged in the production of a few agricultural staples, and with but a very few exceptions south of the forty-fifth parallel of lati- tude its people are not massed in cities or towns of above from four to ten thousand inhabitants. Its aggregate popu- lation, moreover, bears no relative proportion to that of the North and West. The constant increase in the number of our inhabitants as a nation has always been principally in the latter sections. It cannot but be plain to any reflecting mind that incentives to an increase of population, particu- larly in the case of nations with a wide expanse of territory, constitute the direct key to national development. The number of ]>eople in any country measures the extent of its producing power, and the latter, as shown in a prior con- nection, is one of the principal elements of national weal. Moreover, the perfection of agricultural enterprises is wholly dependent upon the extent to which land is sub- 43 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. divided among different owners or occupants. The more minute the division, the more perfect the tillage, and con- sequently the greater the production. Admit, for the mo- ment, that agricultural countries should devote themselves exclusively, in a relative sense, to the pursuits of tillage, and the end cannot be so fully consummated, the amount of agricultural products cannot be so greatly increased, as in furnishing such incentives for the rapid increase of population as the establishment of manufactures provides, thereby re- stricting the extent of territory occupied by separate indi- viduals, perfecting the method of cultivation and augment- ing the harvest returns. There is another aspect to this question of cities and villages as it inferentially appears in the preceding com- ment. It is the plea for culture. "God made the country, and man made the town," is a somewhat worn and hack- neyed apothegm. The direct assertion of the secondary statement is as faulty and indefensible as the inference pro- posed by the entire remark, that the former abounds in the greatest benefits. We say benefits, and not comforts, although the last as well as the first may perhaps be claimed by the town with a right equal to that of the country. This, however, is immaterial to the point at issue. By benefits, moreover, is intended those both personal and national. The springs of civilization are rooted in educa- tion ; and by the latter we mean such education of both the head and the hand as was in a prior connection defined by the use of the term acquisition; or, in other words, manual skill and mental culture. In these are founded all the forces of science and art which give the world its advan- tages of invention, discovery and the general adaptation of natural means for desired ends; in short, national advance- ment. This education, acquisition, relatively speaking, is incident to our cities alone. In them naturally gathers the mind of the people, and in them are the perfect facilities PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 431 for the education and culture which advance the cause of civilization and human progress alone obtained. The neglect in a people to diversify their industries to the great- est possible extent, and thereby render the congregation of its inhabitants in large cities impossible, is simply to record a protest against their education on the one hand, and to reverse the wheels of civilization on the other. This argu- ment must not be construed into a disparagement of pop- ulating the country. Such a position would be simply absurd. The country has its duties and responsibilities no less grave and weighty than those of the town. The two go hand in hand, and the permanent growth of one to the prejudice of the other is something never to be feared. That is a matter controlled entirely by the force of natural law, and needs no conservator whatever. The undue desertion of the country for the town increases the advan- tages of the former and diminishes those of the latter, and vice versd. These extraordinary advantages will not long be left to the few. The law of self-interest is powerful and supreme, and in the case above noted the outgoing march will meet the incoming train. This immediate discussion points to certain direct con- clusions, after briefly noticing the more important of which the present sub-subject will be dismissed. The first is one which inferentially has received a detailed exposition in a prior connection, and in this instance, consequently, will simply receive a mention. Reference is had to the rela- tion of the foregoing truths to the topic of production. Production is, for the most part, wholly dependent upon the extent of the education of a people who essay it upon mental and manual acquisition. One of the chief ends of the adoption of the policy foreshadowed in the present in- vestigation is to augment the facilities of such education, and thereby increase production and enhance the general welfare. The operation of the forces herein contended for 43 2 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. eventuates in precisely these results, as well as the better- ment of individual condition. A second conclusion to which we are inevitably drawn by the past argument is closely allied to the foregoing : it may be regarded, indeed, as a logical sequence thereof. It is the simple alternative of progress or decay. There is no period of repose in the life of civilization. It is either an advance or a retrograde. The moment a nation ceases to educate its hand in skill and its mind in knowledge, pro- duction is not only no longer extended, but diminished. It cannot be otherwise. Human achievements, of whatever sort, result from the employment of human force. Stop the supply of the latter, fail to fill the vacancies effected by time and death, and decline is inevitable. We are thus brought face to face with the choice of civilization on the one hand, and, if not absolute barbarism, primitive nomadism on the other. This, indeed, although seemingly collateral, is the real question involved in the rival doctrines of protection and free trade. Its importance cannot be lost sight of by slight. By the side of it the mere matter of material wealth and this, as already shown, is wholly dependent thereon is of little comparative importance. Moneyed posses- sions are entirely incident to the education of mental and manual strength. Their loss, at the utmost, carries in the downfall none but the former owners and those who were pecuniarily interested in their success ; but a reflux in the tide of civilization, however local, makes its influence felt in every quarter of Christendom. In that work there is, nolens volcns, a universal partnership of the human brother- hood, which includes every race, people and nationality, and the misfortune of a single member is the woe of all concerned. The collateral tendency of the two institutions of protec- tion and free trade, as above defined, raises a question of the most momentous character. It cannot fail not only to PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 433 engross the attention of every philosophic mind, but it also precludes the possibility of silence among the supporters of Christianity in general. It resolves itself into the simple alternative of whether particular countries, and conse- quently the world, shall still join in the onward inarch of human progress, educate their intellect, perfect their skill in productive labor, develop their natural resources and unfold the mysteries of science, or whether they shall, per- haps slowly yet surely, return to the enervating influences of a pastoral life and the still more aimless pursuits of the chase. Protection, of course, does not necessarily attach to all countries, nor to any country, except under certain conditions. Those conditions have been fully and fairly defined in a prior connection. Repetition thereof will not be made, but the same must be remembered to prevent a misconstruction of the utterance that both in its direct anil collateral tendencies the development of latent, hidden re- sources, the increase of the material wealth of both the na- tion and the individual, the substitution of skilled for rude labor, the education of the intellect, the exploration of sci- ence, the perfection and ennoblement of art, the provision of motor-power for the cause of civilization, and the ad- vancement of a common Christianity, are the end and aim of that system of economic law which, as it opposes progress to decay, has been so fittingly styled protection. V. THE PROPER POLICY FOR THE UNITED STATES. The discussion of this sub-subject consists in a simple application of the principles hereinl>efore set forth. It is most appropriately introduced by a brief statement of the absolute and relative position of this country. In reference to the first, as connected with the intelligence of its inhab- itants, it possesses the largest extent of territory of any na- tion upon the face of the earth. Hut about one-fourth of this entire domain has Inren developed by the hand of in- 37 T 434 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. dustry. The balance of it, comparatively speaking, is an utter stranger to everything but the annual visit of the sea- sons and the presence of the herds which wildly roam over its luxuriant surface. Unknown to all but the curious trav- eler, and the savage who has sought to divorce himself from civilization in its solitude, it sleeps, as left by the hand of Nature, in total ignorance of the existence of man. The natural resources of this vast territorial area are of the most diversified character. Its soil has capacity for the unrivaled production of certain agricultural staples ; metal- lic ores of almost every description lie hid beneath its boom ; forests of timber shoot heavenward from its moun- tains ; indigenous fruits voluntarily ripen in its sunny val- leys; boisterous brooks waste their strength in dancing among its hills ; and mighty rivers on all sides force an outlet to the different gates of the sea. We are a people, moreover, who assume to govern ourselves. Our form of government and our institutions are wholly and unquali- fiedly republican. Relative liberty is granted to all, and neither the mind nor the body is subjected to slavery. Vocations are in no respect exclusive. Pursuits which are lawful to one the masses may legitimately follow, and the means of accession thereto are uniform and easily available. Our only title of nobility is intelligence, and the avenues to personal distinction and honor are open to any who have the ability and diligence to essay their passage. This uni- versality of character and opportunity, coupled with the mobility of our institutions, attracts to our shores the op- pressed and unfortunate of every race and country. The name of America, indeed, is a magnet which draws to itself the heterogeneous and penniless masses of the European and of Eastern countries. Our population, by reason thereof, is increasing with unprecedented rapidity, and the new accessions are of a character who must live by the re- turns of labor and not of capital. Our country, moreover, PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 435 is still in its infancy, and is characterized with much of the weakness which is not incident to manhood. The educa- tion of our labor is not yet perfected, our intellect is not yet matured, and our explorations of science and appropri- ations of art are not fully extended. Thus much for our absolute status. In reference to our rela- tive condition, we are placed in competition, in the commer- cial world, with rivals who were five hundred years old at the time of our birth with rivals who have availed themselves of the advantages of this long experience, and whose productive sinews are toughened by the uses and hardships of checkered age. We have just emerged, moreover, from the convulsions and horrors of a civil war more stupendous in proportions than any which exists in the memory of man. This terrible struggle cost us, as a whole people, to say nothing of life, nearly ten thousand millions of treasure. Our obligations for nearly two thousand five hundred millions are still in circulation, and in a great measure in the hands of foreign capitalists. Our traditional policy refutes the idea of a permanent public debt, and our national prosperity renders the payment of the present one imperative. Considering our immense landed possessions, the argu- ment of free trade points directly, comparatively speaking, to the exclusive pursuit of agriculture by the people of the United States. There is no escape from this conclusion. With our markets open to foreign venders of factured wares, any attempt at production of the same on our part is useless, for the superior facilities of our competitors, re- sulting from the element of age, enable them to undersell us and drive our factured products from existence. The same is true, in every resjx;ct, in reference to our mining industries. Our labor is still educating itself in the *kill requisite to follow these pursuits as advantageously as that of older rivals, which fact, coupled with the initiatory ex- pense attendant upon the inauguration of any enterprise l$ THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. whatever, puts an effectual check upon the working of our raw mineral wealth into salable commodities with the sys- tem of free trade in force. The truth of the statement cannot be denied. In respect to origin, there are only three kinds of raw material namely, the products of land, mines and fisheries. A reign of free trade restricts our producing power within the limits of the first and last, and principally those of the former. The result of thus con- fining our labor within the narrow compass of agricultural industry needs no description. The same, although infer- entially yet fully, appeared in the discussion of the next preceding sub-subject. Further statement thereof will not be suffered. Suffice it to say, our country would be made up of small villages and towns to the exclusion of cities, our education of both labor and intellect would deteriorate, and we should slowly yet fatally recede to the primordial condition of the pastoral tribes of the Eastern World. There is an argument suggested in this connection in favor of free trade which, although indefensible, is suffi- ciently specious to provoke a reply. It is this. The sup- porters of the theory urge that as the adoption of their system would give us both cheaper raw material and factured goods, the less cost of the former and the dimi- nution of living expenses, with its consequent reduction of the price of labor induced by the latter, would enable us to successfully compete with our foreign rivals in manufac- turing pursuits ; or, in other words, the reduction in the cost of the component parts of factured wares, labor and raw material, under a free trade system, would equalize our facturing capacity with that of other countries. Not so. The claimants omit one very important element from the discussion the difference between the abstract price of American and foreign labor. The question presents the simple alternative of the degradation or ennoblement of our laboring classes. England feeds her workmen upon PROTECTION AXD FREE TRADE. 437 black bread and sour beer, and her pauper list not only numbers a million and a half of souls, but is constantly on the increase. The United States provide their laboring classes with wholesome food, proper covering, suitable shelter and means to educate both themselves and theii children, and pauperism fails of annual growth. And instead of receding from that line of action, they propose to advance beyond it, believing not only that their own material and national greatness is wrapped in the policy, but also the cause of civilization and Christianity in gene- ral. This difference between the abstract price of foreign and American labor is too great to be overcome by the adoption of free trade. The average of such difference, making due allowance for the cheapness of living expenses in Europe as compared with America, is fully thirty, and the average reduction to us in the cost of labor and raw material incident to a free trade policy ranges only from ten to twenty per cent. The fact is notorious to any intelligent mind that in ad- vocating a free trade policy the case of England is cited as indisputable authority to support the plea. That country is our principal competitor in the commercial world, and as the citation above named is pertinent, so may the status and exigencies of the two nations be very properly contrasted. The territorial extent of England, as compared with that of the United States, is meagre in the extreme. The waters of the ocean wash every rood of her outer borders, and fourteen hours' land carriage will place the products of her most interior industry upon her docks for shipment. A landed aristocracy is one of the pet features of her govern- mental policy. Fifty thousand individuals own her entire territory in fee simple, and the absolute (or even qualified) ownership of land yea more, its occupancy even by any of her laboring classes is nothing less than an anomaly. This small extent of area, coupled with the infrcquency of 37 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. its subdivision, has driven her producing power almost ex- clusively to the pursuit of manufactures. Her government is a constitutional monarchy, and although, in some respects, one of the most perfect, both in form and theory, which the experience of past ages has ever suggested, it denies, to a very great extent, the advancement of her lower and middle classes. She depends partially upon the existence of a large public debt to secure the continuance of her present form of government. For five hundred years has she profited by the results of invention and the explorations of science ; the education of her labor is the most perfect of any in Christendom, and the same, with the exception of Germany, is true of her intellect. From 1651 to 1845 sne shielded her industrial pursuits with the most rigid system of protection which the history of economic legislation has ever presented, and not until she had so perfected her facilities in that direction that she had nothing to fear from unrestricted traffic did she adopt the opposing policy of free trade. England stands, to-day, the oldest and most emphatic exponent of the work of protection throughout the world. Leaving this general, inferential contrast, a more direct one will now be considered. The producing power of the United States is in a great measure, by reason of its vast territorial resources, devoted to the production of raw ma- terial. That of England, on the other hand, owing to its restricted area, is almost exclusively directed to the facture of wares. Those of our raw products for which England is a customer are corn, cotton and tobacco, while, by virtue of the non-development of our facturing power, we pur- chase the factured goods of England in return. Attention is drawn to this point for the purpose of refuting an argu- ment of the free trade theorists that the absence of this policy restricts our exportation of these staples. The posi- tion was shown to be indefensible by an examination of PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 439 general principles in the discussion of the third sub-subject of this chapter. The main ground will not be re-examined, showing that protection does not reduce the aggregate amount of exports, but the present comment will be con- fined to the effect of the policy upon the sale of the three products above mentioned. They constitute, it is true, a very large portion of our exportable commodities, and the topic is consequently an important one. Now, corn, cotton and tobacco, at least the two former, the United States, on account of territorial and climatic status, can produce with greater facility and in greater abundance than any other country. The cotton crop of the United States, in fact, is two-thirds of that of the entire world. Britain, however, comparatively speaking, in the absence of the peculiar status above stated, can produce them only in a very limited degree. She must come to us, either directly or indirectly, for these staples, whether we govern ourselves by protection or free trade. Not so in reference to the factured wares we purchase of England. We have every latent facility for this production which England has, and it only requires development to render us wholly independent of her in respect to our supply therewith. We may by a system of protection accomplish that result, and not for a moment jeopardize the extent of our export trade in the products above named. Natural laws render the opposite results entirely impossible, and make us masters of the situation. It is directly at this point that not only the reason of England's advocacy of free trade upon general principles, but also that of her intense desire to see it adopted in this and other countries, is made apparent. Her restricted ter- ritorial area has driven her almost exclusively to facturing pursuits, and she has naturally enough aimed to distance all competitors therein. For th^'^Jbnartment of this end she has not only per fee ted the e* aLrtf ion of her labor by three hundred years of experin ii^and two hundred years 440 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. of rigid protection, but also reduced the cost of her labor to the lowest possible minimum in the criminally scanty wages she pays her laboring classes. By these expedients she is enabled to place factured goods in the market at a lower price than any other country. She has nothing to fear from competition, and therefore argues free trade for her economic policy ; she desires to sell all the goods she can, and therefore advocates the system as the only proper policy for other countries. Nations, like individuals, adopt particular expedients for their own and not for others' good. There is no less selfishness in public than in private policy. England advocates free trade as the only proper economic sys- tem for universal adoption simply because, under existing cir- cumstances, it is the most advantageous for her to follow, and not because she ever has shown or can show that it is best and wisest for all Christendom. The attempt to make the case of England a criterion for other countries,. between her and whom there is not the slightest analogy in respect to age, education, territorial area and treatment of the laboring classes, is an abuse of logic and an insult to reason. There is a collateral fact suggested at this juncture which is peculiarly pertinent to the present discussion. England assigns the wretched condition of her laboring classes to over-population, if such a term may be suffered. It is the Malthusian argument that the world, in time, will be peo- pled beyond its capacity that God is going to glut His creation with humanity and is very acceptable to England because it absolves her from a terrible responsibility. There is, however, a reason for the deplorable status of her mill- operatives behind all this which is less insulting to Omnip- otence and more easy of appreciation. England has aimed not only to control the commerce, but also to make her fac- turing marts the dT H^sive market of the world for factured wares. Down to tnes/" "V'o of the present century, or about aban v . '-3 protection (1845), ner am bi- the time when she ^^^ mdk PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 44! tion was successful, for not till then did the Western World overtake her in the race of civilization. It was simply to distance this dangerous rival that she invited Christendom to the feast of unrestricted traffic and removed the customs barriers from her ports of entry. For reasons before stated she had nothing to fear from competition, and the prospect- ive curtailment of her list of customers urged her not only to adopt the policy for herself as an attraction to her sell- ing buyers, but to advocate it to her neighbors, that in their ports she might sell her goods. The motor-power which enabled England to still maintain her ascendency in 1845 a 8 tne supply-store of the world by the adoption of free trade, was the continued degradation of her labor. The success of free trade with England if indeed it may be called a success is wholly based upon the miserable pov- erty of her lower laboring classes ; and herein, rather than in the theory of Malthus, lies the secret of their misfortunes. It is a useless battle. England struggles not against the power and skill of human competition, but against the prog- ress of civilization and the force of natural law. She can be a partial but not an exclusive supply-store for factured wares. The fates are against her, and her facturing indus- tries cannot much longer increase their scope, if they can even maintain their present status. The magnitude of any enterprise is measured by the versatility of others which sur- round it, and this last, in a great degree, by immediate terri- torial area. Factures of hand or machinery will best flou- rish by the side of extended agriculture, and vice versa. The one makes a market for the other, and the greater the extent of territory, if characterized with natural advantages and the same are properly developed, the greater the pros- perity of both ; and for the same reason the more versatile the pursuits the more extended their compass. England, consequently, must not assume an ability to supply the world with factured goods. Her immediate limited area T 2 44 2 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. renders it impossible, and the ultimate relative extent of her capacity in this direction will be measured by the de- gree to which the United States and other countries pos- sessed of similar natural advantages develop and perfect the same. There is room and opportunity for England's starv- ing poor in other localities, and therein they will look in the future for relief. There is another point to be considered before this argu- ment of contrast is dismissed, and it is the vehicle of a fact which throws around English industry the shield of protec- tion in as great a degree as though a protective enactment occupied a place upon England's statute-book. It is the difference which exists in the cost of transportation of the peculiar products of the respective countries. Remember- ing that the cost of transportation is a component part of the cost of commodities to their vender, and consequently a factor of the market price to the buyer, the advantage of England in this respect will be made clearly apparent by means of a simple statement of patent facts. The exports of the United States, as before remarked, consist, for the most part, of raw material which is not only bulky, but, comparatively speaking, of small moneyed value. Our territory is so vast in extent that these exports are placed upon our docks for shipment only by means of a long and expensive land- carriage, and their enormous bulk renders such land- and subsequent water-carriage extremely expen- sive. The cost of transportation of our exports to Euro- pean ports, in short, forms, upon an average, about fifty per cent, of their market price. England, on the other hand, exports, relatively speaking, scarcely anything but factured goods, which are not only capable of shipment in a very small compass, but are possessed of great moneyed value. Her facturing marts, moreover, are, at the farthest, but a few hours distant from her ocean-docks, so that the cost of land-carriage for her exports is next to nothing. PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 443 The cost of transportation of her exported commodities, in fact, is not, upon an average, above ten per cent, of their actual value. The force of the foregoing may perhaps be better appreciated by a statement of the fact that it costs as much to place a bushel of American corn, worth fifty cents, upon the docks of Liverpool, as it does a yard of English broadcloth, worth five dollars, upon the wharf at New York. It is impossible for England to secure a system of protection more perfect, so far as the United States are con- cerned, than is here accorded her. To conclude this contrast of the status of the two coun- tries, the attempt to justify free trade as the proper economic policy for the United States by analogous reasoning from an English stand-point is wholly ephemeral. There is not, on the whole, the slightest analogy between their re- spective conditions. Our status is much more like that of India, even, than of England or Belgium, to whom the sup- porters of free trade are so prone to point for proof of its success. If unrestricted traffic should be adopted as the immediate policy of our Government, and the same adhered to, we should lapse into the almost exclusive pursuit of till- age, and place the followers thereof upon the same deplora- ble basis as the laboring classes of Great Britain. Ireland, indeed, owes her past distress of famines almost wholly to the free trade laws of the English realm. The ridiculously insignificant remuneration which the labor of her peasantry received, induced by the free trade policy of England, and not a scarcity of provisions, was the cause of every famine which has visited that unhappy people. In every instance thereof, the cereal markets of this country were fully stocked for foreign buyers, and the charity of our people made them accessible without money and without price. There are three other points worthy of a passing notice, at least, before the present chapter shall be concluded. And, first, the labor of a nation which has been educated 444 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. above the mere vocation of agricultural pursuits which end is gained by protection is never compelled to raise the mortifying flag of pauperism and confess its inability to take care of itself. Skilled labor is always independent. Somewhere in the world it is always in demand, and can ever find employment. History furnishes many forcible examples of the truth of the foregoing, and that which Lucca records can never be cited too often. In 1310 a change of governmental policy exiled nine hundred families therefrom. In this unhappy number thirty-one families were skilled in the art of silk manufacture, and prevailed upon the authorities of Venice to allow them to remain therein for the purpose of establishing that industry under government auspices. Second, it is the interest, and con- sequently the duty, of every country to approximate as closely as possible to a state of perfect independence of other nations. In countries of large territorial area and diversified natural advantages this is peculiarly advantage- ous, for in the event of war such a status affords a moral power which the artificial strength of armies and navies is powerless to supply. And, third (to be more fully noticed in the next succeeding chapter), we have a debt to pay, and only either by a protective tariff or internal taxes are the means to be possessed for its cancellation. As announced in the outset, the discussion embraced by the present chapter has only dealt with general principles, and the application thereof to the peculiar exigencies of this country. It was not intended to grasp the specific instances to which, for the welfare of the United States, one or the other of the opposing doctrines should attach. That is the work of the next succeeding chapter. The conclusions which are suggested by the foregoing investigation are seemingly indisputable. With our large extent of territory, rich in its undeveloped and unapplied resources of hidden wealth and water-power, coupled, in all PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 445 cases, with the interest, and in most instances the necessity, of still further perfecting the education of our labor of maintaining, if not advancing, the present status of our laboring classes of augmenting the scope of our produ- cing power of keeping open the avenues of industry in as many directions as possible, so that our annual tide of im- migration shall become an assistance and not a burden of fortifying ourselves against the chances and contingencies of war, and of redeeming our present financial obligations, the wisest and most expedient economic policy for this country to pursue until it has reached a period of mature age, whether it be twenty or fifty years distant, is to equalize with that of older rivals the status of those of our indus- tries which natural or artificial causes have placed in un- equal competition therewith, by giving them both the defence and assistance of a temperate, uniform system of protec- tion. The contrary would not only be a waste of inherent strength, but a weight upon the progress of civilization. CHAPTER II. TARIFFS. The Scope of the Discussion It will not Descend to Details, but state Principles by which the Same may l>e Reached History of Tariff Legislation in the United States The Tariff of 1789 A Protective Measure Its Cause and Origin Amendments thereof Alexander Hamilton and James Madison upon the Policy The Tariff of 1816 Induced by the Changed Status of Europe and America Inade- quate The General Distress which followed The Tariff of 1824 Strongly Protective Its Cause and Origin A Success Clay and \Vel>ster the M aster-spirits of the Conflict The Claim of Locality The Tariff of 1828 A Modification of the one of 1824 The Com- promise Tariff of 1833 Protection Abandoned Its Cause and Origin South Carolina Clay the Mover of the Scheme Webster its Opponent Position* of the two Reversed From 1833 to 1842 31 446 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Free Trade and Disaster Ruled the Country The Tariff of 1842 Protection Resumed Modified in 1846 Prosperity Followed The Tariff of 1857 Protection again Abandoned The Forerunner of General Distress The Tariff of 1861 Protection Reinstated Why? Protection for the United States Defended Our Import and Export Trade Reviewed The Results of Tariff Legislation in this Country The Case of Labor, Agriculture and Cotton The Classes of Articles to which a Protective Tariff should Attach The Principle Stated which here Governs The Case of Raw Materials Iron requires Protection Coal and Wool do not Lumber for Special Reasons should not have it The Extent to which a Protective Im- post should be Laid The Same fully examined. r I "HE task assigned to the present chapter will be con- .!_ fined within very narrow limits. Extended discussion upon the above-entitled subject, in the light of the next preceding one, is indeed wholly unnecessary. The exami- nation of the joint topic of Protection and Free Trade was based entirely upon general principles, and concluded with an exposition of the proper policy for the United States to pursue. The work of this immediate investigation is to define the limits of the application of such a policy to state in detail the objects upon which it should lay its hand. The topics of both chapters are mere subdivisions of one general subject. They were separated by the author in his treatment thereof for the purpose of avoiding confusion, and of obtaining in toto a clear understanding of the fundamental principles of protection and free trade before essaying to apply these laws for the attainment of practical ends. It asserts itself to be the better method, for the reasons if we may reduce them to a close and somewhat metaphorical expression that theory properly comes before practice, science before art, and that, the former having been mastered, the latter will require but a little time for the purpose of making our acquaintance. As to the exact scope of the present chapter, the reader must not, in the outset, be misled by the prior remark that TARIFFS. 447 its work " is to define the limit of the application of such a policy, to state in detail the objects upon which it should lay its hand." This proposition must not be assumed to convey the intendment that all the objects upon which a tariff should seize, together with the exact extent to which it should essay to control them, will be separately stated in this discussion. Such a course would be the draft of a bill for the action of legislation, and not the elucidation of principles by which legislation may be guided. It is the latter, and not the former, which alone is here intended, or even necessary ; and this end will be accomplished by a statement of the classes of objects to which a tariff should properly attach, coupled with a general rule to serve as an index of the precise limit to which it should operate thereon. There is a maxim of law no less salutary for economic than legal discussion namely, Quod est ccrtum certum potest "that is certain which may be rendered certain," that is, by mer ministerial as distinguished from discretionary action. It is by this rule, owing to the fullness of the next preceding chapter, that we shall in this instance more than usually adhere. With these preliminary observations the main topic will now be proceeded with in the following order : I. History of Tariff Legislation in this Country; II. The Classes of Articles to which a Tariff should Attach ; III. The Extent to which a Protective Impost should be Laid. I. HISTORY OF TARIFF LEGISLATION IN THIS COUNTRY. The object of this immediate comment is twofold namely, a concise, chronological statement of the several tariff measures which have been adopted by the United States, and the demonstration that such measures have always proved a benefit to the community that their ab- 448 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. sence has ever been the concomitant of extended and almost universal distress. For this purpose a running rec- ord, so to speak, will first be made of the economic legisla- tion of the country in this direction, accompanied by gen- eral statements of its condition attendant upon such a course ; after which a brief and somewhat detailed review of intermediate and collateral events connected with our history and incident to the respective tariff measures will be made, to substantiate the claim above advanced, that protection has always promoted the welfare of the Ameri- can republic. Within three days after the assembling of the first Con- gress of the United States the discussion of the proper economic policy for the Government was inaugurated, and has ever since been continued. The total disagreement of the most eminent minds of the country thereon, through every stage of our national existence, pointedly sustains the position hereinbefore advanced, that Political Ecopomy is not a science that it is wholly dependent upon the pecu- liar conditions of every state or nation. The discussion above noted eventuated in the adoption (July 4, 1789) of the first tariff act placed upon the statute-book of the then infant republic. It bears the following preamble : "Whereas, it is necessary for the support of the Govern- ment, for the discharge of the debts of the United States and the encouragement and protection of manufactures that duties be laid," etc. The origin of this species of legisla- tion is unclouded with mystery. It had its birth in the status of things consequent upon the stern fortunes of war. The American Revolution had barred the people of the Colonies from making further imports from the mother- country of many of the necessaries of their peculiar life, such as cloths, utensils of agriculture and mechanics, etc. etc., and dire necessity had forced their facture upon them- selves. Throughout nearly all of the few pioneer States TARIFFS. 449 which then nestled upon the Atlantic seaboard embryo works for the facture of various wares like those above named had been established. The war concluded and peace restored, the further existence of these youthful in- dustries was unqualifiedly doomed by the prospective re- newal of extended shipments to our ports of foreign wares similar to those here factured at a lower price. The inevi- table result plainly foreshadowed itself the forced pursu- ance of agriculture by the masses, and the consequent stay of national advancement. To avert this calamity, the act above mentioned was devised, but not without serious and able opposition. Mr. Hartley of Pennsylvania was its chief champion, and Mr. Madison of Virginia its strong antagonist. The reason is obvious. The latter State had become the principal mart for the exportation of tobacco, and protested against paying the former more for factured wares than they could be purchased for in Europe. The argument, not only in itself untrue, was local and not national, and the comparative irrelevancy of such local claims, for the most part, to national interests, will be seen in the changed position of Mr. Madison in 1828, when, by reason of the changed local status of the interests of his State, he supported the tariff bill of that year. The act above named was extended, both in the rates of duties which it imposed and the number of articles upon which an impost was laid, August 10, 1790, and March 3, 1791. The effect of these several acts of legislation upon the ma- terial prosperity of the country was quickly visible. The most satisfactory results followed their adoption. Not only the decline in our facturing industries was changed to a rapid and healthful growth, but the more general pursuits of commerce and agriculture were rapidly advanced by force of the diversified interests which were generated by these economic measures of 1789, '90 and '91. With various but not, in many instances, material modi- 33* 45 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. fications, instituted in 1792, '94, '95, '97 and 1800, '04, '07 and '08, this initiatory policy of protection was pursued. Both its inception and continuance were due, in a great measure, to Alexander Hamilton, who, as Secretary of the Treasury, bent the whole of his powerful influence in this direction, advocating the sanction of the policy by Congress with all the skill, learning and practical logic of his ever-in- imitable pen. His official report of December, 1 791, largely devoted to a discussion of the feasibility of fostering our in- dustrial interests by a protective policy, has not only always been cited by the supporters of protection as one of their most formidable authorities, but stands to-day wholly un- answered by its antagonists. It will ever retain a place in the annals of American history as a production of the most peerless intellect and consummate statesman which the iron struggle of the Revolution gave to America and the world. The rates of duties imposed by these several tariff acts were not, in themselves, in consideration of the tremendous odds against which our infant industries were arrayed, suffi- ciently high to give them adequate protection and defence. Down to the year 1815, however, other causes had aided them in the maintenance of the unequal conflict. The acts of 1790-91 lent sufficient encouragement and aid to enable them to cope with the superior strength of England while she was recovering from the war of the Revolution, but in the absence of other agencies they would soon have needed reinforcement by additional legislation. Collateral events, however, rendered such legislation, for the time, unneces- sary. In 1793, Europe was precipitated into a struggle which two decades were alone to close. Napoleon at that time not only invited, but compelled, both England and the Continent to lock their forces with France in a conflict whose final hour the cannon of Waterloo were alone to toll. During these twenty years, in which this second Alexander commanded every effort of the allied forces to keep him TARIFFS. 45 1 from carrying his eagles into every stronghold of their re- spective domains, consequent events shielded the youthful industries of the United States from decline and death. In 1797 the Bank of England suspended specie payments for twenty years, and the industries of the realm, comparatively speaking, were paralyzed and destroyed. The British Or- ders in Council in 1806, and Napoleon's Berlin and Milan Decrees of 1807, moreover, whereby the ports of the con- tending forces were declared under a perpetual blockade, together with our embargo laid upon shipping in 1807, and our non-intercourse measures of 1809 both of which were induced by European confiscation of our commerce under the decrees above mentioned, supplemented by Napoleon's Rambouillet Decree in 1810, in retaliation of the last named all conspired to greatly enhance the price of foreign products, and leave American producers almost the exclusive sellers in our markets. From 1812 to 1815, again, so far as our economic status was concerned, our history also repeated itself, so that the tariff acts of these years and of 1813 were fully enforced by the effects of the second war between England and the United States in placing our industries in equal competition, at least, with those of foreign countries. At this point, however, other and entirely different ex- igencies presented themselves. The exile of the Corsican to St. Helena had given Europe rest from its long-protracted conflict ; the Treaty of Ghent, in 1815, had set its seal upon the second struggle between Great Britain and the United States; and European industry shifted from the creation of supplies of war to catering for the demands of peace. The prospective result was foreshadowed by some of the legisla- tors of that period, the necessity of additional legislation urged upon Congress, and the tariff act of April 27, 1816, was adopted. The original bill was reported by Mr. Lowndes, and at this juncture the second race of America's 452 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. statesmen, if we may so term them, first took' a decided stand upon the economic question of the republic. Henry Clay, with Mr. Lowndes and John C. Calhoun, championed a rigid system of protection, while Daniel Webster and John Randolph arrayed themselves against it. The status of these intellectual giants upon this measure again illus- trates the comparative irrelevancy of local claims, in most instances, to national welfare. The cotton interest then rendered the South a unit in the support of protection by reason of the existing impost system of Great Britain, but failed to elicit the sympathy of the States upon the sea- board who had no direct interest in the growth of this staple. A little farther on, and the position of some of these combatants will be radically changed by reason of the same local pressure. This legislative combat of 1816 was an unequal struggle. The ponderous eloquence of Webster and incisive logic of Randolph trenched not a lit- tle upon the scope of the original bill, and an intermediate and wholly inadequate measure, in consideration of the changed condition of Europe above noted, was adopted. The result was inevitable. As soon as the European work- shops fully resumed their operations as before the war, their superior facilities enabled them to lay their wares upon our docks at a price considerably below that at which our own factories could produce them, and the country was glutted with foreign goods. An attempt was made to modify the act of 1816 in 1819, but was unsuccessful; and from that period to 1824 the prosperity of the country waned with every successive year, until, at the time last above named, the general condition of the nation was so deplorable in the extreme unequaled in severity by any of its civil ex- , perience since the close of the Revolution that Congress was compelled not only to listen but to accede to the clamor of the people for relief. Hamilton's report of 1791 was exhumed, and the tariff act of 1824 was adopted. TARIFFS. 453 Fully three months were consumed in the discussion of this measure, and the debates were some of the ablest which have ever emanated from the halls of Congress. The mas- ter-spirits of the republic, Clay and Webster, were again pitted against each other in a second conflict over the ex- pediency of protection. To quote the words of an eloquent historian, "Mr. Clay was the Ajax Telamon of the bill, ably supported by Mr. Tod and many others on different points; but Hectors were not wanting on the other side to contest the ground inch by inch." It is again noticeable in this connection how the claims of locality will prejudice the most peerless mind against the general welfare. Not only the agricultural but also the manufacturing States were almost a unit in the support of the measure, but the navigating and fishing States were equally zealous for its defeat. Of the former were Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Maryland, Tennessee and Louisiana; and of the latter, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The editor of Niks' s Register justly remarks in this connection that " the unanimity of the navigating States against the wishes of the middle grain-growing States will surprise those who recollect that the former were indebted to the latter for the passage of every law that protected and estab- lished their navigation." Like the one of 1816, this conflict of those giant intel- lects was an unequal struggle, but the position of the com- batants, in point of strength, was reversed. The clear, re- splendent eloquence of Webster was more than a match for the magnetic thrusts of Clay, but the almost universal dis- tress of the people pleaded with greater force than even New England's " Hector," and the gallant Kentwkian led his forces triumphant from the field. The bill was not, in all respects, evenly balanced, nor 454 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. indeed, in consideration of the hotly-contested battle of which it was the subject, was such an expectation warranted. Its defects, however, were partially remedied in 1828, and from 1824 to 1833 the country was under the regime of a rigid policy of protection. The principal of the defects above noticed was the exclusion from the free list of many articles, such as tea and coffee, which this country did not nor could not produce. But in 1832 the free list was ex- tended to nearly the proper point, and the objectionable features of the former law wellnigh removed. And in this interval (1824 to 1833) ^ e expectations of the movers of the policy were fully substantiated. The general prosperity of the people, as seen immediately prior to 1816, was fully restored, and no particular locality had any extended rea- son to demand a radical change. After the act of 1828 this narrative, with the exception of the instances in the next preceding paragraph, omits any mention of the enactment of mere periodical amendments to original measures of impost, and only considers the lat- ter, which alone have worked any marked changes, either directly or collaterally, upon the general interests of the nation. And this brings our history to the tariff act of 1833, otherwise known as the "Compromise Act." This measure abandoned the policy of protection in pro- spectu by providing for a steady, periodical reduction of duties until the then existing system should be wellnigh abol- ished. The scheme was projected by Henry Clay, and had its origin in facts of peculiar interest. Since 1824, when they so stoutly opposed the tariff act of that year by virtue of the anticipation that it would retard their navigation interests, the States of the Northern seaboard had joined the lists of the Middle States in the establishment of facturing indus- tries. The West was yet in its infancy, so far as influence in the halls of Congress was concerned at least, but the South, then almost exclusively given to the production of TARIFFS. 455 cotton for exportation, entered loud and frequent protests against a system which, as it alleged, by enhancing the cost of a great number of its articles of consumption, taxed its people for the benefit of the other sections above named. The States most prominent in these demonstrations of dis- content were South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Vir- ginia. The first named, indeed, had gone to the extent of holding a State convention in the autumn of 1832, and passed an ordinance, commonly known as the " Nullifica- tion " scheme, whereby, after February of the next ensuing year, the laws of the General Government for the collection of imposts were to be wholly disregarded, and its officers, if need be, opposed by force. To avert the seemingly impending conflict, Mr. Clay in- troduced his compromise bill above noticed. History, on the one hand, accuses its author of a motive to popularize himself as a candidate for the next succeeding presidency, and on the other accords him a sincere desire to alleviate the growing discontent. Be this as it may, it proved a most unwise expedient, and in the light of the Kentuckian's clear appreciation of the needs of the country in 1824 it is diffi- cult to see how he should have instituted the tariff act of 1833. The " Ajax " and the " Hector " of Congress were again involved in this struggle of protection, but their posi- tions were directly reversed from 1828. Mr. Webster, with unanswerable logic, opposed the scheme, but the importu- nities of Clay to avoid the clash of State and national au- thority prevailed, the measure was passed, protection aban- doned, and the interests of the many deserted at the com- mand of the few. From 1833 till 1842, in pursuance of the foregoing facts, free trade, comparatively speaking, had exclusive and unre- mitting sway in the United States. The line of disasters which followed its adoption in such quick succession as to overreach ea< h other in their march of conquest against the 456 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. general weal, pointed so clearly to this change of policy as their legitimate parent that the wheels of government, in this respect, were again reversed, and the year last named recorded a return to protection. The tariff act of 1842 was long, ably and dispassionately considered, and discovered none of the glaring defects of its predecessors. Its dis- tribution of duties was very evenly balanced, and the im- posts laid by this law were very nearly what a protective policy naturally demands the equalization of competition among competing industries. It fully met the expectations of its warmest friends, and reinstated the country in its former position of productiveness and consequent prosperity. It was modified in 1846 by the substitution of ad valorem for specific duties by far the most indefensible species of tariff legislation, on account of the frauds which it invites by means of false valuations ; but notwithstanding this un- wise amendment, it still offered sufficient protection to our industries to save, for the most part, the general prosperity of the country unharmed and free from peril. From the time of its adoption (1842), indeed, to 1857, the enhance- ment of both individual and national wealth was marked and unceasing. Several collateral causes, in fact, coupled with our protective policy, rendered the period above named one of almost unexampled prosperity. The im- mense demand for cereals from Great Britain, owing to the shortness of her crop in 1848, the discovery of the Cali- fornia gold-mines in the following year, and the European convulsion of 1854-56, together with enormous crops in the agricultural districts in the same interval, yoked their voluntary forces with the measure of 1842 in giving a tre- mendous impetus to the advancement of the United States. The claims of locality, however, again clamored for and obtained an audience in 1857, and on March 3d of that year a reduction of twenty-five per cent, was made from the duties laid by the imposts of 1842-46, and from the TARIFFS. 457 year first above named until the cannon of Beauregard summoned the supporters of the Government to its defence, the nation vibrated, on the one hand, between the hopes of maintaining its business interests unharmed, and the rap- idly thickening chances of a general financial collapse on the other. The precipitation of the rebellion, however, drove the Government, as if by instinct, to seek the aid of protection, which had been its companion in every hour of prior prosperity, to carry it over the inappreciable shoals and quicksands of a measureless war; and the Morrill tariff of March 2, 1861, very similar in its scope to the impost of 1828, was placed upon the national statute-book. It was a faithful ally through the dreary four years wherein half a million of humanity courted death that the republic might live ; and in contemplation of the ever since diseased con- dition of our circulating medium has by the defence which it has thrown around the industries generated by its prede- cessors, and those of which it is itself the parent, whereby the production of the nation has been constantly augmented and its laboring classes fully employed been almost the only agency which has piloted the nation successfully through the maladministration of the last four years, crim- inally corrupt as it has proved itself, and substantiates, in one respect at least, the wisdom of the man who has ever been the foremost champion of the principle which it rep- resents, and who has recently put upon record " the confi- dent trust that the masses of our countrymen, North and South, are eager to clasp hands across the bloody chasm which has too long divided them, forgetting that they have been enemies in the joyful consciousness that they are, and must henceforth remain, brethren." In respect to a partially detailed review, as promised in the outset of this immediate discussion, of the events of our history collateral with this tariff legislation, tending to show its wisdom and desirability, very little need be said. 39 U 45 8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Such comment has been partly anticipated in the preceding narrative, the general statements of which, in this direction, are too well known to be true by every student of Ameri- can history to require either amplification or explicit recital. Citations of particular circumstances, therefore, will only be made from such periods as record the most radical changes in our economic policy. It will be remembered that from the adoption of the tariff of 1791 to 1816 the collateral causes arising from the twenty years' conflict in Europe and the second war of this country with Great Britain so supplemented the inefficiency of the embryo protective policy of that period that uni- versal prosperity attended all sections of the United States. From the commencement of the year last above named, however, until 1824, this artificial source of protection having been exhausted, the nation was comparatively ex- posed to the onslaughts of the free trade system. The results thereof may be sufficiently appreciated by even a superficial glance at the current events of that period. Under the force of excessive importations, induced by the cheapness of foreign wares as compared with those of American production, our facturing establishments were more than one-half suspended, their operatives discharged and unable to find employment, while those that continued in operation did so at the expense of an inroad upon their working capital. The condition of the agricultural classes was indeed no better. If not more so that was scarcely possible they were equally unfortunate and depressed. The unusual European demand for cereals, caused by the raging of a protracted war, had ceased, and as compara- tive free trade had ruined our facturing interests, the home market for agricultural products was also seriously injured, if not destroyed, so that the selling price of farmers' sup- plies was not sufficient to pay the cost of production and place them in the seaboard marts for sale and shipment. TARIFFS. 459 Every species of real property, moreover, depreciated fully fifty per cent, in value ; sales thereof were impossible, except by the sheriff, which were unpleasantly frequent; paper money was resorted to, which only augmented instead of restricted the general distress; and absolute bankruptcy forced its unwelcome presence upon the masses. The exact condition of our import and export trade during this interval of free trade may be better seen by the citation of a few statistics. The amount of domestic exports in 1796 was $40,764,097. The annual ratio of in- crease in our population since that year had been four per cent. Assuming this as a criterion by which to estimate the natural increase of our exports, they should have been in 1823 over $85,000,000; they were, however, only about $47,000,000. Looking at particular products of export, the shipments of tobacco in 1791 amounted to 12,428 hogs- heads. By the criterion above noted pur shipments in 1823 should have been over 250,000 hogsheads, but they were less than 100,000. In 1803 we exported 1,311,853 barrels of flour. Making allowance for the natural falling off of the increased demand from Europe by reason of the close of the war, we should have shipped as much in 1823 as in 1803, but we exported during the year last named only about 700,000 barrels. The same relative diminution was apparent in our exports of corn. Our imports, how- ever, in this interval, reached an average increase of thirty per cent. The above is not an exaggerated picture of the condition of the country from 1816 to 1824. It does not, in fart, adequately represent the general depression of business interests during this period, but further space cannot l>e allowed for its portrayal. One fact, however, should not escape attention. Here were eight years of a free trade rdgime, but instead of the country recovering from the re- action which its supporters admit must attend the first few 4^0 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. years of its adoption, every successive year witnessed an increase of the general distress, till in the autumn of 1823, before the tariff act of 1824 was established, the people were wellnigh upon the point of revolution. Public meet- ings were constantly held throughout the whole of the seaboard and Middle States, memorializing Congress for relief through legislation. Another thought of a duplex character is pertinent in this connection. The facts above narrated clearly demon- strate, first, the impossibility of national or individual prosperity where agriculture is quite or nearly the exclusive vocation of the masses the absolute necessity of versatile industries for public and private advancement ; and, sec- ond, that capital and labor do not readily find new employ- ment in the absence of unusual inducements. From 1816 to 1824 our agriculturists were embarrassed fully as much as those engaged in /acturing industries. The destruction of the latter by free trade, carrying with it, as a natural consequence, the restriction of the home market for farm- ers' products, tolled the knell of agricultural advance- ment, and instead of the excess of labor sustaining a reduc- tion year by year, the ranks of the involuntary idlers were annually swelled. The tariff act of 1824, which resulted from this universal complaint, with the amendatory provisions of 1828 both of which have been explained in a prior connection afforded the necessary relief. The gates were closed upon our enormous importations of foreign wares; our facturing industries were reinstated in their prior prosperity ; the products of agriculture therein found a restored market; our laboring population was divorced from idleness; real estate advanced in value ; paper money was discarded, and the advancement of individual and national interests generally revived. The cause of the departure from this beneficial policy in TARIFFS. 461 1833, as already shown, was purely ephemeral. Every section of the country, except the cotton-growing region, was interested in its continuance, and the real interests of the South, indeed, were inseparably joined with the pros- perity of the Middle and seaboard States. Without such prosperity her decline was a mere question of time, so long as she followed the production of her leading agricultural staples to the exclusion of other pursuits. She was truly pros- perous when in 1832 she announced her policy of nullifi- cation. Her people were all provided with employment, and every year was recording an increase of her material wealth. The compromise act of 1833 was a response to a sectional clamor which should have never been granted, and was followed by a train of evils no less disastrous than those which swept the country from 1816 to 1824. Space will not permit so extended a citation of particulars from our history during the period of this revival of free trade (1833-42) as was taken from the record of the eight years which first preceded the tariff of 1824. Nor is such a course necessary. The facts are within the knowledge of every intelligent citizen. With the barriers removed from our ports of entry, our imports at once jumped to seventy- five per cent, above their prior volume; excessive trading was essayed ; our facturing industries were again paralyzed and the laboring classes forced into idleness; the bank circulation of the country was nearly doubled to float the unhealthy traffic which the excessive importations had in- duced ; trade finally became stagnant ; obligations which their makers expected to meet from the prospective profits of speculative dealing matured with their stocks unsold ; the same were not protected; prices fell, and the banks, people and nation were enveloped in the financial collapse of 1837. With the history of the first reign of free trade constantly repeating itself, Congress was again compelled to resort to 39 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. protection in 1842. The changed condition of affairs which attended its administration until 1857 was sufficiently narrated in a prior connection, and we pass to a running glance at the disasters which were ushered in by its partial abandonment in the year last named. Our imports were immediately doubled ; the bank circulation extended in an equal ratio as in 1833 for the purpose of aiding the unhealthy traffic in foreign goods ; the events of the last free trade regime were re-enacted ; and the country was again pros- trated under the financial crash of 1857. The subsequent events will not be here epitomized. The object of this immediate sub-subject has been sufficiently compassed. The record shows that the United States under protection have ever been prosperous, but that under free trade, owing to their comparative infancy, misfortune has been their continual lot. The argument of facts is suffi- ciently conclusive, and the logical inference is unmistakable. II. THE CLASSES OF ARTICLES TO WHICH A TARIFF SHOULD ATTACH. So far as the purposes of this treatise are concerned, the remaining discussion of the present chapter may properly be placed almost within the limits of a single paragraph. As already remarked, a detailed statement of all the articles upon which an impost should be laid in order to pursue a consistent, uniform policy of protection would not only be here impracticable, but also irrelevant. And the same is true as to the amount of such an impost. In respect, more- over, to a definition of the exact limits of these two prop- ositions in general, the same has been, inferentially at least, so fully anticipated in the preceding examination of economic principles that further amplification is quite un- necessary. Simply reducing the isolated truths of the prior discussion in this direction, therefore, into tangible, avail- TARIFFS. 463 able rules, the closing comment upon the joint topic of protection and free trade will be now presented. For the purposes of protection a tariff should only be laid upon such commodities as the nation adopting it has nat- ural advantages to produce, the non-development of which places it, in respect to the production thereof, in unequal competition with foreign states, invariably excluding raw materials, except, perhaps, in the very first stages of the industry which essays their production. In one respect a word of caution may be here advisable. It must be remem- bered in this connection that the foregoing proposition con- templates alone the elements of protection, without refer- ence to the necessities of a people to lay an impost for mere purposes of revenue. The proposition is seemingly too plain to require elucidation. A word of comment, how- ever, may perhaps be suffered in illustration of both the general rule and also the additional restriction in respect to raw materials. As to the first, tea and coffee furnish a striking example. The climate of our country is such as will not admit of their culture to any advantage at least, if indeed to any extent, with the exception of the former in very restricted localities. The articles, if not actual, are acknowledged necessaries of subsistence. It must be a very heavy impost which will banish them from either the cabins that dot the prairies of the West or the humble homes of Eastern artisans. The system of protection, in view of these facts, has no color of right to obstruct, in the slightest man- ner, their importation. They were unwisely placed under a heavy burden by the tariff of 1824, but the compromise act of 1833 assigned them to the free list, and they have ever since been a common article of household supply, notwithstanding the levy they were subjected to by the Morrill tariff of 1861. This measure, however, contem- plated the raising of revenue as well as the protection of our industries. The act of the present session of Congress 464 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. (the Forty-second) has properly released them from this impost, and never, except in case of the most pressing financial requirements, should they again be placed under the surveillance of tariff legislation. They are clearly with- out not only the general rule above stated, but also the col- lateral one of taxation (to be examined in the next succeed- ing chapter), which warrants the expediency of an assess- ment upon business. Passing to a brief amplification of that portion of the proposition which alludes to raw materials, four leading staples will be instanced for its explanation namely, iron, coal, lumber and wool. Each one of these articles is sub- ject with us, for the most part, to peculiar conditions. All raw materials, our general proposition would exclude them from the operation of a protective tariff. The first, how- ever, rightly claims its guardianship ; the last three have no need of its fostering care. Our natural advantages for the production of iron are fully, if not more than, ordinary. The demand for it, by reason of our extensive railway projects and its annually increasing consumption in the facture of artisans' and farm- ers' tools, is constantly augmented. Our explorations give promise not only of ore-beds in abundant number, but also of extraordinary supply. We should consequently facture all we consume. But the establishment of the industry is attended both with a heavy outlay in the first instance, and the necessity of a considerable education of the labor em- ployed in its conduct. It is therefore entitled, for a few years at least, to the defensive shield of a protective impost. As to coal the case is entirely different. The cost of transportation is so immense, and other bases of supply are so far distant, that our anthracite interests are subjected to no jeopardy by the absence of all barriers against this par- ticular species in our customs policy. With the bitumi- nous fields of Nova Scotia alone are our mining industries TARIFFS. 465 subject to competition. Of bituminous coal this country, it is true, is also a producer, but the cost of carriage bars the Nova Scotia operators from obtaining customers here, except in the States of the northern Atlantic seaboard. Our bituminous consumption in this restricted locality is so inconsiderable, and our bituminous coal-beds, in addition, are, for the most part, so far removed therefrom, and their product in so small demand, that coal should be found with the articles upon our free list, except when unusual exigen- cies may demand an unusual revenue. In reference to lumber, it is hardly, in any instance, a proper subject of tariff legislation. Special causes may make it so, but they are hardly conceivable. The only protection we need in this direction is to shield our rapidly- vanishing forests from further destruction. The meteoro- logical argument is here unanswerable. The tremendous inroads upon our timbered districts are presenting more than auguries of an arid climate. The future probability has become a present fact, and the regularly recurring an- nual droughts in our long-settled regions are assuming a stubborn significance. Our facturing industries, even, which protection chiefly aims to guard, as well as all others, are almost wholly dependent upon the humidity of the seasons. No pretext whatever, not even the necessities of a revenue larger than this country has ever required, should deny lumber a constant place upon our free list. With wool the question is very much the same. The general statement is abundantly warranted that our agricul- ture needs no protection whatever. For the most part it requires no further diversification. Our climatic and terri- torial status has opened so many avenues of agricultural industry which, by the side of our facturing establishments, are naturally remunerative, that the forced encouragement of the production of this raw staple is quite unnecessary. It is the facture of the textile fabrics into which wool enters U 2 466 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. as a component part that here needs protection ; and so long as our agricultural industries have sufficient natural demands to profitably absorb their entire attention in other fields of labor, such protection will be aided instead of withheld by leaving our facturers free to purchase this raw product abroad if they can so obtain it more advantageously. If the foreign markets become unwarrantably high in their rates, the unusual profit afforded by the industry will turn the attention of our agriculturists in this direction, to the benefit both of themselves and the workers of the raw staple. The impropriety of essaying protection to wool- growers in this country is fully evidenced by the results of the tariff of March 2, 1867. By this act the tariff upon imported wool was laid at so high a figure that our agricul- tural population directed a greatly-increased share of their attention to the growth of this staple, and from a clip of about 120,000,000 pounds of wool i-n 1867 our production jumped to one of 160,000,000 pounds in 1868. This, in connection with importations, so depressed the market that a wholesale slaughter of sheep was inaugurated in 1869; so that from a clip of 160,000,000 pounds in 1868 we went down to one of 110,000,000 pounds in 1870, and the flocks diminished from 40,000,000 sheep in 1869 to 29,000,000 sheep in 1871. III. THE EXTENT TO WHICH A PROTECTIVE IMPOST SHOULD BE LAID. The term Protection defines the true limits of the system. Its office is simply to equalize opportunity, to place com- peting industries upon the same relative basis. The adjust- ment of a protective tariff, it is true, is a task of a somewhat delicate character, and improper and illegal influence has rendered in the past, as it doubtless will render in the future, the policy, in some instances, the vehicle of both oppression and fraud. That is an argument, however, which TARIFFS. 467 cannot be fairly allowed to militate against protection. It will not answer to saddle this one system with the respon- sibility of our official corruption to compel it to answer either for the sin of bribery in the abstract or the venality of our legislators in general. The purification of our poli- tics is one thing the adjustment of a protective tariff is quite another. The first is not to be compassed by the adoption of free trade, nor the expediency of the latter dis- proved by its forced bridal with corruption. This last is a very polygamous agency, and through the ministrations of our civil service has, vi et armis, wedded itself to all the forces of our political life. The destruction of the means will abolish the evil the dismissal of the priest will defeat the marriage. Reform our civil service so that the purchase and sale of official place by its members will be impossible, and the machinery of legislation will cease to foster wrong with intent. Place the law-maker where absolute honesty is his only assurance of individual gain, and our statutes, whether economic or otherwise, will no longer disseminate injustice. To assail a system on account of corruption is to demand that the world shall cease its labors because cor- ruption exists. The amount of a protective impost should be sufficient to make the cost (not price) of the foreign commodity to its shipper when placed upon our soil equal to the cost of a similar article of home production when ready for delivery at the facturing mart. It is nugatory to essay the application of this rule to par- ticular instances. Its clearness will not thereby be further assured. One illustration in detail is as pertinent as an- other, and the necessity for any or all is non-apparent. Elucidation of the proposition is likewise uncalled for. The making of the cost of foreign goods to the s/i//>/><-r, when placed upon our soil, equal with that of similar home goods to the producer when ready for delivery at the fac- 468 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. turing mart, makes the foreign shipper the foreign producer, and renders the office of the "middleman" impossible. This bars the home producer from adding the profit of the foreign "middleman" to the cost of his products, and thereby to that extent unwarrantably enhancing his price. And as domestic commercial usage affixes the/r/V* to goods " in store," the buyer paying the expense of transportation, the dock for the foreign seller and the facturing mart for the home seller are the places to equalize the cost. The vend- ers are then left to the force of equal competition, and he who is satisfied with the smallest profit, due regard to qual- ity being considered, will command the purchasing trade. CHAPTER III. TAXA TION. Introductory Comment The Scope of the Topic Taxation in the Abstract defined It is a Creature of Policy How the March of Civilization Compels it The Kinds of Taxes Classified Direct, Indirect, Real, Personal and Individual Taxation defined The Powers of Taxation Conferred by the Constitution An Equalization of the Burden the Prime Difficulty of Taxation How shall it be Overcome ? Proportionate Sacrifice and Proportionate Protection The Progressive System Direct Taxation Discussed The Land- tax Citations from English History The Most Just Income-taxes Impracticable, and, in the United States, Unconstitutional Capita- tion-taxes Indirect Taxation A House-tax Unjust and Unrea- sonable Citations from English and Irish History Eminent Writers thereon Excise-taxes They Reach Profits, Vocations and Com- modities Labor in this Connection They work Injustice Inap- preciable The Error of Congress in this Connection The Whisky- tax High Rates of Taxation upon Luxuries and Low Rates upon Necessaries yield the Greatest Revenue Taxation by Tariffs The Results of Indirect Taxation in the United States Full Statistics show them Oppressive and Unfair The Question of State Taxation It should be Confined to Real Property Objections to the Plan TAXATION. 469 refuted The Question of Taxation by the General Government A Proper Scheme Suggested, and Discussed at length The Present Needs of the General Government All Direct Taxes may be Abol- ished and our Tariff Curtailed, and still Reduce our Debt Fifty Millions per Annum The Error of Congress in this Respect " Revenue Reform." THE two preceding chapters of the present Part of this treatise, with the exception of a little incidental com- ment, referred exclusively to the topic of industrial legisla- tion the guardianship of industry without respect to the raising of revenue. The discussion now initiated will have to do with legislation for the purposes of revenue, and has been entitled Taxation. By this title the reader must not be misled as to the intended scope of the proposed investi- gation. Taxation, in its general, unrestricted sense, covers a very extended field of economic inquiry. It forces its way into every avenue of social existence, and raises ques- tions for solution no more delicate than multifarious. Fran- cis Lieber has aptly remarked, "Taxation is omnipresent." And who can deny the aphorism? Mankind, indeed, are constantly paying for the privilege of life parting with a portion of their moneyed results to insure the safety of their future efforts. From their food, raiment, shelter and pleasure this tribute is unremittingly demanded, and their public worship even is intruded upon by the presentation of the cushioned plate of philanthropy or charity, asking voluntary aid to stay evils the increase of which, in the absence of such eleemosynary and moral yet optional assessments, would result in the more imperative levy of the secular toll- gatherer for their eradication. Human existence, in short, pays a daily toll from the cradle to the grave, and thereby alone is this at best perilous passage rendered even com- paratively safe. Under our form of government this law of taxation shoots off into two distinct and separate chan- nels lo< al and general. The former relates to the almost 40 47 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. innumerable expedients of State levies for the protection of society, and the latter to the more general impositions of the General Government for the furtherance of the national weal. To this last, with a few important exceptions, the following exposition will alone relate ; and for the purpose of defining as nearly as possible the main outline of the present chapter were the foregoing words of explanation offered. With a due regard to relevancy the adoption of a different course was absolutely impossible. Taxation in general, both local and national, is brought in contact in its march with so many opposing forces, particularly the joint agencies of capital and labor, that the limits of the present work could not permit of its treatment except as more especially connected with our national politics.* Taxation, in the abstract, is susceptible of a definition both clear and perfect. Neither intending to borrow from the phraseology of the preceding industrial comment on the one hand, nor to commit a breach of propriety by the continuance of that discussion in this connection on the other, taxation, paradox though it may seem, may be termed protection in the broadest sense of the term, however, for life, liberty and property. The restricted industrial policy of protection merely essays the guardianship of in- dustry, but the protection of taxation aims to assume the safety and success of the entire body politic. For the ac- complishment of this purpose it uses its assessments to de- fray the expenses of peace and war. The nature of these expenses is too well known to require a detailed explana- tion. The nation is in one sense a corporate body of in- dividuals, a league for the promotion of the welfare of each and all of its members. Like every individual or associa- tion with an end in view, a governmental corporation must have its policy and rules of .action, and these, moreover, *At an early future day the author proposes to devote an entire volume to the discussion of Taxation, Capital and Labor. TAXATION. 471 require constant modification. As the man of traffic must shape his daily plans so as to avail himself of the advantages of a changing market, or see his commercial edifice swept away by the rush of the onward current, so must Govern- ment mould its policy in a manner to avail itself of the op- portunities presented by the innovations of Christendom, or sink beneath the waves of civilization's onward march. To this end, as the imperfection of human reason is constantly resulting in an honest difference as to the legal and moral binding force of obligations, and as loyal competition often degenerates into lawless avarice, thus opposing honesty to fraud, and as the passions of man often lead him to acts of absolute violence, it is imperative that justice should be ad- ministered among the people, and legal tribunals therefore must be in constant existence. Moreover, as in certain di- rections private weal depends upon public prosperity, and as the latter is to a great extent measured by the relative material status of nations with each other, internal improve- ments must be fostered. "The oceans must be married with roads;" the lightning harnessed to wires and elec- tricity be made a postboy ; the " silent keels " must plough the waters of inland rivers and neighboring if not foreign seas; and every resource of a nation's territory be brought into perfect subjection to the will of man. Again, the motor-power of the foregoing forces is education. Know- ledge and skill are the only pilots along the sea of human progress, and the rapidity of a people's passage over this endless ocean is measured by the extent of their cultured thought. Institutions of learning, therefore, must dot the entire surface of the national domain, that the national in- tellect may be constantly reinforced. Once more, " the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong," and along the roadside of life's struggling journey minds peerless as well as weak, and bodies stout as well as frail, fall helpless from the ranks. Humanity must not disown 47 2 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. itself; protection must be given to its unfortunates, and asylums of refuge for its stricken children must everywhere afford relief. The execution of these duties requires con- stant attention, and in the recompense of their performance lie the principal expenses of peace. But competing na- tions often cross each other's path in their friendly contest for supremacy ; violations of the international code are, if not proved, assumed ; diplomacy fails in its ministrations ; national honor is at stake ; argument gives way to force ; and herein lie the expenses of war, which Bacon has desig- nated as "one of the highest trials of right." Taxation, then, may be said to be the equivalent paid for the protec- tion of life, liberty and property. Taxation, to be understandingly considered, should be classified and sub-classified. Such classification is by no means a simple task, and probably no effort in this direc- tion will meet with universal approval. Taxation, how- ever, in its method of operation, may be said to be direct and indirect, and the objects which it grasps may be styled real, personal and individual. With this brief preliminary key, the following classification, in connection with the supplemental comment by way of further explanation, will probably prove easy of appreciation, and possibly a con- venience. TAXES ARE I. DIRECT. II. INDIRECT. Direct taxes are Indirect taxes are all per- sonal, viz., 1. Real, viz., Taxes upon Rents, Voca- Taxes on Land ; tions, Wages of Labor, 2. Personal, viz., Profits and Commodities. Income Taxes ; The second and the last 3. Individual, viz., two are all included in Capitation Taxes. the term Excise. TAXATION. 473 Of these in their order. And first as to the definition of direct, indirect, real, personal and individual taxes; and, second after a view of the powers granted by the Constitution for their assessment a general discussion of their feasibility, noticing all the subdivisions which are found in the foregoing table. Direct taxation is that in which the sum assessed is paid directly by the individual upon whom the assessment is made, without any possibility of recourse upon third per- sons for reimbursement. And, as seen by the foregoing table, such taxation is only of three sorts namely, taxes upon lands, incomes and individuals. Indirect taxation may be properly defined by saying that it includes all taxes except those laid upon lands, incomes and individuals ; that is, whenever the sum assessed may be, so to speak, reassessed upon third persons by the party upon whom the original levy is made, such taxation is indirect. Real taxes are those which are laid upon what, in law, is denominated real property namely, taxes upon lands, and the buildings thereto attached. The last portion of this definition is quite unnecessary, except for the benefit of the unprofessional reader, as the term land, in law, always includes and carries with it everything attached to the soil. Personal taxes are those which are laid upon what, in law, is styled personal property, and include all species of taxation except that upon land (using the term in its tech- nical, legal sense) and the single instance of individual assessment. Individual taxation is that laid upon persons, and is rightly termed either a capitation or poll tax. The powers delegated by the national Constitution for a resort to these different methods of taxation are found in the following words of that instrument, viz. : " Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within 40 474 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. this Union according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. " Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. " No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. " No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. " No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports," etc. etc. The foregoing provisions of the Constitution give to both the General and State Governments a concurrent power of taxation in all the forms indicated by the table hereinbefore given, with certain restrictions running against each. The restrictions imposed upon the General Govern- ment are that no direct taxes (that is, either a land, income or capitation tax) shall be laid except upon a basis of the representative population namely, those qualified to exer- cise the elective franchise; that duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States ; that no duty shall be laid upon exports ; and that all indirect taxes (see Table) shall be laid with uniformity. The restrictions running against the State governments are that they shall lay no burden upon any import or export whatever without the consent of Congress, except for sustaining the expense of their inspection laws, and the implied restriction, by force of constitutional law, that their modes of taxation in other directions shall not interfere with or supersede a similar exercise of the taxing power by national authority. The way is now opened for a general discussion of the TAXATION. 475 feasibility of these different methods of providing means for the support of the body politic, descending in each instance into the various details suggested by the main inquiry. The prime and as yet insurmountable difficulty attendant upon any scheme of taxation is to secure a proper equali- zation of the burden imposed to proportion the gross sum assessed among the individuals upon whom its payment is made obligatory in such a manner as will not work injustice to any particular class. As already remarked, the history of the world has thus far recorded all efforts in this direc- tion as comparative failures. The first obstacle which pre- sents itself is the basis upon which the proportion above noted shall be made the criterion by which the extent of the sacrifice individuals should make to government in this direction is to be ascertained. The solution of this imme- diate inquiry would furnish a key to the entire situation. Its intricacy is sometimes seemingly enhanced, instead of dispelled, by time, but its inherent attractiveness is thereby increased instead of diminished. This necessary sacrifice of citizens to government which the latter com- pels by taxation has, in most instances if not universally, been measured by the extent of their possessions, with- out any increase of the rate of taxation, as the amount of such possessions exceeded certain specified sums without an advancing scale in the ratio of assessment. And the cri- terion is, in the extreme, faulty if not entirely wrong, for it works a manifest injustice to the poorer classes. Ix?t the assessment of real estate be instanced as an illustration. A man of wealth owns a landed estate worth $50,000. Adjoining his boundaries a poor man has, by means of frugal savings from the meagre income which his manual labor affords him, secured a humble cot and a few rods of ground worth $2000. The rate of taxation, let it be sup- posed, is $10 upon every thousand of valuation. By the THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. canon of assessment above noted the former will pay a tax of $500, and the latter one of $20. Now, the relative sacrifice of the two individuals to gov- ernment is not justly measured by the sums last above named. The mere criterion of the extent of possessions, without any progressive qualification, so to speak, is not an honest guide in the premises. A man worth $50,000 will pay the taxed demands of government from an income which capital is earning him, unaided by any manual assist- ance of his own ; while a man worth $2000 will pay such demands from the fruit of his manual labor, the results of his daily toil, and his sacrifice, proportionately speaking, is far greater than that of his fellow-contributor. The point, moreover, at which the extent of such sacrifice begins to lessen is that where the capital or labor taxed is in addition to that which is necessary to be employed for purposes of sub- sistence. And a logical and sensible sequitur the farther the remove from this point the less the sacrifice. The true theory of economic law contemplates that no burden shall ever be placed upon the actual means of a livelihood ; and for every thousand dollars of capital in excess of that which is necessary to be employed for this purpose an additional burden can be imposed without increasing the relative extent of the sacrifice. The contribution comes from an abundance, and the greater the abundance the greater the contribution which can be sacrificed. It is right at this point that we are to approximate, at least, to a just crite- rion of taxation. The question is not what a man has, but what can he reasonably part with. In addition to this argument of proportionate sacrifice there is the argument of proportionate protection. It is a common axiom of every-day life that cares increase with riches. The homely adage is not only true in its simple signification, but also in a compound ratio. Every addi- tional moiety of wealth not only extends the field of super- TAXATION. 477 visory labor, but, to reduce the thought to as close a com- pass- as possible, as it once more subdivides, so to speak, the unit of attention, and as each successive subdivision places the last object of solicitude, the last moiety of wealth, one remove farther from the unit of care than its predecessor, this unit of attention must be increased not only in an equal numerical ratio with the increase of moieties of wealth, but also to the further extent of neutralizing the force of distance which is incident to the care demanded by the last accession of wealth the one farthest removed from the original unit of attention. Now, this argument is exactly pertinent to the question of protection which prop- erty receives from taxation. As in the case of individual wealth, not only the more wealth the more care, but care compounded with every additional accumulation, so in the case of protection of property by taxation, not only the more property the more protection, but protection com- pounded with every augmentation of property. On these two grounds of proportionate sacrifice and proportionate protection, taxation by valuation of pos- sessions, without an increase of the rate with every certain well-defined increase of wealth, is not only injustice, but absolute fraud, and the progressive system should be insti- tuted in its room. Having disposed of the inquiry as to what is the true guide for imposing taxes in a general sense, let those in the table hereinbefore named be examined in the light of this elementary principle. Upon the hypothesis that the proper criterion is estab- lished by which to ascertain the extent of individual sacri- fice necessary to keep the wheels of the body politic in motion, direct taxation, with the exception, perhaps, of a tax upon luxuries, is the most practicable and equitable method of making the assessment equitable, because it is aimed directly at the party from whom its payment can 4?8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. alone proceed ; practicable, because the machinery for its levy and collection is far less intricate and much easier of operation. And yet this species of taxation is usually the most unpopular with the public of any to which govern- ment ever resorts. It is thus unpopular because it presents itself in no disguise. It is by no means an urbane collector. It employs no euphemism in its terms of demand, but with honest bluntness says to A or B, Pay me so much money from your own pocket for the support of govern- ment. Humanity, ever selfish of its rights, is particularly so in respect to the enforcement of claims which trench upon its coffers. Individual policy, indeed, has given birth to a custom as universal as its origin is primitive, of entering a demurrer to the validity of almost every direct draft upon its exchequer. The avenues thereto which are most easy of passage are those which are indirect and insidious those which are not discovered until the wily collector has made both his entree and exit, taking with him the required tribute. And in most instances it is simply for the reason that the people unwillingly submit to direct taxation that the more indirect and unjust methods hereafter to be noticed are resorted to by government. It is simply because humanity will part with one hundred dollars on an indirect demand more willingly than it will with five dollars in response to an immediate call, that the mountain of injustice, which will appear in a future connec- tion, ever incident to indirect taxes, is suffered and allowed. Taking the fact of such injustice, in this connection, upon trust, the extent of it can be partially appreciated in the collateral fact that five-sixths of the enormous revenues of the General Government during the last decade have emanated from indirect taxation. Descending to the particular kinds of direct taxation, that upon land is first in order. Our theory of land-taxes was originally taken from the English model, but has been TAX A TIOM 479 subjected to somewhat material modifications, and should suffer at least two more very important changes. The land-tax of England had its origin in the feudal sys- tem. In 1066, when William of Normandy, by the victory of Hastings, elected himself monarch of the English realm, the estates of the conquered people were confiscated, and their evidences of title taken from their designated deposi- taries and destroyed. The conqueror then parceled out the territory among his nobles, who in turn, by the so-called process of sub-infeudation, subdivided it among their ten- antry, the peasant population. The process of sub-infeu- dation was neither a simple lease nor an absolute sale. It was a conveyance, resembling, more than aught else, a per- petual lease, upon the condition that the tenant should not reconvey except with the permission of his lord ; and in this and many other instances not necessary to mention the tenant was required to "attorn" to his lord by the payment of certain stipulated assessments. The lord, in turn, had certain obligations of a similar nature to meet with his sov- ereign ; and the duties of both tenant and lord in this direc- tion, particularly the former, were measured by the extent of their peculiar landed estates. These last, at the acces- sion of the Conqueror, were subjected to a valuation throughout the realm. From ruder methods of canceling the demands of this sort imposed by the nobles and the government a regular moneyed payment was finally adopted, but upon the same continued basis, the extent of the landed estate. The governmental valuation of the English estates, begun by the Norman usurper in 1066, has ever since been continued, and its principal peculiarity is its fixedness. The valuations have stood for years and decades without change ; so that, with the continual increase in the value of land for the greater portion of the time since the Norman conquest, the landed aristocrats have really been taxed upon only a very small j>ortion of their estates. The rcve- 480 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. nue of the Crown has been raised in more indirect and unjust methods. This system of valuation is incident to nearly all the states of the Continent, excepting France. That of Germany, however, is very much perfected, and the government surveys are very frequently made. This system of land-tax, based upon valuation, is the American system, with the exception that our valuations or assessments are, in the great majority of instances at least, made annually. A badge of the indefensible favoritism shown by the English Government to its landed aristocrats, however, has unwittingly, as it were, crept into our system of land taxation namely, the principle of valuing or assess- ing land for about one-half of its actual value. There is not a shadow of defence or reason in such a policy. There is no tax so just and feasible as a land-tax just, because it receives the first and best protection of government ; feasi- ble, because it presents a more stable basis upon which to predicate a criterion by which to judge the proper amount of sacrifice the owner can fitly make than any other species of wealth. And by virtue of this element of appreciability the tax should be laid upon its exact market value, and not a reduced one. Unimproved property, moreover, should not escape the burden, but be treated in the same relative man- ner. This, and the establishment of the progressive system, as seen in the illustration of the elementary principle here- inbefore discussed, and shown to be necessary for the pre- vention of injustice, are the two changes already alleged as imperative in our system of land taxation. We would not argue, with Quesnai, the founder of the novel French agri- cultural system of political economy, that all taxes should be laid upon land, because, as he alleges, agriculture is the prime business of the world, and land the ultimate fund for the payment of all taxes ; but certain it is that it does not bear its just share of the burden of taxation in the United States. TAXATION. 481 The next species of direct taxation is th*> income-tax. In theory it is perfectly defensible, but in practice it is both unjust and imperfect. If the difficulty could be avoided of submitting to the dishonest returns which in a great num- ber, if not a majority, of instances are made to Govern- ment, there would be no defect in its practical operation except that of its inquisitorial character. But gross dishon- esty has ever attended very many returns of personal income, partly to avoid the payment of the tax and partly by reason of an unwillingness to disclose to the public the exact status of the present earnings of one's capital or labor. This difficulty, moreover, cannot be avoided. Loyalty to conscience cannot be compelled by human ordinances, and such loyalty is the sole procurer of correct statements of income. There is no other, possible means by which such correctness can be secured. Property in income is entirely different f*. .-. property in land. The first is invisible, untangible the last is both visible and tangible. The for- mer can be concealed the latter never. This dishonesty in returns works an open, unblushing wrong upon those who fairly expose the extent of their income to the inspec- tion of Government. This species of dishonesty, however, has a show of reason, though not, of course, an excuse. There are very few individuals, except those who are mor- bidly exclusive and miserly, who will, object, save for th purpose of avoiding the levy, of disclosing, when fairly necessary, the extent of past accumulation pf invested wealth. But every individual may, for other reasons besides the one above noted, desire to conceal the extent of his accruing income. And such reasons are both ten- able and wholesome. They are of a purely politic charac- ter. In a score of collateral instances an honest exposure of annual earnings of either capital or labor would militate against future success in this direction, and no one can be rightly called upon to thus voluntarily jeopardize his own 41 V 482 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. interests. It is contrary to the genius and spirit of repub- lican institutions, opposed to the most valued traditions of the United States ; and if for no other cause the inquisito- rial feature of an income-tax should always deny it a place in our economic policy. In addition to the foregoing objections, income taxation, as generally laid, and particularly the system which is now expiring by limitation in the United States, lays itself open to unanswerable criticism in other directions. The restricted general system is vulnerable upon only one other point, but as confined to this country it is faulty in two additional particulars. The general abstract objection above noted is a legacy bequeathed by the English law namely, the exclusion of the progressive feature from the scheme of income taxation. The argument, given in full in a prior connection, of proportionate sacrifice and proportionate protection will not be here repeated. It is that argument, however, to which reference is here intended, and the force of it comes directly home to the immediate topic of investigation. The policy of England condemns the pro- gressive feature in all schemes of taxation. And in so doing she is perfectly consistent with the spirit of her institutions and her time-honored traditions. The English Government, notwithstanding its many virtues, is a govern- ment of aristocrats, and not of the masses a guardian of wealth, and not of poverty. It bars the system of pro- gressive taxation from its statute-book by virtue, as it alleges, of the fact that the scheme confiscates the property of the wealthy classes. The law-makers of England in theory, in this position, are, as already stated, entirely con- sistent, but they have no right to yoke consistency with an abuse of terms. " Confiscation" is not the proper term to fortify their argument. ''We foster wealth, and not poverty, capital, and not labor; therefore we give to the former the greater protection and the lesser burden." This TAXATION. 483 is the true and consistent ground of occupation for English economists. But it is tainted with injustice. It is not based upon the equality of the human brotherhood, and for the reasons adduced in the exposition of the principles of proportionate sacrifice and proportionate protection, all schemes of income taxation should be progressive ; that is, at well-defined points in the rising scale of property in incomes the rate of taxation should be increased. This progressive feature was incident to the original tax law upon incomes now expiring by limitation in this country, but the forces of wealth marshaled themselves against its continu- ance, and the provision was unwisely and unjustly repealed. As confined to the United States, however, the scheme of income taxation by which the people have been assessed opposes itself to an argument of far greater gravity. It arrays itself against the sanctity of our organic law. It is unqualifiedly unconstitutional. Our table, hereinbefore given, places an income-tax under the head of direct tax- ation, and there it unqualifiedly belongs. No authority of any weight has ever denied the proposition. Reference to the constitutional provisions already quoted will show that all direct taxes must be laid upon the basis of the repre- sentative population, as distinguished from the one other general canon therein given of uniformity. The income- tax, however, was laid upon the basis of uniformity, with- out regard to the extent of the representative population, all incomes having been levied upon wherever found. The last of the direct taxes is a capitation or poll tax. This tax is incident to some of the States as a prerequi- site for the exercise of the elective franchise, but is un- advisable. Its inexpediency consists in the impossibility of equally apportioning the burden, of correctly ascertain- ing the proper extent of needed individual sacrifice in this direction. It has always been laid upon an arbitrary basis. William III. imposed this tax upon his English sub- 484 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. jects in respect to their rank ; and in consideration of the aristocratic form of the English Government, if the theory was not slain in practice, it was a most equitable manner of making the assessment. The sovereigns of France have also made these peculiar levies upon the same basis. In the United States they have been laid at so much a poll or head, without any deviation in respect to the wealth of the contributor. But as a prerequisite for voting it is certainly a greater benefit for a man to vote who has property to be protected by the legislation of the recipient of his ballot, than for one who has no property whatever ; and the same principle is pertinent to all the intermediate stages of wealth. And still more difficult the question, to be here- after discussed, Has not the property-holder a superior right to the exercise of the elective franchise, at least so far as tax laws are concerned, than one who is destitute or nearly destitute of wealth ? The equitable adjustment of a capitation-tax is impossible, and such a levy seemingly ought not to be deemed worthy of toleration. To conclude this examination of direct taxes, the only feasible one, and the one most feasible and just of all taxes whatsoever, is a land-tax. It is not insidious, it is appre- ciable of an exact, equitable adjustment, and it seizes an object which receives the greatest material protection afforded by government. The discussion of the subject of indirect taxation, now in order, as the terra indicates, opens a field of inquiry in many respects far more inappreciable than that which has been just dismissed. The vital objection to indirect tax- ation is the uncertainty of its character. As it is laid entirely upon the species of property known as personal, it is utterly impossible to determine upon whom the burden .will fall, further than the very general statement that the consumer or user of the subject of the assessment will be the ultimate source of payment. In other words, the class TAXATION. 485 of individuals can be defined, but not the several separate persons. This feature of indirect taxation robs it of the fundamental requisite of a just and wholesome system namely, the inability of government to determine the extent of sacrifice which the real contributor should be called upon to make. Indefinite in inception, insidious and deceptive in operation, uncertain in respect to the party from whom it will eventually compel tribute, this method of providing means for the support of government is an unblushing disseminator of injustice and oppres- sion. As will hereafter appear, this system of taxation, for the most part, lays its hand upon the ordinary means of subsistence. Now, the poorer classes, in this and all other countries, very greatly exceed in number those of the wealthy and independent. The aggregate consumption of the necessaries of life, consequently, is very much greater in the former than in the latter class ; and as indirect taxes fix their hold, for the most part, upon these subjects of assessment, by far the greatest portion of the levies of government by this peculiar method are borne by the followers of manual toil. Argument is unnecessary to prove the injustice of such results. As stated in a prior connection, five-sixths of the enormous revenues of the Government since 1861 have eventuated from indirect taxes ; and in the light of the general principles above maintained, which will soon receive a detailed exposition, the wrongs that have been inflicted upon the laboring por- tion of our population can be partially imagined, though by no means realized. Passing now to a very brief discussion of the several kinds of indirect taxes, as seen in the table hereinbefore given, the first in order is a tax upon rents, or what is sometimes known as a house-tax. Although in some respects apparently just, the better opinion appears to pronounce it unadvisable and inexpedient. It has never 41 486 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS, been adopted to any great extent without producing con- clusive evidence, not of theoretical, but of practical unfair- ness. And the unfairness consists in the inability of gov- ernment to measure the means of the party who will ulti- mately respond to its call. It is a very specious argu- ment to say that the house a man rents is the very best exponent of his means, but the position fails to afford a just criterion for laying a tax, in this country at least. A man with a large family will of course require a larger house than a man with a small one ; and yet the former may in all probability will by the simple reason of the extent of his family, be possessed of much more limited means than the latter. The spirit and genius of our institutions assume to encourage rather than prohibit an augmentation of our population ; but a house-tax, laid indiscriminately save with a view to the rental value of the house, would assess a man for complying with one of the principal features of our governmental policy. It would punish him by an amercement for lending aid to the furtherance of a principle which Government assumes to foster. The English economists answer this argument, so far as Great Britain is concerned, with entire conclusive- ness and consistency. A believer in the doctrine of Mal- thus, as already explained, in respect to the increase of population and throwing the shield of government over the rich instead of the poor, John Stuart Mill rightly speaks for England when he says, in response to the injustice of a house-tax above noted, that "the having of a large family, so far as concerns the public interest, is a thing rather to be discouraged than promoted." It is with a very poor grace that any one may style the remarks of so eminent a states- man and sincere a philanthropist as Mr. Mill inhuman, but it is hardly possible to allow the justice of his position. Francis Bowen answers him with more truth than jest when he says, "In this country, apart from the ridicule which TAXATION. 487 would follow the proposal of such a law, a tax upon bache- lors would be far more equitable than a fine for having children."' As already stated, taxes upon rents, or house-taxes, have never met with public favor. The original English house- tax was laid at a stated sum per window, and brought upon its author the charge of making a levy upon daylight. Another form, adopted by the Irish law, was an assessment of a fixed sum upon every hearth, and an historic writer records the fact that it quenched the fires in more than half the cots of Ireland. This species of taxation is but little known in this country. The report of the recent commis- sion appointed to devise a scheme of State taxation for New York, which is based, in a great degree, upon the economic principles of Adam Smith which are wholly irrelevant to the needs of the American people incorporates a house- tax into the scheme which it recommends for adoption. But, for the reasons given in our remarks upon indirect taxation in general, it appears unworthy of toleration. Its uncertainty and indefiniteness, both as to rightly estimating the extent of the needed sacrifice, and in respect to ascer- taining the person upon whom the burden would fall, coupled with the injustice it would work in the case of large families, furnish a sufficient argument against the scheme. Innovations in our tax laws should tend toward direct instead of indirect assessments. Taxes upon vocations are next in order. For the most part they appear in the garb of a levy for a license to follow particular callings; but as such taxes, together with those upon the profits of business, ultimately fasten themselves upon the commodities with which the licensed person deals, and are consequently paid by the consumer, their examination may be properly merged into the investigation of taxes upon commodities. Comment upon the last will be equally pertinent to the first. Before engaging upon 488 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. that subject, however, a word in respect to taxes upon the wages of labor will be suffered. If taxes upon labor are to be tolerated at all, there is no more proper method of making the assessment than to lay it upon the actual rermmeration which labor receives. The extent of the laborer's means are in this manner pretty nearly appreciable, and there is a certainty and directness in the scheme which renders it highly advisable. It is cer- tainly far preferable to the present burden imposed upon our laboring classes, as seen in the tax which they pay upon articles of consumption, resulting from our system of indi- rect assessments ; for in this way they undoubtedly bear a good deal more than a just proportion of the public ex- pense. A free trader will interpose a plea in this connec- tion : "Abolish your tariff." Of that when taxes upon commodities shall be in order. But save in the case of the direst needs of Government, and then only after a very liberal minimum has been exempted, this discussion denies the right to lay a tax upon manual toil. There is not the slightest necessity for such a course at the present time in this country, and the heavy tribute which labor has paid to Government for the few years last past by means of indi- rect taxation, as will be seen in the treatment of a tax on commodities, stands as a monument of national wrong and oppression. The term excise is a generic one, and includes taxes upon profits, vocations and commodities. The first two, as already stated, by reason of their absorption, so to speak, by the latter, are not worthy of a separate consideration. Their discussion is here merged into that of a tax upon commodities, and the following comment also, by virtue of the opening sentence of this paragraph, may be looked upon as an examination of excise taxation. A tax upon commodities, in the great majority of in- stances, only refers to those which enter into general con TAXATION. 489 sumption. This scheme of taxation appears to have origi- nated in the inability of government to ascertain the income or revenue of individuals. The theory is that as the returns from private labor and capital are not appreciable by gov- ernment, a burden placed upon consumable commodities, a tax upon the articles which enter into the requisites of both ordinary and expensive living, will justly proportion the general burden among the masses. Such a scheme admits of several methods, or rather plans, of adjustment. If the burden laid upon those articles which only form a part of the requisites for expensive living is relatively greater than that imposed upon commodities consumed by the poor, the tax is more equitably distributed : but even then it works an injustice. Consumable commodities may be divided into three great classes namely, necessaries, comforts and luxuries. The first consists of articles which are absolutely indispen- sable for the maintenance of existence; the last two are dependent solely upon custom. Such custom, moreover, is dependent upon national habit and individual status. What would be a comfort or luxury in one country would be a simple necessity in another. The article of wearing ap- parel may be cited as an illustration. The inhabitants of the East, in pursuance of a usage, induced by climatic and other causes, which antedates the memory of man in its adoption, require but a small amount of covering. The national habit of the United States, totally opposite in its character, would consequently render the plainest necessity here an undoubted luxury among the Australian natives. In reference to individual status also, the different grades of wealth, and the maintenance of the social position con- sidered indispensably incident thereto, artificial and ephem- eral though it may or may not be, make a luxury for one an unqualified necessity for another. Now, the difficulty which presents itself at the outset of v 2 49 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. this scheme of commodity taxation is at this point fore- shadowed that of so adjusting the burden as to draw with equitable proportion from all consumers. The peculiar facts, as stated in the next preceding paragraph, render such an adjustment absolutely impossible. The usual canon of taxation, it is true, is to tax necessaries not at all, comforts lightly, and luxuries heavily. But just- here is the embar- rassment. What is a luxury to one is but a comfort to another, and what is a comfort to a second is but a necessity to a third. The impracticability of an income-tax in one sense, at least, is made plainly apparent in this connection. In accordance with the spirit of the canon which directs no tax upon necessaries, the originators of this tax law an- nounce an exemption of such articles from its operation by the establishment of a minimum of income which shall be absolved from all burden by the declaration that a certain number of dollars will purchase all the annual necessaries which any and every man may stand in need of. The posi- tion is nothing more or less than blind assumption. Again, the relative difference in the returns which* the same rate of taxation will yield from these different classes of commodities presents another difficulty. A small ratio of taxation on necessaries and comforts will eventuate in greater returns than a larger one ; but in the case of luxuries the greater the rate the more abundant the tribute. This antithesis may seem hardly tenable at first thought, but a little reflection will fully corroborate the statement. Neces- saries and comforts are sought after solely on account of their intrinsic worth, and not for any collateral reason, such as the gratification of pride, vanity or caprice. The masses avail themselves of the benefits of their possession, and use whenever and wherever possible ; and the extent of this patronage of the masses is measured by the degree of self-denial which their limited incomes compel them to practice. If necessaries and comforts are cheap, the masses TAXATION. 491 will appropriate them largely ; if dear, they will make their acquaintance only to the extent of their restricted means. By force of these facts, a low rate of taxation on these two classes of consumable commodities will yield a larger rev- enue to Government than a high one ; and down to a very minimum point the less the ratio of taxation the more aug- mented the revenue. Let the article of coffee be instanced as an illustration. Tax it fifty cents per pound, and only the comparatively restricted wealthy class will continue its use to any considerable degree. This class will average about one-tenth of our population. Now, to reduce the problem to a mathematical solution, let a certain quantity (any quantity will serve the illustration) of coffee be sup- posed to represent the annual consumption of this article by this one-tenth of our inhabitants say one thousand pounds. With a tax imposed of fifty cents per pound, the revenue to Government would be five hundred dollars. But put the Government burden at ten cents per pound, and the con- sumption of coffee will be universal ; the remaining nine- tenths of the population will place it upon their list of household stores, and the annual consumption by the hypothesis will be ten thousand pounds ; and with a tax of ten cents per pound the Government revenue will be one thousand dollars instead of five hundred dollars when the rate of taxation was five times greater. Both English and American history furnishes abundant proofs of the position. After the adoption of free trade by England in 1845, the duty upon sugar (which, as England was not a producer of sugar, was not protective, but merely a tax) was decreased one-half. Subsequent to that period England's consumption of sugar increased about one hundred and twenty-five per cent, per annum, and yielded a revenue of seven millions sterling, against one of five millions ster- ling before the customs duty was diminished. The Ameri- can Morrill tari/T of 1861 laid a duty upon some articles 49 2 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. not produced in this country of about fifty per cent, ad valorem. In the light of a true policy, which looked at that period to the realization of the largest amount of revenue, it was a most egregious violation of economic law, and Congress seems to have learned the truth wholly by accident. In 1867, with the war closed and future increase of expenditure made no longer probable, the rates of impost upon these articles were reduced, upon the hypothesis that a smaller amount of revenue would be returned. A year later Congress was astounded at the fact that the returns of the reduced tariff had not only exceeded the Treasury's estimates, but also, in a relative sense, those of the former and higher impost ; and every subsequent year, with but one or two exceptions at most, the report of the Secretary of the Treasury has conveyed to Congress the unaccountable intelligence that his estimates of receipts for the regular fiscal year have been considerably below the actual returns. Again, these excessive rates of taxation upon necessaries and comforts, upon articles in common use, are an offer of a premium upon fraud. Take, for an illustration, the tax on whisky of the early portion of the last decade. It may provoke a smile to see this article seemingly classed under the head of necessaries or comforts, but the generality of its use warrants its citation in proof of the present argu- ment. Prior to the war the annual production of this article in the United States was about one hundred millions of gallons. The first tax of twenty cents a gallon yielded a yearly revenue of about thirty millions of dollars. A sub- sequent tax of two dollars per gallon resulted in an annual rfivenue return of about fourteen millions of dollars ; but .with ,t^e reduced tax of fifty cents a gallon in 1869 the yearly revenue from whisky made the enormous jump of over thirty millions of dollars. Now, the production of whisky was at nc tirae diminished during the interval of j 860-68, and the result ,of the .excessive impost will be seen TAXATION. 493 to be fourteen millions of dollars representing the reve- nue, one hundred millions of gallons the production, and two dollars per gallon the tax that the facturers or dealers added the amount of the tax to their price, paid the Gov- ernment fourteen cents per gallon instead of two dollars, and pocketed the balance, less the cost of production and the transaction of business. These enormous frauds were perpetrated in three ways. The Government inspectors were paid five dollars per day for watching the distilleries and compelling honest returns of the product. It was an easy matter for the distiller to pay the inspector fifty dollars per day, and gauge his returns by the elasticity of the combined conscience of the two. And it was done. Moreover, thousands of petty stills were running in back cellars and secluded localities, which failed to offer the faithful Government watchmen any partnership in their business, and many a brawny arm was constantly pulling an oar from Canada to American waters, with a package of whisky stowed away for ballast that never paid a dollar of either tariff or excise tribute to Government. In this manner Government furnished the means whereby both it and the people were robbed of millions of dollars by a class whose paucity of number was only equaled by their dishonesty. The advertisement on the part of the former, however, of a desire to be swindled presented terms too tempting to hope for universal indifference in respect to their acceptance. Passing to the last branch of the antithetical proposition under discussion, that the greater the rate of taxation u|>on luxuries the greater the returns of revenue, very little need be said. The truth of the allegation is susceptible of easy proof. The point received an inferential elucidation when " Money and Currency " were discussed in the first chapter of this treatise. Unlike necessaries and comforts, luxuries are not sought after on the score of their intrinsic worth. 42 494 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. They are obtained, for the most part, simply to please the eye, gratify the taste and answer the desire for ostentation and display. Their use and consumption are governed entirely by the code of fashion, and the cardinal doctrine of this code is the employment of articles which bear the impress of scarcity or costliness either one or the other alone or both combined. Their beauty or intrinsic worth is not the prime requisite which secures the patronage of the fashionable world. Both beautiful and useful many of these articles are, it is true, but the attributes first above named are what afford them an acquaintance with the devo- tees of fashion and the possessors of wealth. Every-day life illustrates the truthfulness of the position. The fre- quent changes in fashionable costume and accompaniments are based upon this one solitary idea. Novelties are placed in the market by the jeweler or the modiste at a really fic- titious price ; and simply because they are novel and costly, the subjects of fashion appropriate them, not only willingly, but eagerly, and that frequently in open violation of the plainest rules of really cultured and correct taste. The shocking burlesque upon female attire which has character- ized some of the costumes of the last decade lend their influence to the support of our general allegation. The moment, however, these novelties become common, the instant competition reduces their price to its legitimate commercial standard, the code of fashion is violated, their association with the wealthy ceases, and the art of the modiste and costumer is again brought into requisition in order to satisfy the mandates of this capricious and purely artificial law. Let an hypothesis be made from some of the principal articles of Fashion's toilet gold, pearl and diamond jewelry, and dress goods of silk, satin and lace. Now, if by some unexpected discovery of immense beds of gold and fields of pearls and diamonds on the one hand, and a new and utilizing process of facture on the other, TAXATION. 495 whereby all of these commodities could be furnished to the consumer at trivial or ordinary rates, they would immedi- ately become common in the wardrobe of the masses, and be as summarily banished from the trousseau of the fash- ionable and the wealthy. With these facts in mind a moment's reflection will show that a high rate of taxation upon these articles of real luxury will not materially decrease their consumption, for they are, in the great majority of instances, confined to the use and association of the moneyed classes. Instead of such a result, a high tax upon luxuries positively caters to the desires of the fashionable world. It stamps them with the prime qualification of Fashion's servants costliness. It responds to the cardinal behest of this exclusive law, and raises a barrier between its subjects and those of a so-called lower life. And since, except in the case of a rate of taxation of unprecedented enormity, the consumption of luxuries is not curtailed by an excise or other burden, the statement finds abundant warrant that up to this point of very excessive taxation the greater the tax upon luxuries the greater the revenue. The difference in the results of the operation of the same ratio of taxation upon necessaries, comforts and luxuries, as stated in the outset of this immediate discussion, seems to be plainly and fully apparent. Before a final summing up is made, however, of this system of taxing consumable commodities, and of the principle of indirect taxation in general, there are certain conditions of a tariff impost pertinent to this inquiry which must receive a passing con- sideration. This very brief comment upon the incidental taxation of consumable commodities by means of a tariff impost must, of necessity, be introduced by a "statement of a truth made familiar by the next preceding chapter namely, tariffs are of two sorts, industrial and revenue. The first, aiming THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. alone to foster home industry, lays an impost only upon such articles as are subjects of home production, and to an extent already defined, and is styled protection. The last lays its impost without any such rule of discrimination upon any imported commodity for the single purpose of provid- ing means for the support of Government, and is rightly styled a revenue tariff. The way is now opened for a state- ment of the prime point of this immediate investigation namely, a protective tariff is not an instrument of taxation a revenue tariff is. That protection is not taxation was fully shown in the first chapter of the present part of this treatise, when "Protection and Free Trade" were sub- mitted to a detailed examination. The argument will not be reiterated in full. Reference may be had to it if occa- sion requires. Suffice it in this connection to give its sub- stance that in reference to all articles of home production the cost of such production, by force of the law of compe- tition, governs the selling price, irrespective of the amount of a tariff, however excessive, upon similar commodities imported from foreign countries. In the case of articles other than those of home produc- tion, however, a customs duty is a simple instrument of taxation. And the reason is obvious. Contrasting such a tariff with one laid for protection only, the fundamental conditions are reversed. As there is no home competition to have any influence upon the extent of price, the rates of the foreign markets, as fixed by foreign competition, are supreme. The purchasing country wherein such commodi- ties are not produced is wholly at their mercy, and a tariff necessarily adds to the amount of the foreign price. In the absence of home competition it is a mere problem in simple addition. So far as this country is concerned, take, for example, the article of coffee. Its production in the United States, relatively speaking, is absolutely impossible. Let it be supposed that the price of this staple in a West TAX A TION. 497 India port is fifty cents per pound. Impose a duty upon all importations of the same to the extent of ten cents a pound, and in the absence of home competition what possible agency is there to place the price below sixty cents per pound in our commercial marts? . This incidental discussion must not be assumed to de- claim against revenue tariffs because they prove themselves to be instruments of taxation. It does not. On the other hand, in the great majority of instances, to a certain extent, as will hereafter be seen, it endorses them, and endorses them simply and solely because they are means of lay ing taxes. The direct aim of the present comment, however, was to show the only additional instance with the exception of a stamp-tax, which, for the most part, is but another species of excise, and therefore covered by the past discussion, and too well understood to require a separate elucidation in which consumable commodities are taxed outside of the forms indicated in the table hereinbefore given. In the light of these simple, self-evident truths (the digression craves pardon) it is seemingly impossible, to account for the favorite expression of free traders, "Pro- tection is taxation." It is an abuse of terms. Protection, it is true, is secured by the employment of tariffs. Of the last, as already stated, there are but two in number, pro- tective and revenue. The last is taxation the former not. The distinction is sharp and well defined, natural and not artificial, and with the aid of the slightest possible reflec- tion there would seem to be no ground for confusion. A final summing up of this topic of commodity and indi- rect taxation will now be made, a general outline of a feas- ible system of State and national taxation l>e then indicated, and the present chapter be brought to a conclusion. The task above assigned will be best initiated by a statement of the present revenue returns of Government. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1872, the aggregate 42* THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. revenue of Government from imposts and taxes was about $350,000,000 $225,000,000 of the former and $125,000,000 of the latter. Of this last about $60,000,000 eventuated from direct taxation. With these statistics arith- metical calculation will show the customs duties reckoned as income from indirect taxation, of course, as such income all springs from an impost on commodities that the reve- nue of Government derived from indirect taxes in the fiscal year above named was about $290,000,000, or five-sixths of the entire receipts. The above are all round numbers, but the position in reference to the amount of indirect taxes is prejudiced instead of favored by the numerical statement. At this point let some of the practical workings of indi- rect taxation be recalled. It will be remembered that under this system of taxation are found the following impossibilities namely : that of ascertaining the party upon whom the burden will fall, further than to say the consumer, which amounts to nothing so far as identifica- tion is concerned; that of ascertaining the extent of sacri- fice which these uncertain individuals are able to make ; and that of establishing a ratio of assessment which will yield relatively equal returns from the three great classes of commodities necessaries, comforts and luxuries. Returning now to the record of reported facts, the state- ment finds abundant warrant from the statistics of our revenue returns, that fully fifty per cent, of the revenue received from indirect taxes eventuated from the burden laid upon ordinary articles of subsistence, or those which come under the heads of necessaries and comforts, which amount to $145,000,000. As already stated in a prior connection, the wealthy or comparatively independent classes in this country do not constitute above one-tenth of our aggregate population. The consequence is, that as nine-tenths of the necessaries and comforts used in the TAXA TION. 499 United States are consumed by the poorer classes, they have borne nine-tenths of the burden imposed upon these commodities, which amounts ($145,000,000 representing the gross sum) in round numbers to $130,000,000. But two other items, which cannot be exactly ascertained, must be placed to the credit of our laboring population. One is the portion of the direct taxation which they have borne in the levy upon incomes, and the other results from the special manner in which the commodity-tax has been laid. It has been specific, and rightly so, for ad valorem taxes open a door, as explained in a prior connection, to wholesale fraud and deception. But the truth of this general principle has not made the poor man's burden any easier to bear. For instance, tea has been subjected to an impost of, say, twenty cents per pound, without regard to value. A pound worth fifty cents, which a laboring man consumes, pays the same tribute to Government as a pound worth two dollars that his wealthy neighbor can afford to purchase. The exact amount of additional taxation sustained in these two ways by the poorer classes, as already noted, it is impossible to record, but it may be safely placed at $20,000,000. Add this sum to $130,000,000, as before deduced, and it is seen that $150,000,000 represent about the amount of the national burden of the fiscal year 1871-72 which was borne by man- ual toil. The gross sum of this burden, it will be remem- bered, was $350,000,000, leaving $200,000,000 to be cred- ited to the account of capital; and the proportion is grossly wrong and unjust. It is by no means an equality of sacri- fice. The argument is not intended to deny the right of com- modity and indirect taxation. Due necessities of Govern- ment, such as were precipitated upon the United .States in 1861, furnish abundant reason and excuse for such a course and even for the ordinary purpose of a peace revenue they are defensible but they have been laid, in the ten 500 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. years last past, with great inconsistency and unwisdom, so far as this country is concerned. The alcavala excise of Spain, which levied a tax upon commodities every time they passed to a new owner, was scarcely more prejudicial to Spanish commerce than our commodity-tax has been to the interests of labor. A brief suggestion will be made in respect to such levies in a future connection, but the line of argument as already defined requires an intimation at this point of the most equitable method of local State taxation. The States, by virtue of our organic law, are relieved of very much of the embarrassment incident to the General Government as connected with the subject of taxation. Prohibited as they are from laying any duties upon imports, they have no jurisdiction in the field of industrial legisla- tion. The scope of their taxing power is to procure means for the support of their local governments, and may be made comparatively simple in its operation and just and im- partial in its results. It will be remembered that this discus- sion has disputed the feasibility of all direct taxes, except a land-tax, stamping as unadvisable the other direct taxes namely, those upon incomes and a capitation or poll tax. It has also contested the propriety of a tax upon rents. Referring to those arguments, the proposition is now asserted that all State taxation should be direct, and, by force of the immediate preceding comment, should be confined to a tax upon land (using the term in its legal sense as already explained), or, in other words, upon real estate. The moneyed requirements of the State governments in times of peace are comparatively trivial (except when ad- ministered as those of the Southern States have been for the last five years by Northern men), and the burden of their support, as explained in the prior discussion of a land- tax, is more equitably, evenly and proportionately distrib- uted when it is imposed entirely upon real property. The maintenance of this land-tax will not be here reviewed. TAXATION. 5e tolerated. The digression would con- sume by far too much space. 512 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. cal, aristocratic, and republican or representative. In democracies the general policy and rules of action bear the impress of the unbridled and irreconcilable will of the masses ; in monarchies the will of the monarch is the sole parent of both ; in aristocracies they are shaped by the few to the exclusion of the many ; and in republics by the qtial- ified will of the entire people. The confusion of the first induces the second ; the severity of the second leads to the third ; and the enlightenment of the masses installs the fourth. The deplorable condition of ancient Athens, the miseries of Rome under Caesar or France under Charle- magne, and the hardships of the English people under William of Normandy and his nobles, illustrate the first three respectively, while the present status of the English subjects partly, and that of the people of the United States more perfectly, stand as an exponent of the fourth. The elements or conditions of the form of government incident to the last stage of civilization of representative govern- ment is the subject of this immediate investigation. The history indicated by the next preceding paragraph furnishes abundant proof of the truthfulness of its opening sentences, which, to give it in another form, amounts to this namely, that governments are the results of experi- ence, and not of mental creation unaided by the suggestions of the past. By this, of course, is intended such systems of government as will stand the test of time and the shock of social disorders. France, for example, has given to the world several instances of governments of pure invention, but they have crumbled to atoms upon the first onslaught of discontent. "The young live forward in hope the old live backward in memory," said Aristotle; and there are no possible words which can so fittingly and beautifully describe the fundamental principle of the task of framing governmental codes. The Grecian philosopher in a single apothegm unwittingly indicated the means of genuine REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 513 governmental progress. As John Stuart Mill tersely puts it, " Governments are not made they grow." The elements or conditions of representative government are all founded in education, and generally speaking they may be said to be threefold. They consist in the ability to compromise individual opinion and to defend and execute the agreements of such compromise. The excellence of a people's culture measures the success and perfection of representative government within their borders. Man in his savage state is but little better than a beast. It is simply because he is, as Aristotle terms him, "a reasoning animal," that he is lifted above the level of the brute creation. In the idleness or unemployment of reason, moreover, he is even more stubborn and unyielding than his brute subject. He will and he will not. Therein is his sole gauge of duty. In this simple fact springs the primal necessity of government. It essays to define the duty which the willfulness of man will not permit him to recognize, and to compel its execu- tion, which, for the same reason, he will not voluntarily undertake. Now, the main essence of government for brute, ignorant man is power, while for educated man it is con- sent; and the more perfect the education the easier and wiser the consent. The former is government by outside agency the latter is self-government ; and this brings us to a brief amplification of the threefold elements or conditions of representative government already stated. All forms of government may, in one sense, be said to be founded upon consent. In many instances, however, it is consent in a passive sense only blind submission. In representative governments this is not the case. The ele- ment of consent is here active instead of passive. It ante- dates obedience. It creates by consent that which in the same manner it accepts as its ruler. The name of repre- sentative government fully conveys its nature. It is a com- promise by the masses of their absolute freedom, to the W2 514 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. extent of allowing a few, chosen by all, to prescribe rules of conduct for the many, with the explicit understanding that the deliberations of the few shall be binding and entirely conclusive. The ability for such a compromise is not incident to the earlier stages of civilization. The un- tutored mind will never consent to such a delegation of power. It shrinks from exchanging absolute for relative freedom, simply because, in its ignorance, it is unable to see the superiority of the latter condition. How it can be better for him to voluntarily permit another agency than his own will to regulate his relations with others is some- thing which the savage man cannot possibly appreciate. This is the obstacle which must, of necessity, be removed before the first condition of representative government can be asserted. The magnitude of the task can hardly be expressed in words. It is no insult to Omnipotence to say that the perfection of this compromising ability constitutes the dividing line between human and superhuman effort. It is the conclusive proof that man partakes of the image of his Maker that he is " but a little lower than the angels." It is the office of reason. It is impossible and irrelevant in this connection to trace the processes of education by which this status is attained. It would involve a history of civilization, and the present purpose is secured by the statement that the first element or condition of representative government is such an educa- tion of reason as will enable it to see that self-government is possible, that man can govern himself, only when he can maintain a willingness to consent to the principle that the mass shall choose a few by whose ordinances all shall be bound. The period at which a community has attained to this position can only be judged of by comparison and decided by experimental effort. There are no infallible latent exponents of its existence. When reached, mankind is able to comprehend the words of William Penn, that REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 515 " life without liberty is slavery, but liberty without order is oppression." The second condition of representative government, as already stated, consists in the ability to defend the agree- ments resulting from that compromise of individual opinion which forms its primal requisite, and the discussion of which has just been dismissed. It is one thing to consent to an agreement, it is quite another to defend its wisdom. Man is imperfect. His reason is changeable and defective. It is easier to argue the feasibility of the future than to battle with the difficulties of the present. The imperfection of man taints every work of human construction. In some way the results of all his efforts will fall short of their aim. When these defects of human undertaking exhibit them- selves, it is a signal for the onslaught of the entire forces of the disaffected and such forces always have and always will exist ; and it is a wholesome element of society, for it keeps the majority under constant bonds of honesty against the wisdom of the entire scheme which gives evi- dence of only partial imperfection. The shock of all social disorders originates from just such conditions as are above described, and at this juncture, for the purposes of repre- sentative government, its second requisite is summoned to action. It may respond to the call, and it may not, for it may not have an existence. It is at this point that experiments in 'representative government first give evidence of failure. The first stage is always easily compassed. Men are vastly more willing to agree than to stand by their agreements when they prove to be unexpectedly burdensome. It is a mere question of education, a problem of mental and moral philosophy combined. It demands the exercise of a rarer culture, a more mature judgment and a more infallible wisdom than is required by the first condition of repre- sentative government as already defined. It is one step in 5l6 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS, advance thereof. Its attainment is alone secured by educa- tion, and largely by the education of experience. And not until mankind has so elevated its reason as to see that because all human means are defective, and every human effort, to some extent, abortive, the greater wisdom consists in abiding by the mandates of an imperfect law which they, by their primal consent as to the form of government under which such law should be created, have aided in enacting, until its legal repeal can be secured instead of resorting to force therefor, it is not until then that community can be said to be possessed of the second element or condition of representative government. Such legal repeal as is above referred to is the revolution of thought, while the repeal by force is the revolution of war. The first is incident to real representative government the last to the rule of the mon- arch and the usurper. Experimental effort here, as in the case of the first requisite of representative government, can only prove the possession of its second element or condi- tion. It is undefinable by theory, and exhibits itself only in the presence of a practical test. The third and last general element of representative gov- ernment is the ability to execute the agreements resulting from the compromise of individual opinion. The thought extends itself over a wider compass than is indicated by the mere words of the foregoing proposition. The execution required is one of a double character namely, present ifjork and future provision. Motor-power for the imme- diate propulsion of the ship of state is not alone needed. The way for its onward passage must be cleared far in advance. The mariner whp attempts to furrow the track- less ocean must ever watch for a channel of safety for his hidden keel, or founder upon the shoals and quicksands of the treacherous deep. The guardians of representative government and. in certain senses, of all governments bear the responsibility of a similar burden. This super- REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. S 1 7 visory foresight, so to speak, which is the main essence of the third element of representative government, is akin to prophecy, and is the par excellence of mental prerogative. It demands the highest order of culture, education and enlightened thought. It is, in short, statesmanship, and is an article of the utmost possible rarity. Saying noth- ing of men engaged at the present time in public life, the United States have not produced above a half dozen men who have shown a title to pre-eminence in this respect Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay and William H. Seward. This brief survey of the elements or conditions of repre- sentative government need not be farther extended. As stated in the outset, they are threefold, are founded in edu- cation, and each successive requisite demands a higher order of cultured thought. Their existence, let it be again repeated, is alone demonstrated by experimental effort, and their abode is the realm of reason. CHAPTER II. SUFFRAGE. The Essence of Representative Government Purity of Suffrage defined The Requisites of Suffrage The Unthinking Mind Erroneously looks upon Suffrage as an Abstract Right It Rests upon Duty Universal Suffrage, literally speaking, is Indefensible and Wrong Suffrage defined Its Office and Power The Question of Education The Proper Limits of Suffrage Civilization has not yet Solved the Problem Light Sought from the History of the Elective Franchise in the Old and New Worlds The Question in a Philosophical Sense It Depends upon the Peculiar Conditions of every Nation in Re- spect to Race, Climate, Traits of Character, Education, etc. etc. The Proper Limits of Suffrage in the United States The Difficulties attendant upon Clanship in this connection Our Peculiar Status 44 5l8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. considered An Intelligent Suffrage our only Safeguard Suffrage should be a National Institution A Proper Scheme of Compulsory Education Suggested The Benefits of sue i a System The Position of the United States in this Respect a Critical One The Hope that Intelligence will Reassert its Dignity The Opinion of Theorists upon this Point WOMAN SUFFRAGE A Question entirely Distinct from Suffrage in General Upon this Thought is Based the Whole Issue The Real Scope of the Argument John Stuart Mill Cited Woman Suffrage Denies the Natural Condition of Woman as Or- dained by God It Defeats the Purposes of the Family The Creator ,has not Indulged in Creation without a Purpose Such Purpose is Stamped upon every Species of His Handiwork Ad!am Ferguson Cited The Distinguishing Characteristics of the Male and Female Creation The Delicacy of the Point Analogies Drawn from the Brute Creation These Characteristics Designate the Peculiar Scope of Male and Female Duty These Laws applied to Men and Women Woman's Nature Eminent Writers thereon The Requirements of Suffragan Power are such that its Exercise by Woman Essays a Repeal of the Laws of God The Assertion Supported by a View of Republican Politics Pertinent Inquiries The Question of the Family Its Purposes are the Preservation of Morality and the Per- petuation of the Human Race The Marital Relation Society Maternity The Majority of Women Shrink from the Exercise of the Elective Franchise Sexual Passion Woman and the Ballot an Illegal Bridal. OUFFRAGE is the main essence of representative gov- wj ernment. It is not only its motor-power, but its ulti- mate safeguard. The endowment of suffrage, the privilege of exercising the elective franchise, the right to vote, sets the wheels of representative government in motion, and the purity of suffrage saves it harmless from outer attacks and internal dissensions. The term "purity of suffrage" in this connection has a very wide meaning. It is not simply an intendment of honesty, of the absence of fraud in the mere act of voting. This, it is true, is a feature of its purity, but the general principle covers a far wider and perhaps it may be safely said, a far more important field of thought. The idea, possibly, may be best appreciated SUFFRAGE. 519 by abstract analogy. Purity itself has reference not to acts alone, but to the character of the agency which institutes the action. The bare act may be seemingly unobjection- able, but its author may be an absolute libel upon virtue. The mere exercise of the power may appear entirely defen- sible, but the motive which prompts it may be unqualifiedly wrong. The deduction is, that purity contemplates not only the probity of the act, but also certain elements in the actor which are susceptible of a perfect and combined defi- nition in the use of the wordjitness. This idea of abstract purity attaches itself to the principle of a pure suffrage, and the latter stands as an exponent not only of an honest voter, but also of one who has the necessary elements of fitness. This preliminary comment opens the door to the main investigation, which will be conducted under the following sub-subjects namely : I. The Requisites of Suffrage ; II. The Proper Limits of Suffrage ; III. Woman Suffrage. Of these very briefly, and in the order above named. I. THE REQUISITES OF SUFFRAGE. The unthinking mind has been accustomed to look upon suffrage as an inherent, natural right, unqualified by any- thing except the simple element of age. It has regarded it, so to speak, as an indefeasible estate in future, for the vest- ing of which, unqualifiedly and for ever, there was nothing necessary but a certain arbitrary limit of time. The tolera- tion yes, the encouragement? of this idea has generated a cancer which has destroyed earlier republics than ours, and which is gnawing its way to the vitals of the body politic of the United States. And although it may not probably will not compass the death of the republic, its presence will always greatly impede its progress, and asso- 520 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. ciate the representative government of our country with inefficiency and corruption. This discussion most emphatically denies the soundness and tenability of universal suffrage a suffrage (not includ- ing woman suffrage) which, with the two exceptions of age and ordinary character, has no regard for the qualification which naturally, reasonably and logically is an absolute prerequisite of its proper possession. Suffrage, in the abstract, is not a right, but a mere privilege. It is based upon duty, and the discharge of such duty alone transforms the privilege into a right. The nature of this duty and its discharge, and the requisites of suffrage, are synonymous questions. A discussion of one is a discussion of the other, and the same will now receive a more direct attention. The gist of the inquiry will be best initiated by an abstract definition of suffrage. We cannot determine its requirements until we ascertain its elementary nature. Suffrage is the privilege of an expression of opinion by ballot upon a matter of public dispute, with the sequential results that each ballot has an exact numerical power for the decision of the mooted point, and that the majority of the gross number of ballots cast settles the question at issue. It may be said, indeed, without any use of the meta- phor, that suffrage is the concretion of individual opinion for the creation and execution of public law. This con- cretion of opinion asserts itself in a twofold manner mediately and ultimately. Mediately, in the choice of public officials ; ultimately, in the sanction of proposed public measures, such as taxation for giving public aid to private enterprises, the ratification of proposed constitutional changes, etc. etc. In all cases, however, the final end of the exercise of the elective franchise is the creation or execution of law, and incidentally of the administration of justice in legal tribunals. The ballot chooses the legis- lator, and the legislator frames the law ; the ballot elects SUFFRAGE. $21 the executive, and he executes the law; and the ballot, either through the appointment of the executive which it elects or its own direct choice, chooses the judicial officers who are empowered to administer justice. These offices of suffrage are suggestive of its true con- ditions. A moment's reflection is sufficient to show not only that the exercise of the elective franchise involves the employment of a delicate, intelligent and comprehensive discrimination, but also that such exercise of the voting power shapes the destiny of every country which adopts the policy of representative government. It is, indeed, the most important yes, the most sacred trust which can be reposed in the keeping of a republican people. It is something more than mere citizenship. It is immeasura- bly greater and higher. The one under our form of government is a naturally inherent right, and attaches nolens volens to all humanity concurrently with its birth the right of protection to life, liberty and property. The other, as already stated, is a privilege transformed by the performance of duty into a right the right to establish and execute law. Now, the primal requisite for the fulfillment of this sacred trust is education, and yet, strange to say, the American republic, contrary to all precedents of either public or pri- vate success in analogous circumstances, ignores this funda- mental condition entirely. There is not an instance of private policy, from walking the tow-path of a canal to the superintendence of the delicate machinery of finance or the practice of the liberal professions, in which a certain degree of acquired fitness is not demanded of the one who essays the performance of these simple and intricate trusts. The canal-man must know how to drive a mule, and the banker or professional man must have a knowledge of the nature, uses and offices of money or the theory and practice of his profession. This requirement of fitness in private 44 522 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. undertakings is a simple compliance with the mandates of natural law. In every avenue of success knowledge must pre- cede action. The exercise of the elective franchise consti- tutes no exception to the general principle. Is it wrong to demand that the agent who shall prescribe and execute the rules of action for a people, who shall shape its internal and foreign polity, shall be possessed of a reasonable knowledge of what the necessities of such polities demand ? On the other hand, is it not lamentably and inexcusably culpable that, as in the United States, the simple semblance of honest manhood, however ignorant, is the only fitness required for a full exercise of the suffragan power? The immediate proposition that education is the primal condition and requisite of suffrage will not be further am- plified. It seems wholly unnecessary. The only corrobo- rative support it requires is a simple appeal to reason and ordinary judgment. Both the objections to the propo- sition and its proper limits the degree of education ne- cessary find an appropriate place under the next sub- subject. II. THE PROPER LIMITS OF SUFFRAGE. What are the proper limits of suffrage ? The question is one which the future of civilization must solve. The past, although it sheds light upon the onward pathway, has by no means attained the goal. If we trace the history of the elective franchise through its principal stages, the Greek, Roman, English and American, we find it crippled by inef- ficiency, tainted with corruption and a companion of injus- tice. One of the chief difficulties which surround the problem is found in the fact that suffrage is not responsive to the principles of absolute science. Rules for its regula- tion cannot be established which would be equally perti- nent to all countries and peoples. Its abstract condition is always the same education, knowledge, enlightenment SUFFRAGE. $2$ but the elements with which it is brought in contact are totally dissimilar and constantly varying in their incongruity of character. The geographical position and territorial extent of nations, the habits and customs of peoples, the status of a nation in respect to age, the pursuits of a country's inhab- itants, the temperament of races, the effects of climate, all these present collateral forces so far from universality in respect to character which the law of suffrage is obliged to appreciate and reconcile, that absolute rules for its univer- sal guidance are not only unadvisable, but wholly imprac- ticable. The kingdom of Italy, with its comparatively restricted area, could tolerate a suffrage more universal than Russia with its gigantic proportions : the vivacious and volatile French demand a suffrage far more restricted than the cool and stolid Saxon ; the old Swiss cantons can submit to a suffrage far more general than the young repub- lic which might be reared upon the territory of unhappy Poland; the Neapolitan peasantry would require a suffrage much more curtailed than the merchantmen of Holland ; while the mutinous temperament of the Celt, the dreamy carelessness of a Southern Italian and the excitable denizen of the Tropics would stand in need of a suffrage more lim- ited than the stolid Dutch, the thinking American and the resident of the North Temperate Zone. The future exploits of civilization may so compass these difficulties that a cosmopolitan system of suffrage will be one of the products of its labors, but we gravely doubt it. Like the topic of meteorological inquiry in the past, it has never been reduced to the limits of pure science for reasons above stated, but, seemingly unlike it in the future, there appears to be no hope or possibility of its assuming a scientific status, while meteorology bids fair to arrive at that position. The result is, that for the present, and probably for all time, every nation which adopts a representative form of government must establish a suffrage adapted to its 524 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. own peculiar conditions and requirements. It is something which must ever be subject to the force of local natural law. The advocate of universal suffrage here interposes the plea that his system cuts the Gordian knot and dissolves the difficulties above enumerated. By no means. It disre- gards the difficulties ; it evades them, shuns them, but does not solve them. This discussion grants the universal suf- fragist this much namely, that when the difficulties here- inbefore enumerated shall have been removed, his system will be the only proper and correct one that the nearer civilization approximates to their removal, the farther may suffrage be extended. But we augur, however, that that era is incident to such a perfection of humanity as will never be attained this side of the great Unknown. Its advent would note the dawn of the millennium. The general proposition, then, is that the limits of suf- frage at present, and probably for all time, must be des- ignated by every nation which adopts a representative form of government. The remaining inquiry in this con- nection alone pertinent to the present treatise is, What are the proper limits of suffrage for the United States ? The organization of society and government is based upon certain fundamental conditions, the most paramount of which is individual sacrifice. Without such sacrifice both social and governmental regulations, in practice at least, if not in theory, are absolutely impossible. The principle asserts itself in the earliest stages of social organ- ism. It even antedates the formation of the family. The simple clanship of any two individuals, in mere relations of friendship even, requires a sacrifice of what may be best termed individuality. Tastes, habits, temperaments and idiosyncrasies are never alike in any two individuals, and their continued association is only the result of compromise. This element of individual sacrifice, which begins with dual clanship, is augmented with every increase of associ- SUFFRAGE. 525 ated numbers. It is greater in the family than in the clan ; greater in restricted society than in the family ; and greater in the entire assemblage of human brotherhood living un- der one government than in the narrower social relations of which the vast whole is composed. Carrying this general principle to its natural and logical sequence, if we apply it to suffrage the deduction plainly is, that there must be personal sacrifice here as in all other social or governmental relations. In other words, it can- not be universal. And here, moreover, as elsewhere in the framework of society and government, in the conduct of either private or public affairs, the greatest advancement of the general good, the greatest promotion of the main object, must measure the extent of the sacrifice. And still further, as already intimated in a prior connection, the avenue of escape from this individual sacrifice in respect to suffrage is found in fitness. By these aids let the main question now be grasped : What are the proper limits of suffrage in the United States? Let us scan for a moment our peculiar position. In point of territory we are among the foremost nations upon the face of the earth living under a representative form of government. Considered, as we are, the freest people in Christendom, our borders are a magnet for the attraction of immigrants from all quarters of the globe, many of whom are deplorably ignorant, and many of whom represent the lower orders of civilization. Our habits are intensely active and absorbing, our country is in its infancy, and our extremely mixed population, coupled with our wide latitu- dinal range, renders our race-temperament of the most diversified and unmergeable character. All these present insurmountable difficulties to the adoption of universal suffrage. The status of our immigrant population alone refutes it ; our vast expanse of territory, in its growing unwieldiness, alone denies it ; our youth leaves us unpre- 526 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. pared for it, and our race-temperament stamps it as an unqualified absurdity. Where, then, shall the line be drawn ? There is but one answer to the interrogatory : It must be drawn upon a basis of education. We cannot reconcile the irreconcilable ; we cannot merge the unmergeable; we cannot universalize the incongruous; therefore justice must be done to all, and fitness govern to the exclusion of all other agencies. By a basis of education, moreover, we do not argue an apology therefor. We would not lay down an educational rule which would be a mere libel upon intelligence. The mere ability to read and write for purposes of suffrage is, in many instances, precisely such a libel. In defining the exact limits of suffrage upon an educational basis we are met at the outset with an obstacle of constitu- tional import. Our organic law leaves the regulation of suffrage, for the most part, in the hands of the States. That the several States would ever agree upon a uniform system is not, for a moment, to be anticipated. It were seemingly far better that an institution which is the very foundation of our national organism, the main essence of representative government, as suffrage is, should be under the exclusive regulation of national authority. Such, indeed, was the firm opinion of many of the best minds of the Constitutional Convention. The matter was finally placed under the control of State authority, as one of the means for saving the overthrow of the project of constitutional reform. It was one of the compromises between Federalism and State rights by which our present Constitution was sub- stituted for the Articles of Confederation. The immense expansion of our territory and the almost measureless diversification of our population since the adoption of our national charter, however, are not only sufficient but im- perative reasons why the opposite course should be now adopted. SUFFRAGE. S 2 7 With a change in our organic law placing the regulation of suffrage under the exclusive control of national authority, we may well look to the German empire for instruction as to the next step for properly protecting our elective franchise. A national system of compulsory education should follow such a change, making the minimum limit thereof a degree of intelligence at least equal to that which will suffice for admission to the best grade of our institutions known as academies. All of our educational schools, moreover, below that grade should be required to issue certificates of graduation, and not until applicants for the exercise of the elective franchise could furnish these conclusive evidences of their fitness to enter the higher grade of institutions above named should they be endowed with the trust. The point will be at once raised in this connection, that the scheme would work hardships in the first stages of its operation. Doubtless. But better individual hardship for a time than jeopardy of national existence. Self-preserva- tion is the paramount law of public as well as private policy, and justice properly precedes generosity. Make the appli- cation of the rule inexorable to all classes, and no plea of personal hardship would be possessed of sufficient dignity to prejudice the scheme. The additional point will be made that such a scheme of suffrage tends to the unwarranted centralization of power in the national Government. Of this in the concluding chapter of the treatise. Limited space forbids an examination of the benefits which would result from such an institution of suffrage. One, however, deserves a passing mention. It is this : Intelligence, comparatively speaking, never sells its vote. It stands upon its manhood, and votes upon its convictions. Ignorance, on the other hand, pursues exactly the opposite course. Its ballot, like its labor, is for sale to the highest bidder ; and herein is found the most potent agency of 528 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. political corruption. It could poorly maintain its ground with educated voters, and would ultimately sink into irre- trievable ruin. Within these designated limits of a proper suffragan policy no mention has been made of women. That branch of the discussion stands upon grounds entirely distinct and peculiarly its own, and will shortly receive attention. At a time when almost every restraint has been removed from the right to exercise the elective franchise when, with the exception of women, our constitutional seal has been set upon a system of suffrage wellnigh universal it may seem argument to no purpose to advocate a rigid institution of intelligent suffrage. Possibly. Reforms, we are told, never move backward. Undoubtedly not. Change, however, is not always reform. The test of the latter is time. Future years may present such exigen- cies as will fully commend the wisdom of such an institu- tion to the judgment of the American people nay more, may imperatively demand its adoption. Our universality of suffrage has as yet by no means proved the rightfulness of its claims. On the other hand, it has been constantly working its forfeiture. It has wedded corruption to our politics in general ; sold the State of New York, through its venality for years, to a clan of adventurers ; and by its ignorance plunged the Southern States since the close of the rebellion into a state of public embarrassment, dis- honesty and official theft, by the side of which even the evils and woes of civil war pale into insignificance and contempt. We stand by no means upon the solid rock of represen- tative government. Our public polity is far from a state of perfect security against the onslaughts of discontent. Its corner-stone is ignorance. Its principle of suffrage is purely the result of a false sympathetic sentiment. It sprung from a desire to do justice to an oppressed and SUFFRAGE. $ 2 9 woefully-wronged race, but it overstepped the bounds of reason. In essaying justice it has worked injustice ; in proclaiming virtue it has sown corruption. When success- ive years shall have brought their annual gatherings of its folly and laid them at our feet, when the moment of an earnest yet unwholesome public sympathy shall have given place to one of reflection and reason, when experience shall stand in the room of blind prediction, then it may not be too much to hope that intelligence will reassert its dignity ; that our elective franchise will be divorced from ignorance ; that our institution of suffrage will be placed upon its only sure and true basis Education. One more word of collateral comment before the next sub- subject shall engage attention. Theorists urge that the pos- session of the right to vote is an all-sufficient guarantee that intelligence will be diligently sought by the voter that suffrage induces education. Among the supporters of this proposition is found no less an authority than John Stuart Mill. We answer him and his fellow-thinkers upon this point, with all due respect, by a simple recourse to one of the most common instincts of a common humanity. Man- kind, so far as labor is concerned, seldom indulge in acts of supererogation. That which they can constantly obtain either with labor or without, they always take by the latter method. That which they can honestly hold without effort, they will not put forth effort to save. Suffrage forms no exception to the general principle. There are of course exceptions, where a taste for learning would induce intelli- gence in any event, but these exceptions are rare and un- common when viewed in relative comparison with the masses. The other grounds upon which Mr. Mill argues universal suffrage are more appreciable. Like all authors, Mr. Mill writes, for the most part, from a home stand-point, and as to the main question the positions of England and the 45 X 530 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. United States are almost totally dissimilar. The people of England, comparatively speaking, are all Englishmen, and her territorial area is very restricted. The people of the American republic, on the other hand, are made up of representatives of every nationality, and its territorial ex- panse is colossal. By the force of these reasons England might tolerate universal suffrage, while the United States could not. III. WOMAN SUFFRAGE. The question of suffrage for women is one wholly dis- tinct and separate from the subject of suffrage in general. It rests upon a peculiar footing of its own. These state- ments, perhaps, demand a word of qualification. The advocate of woman suffrage will doubtless give them a prompt and unqualified denial. The opposite position is indeed the foundation of his entire argument. Upon his claim that no discrimination should be made between the status of men and women in respect to suffrage rests his entire plea for giving the latter the privilege of the elective franchise. It is the sole key to his position. This dis- cussion, however, denies the soundness of the doctrine of woman suffrage, and, like its opponent, bases its argument upon one single, generic proposition a proposition which is the exact opposite of the fundamental claim of the advo- cates of woman suffrage namely, that a discrimination is imperatively demanded, by every principle of reason and public and private policy, between the status of men and women in this particular. Hence the opening sentences of the present paragraph. The true compass of the argument, either for or against, is embraced by these simple and easily-appreciable limits. In view of this fact it is surprising to note the broad range which the discussion of this delicate topic has in many instances assumed. The fundamental point has been very SUFFRAGE. 531 often entirely ignored, and the line of reasoning carried entirely outside of its real, legitimate limits. John Stuart Mill, the Nestor of woman suffrage advocacy so far as the subject in respect to polemic inquiry is concerned, most admirably appreciates the entire position. Starting with the cardinal doctrine that there should be no discrimi- nation in status between men and women for the purposes of suffrage, he brings all the endeavors of his clear, incisive logic and elegant rhetoric to the single task of maintaining that fundamental principle. And it is all there is to the affirmative of the question. Prove that one point, and you prove all. Demonstrate the unwisdom of such a discrim- ination between men and women as we have before re- marked, and you substantiate the wisdom of their endow- ment with the right of suffrage. For this task Mr. Mill only occupies five pages of his discussion of the general subject, and in those five pages he says all that can be said with an eye to relevancy says it clearly, elegantly and well. A discrimination is imperative between men and women in respect to suffrage, whereby the latter should not partici- pate in the exercise of the elective franchise, for two reasons. First, the principle of female suffrage denies the natural condition of woman as ordained by God ; second, it defeats the purpose of the family, and thereby saps the foundations of civilization. Of these in their order. First. The common Father of humanity has not indulged in animal creation without a purpose. Every distinguish- ing feature of his creatures was established for the attain- ment of special ends. In respect to what these ends and purposes are, God has not left mankind in a state of uncer- tainty. He has revealed them as plainly and conclusively as though engraven by an inspired pen upon the sacred pages of Holy Writ. These revelations are laid in the medium of natural law and demonstrated by voluntary action. They are to be found in the inherent instinctive 53 2 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. tendencies of animal life. As Adam Ferguson most beauti- fully puts it, " Every animal is made to delight in the exer- cise of its natural talents and forces : the lion and the tiger sport with the paw ; the horse delights to commit his mane to the wind, and forgets his pasture to try his speed in the field ; the bull even before his brow is armed, and the lamb while yet an emblem of innocence, have a disposition to strike with the forehead, and anticipate in play the con- flicts they are doomed to sustain. Man, too, is disposed to opposition, and to employ the forces of his nature against an equal antagonist ; he loves to bring his reason, his elo- quence, his courage, even his bodily strength, to the proof. His sports are frequently an image of war ; sweat and blood are freely expended in play ; and fractures or death are often made to terminate the pastimes of idleness and festivity." Apply these thoughts to the separate natures of manhood and womanhood, and let the application be induced by a consideration of male and female characteristics and tend- encies in the abstract, without confining the thought to men and women. The theme trenches upon a delicate ground, but such delicacy by no means stamps it as invio- late to the approach and acquaintance of honest investi- gation. By virtue of a natural law which is as changeless and invariable as the movements of the solar system, from the lowest order of the brute creation to the highest type of animal existence Aristotle's "reasoning animal," man the male species are found to be the depository of pro- creating power. By virtue of a minor law, moreover, which is equally immutable as its chief, the possession of this power is always supplemented by a trenchant, com- bative force, which may be best termed aggression. On the other hand, by reason of similarly undeviating natural laws of a major and minor character, the female species have ever been designated as the physical guardians of SUFFRAGE. 533 embryo life, accompanied perforce by a necessary but yet withal a perfectly natural, inherent, instinctive trait of retirement. These moral forces, as they may be fittingly termed, not only indicate, but they have ever worked, a natural assign- ment of male and female duty (and we are not yet confin- ing our discussion to men and women). The male lion or tiger not only instinctively explores the forest in advance with tentative battle in quest of food for his savage young and their mother, but as voluntarily springs to the front to defend his subterranean castle and family against the attack of an invading foe. The full horse, when left to his native wilds, is always proud to lead the advancing march across the unknown prairie or thicket unexplored, and the male bird fearlessly heads the fight against the falcon, while the female summons the infant brood beneath the shelter of her protecting wings. If we now pass from this view of these moral forces of the male and female species to one of their mere physical characteristics before proceeding with our original applica- tion to men and women in particular, we find that the same general principle asserts itself. The male is ever the repre- sentative of physical strength and enduring power, while the female is always an exponent of relative weakness and non-combative force. Each, in short, is "made to delight in the exercise of its natural talents and forces." With this introduction let the fundamental proposition hereinbefore maintained, and which, for the most part, is so elegantly couched in the words of Mr. Ferguson just cited, be directly applied to the distinctive characteristics of men and women. Literature is the repository of convictions classical lit- erature is the storehouse of the observations of the world's best intellect ; all are, in one sense, history, and history is the primal proof of the past. I^t us see, in the outset of 45 534 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. this immediate inquiry, what the muses and bards of history say concerning woman. Said England's muse " Oh let not woman's weapons, water-drops, Stain my man's cheeks ! " " Her voice was ever soft, Gentle and low an excellent thing in woman." " How easy is it for the proper-false In women's waxen hearts to set their forms ! " Said Thomas Otway : " O woman ! lovely woman ! Nature made thee To temper man ; we had been brutes without you. Angels are painted fair to look like you." Said^Mr. Ledyard : "I have observed among all nations that women, wherever found, are the same kind, civil, obliging, humane, tender beings, inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest." Now, these are neither mere expressions of sentiment nor figures of rhetoric. They are the testimony of some of the most brilliant minds which Christendom has ever produced in respect to the natural talents and forces of woman, as ordained by God. The evidences of a distinct- ive nature in the male and female orders of creation, already alluded to, are peculiarly marked and emphatic in the case of men and women. Man is an exponent of aggress- ive, combative power woman a representative of retiring, preserving force. Their inherent, instinctive tendencies furnish abundant proof of the ends which Omnipotence designed to secure in their creation. The voluntary choice of pleasure and duty which each is ever prone to exercise illustrates both the peculiar forces with which they are en- dowed, and also the purposes which they can most fitting- ly serve. The boy instinctively finds his sport in angling, the bat and ball, sham horsemanship and precocious mimicry SUFFRAGE. 535 of war. In all his boyish games, moreover, he is daring, boisterous, ostentatious and the insignia of uncompromising noise. The girl, on the other hand, as naturally seeks her pastime in petting her doll-formed babe, laying her mimic tea-table for imaginary guests and arrogating to herself the dignities of womanhood. And in all her girlish pleasures she is coy, timid, embarrassed at exposure, and a slave to modesty and retirement. The one, still further impelled by this same natural law of his being, chooses his vocation at the plough, forge, counter, mart and forum, while the other as intuitively employs her hand and faculties with the needle, pencil, instruction and the duties of domestic life. The sports and duties of manhood and womanhood, moreover, are but an augmentation of boyish and girlish glee and toil. Pass now to the conditions and requirements of suffragan power, and see if they are such as will naturally enlist the volunteer talents and forces of woman as hereinbefore described such as their contemplation and execution will afford her profit and delight. Politics, however much it may be tempered, calls for the exercise, both physically and mentally, of the strongest and highest grade of combative power. It is a war of opinion, it is true, as distinguished from a contest of mere animal strength, but it is such a peculiar warfare of ideas that it summons its forces from the reserve of both intellectual and physical resource. A war of religion will outstrip it in point of bitterness, but with this single exception there is no clash of individual or associated tenets which draws so heavily upon the latent strength of mind and body as the wager of political issues. The reason is manifest. The decision of the struggle is fraught with results of the gravest possible import to both the community at large and the private individual. But this is not all. There is another element of political strife peculiarly incident to representa- tive forms of government which demands consideration in 536 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. this connection. It is this. So long as the policy of self- government shall be pursued, there will be very many op- portunities for personal aggrandizement growing out of its conduct and supervision. It is one of the seemingly irre- mediable evils of a representative system. Great reforms in this direction are, of course, possible, but even when reform shall have been carried to its utmost limit, this avenue of individual ascendency will not be wholly closed. It is an evil from which a republican system can never be entirely divorced. It is idle folly to expect it. Imperfec- tion, not purity, is the dominant attribute of mankind, and opportunities for private elevation, however few in number or insignificant in character, will ever be hotly contested, not alone by the few, but by the many. These political entities render the business of republican politics not only wearisome to the body and irksome to the mind, but they enlist in the struggle the strongest passions of mankind. Look at the matter in the most favorable light we will, having full regard and making due allowance for the beneficial results of a representative system, and with a frank and hearty concession that it is the most per- fect form of government ever devised by man, yet we can- not escape the conclusion that its management is insepa- rably connected with the worst and most pronounced pas- sions of human nature. The argument is, of course, raised in this connection that these objectionable features, while they may be truthfully charged as incidents of politics in general, do not attach themselves to the mere exercise of the elective franchise. Most assuredly they do. This very office is the source from which the entire political current takes its origin. As already stated in a prior connection, suffrage is the motor- power of representative government. The stream cannot be separated from the fountain without destroying its iden- tity. Suffrage, the fountain-head of republican politics, SUFFRAGE. 537 cannot be walled off, so to speak, from the main political current without disintegrating and destroying the entire republican system. It is an inseparable estate, and the defects of the one are the defects of the other. A moment's reflection will abundantly corroborate the statement. As votes constitute the vehicle upon which individuals ride to official distinction, the possessor of every ballot is the first objective point of the seeker of political preferment. These place-hunters are "plain, blunt " men. They are but slightly troubled with modesty, and no rule of conventionalism or courtesy would be ade- quate to bar their approach to even the most timorous classes of female voters. With every recurring canvass they would be subjected to all of the impertinent and questionable importunities for their votes with which repub- lican politics ever has been and ever will be associated, and dragged nolens volens through all the mire and sloughs of a political campaign. But this is not all, nor an equal part. The right of suf- frage does not end with voting. Voters will be voted for, or, rather, they will essay that distinction. Denial of this last statement is entirely useless. The woman who has a taste for voting, who takes delight in the exercise of such a power, has the concomitant relish for holding office. There is no escape from the conclusion. If we look at the pres- ent list of female claimants for the privilege of suffrage, we will find that the entire number, without a single exception, desire to vote simply because they desire to be voted for. With the ballot in their possession, then, they are reduced that is, all of them who would ever attend the polls to the blatantly vulgar and indiscriminate scramble for office which, of necessity, characterizes republican politics. The inquiry is now pertinent : Are these habits, customs, duties and offices such that woman, for their performance, would take delight in employing the talents and forces X2 S3 8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. already described which distinguish her sex from the male portion of community? Are they in consonance with the inherent modesty and retirement of genuine womanhood ? Do they open a fitting field for the exercise of the pecu- liarly dependent nature with which, as a general rule, God has characterized this portion of the human family ? Are they in keeping with her traditional loveliness and gentle- ness ? Is even the maintenance of her purity, virtue and chastity possible when thrown into such associations and surroundings? Are not, in short, the requirements of suf- frage totally opposed to the nature of the agencies, forces, talents and powers with which alone God has endowed woman? Do not, indeed, its demands call upon her to stultify her nature, tastes, instincts and desires ? Is not, in fact, their performance entirely inconsistent with her physi- cal weakness ? Is not the exercise of the elective franchise a traducer of the natural elements of her creation ? The plea is here interposed that all these impurities of politics will be diminished, if not wholly removed, by the institution of female suffrage. Not at all. Allowing, for argument's sake, that the generality of women would vote were they possessed of the privilege, the race of personal aggrandizement, with its corrupting and enervating tenden- cies, would by no means slacken its pace. On the other hand, it would welcome the new order of things as an ad- ditional agency to accelerate its speed and make easier the pathway of ascent. Wherever representative government exists this objectionable feature of politics will ever cling to its skirts, until the human shall become superhuman, until imperfection shall robe itself with purity. Woman would be powerless to cleanse this Augean stable of its impurity, but would become contaminated with its corrupting influ- ences instead. The attempted institution of woman suffrage, in short, is but a simple effort to reverse the order of natural law. It SUFFRAGE. 539 is a contradiction of God's ordinances, and an erroneous interpretation of His revealed will as seen in the talents and forces which He has attached to womanhood. These ordinances of Omnipotence man is powerless to repeal. They may suffer violence by his indiscretion, but their abrogation he will never compass, for their foundation is beyond his reach. Second. Woman suffrage defeats the purpose of the family, and thereby saps the foundations of civilization. Upon this remaining point very little need be said. Very much of the immediate preceding comment is applicable to this inquiry. The brief discussion of the general proposi- tion will proceed in the inverse order of its statement. The first and last step from barbarism to civilization is laid upon the foundation of social organism. Clanship is the herald of its advent, and the family is the ultimate guardian of both its existence and progress. Ancient and modern history confirms the statement. Wherever the family has existed the badges of civilization have been ever apparent. And wherever its sanctity has been most re- spected the foothold of civilization has been the surest and its advance the most rapid. In republican countries this is particularly the case. Representative government, self- government, is based upon self -fitness. Man cannot govern himself in the absence of either intelligence or moral con- victions. Both of these entities are incidents of the family. It emulates the one and is the natural parent of the other. The position is too clear to admit of doubt or require argu- ment to prove its truthfulness. Its correctness, indeed, is a point of universal concession. With this point conceded, that upon the preservation of the family rests the safety of civilization, the sequitur is not susceptible of honest denial that the destruction of the family is the jeopardy of civiliz- ing tendencies. The destruction of the family, moreover, lies in the thwarting of its purposes ; and this last is one of 54 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. the ends of woman suffrage. A brief view of the purposes of the family, coupled with an implied citation of female attributes, hereinbefore described, will furnish abundant warrant for the assertion that such is the result of woman suffrage. The purposes of the family, although manifold if enume- rated in detail, are reducible to two generic heads namely, the inculcation and preservation of morality, and the aug- mentation of the species. It is unnecessary to paraphrase these generic propositions. The bearings of the first are wellnigh wholly covered by the spirit of the scriptural teaching that the marital clanship of men and women is the primal safeguard of public morality. The direct essence of this marital relation is the confidence of affection, and its natural, imperative condition is the total removal of all the incidents of its sacred duties, privileges and trusts from the gossip and scrutiny of the outer world. Everything which trenches upon this condition of the marital state tends to destroy the confidence which is the primal element of the relation. The security of both is at present surrounded with enough of difficulty. Their inviolacy is almost an impossibility. The marital joinder of one man and one woman for life, sanctioned as it is by God, indorsed by mankind, and alone tolerable for the genuine purposes of society and civilization, is not a union which is or ever can be entirely free from moral and social difficulties and em- barrassments. The differences of humanity will not permit it. Like all living in pairs, like all clanship, its successful continuance is the result of compromise. Passing now to the second generic head of family pur- pose, as already stated, the discussion grasps the keenest trial and most sacred sphere of womanhood maternity. The slightest comment upon the nature and associations of this delicate office is almost an act of violence. We will intrude upon neither the keenness of its sufferings nor the SUFFRAGE. 541 sacredness of its trusts, but let the eloquence of a silence to which its duplex nature of delicacy and suffering most em- phatically entitles it plead for its total divorcement from the exacting and trenchant duties of public life, as well as from the more excusable approach of honest investigation. Marry now, if you will, these purposes of the family to politics through the agency of woman suffrage, and how long will the first withstand the perils of the bridal ? Link, if you will, the public and exposed duties and asso- ciations of the one to the imperative seclusion of the other, and how long will the sacredness and inviolacy of the last form an element of the joinder ? Merge, if you will, the passions, the bickerings, the strifes, the vulgarity and the bitterness of politics with the tender relations of family affection and confidence and the holy toils of maternity, and how long will the institution of the family preserve itself? how long before this corner-stone of civilization will crumble to ashes beneath its unnatural burden? It would wilt, like the tender plant which it is, beneath the scorching heat of the atmosphere of its new associations. History attests the statement, and sets its seal in advance upon the correctness of the prediction. Let the doubter look to the status of almost any family wherein its female head has clamored for the right of suffrage, and read his answer there. There are two collateral points which demand a passing notice before the present chapter shall be brought to a close. They are these : First. Woman suffrage, in view of the ele- ment of sexual passion with which Omnipotence has charac- terized both man and woman, would give representative politics a send-off for a lower plane of corruption than that which it now occupies, if it did not, indeed, work its total annihilation. Second. Women, as a sex, protest against their endowment with the elective franchise. Of these but a single word. 40 542 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. We cannot escape the conclusion of the first statement, either by blank denial or the allegation that it is a libel upon the purity and virtue of humanity. It is not. It is, in one sense, a lamentable truth. Granting the ascend- ency of purity and virtue in general, the stubborn fact still stares us in the face that in all planes of social organism this element of sexual passion, to some extent, oversteps the limits of both moral and human laws. Politics and politicians are no exception to the rule, and with the insti- tution of woman suffrage this element of sexual passion would generate the most formidable engine of bribery which has ever made an impress upon our political annals. Let the skeptic reader spend a winter in Washington and note the habits and success of women-lobbyists if he wishes his doubts removed. Upon the last collateral point above stated the bare assertion needs no support. In all the years in which the advocates of woman suffrage have urged their claims the great majority of women have indignantly denied the forced inference that they lent their endorsement to the scheme. They have not and do not, and the opposition is more pro- nounced and extended to-day than when the theory first invited public sanction. The scheme must fail. It rests upon a foundation insecure. It traduces the order of Nature and contradicts the law of God. MINORITY REPRESENTATION. 543 CHAPTER III. MINORITY REPRESENTA TION. The Question as Connected with Republicanism The Same in Refer- ence to the Will of the Majority Minority Representation Defined The Legitimate Scope of Suffrage in this Connection How Ma- jority Representation works Disfranchisement The Primal Claim of Minority Representation The Same as seen in Legislation Majority Representation Proscribes Intellect Also Fosters Class Legislation How Minority Representation would obviate these Difficulties The Means of its Adoption Cumulative Voting Con- sidered Thomas Hare's System the Best ever Devised The Same Simple, Effectual and Impartial Fully explained. AS both the motor-power and means of defence for republican forms of government rest with the suf- frages of the people, the purest republicanism is that in which a representation of the entire people is most per- fectly secured. The question of suffrage in the abstract is one thing, but the regulation of suffrage, so that its exercise shall in all cases affect the construction and operation of gov- ernmental machinery, is quite another. From the earliest periods of democracy and republicanism the application of suffragan power to the direct purposes of government has, for the most part, been made with respect to the principle that the will of the majority should be not only supreme, but exclusive. The principle is partially right and partly wrong. Generally speaking, in so far as it requires that the will of the majority should be supreme, the doctrine is eminently sound and wholesome, but in respect to the ele- ment of exclusiveness it is wholly untenable. The exact limitations of its supremacy will fully appear in the follow- ing remarks, which will have to do with the subject natu- rally suggested by these preliminary statements namely, Minority Representation. 544 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Minority representation finds an effegtual expounder as to its abstract meaning in the term itself. For this purpose it is its own herald and teacher. As the phrase indicates, it means a representation in governmental polity of that portion of the voting population which the system of majority rule excludes therefrom. It aims to secure the representation of all, instead of the major portion. It seeks to have the opinions of the entire voting class tell upon the construction and operation of governmental machinery, instead of leaving its formation and management in the hands of a numerical majority. It wars, in short, against the exclusiveness of majority rule. These statements are somewhat close in their character, but a presentation of the claims of minority representation in detail will render both their import and relevancy clearly apparent. The institution of suffrage contemplates self-government ; and the scheme, to be consistent and effectual, should establish a government of all by all. Democracies and republics have ever challenged the acquaintance of man- kind as the only prominent agencies which have either sought or attained that end. They have both, indeed, striven in that direction, but both likewise have failed of reaching the desired goal. Pure democratic rule, as ex- plained in the next preceding chapter, which provides for no compromise of individual opinion, which requires no yielding on the part of the few in favor of the many, works a confusion and disorder which is not a mere semblance of anarchy: it is anarchy itself. As a cure for demo- cratic chaos, without working the overthrow of self-govern- ment and individual liberty, republicanism invited Chris- tendom to its adoption. Its advertised cure consisted in the prescription of a majority rule, both supreme and exclu- sive. It is not a cure. It proceeded one step too far. Its exclusiveness robs it of completeness. It is an improve- ment upon the institution which it supplanted, but although MINORITY REPRESENTATION. 545 divorced from the chaotic evil of its predecessor, it is wedded to one but a single remove therefrom disfran- chisement. There is no escape from the conclusion. This is one of the ends of our present republicanism. It virtually and practically, although not by force of law, disfranchises every voter who differs from the major portion of his fellows. Neither his voice nor his vote has an influence in the work of constructing and operating the machinery of govern- ment. It seems almost an anomaly in the history of civilization that the free countries of Great Britain and the United States should have progressed, one for a space of five hundred years, and the other for a century, without removing this defect in their constitutional polities. Minor- ity representation has been slightly introduced in England, it is true, and the State of Illinois has within a year or two laudably initiated the experiment; but the reform would have been in perfect keeping with the civilization of at least fifty years ago. Instead of that, we find it still court- ing acceptance from the great majority of the people of both countries. The primal claim of minority representation is thus seen in this prime defect of majority rule. Let this negative line of inquiry be still farther pursued, and therein look respectively for minor claims in minor defects. For this purpose let the workings of legislation in pur- suance of a strict majority rule be submitted, in one par- ticular, to a brief examination. Let it be supposed, as is frequently the case, that a legislative body is composed of members who owe their election to the will of a bare majority of the voting masses. With this fact in view, let the statement receive a moment's reflection that this legis- lative body, which represents the bare majority of the rating masses, will not adopt a single enactment, will not frame a single law, by a unanimous vote. Nay more, it will very 46 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. rarely do it by a two-thirds vote. Both history and the impossibility of perfectly reconciling the differences of individual opinion furnish an abundant warrant for the assertion. The result is, that in legislative bodies composed of members elected by a bare majority of the voting masses nine-tenths of all the legislation which such a body adopts although perfectly valid and legal by virtue of majority repre- sentation is in direct violation of the will of the majority of the voting masses. Does the statement require paraphrasing to make it clear ? If so, as follows : The legislative body is chosen by a bare majority of those who exercise the elective franchise. Its laws, to be the representatives of the will of the majority of the entire voting population, must become such by the assent of very nearly the entire body. Instead of this, they receive the sanction, upon an average, of only a little more than one-half of its members its laws are framed by a mere majority of the men whose authority to so act is derived from a bare majority of the entire voting popu- lation which is legislation by a minority of a suffragan people. The designation of such government by the name republicanism is an abuse of terms. It does not array itself in robes of that character. It is the raiment of despotic power. Again, the principle of strict majority representation pre- cludes the best intellect of a country from participating in its government not by force of law, but by virtue of attendant circumstances which are equally compulsory. The general tendencies of republican politics under a regime of majority representation are too well known to require extended comment. It is a fact as notorious as it is lamentable that in the scramble for office, for which a strict majority rule constantly offers a premium, the lower orders of men, for the most part, alone participate. Intel- lect and cultured thought instinctively keep aloof from the disgusting struggle. Anticipating here the method of MINORITY REPRESENTATION. 547 minority representation hereinafter advocated, but taking it upon trust that it would secure a representation of minor- ities in every field of governmental action, the proposition is ventured that the representatives of these minorities would be taken from the strongest and best minds which a people might possess. Such a course, indeed, would be aosolutely compulsory. As the minority would have the fewest repre- sentatives, and as, moreover, in pursuance of the plan hereinafter urged, such representatives might be chosen from candidates irrespective of locality, who would be, in any section, advanced for the suffrages of the people, the numerical majority, in the first instance, could only be neutralized, and the choice of home representatives, in the second instance, alone be secured, by putting the ablest men of the country in nomination. A highly beneficial though indirect effect of the foregoing would be to raise the standard of the representatives of the majority. Ability can only be matched by ability. Numer- ical strength is not its peer ; and the only way in which, intellectually speaking, a weak majority could withstand the encroachments and exposures of a strong minority would be to choose their representatives from a higher grade of their population. This is by no means naked and unproductive or impractical theory. It is mere loyalty to natural law, a simple response to the order of cause and effect. The bids of the political hucksters of a majority for votes would soon cease to be accepted with the brain of a cultured minority cutting its way to the seat of a gov- ernment's directory. Still further, a strict majority rule fosters class legislation. This is one of the most direct and natural tendencies of the system. It results in the formation of legislative bodies which are composed exclusively of the representatives of a faction, and by virtue of a mongrel species of political loy- alty their legislation is shaped for the accomplishment of the 54 8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. purposes of such exclusive class. Such legislation bears the impress of the prime evil of an aristocratic form of govern- ment legislation by the few without its redeeming charac- teristic, that the laws emanating from the will of the minority are intended for the benefit of all ; for under a strict ma- jority rule the primal and sole aim of legislation is to advance the interests of the party which placed the law- maker in power. Viewing the matter in the abstract, the precise limits of minority representation are easily appreciable. To measure these limits by a single proposition, the statement is vouch- safed as one entirely adequate, that minority representation does not dispute the ultimate supremacy of majority rule, but seeks to defeat its exclusiveness. In other words, in all departments of governmental action the will of the ma- jority must determine the ultimate result, but the opinion of the minority should be allowed full force in influencing and shaping the intermediate steps by which such ultimate result may be reached. It is quite unnecessary to advance further argument in defence of the institution. Its justice is too apparent and the tenability of its claims too indisputable to require an extended assault upon its opponents. In fact, compara- tively speaking, it has no opponents. The forces arrayed against it are, for the most part, entirely passive. They withhold their sanction for the simple reason that they have not acquainted themselves with its character. Resting the defence of the system in general at this point of the discussion, the particular method in which the same shall be put in practice will now be briefly examined. In respect to this various expedients have been suggested, which may be properly classed under the generic term of cumulative voting. These schemes have assumed one or the other of the following forms namely : that certain constituencies should be allotted a certain number of repre- MINORITY REPRESENTATION. 549 sentatives, and that each elector should be allowed to vote for a major portion of the list; the same allotment, with the provision that each elector should cast his ballot for only one candidate ; and again, the same allotment, allowing each elector to cast all the votes to which the same entitled him upon any one of the candidates in nomination. These are but very imperfect plans, and do not, with any great degree of certainty or satisfaction, even approximate to the removal of the evils of a strict system of majority repre- sentation. John Stuart Mill appropriately styles them "makeshifts." It seems to have been left to Thomas Hare, an English economist, to devise a scheme which is at the same time both simple and effectual. For a full examination of Mr. Hare's system the curious are referred to his work entitled "Treatise on the Election of Representatives." So far as the purposes of American politics are concerned, the following analysis of his scheme will prove sufficient for the general reader. Its first feature is an apportionment of representatives upon a basis of ordinary average namely : the number of voters who would be entitled to a representative in any legislative body would be ascertained by dividing the ag- gregate number of the voting population by the number of seats in such body. In respect \Q the manner of balloting, voters would be required to cast their votes in the locality where they resided, but would be permitted to give them for any candidate in nomination for a seat in the legislative body, whether residing in the same place with the voter or in any portion of the country, and any candidate who should receive a sufficient number of votes, as indicated by the average above described, would be considered duly elected, without respect to the locality of the voters by whose suffrage the choice would be made. The next provision of the scheme allows a voter to place upon his ballot the names of other candidates in 550 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. addition to the one whom he first prefers, and the order in which the names shall appear shall be considered the order of his preference. The ballot ultimately would be counted only in support of one candidate, but if the one first pre- ferred should fail of an election, the vote might be counted in favor of any other candidate whose name might appear upon the voting paper, whose election could be, in such manner, secured. To obviate a difficulty which might arise at this stage of the proceeding, a failure in obtaining a full number of members for the legislative body by reason of popular can- didates absorbing all the votes, Mr. Hare provides that no more ballots should be counted in favor of any one candi- date than might be necessary to secure his election in pur- suance of the average apportionment above described. The remainder should be counted in favor of other candi- dates whose names might appear upon the voting papers, whose choice could be effected by such appropriation and in the order of preference as before stated. There are many minor provisions connected with the scheme for the regulation of details, ministerial and not discretionary, which are entirely simple in their character and do not here require mention. The foregoing contains the sub- stance of the entire plan in its most important particulars. Words of commendation are quite unnecessary in favor of the elective innovation which Mr. Hare proposes. It relieves an elector from the unpleasant task of voting for an objectionable candidate which his locality may have placed in nomination ; prevents a consequent waste of votes from mere passivity ; gives the minority, by virtue of the privilege of concentrating its votes upon any candidate, whether local or otherwise, and in the order of preference, a fair and equal representation ; defeats local and class leg- islation ; makes merit the prime requisite of both majority and minority candidates, and thereby vetoes the power of moneyed and other illegal and improper agencies over the THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. 551 deliberations of legislative bodies. Its effectiveness, more- over, is only equaled by its simplicity. Its application to the republican politics of the United States is entirely feasible and free from difficulty. It would not require the slightest modification for the purposes of electing the members of our national House of Represen- tatives, both branches of our State legislatures, and the minor organizations of city, town and village administra- tion. The choice of our national Senators also, although effected by the action of members of our State legislatures, might be placed, for the most part, under the government of this most wholesome institution. The adoption of minority representation, indeed, must eventually be recorded upon the annals of the American republic. Our politics will never be entirely purified, our governmental polity will never be able to show a valid claim to the title of republicanism, until this salutary sys- tem shall have become incorporated into the organic law of the nation. CHAPTER IV. THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. State Rights vs. National Authority The Difficulty attending the Settlement of the Possession of Power A Task of Civilization The Claim for Centralization based on certain Alleged Necessities How Centralization concerns the United States The Nature and Origin of the General Government The Jeflfersonian Theory of State Rights considered Secession refuted The Proper Line of Division between Slate and National Authority The Constitution has Defined it by Conferring certain Joint and Exclusive Powers These Powers Enumerated The Canons by which they are Desig- nated Joint and Exclusive The Instances in which the General Government has Clashed with State Authority The Instances in which it has in this manner Violated the Constitution Mostly Con- 552 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. fined to the Present Administration -Instances in this connection Numerous The Present Administration Arraigned Its Faults Stated in Detail Lawlessness its Prime Defect The Chief Exe- cutive, Congress and the Departments all Involved Centralization not Required except in respect to Suffrage Why Required here The Evils it would Abolish and Prevent Ignorance the Chief Agency which essays Federal Usurpation The same a Cumulative Fault of the Present Administration Conclusion Bismarck's Edict of Law The Present Need of the American People seen in Present Abuses of Official Trust Absolutism of some sort needed in Every Government This in the United States is the Inviolability of its Organic and Municipal Law The Sole Kings of the People The Immediate Antecedents of the American People give a Reason for Present Official Lawlessness The Necessary Rule for Official Con- duct. THIS inquiry proposes to deal with the subject of State Rights vs. National Authority. There are certain questions of governmental polity which, from their peculiar nature, will never receive the seal of even temporary settlement until the highest order of civili- zation shall have laid its hand upon every member of the human brotherhood that shall be allowed a voice in the direction of public affairs. Of these questions there are none more prominent than the one which stands at the head of the present chapter. In attempts to solve the prob- lem, philosophic Greece, emerging from Eastern obscurity, strode to the foreground of the world's vista, and there, with her own hand, marked out her grave ; Rome, the acknowledged lawgiver of the civilized world, impaled herself upon the sceptre which her own skill had wrought ; modern Gaul is constantly vacillating between life and death ; Germany, the queen of cultured thought, still struggles in the morass of doubt; Britain, with all its wisdom, yet seeks the end ; the rest of Europe, almost without method, is essaying to penetrate the cloud ; and the American republic, with the record of eighteen hundred years shedding light upon its pathway, has but THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. 553 just ceased to irrigate its fields with blood, and the ques- tion of the centralization of power constitutes one of the prime issues which still defeats a genuine union of its com- ponent States. The reason is plainly manifest The cause of the diffi- culty lies squarely upon the surface. Nations are but con- cretions of individuals, and the government of the former emanates from the combined will of all or a portion of the latter. Power is the most seductive agency with which a common humanity can be brought in contact. Its posses- sion is the grand goal of mankind, and its concession is the last prerogative with which man will part. Such conces- sion is ever the result of compromise, and the latter is effected only in pursuance of the belief that the real good of all will be thereby advanced. In this connection, more- over, the fact crowds itself to the foreground that the limit of this concession of power by means of compromise is exactly commensurate with the education, the civilization, of the people from whom it is sought. The truth of the statement is founded upon the working of natural law. The prime attribute of the brute (let it not be confounded with firmness) is stubbornness. "I will" is its logic, and "I will not" is its law. The brute is but the lower order of the savage j the latter is but the lowest type of man ; and the primal condition of this "reasoning animal" is ignorance. It is impossible for man, in this condition of his being, to appreciate the fact that liberty is but a rela- tive term that, in the language of the duke of Argyll, it is only freedom 1 from compulsion. He fails to see how the exchange of al>solute for relative freedom, the sacrifice of brute force for digested law, the concession of brute power by means of compromise, can benefit both the masses and himself. This is a task of civilization. Approaching nearer to the direct consideration of the main topic, the centralization of power, in view of the 4T Y 554 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. abstract truths above stated, is based upon certain alleged necessities. These necessities are the singleness and cer- tainty of the governing power, the prevention of confusion, and the consequent advancement of the general good. These necessities, moreover, are both perfectly plausible and defensible. A detailed examination of the same will not be made in this connection. Their appropriate limits will sufficiently appear in the following comment, and the same will refer exclusively to the bearings of the main topic upon the status of the American republic. In the United States this question of the centralization of power assumes the form of an alleged warfare of the Gene- ral Government upon the dogma of State rights ; and if a leaf from history was needed to corroborate the assertions of the opening paragraphs of this chapter, the virulence with which this unremitting contest has been here con- ducted would amply supply the blank. The concession of power ! How the bare statement arouses the most dormant element of human nature ! It was the chief point of con- tention in the Constitutional Convention ; its refutation has been the slogan of a great and enduring political organization ; its dispute enveloped us in the recent gigan- tic rebellion ; and the abuse of its prerogatives in this direc- tion by the Administration now in power has done more to alienate the North and South than all the ordinances of secession ever adopted, and constitutes the chief lever which will oust the present rulers of the nation from the places of their dishonored trust. In a prior chapter of this treatise occasion was had to state the nature of the national Government, the origin of its creation and the source from whence it derives its power. In reference to the first, suffice it here to say that the Gen- eral Government is not a compact, a league, of the States, but a distinct creation of the people in their collective capacity, as distinguished from one which emanates from THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. 555 the action of the corporate States ; in respect to the sec- ond, its origin dates from the evils of the old Confedera- tion, which was a mere compact of the States, instead of a government of the people ; and as to the third, the source of its power is identical with the agency which gave it life. The office of the present comment is to define the limits within which this power shall be held exclusive and su- preme. The old Jeffersonian theory of State rights the essence of which, not to descend into particulars, consisted in the claim that the General Government was a league of the States, and not the work of the people, and that, conse- quently, the mere will, caprice or convenience of any one of the States measured alike both the extent of its loyalty to, and the period of its connection with, the general Union this discussion unqualifiedly denies, and bases its position upon the arguments adduced in the prior chapter above referred to. The motives which induced the formation of our Federal fabric conclusively refute the claim. The fact that under the old Confederation the States were vested with the precise powers which are here denied alone gave birth to the manifold evils from which the Constitutional Convention sought release, and it severed the chains of confederate slavery by the opening words of the immortal preamble to our organic code "We, the People." The exigencies of the time demanded it, but the necessities of the present, in this respect, far outstrip the requirements of the past. They have waxed with every year that has been added to the life of the republic. At the adoption of the Constitution thirteen States, nestling within contiguous limits upon the Atlantic seaboard, designated the length and breadth of our national domain. At the present mo- ment the number of States is nearly trebled ; the aggregate area in a far greater ratio augmented ; the extent of our population stands as thirteen to one ; the waters of the two 55$ THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. oceans wash our eastern and western frontiers, and natural law in due time will force British America and the islands of the Gulf to shelter themselves beneath the folds of our national standard. If 1789 required the banishment of the Confederation, it would be idle folly for 1872 to permit its' release from exile. If the public weal at that time demanded that the will of "the People" should be the paramount law, much more is its continued supremacy now required. The main line of division between State and national authority is inferentially disclosed by the preceding com- ment, and resolves itself into the following proposition, which, although it does not presume to cover every exigency which may or might arise, approximates very nearly to an inflexible rule namely, wherever the peace, safety and prosperity of the general Union, and the preservation of a republican form of government in any one or all of the States, are at stake, the sway of the General Government should be both exclusive and supreme : in all other instances the fiat of the States should be the paramount law. This seems to be the ruling principle which governed the framers of the Constitution, and this, moreover, is the only end which can be legitimately reached by an impartial inter- pretation of the letter or construction of the spirit of our organic law. Just exactly what condition of things may or might involve the peace, safety and prosperity of the general Union, and the preservation of a republican form of gov- ernment in the several States, may, of course, be considered a debatable point. The Constitution, however, has pre- sumed, to place these questions within appropriate limits, and its dictum, whether purely arbitrary or founded upon reason, must be regarded altogether inviolate. In respect to the last, however, it will be remembered that in the examination of the subjects of Force Legislation and Re- THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. $$? construction the question as to what constitutes a republican form of government was shown to be a political and not a judicial one, and that the tribunal which alone has juris- diction of the matter is made up of the chief executive and the national legislature. The prescribed limits of Federal prerogative above re- ferred to are found in the express and implied powers which the Constitution has conferred upon the General Government. It would be both inexpedient and irrelevant, at this initiatory stage of the discussion, to engage in a separate examination of these several powers in respect to their defensibility. Their enumeration must here suffice : whether the exigencies of the time demand their curtail- ment or extension will be considered farther on. The inquiry which here properly presses itself upon our atten- tion is of a different nature, as will be seen by the comment which immediately succeeds the following enumeration. In cases where these powers are exclusively vested in national authority the same will be so stated in the several definitions. In the absence of such statement it may be inferred that the power is vested in both the States and General Government, remembering also that in the exer- cise of these joint powers the action of the latter has pre- cedence. POWERS VESTED BY THE CONSTITUTION IN THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT. 1. The right to prescribe rules in respect to the time, place and manner of choosing national Representatives, and the time and manner of choosing national Senators. 2. The right to lay and collect taxes and excises ; direct taxes to be laid upon a basis of the representative popu- lation all others with uniformity. 3. The exclusive right to lay and collect duties and 47 5 $8 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. imposts, except those necessary to enforce the inspection laws of the several States. 4. The exclusive right to borrow money on the credit of the United States. 5. The exclusive right to regulate commerce with for- eign nations, and among the several States and with the Indian tribes. 6. The exclusive right to legislate in respect to naturali- zation and a uniform system of bankruptcy. 7. The exclusive right to coin money; establish regu- lations therefor, and to fix the standard of weights and measures. 8. The exclusive right to establish post-offices and post- roads. 9. The exclusive right to grant patents and copyrights. 10. The exclusive right to establish United States courts. 11. The exclusive right to legislate in respect to piracies and felonies on the high seas and breaches of the law of nations. 12. The exclusive right to declare and prosecute war, to raise and support armies and navies, to make rules for their regulation, and to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union and suppress insurrections therein. 13. The right to repel invasions, and, upon the appli- cation of their legislatures or governors, to protect the States against domestic violence. 14. The right to organize, arm and discipline the militia. 15. The exclusive right, in every respect, to exercise ex- clusive control over the national capital, forts, magazines, arsenals and dockyards. 1 6. The right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in cases of rebellion or invasion. 17. The exclusive right to make treaties, alliances and confederations; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; issue THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. 559 bills of credit (that is, paper money: see definition of in chapter on Money and Currency), and to make other tokens than gold and silver a legal tender for payment of debts. 1 8. The right to determine the time for choosing the electors of President and Vice-President, and the exclusive right to determine the day on which the said electors shall cast their votes. 19. The exclusive right to appoint the officers, both civil and military, of the United States. 20. The exclusive right to declare the punishment for treason. 21. The right to prescribe the manner in which the acts, records and judicial proceedings of any one State shall be proved in any other State, and the effect thereof. 22. The exclusive right to dispose of and make rules respecting United States property and territory. 23. The right to preserve in every State a republican form of government. 24. The right to propose amendments to the Con- stitution. 25. The exclusive right to legislate for the exercise and enforcement of the aforesaid exclusive powers. 26. And the right to provide for the general welfare. The powers conferred upon the General Government in respect to hearing and determining by its legal tribunals questions of a judicial nature have not been enumerated, for the reasons that such a statement would not be particu- larly pertinent to the present treatise, and that the original grants by the Constitution in this direction have been materially modified, in respect to their exclusive character, by subsequent Federal legislation, in accordance with authority granted by our organic law. The canons by which these powers have been designated as exclusive and joint are the ones laid down by Alexander 560 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Hamilton namely: i. All powers of the General Govern- ment are exclusive when the Constitution has conferred them with express words of exclusion. 2. When the Con- stitution has conferred powers upon the General Govern- ment, even without express words of exclusion, and for- bidden the States to exercise the same, they shall be deemed exclusive in the national authority. 3. Powers conferred upon the General Government without express words of exclusion, but which are of a nature that forbids a joint exercise thereof by both the States and the national author- ity, shall be deemed exclusive in the hands of the latter. These last are illustrated by the matter of naturalization. The action of our courts has given to these canons of Mr. Hamilton the sanction of law. The limits of this treatise forbid a detailed examination of the exact scope of each of these powers, but an inquiry of a general nature crowds its way to the foreground in this connection, which demands disposal. It is this : Granting that the Constitution has conferred only such powers upon the General Government as are legitimately suggested by the fundamental principle alleged to have governed its framers, as stated in the outset, may not and does not the national authority, by virtue of its superior might, overstep the limits assigned to it by our organic law ? A reply to this interrogatory is now proposed, and will be made by reviewing the principal points which have been and are at issue, under the powers above stated, in the question of State Rights vs. National Authority, accompanied by a statement of what seems to be the better opinion in respect to the rightfulness of the opposing claims. We preface the review above announced with a reiteration of our unqualified denial of the dogma of State rights which declared the national Union a compact of the several States, with the consequent right resulting to any one of them to withdraw from such compact at pleasure, to dissolve the THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. 56 1 Union in short, to secede. The Union, legally speaking, is indissoluble. The iron hand of war is the only agency which can tear it asunder. The parties to the general Union the People know no peaceful divorcement from their bridal. It is impossible. Separation means revolu- tion. The adoption of the Constitution by the people was an irrevocable act. The organic code can be amended, but the power of amendment does not go to the extent of strip- ping it of its republican robes. We will not repeat the argu- ment which was made at length upon this point in our chapter upon the Constitutional Amendments, but the con- clusion is inevitable the General Government can suffer disintegration or death by violence alone. Referring now to the points at issue under the powers above named, a clash has occurred between the opposing forces, in respect to the one first noted, upon the question of elections. We hazard the statement that the extreme limit of national prerogative in this direction consists in the right of regulating the time, place and manner of choosing members of the House of Representatives, and the time and manner of choosing national Senators. The proposition requires no elucidation. Over both points the General Government has exclusive control, except that it is power- less to change the place for choosing members of the national Senate. The present Administration and its legislators, however, have clearly violated these plain provisions. The act of February 28, 1871, still in force, authorizes officials of the General Government, appointed for the purpose, in cities numbering twenty thousand people and over, to "personally scrutinize, count and canvass each and erery ballot,' 1 whether^pr local or national offices; authorizes United States marshals to appoint deputies without number to assist in this work ; authorizes these marshals to arrest any voter at the polls without process or warrant ; attaches a penalty to the refusal of every citizen to assist such Y 2 $62 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. marshals, when called on, of imprisonment for two years and a fine of three thousand dollars ; and places, in short, all local elections in cities numbering twenty thousand people and over, whenever officials of the General Govern- ment are to be chosen, entirely under national authority and supervision. The direct end of this statute is to enable a ruling admin- istration to re-elect itself, and the supporters of the one now in power, with the advice and sanction of the chief execu- tive, not only stoutly resisted its repeal, but attempted to extend its operation over the entire country for the express purpose above stated, and that by a proceeding, to say the least, extremely irregular, if not fraudulent. A rule of the Senate forbids the tacking of an amendment to any measure unless strictly germane to the subject of the main bill. The executive party lacked the effrontery to offer the measure above noted as a distinct bill, and proposed it as an amend- ment to a general appropriation bill, thinking that, rather than leave the Administration without means for carrying on the government, the amendment would be adopted and the bill passed. The merest tyro in legislation sees at once that the proposed amendment was not germane to the main bill. Mr. Colfax could not be trusted to rule it germane, but Senator Anthony took the chair, and, with an appreciation truly wonderful and nicely subtle, ruled that a provision placing the local elections of the entire country under national supervision and control was germane to a bill appropriating means for keeping in motion the wheels of government. Despite the manly protests of such men as Lyman Trumbull, Carl Schurz and Charles Sumner, the amendment was adopted by the Senate, but when it reached the House it met with the ignoble defeat which its ques- tionable character richly deserved. A collision has also occurred between the opposing forces under the second power noted in the list, in respect THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. $63 to the right of the General Government to lay and collect an excise-tax. The contest assumed the shape of open insur- rection in Pennsylvania in 1794, against the whisky-tax of that year, and was promptly and legally suppressed. The national authority in the premises is clearly undoubted, and extended comment is unnecessary. Under the third power above stated trouble has also arisen between the respective forces namely, the rebellion of South Carolina, during Andrew Jackson's administra- tion, against the tariff of that period. The authority of the General Government to impose imposts is not only unimpeachable, but also exclusive, except in the trifling exception mentioned in the statement of the power. By an unwarranted and illegal construction of the Four- teenth amendment the present Administration and its law- makers have unhesitatingly violated the thirteenth and twenty-third powers in the above enumeration by the pas- sage and execution of the measure commonly known as the " Ku-klux act." We will not repeat our examination of this abortive scheme of legislation. It is discussed at length in our chapter upon Force Legislation, to which reference may be had if desired. Suffice it here to say that it is wholly illegal and indefensible. The present Administration and its lawmakers, again, have openly transgressed the sixteenth power above enu- merated by the habeas corpus provision of the so-called Ku-klux act. We refer again to our chapter on Force Legislation for corroboration of the assertion. The foregoing statement of facts defines the principal limits of both the past and the present battle-ground upon which the conflict of State Rights vs. National Authority has been and is still conducted. The interrogatory put at the close of the above enumeration of powers, however, is not yet fully answered. It calls for a statement not only of the cases in which the General Government has clashed with 564 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. the States in reference to the exercise of constitutional war- rant, but also the instances, if any, in which the national authority has stepped entirely outside of the Constitution instances in which it cannot even allegedly summon the powers conferred by that instrument to sanction its conduct and clothe it with legal warrant. This portion of the reply will now be offered, and will refer, with a single exception, to the action of the present Administration alone, for the facts of history confine it within these narrow boundaries. The exception above noted relates to the purchase of Louisiana by the administration of Thomas Jefferson. It was an undoubted violation of the Constitution, and the movers of the scheme, even, never presumed to place it within the limit of constitutional sanction. Mr. Jefferson declared it to be an act entirely beyond the reach of con- stitutional authority, and advised an amendment to our organic law which should be retrospective in its effect and antedate in its operation the time of purchase. The end obtained, however, was one of such great importance to the American people the prevention of territorial acquisi- tion by Napoleon in the South-west, and the opening of an unrestricted water-passage from the Lakes to the Gulf by means of the control of the Mississippi that the act was never questioned by the public. The instances in which the present Administration is powerless to draw the mantle of the Constitution around its policy and line of action are many and exceedingly grave. Congress, by the Constitution, can alone declare war. The President has not only subverted the war-powers of Government, but disregarded the plainest principles of international law, by sending one squadron of men-of-war to the coast of Santo Domingo with instructions to the com- manding officer to sustain Baez, an admitted usurper, in power upon this portion of the island, while he (the Presi- dent) should treat with him (Baez) for its purchase, and THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. 565 another squadron, at the same time, to the harbor of Port- au-Prince, with a message to the chief executive of Hayti that if he interfered with the pending negotiations above mentioned, the guns of the American fleet would open upon the Haytian ships. The War Office of the present Administration has followed the example of its chief offered indignity to the German Government, laughed at the Code Internationale, and vio- lated a plain statute of the United States, which authorized the disposal of arms unfit for service, by the sale of effective weapons and ammunition manufactured for the occasion to the now defeated party in the late Franco-Prussian conflict. The Navy Department has also acted its role in this abuse of the administration of government by the illegal payment of nearly one hundred thousand dollars to what are known as the Secor claimants, in the teeth of a prior record of Congress which had directed that no further action be taken in the premises. The office of Finance, moreover, has played its part in the drama of official law-breaking by an open violation of a United States statute, as seen in its "Syndicate" opera- tions, the illegality of which is fully disclosed in the chap- ter upon the Public Debt of the United States. The Post-Office Department has also ranged itself in line with its compeers by allowing a stale (Chorpenning) claim of 440,000, after the same had met with repeated rejection for a period of fourteen years on account of its undoubted illegality ; and this in direct violation of the will of Congress. The President, again, in addition to his tampering with the war-powers of Government, has sported with its judicial prerogatives by sending a United States judge to Utah for the purpose of ousting the jurisdiction of the Territorial courts over the Mormon residents; and the judicial action of his messenger has been pronounced unconstitutional by both his Attorney-General and the Supreme Court. 48 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. But the end is not yet. The chief executive has been charged and the charge is fully proved with making loyalty to his personal advancement the price of admission to the civil service of the nation ; with prostituting the busi- ness of a custom-house which collects more than one-half of the duties of the entire country to the purpose of con- trolling the political action of the State of New York in his favor ; and with mulcting the merchants of the metropolis of the nation out of from fifty thousand to one hundred thou- sand dollars per annum, by changing the custody of im- ported goods from the stores of the various steamship lines to those of pet proteges of his own, who have made illegal and excessive charges for their services in the sum above named. Official supporters of the President, moreover, have laid their hands upon one of the chief bulwarks of the people's liberties in their subversion of the freedom of the press. The St. Louis Democrat furnishes an illustration of the manner in which a journal once hostile to a certain feature of the policy of the Administration has been numbered among its warmest adherents by the exercise of a supposed stock-jobbing operation conducted by presidential parasites. Add to all this the instances of interference with State prerogatives already cited namely, an election law uncon- stitutional, an unwarranted suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, coupled with a scheme of force legislation derogatory of our organic code and we have a record of abuse of official trust which the emperor of Germany, or even the king of Spain, would not dare to imitate, except with the expectation of seeing his throne crumble to atoms and his crown in the possession of an infuriated populace. The question which now presents itself is the defensibility of the powers conferred by the Constitution upon the Gen- eral Government. Do they require either curtailment or THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. 567 extension? or are they already adequate for the mutual advancement of both the States and the republic? The latter, it must be confessed, with one exception, is seem- ingly the better opinion.' Our present enormous territorial area, coupled with its prospective enlargement, furnishes the chief argument of the theorists who advocate the neces- sity of "a strong government," and the consequent central- ization of power in the hands of national authority. But the alleged necessities advanced by the argument, save in one instance, are already provided for. With the old dogma of State rights denied by the arbitrament of the sword, as well as by judicial authority, which signified, in plain par- lance, secession with this theory buried in a grave from which there shall be no resurrection supplemented by the exclusive powers in the possession of the General Govern- ment of declaring and waging war, of laying and collecting imposts, of regulating commerce, of directing the character of our circulating medium, and of prescribing rules for the regulation of United States territory, and the joint power of preserving a republican form of government in the several States, centralization is not demanded by the exigencies of the period, except, as already stated, in one single particu- lar suffrage. In this respect this discussion most emphatically urges a policy of centralization. It urges it because it is needed to perpetuate the fundamental principle which governed the framers of the Constitution that the General Government should be possessed of sufficient power to guard the peace, safety and prosperity of the general Union ; because it is needed to prevent just such subversion of law as the present Administration has put upon record. The exact point urged is this that suffrage should be a national institution, that the qualifications for voters should be uniform in every instance, and that the same should be prescribed by national authority. The critical mind will 568 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. doubtless in this connection interpose the objection that the argument, coupled with the alleged end it is designed to secure as above stated, is suicidal that the control of suffrage by the General Government would tend to augment instead of restrict the usurpation of national authority. The position is only seemingly sound. The question is one of a very different nature from those which have thus far given rise to a conflict between State and national authority. The control of suffrage by the General Government means its supervision by the combined agencies of the national legislature and chief executive. A moment's reflection will suffice to convince the most skeptical that the only motor- power which would govern the action of these respective agencies would be a desire to place the institution upon the most sure, equitable and efficient foundation. Our history shows conclusively that the chief, if not the only, instances in which a political party has been able to marshal the forces of the legislative and executive branches of the Gen- eral Government in support of purely party aims have been those in which State prerogatives of a permanent nature have failed to be involved. Upon the hypothesis that suffrage is a national institu- tion, it is clearly apparent that the only conceivable man- ner in which a party in power could make use of it as a lever for the attainment of its own peculiar ends would be by a provision which, either directly or indirectly, would operate to restrict the privilege of voting among the mem- bers of opposing organizations to disfranchise its oppo- nents. That any political organization would have the effrontery to hazard the promulgation of such a policy is hardly a supposable case. Loyalty to party policy would alone forbid it, for the iniquity of the scheme would not only insure it an ultimate burial, but hasten the official dethronement of its originators. There are other and more potent agencies, however, THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. 569 which would preclude the prosecution of such unwarrant- able means. The exercise of the elective franchise consti- tutes not only the most important but the most lasting of any of the prerogatives which attach to State authority. It is, so to speak, the first, last and only means by which a State can make its influence felt in shaping the policy and destiny of the republic. The several ways in which the party in power could be supposed to mould the institution of suffrage for the advancement of its own peculiar purposes are only four in number namely, the direct disfranchise- ment of its opponents, a qualification in respect to prop- erty, a qualification in respect to acquiring citizenship, and a qualification in respect to intelligence. The first no party would ever dare attempt ; the last three immediately summon into offensive action the dearest interests of the several States, and their respective members in the national legislature, in consideration of such issues, would not hesi- tate for a moment between the alternative of choosing the advancement of a national party and the defence and pro- motion of their local interests. Self-aggrandizement, loy- alty to constituents and a train of collateral forces would militate against their ranging themselves with the central- izing and usurping element. The party shibboleth would here be robbed of both its charm and power. There is, moreover, another aspect to the question. The prior comment has proceeded upon the idea that with suffrage once made a national institution, its future regula- tion would be in pursuance of national legislation. The seeming objections above enumerated, however (and this discussion claims they are only such), might be effectually disposed of by a prescription in our organic code that the institution, although national, should never suffer change except by an amendment to our Federal charter. In the outset of this immediate discussion the prevention of Federal usurpation was urged as one of the reasons for 48* 570 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. the institution of this feature of centralization. The scope of the argument is simply this. It is probably useless to hope perhaps the wish would savor of injustice, but we doubt it that a qualification of intelligence will ever be attached to the exercise of the elective franchise so far as those now endowed with the privilege are concerned. If a critical reader asks that this treatise commit itself more fully upon this single point, let him console himself with the answer that it candidly and emphatically argues that the wisest act which the American people could to-day put upon record would be to consign two-fifths of its enfran- chised citizens to a probation based upon intelligence, and never allow them to cast another ballot till the period of probation should have been concluded. Such a proscrip- tion would reach white, black, native and alien equally and impartially. Admitting the probable impossibility of such a scheme, however if such a seeming paradoxical expression may be tolerated this discussion augurs, as already intimated, that the experience of the past and the present would induce the future to place the institution of suffrage, if made a national one, upon a prospective basis of intelligence, and so curb the tendencies of centralization by the General Government. The pages of history are burdened with proofs that igno- rance, and not intelligence, delights in the exercise of unwarranted and unauthorized power. The ignorance (and the term is here used in a relative sense as connected with the requisites of a chief magistrate) that now sits enthroned at the head of the executive department of the Government of the United States was put in possession of its official coronet by the ballots of ignorant and unqualified voters, and if continued in the place of its dishonored trust, it will be by the voice and choice of the same identical agency. Ignorance, in short, in the exalted position of a member THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. 5/1 of the General Government will alone indulge in unbridled and illegal action, and the latter tan be prevented only by excluding this element from the forces which direct the organism of the governmental directories. It cannot be otherwise. The stream cannot rise above the fountain. Ignorance begets its like, and' intelligence stamps its features upon every object of its creation. CONCLUSION. The deduction to be made from the preceding comment upon the centralization of power cannot have failed to sug- gest itself to every American mind and every lover of re- publican institutions. When the recent contest in respect to excluding the Church from the supervision of the school-system of Ger- many was concluded by an adoption of a measure to that effect by the Reichstag, Chancellor Bismarck added to the many trite and comprehensive declarations he has so fre- quently put upon record, his notable, exultant and almost defiant yet praiseworthy edict, "that the only sovereignty that will be hereafter tolerated in Germany is the sovereignty of law." The principle embodied in this decree of the able states- man and indomitable Teuton should be adopted as the first article of the new political creed of the American people, with the express provision that it shall never suffer abroga- tion or amendment. It is a tenet which has been placed at the end of the code of the present Administration, or rather it has never been accorded a place therein of any sort whatever. The chief weakness, the prime defect, the cardinal fault of the regime that assumed the direction of the General Government in the spring of 1869 is its absolute and unqualified lawlessness. That it has been based in many instances, as its defenders allege, upon ignorance, is S7 2 THE ISSUES OF AMERICAN POLITICS. undoubtedly true, but this augments instead of palliates the faulty character of its policy and line of action. Its short- comings in this direction are not merely trivial they are of the gravest possible character. These defects of our present Government are not here referred to in the way of either criticism or crimination. The former has already been given in a prior connection, and aimed to be candid, impartial, impersonal, truthful and free from malice. The point is here allowed a repeated mention solely for the purpose of pointing to the conclusion which naturally flows from the discussion of the topic of centralization. The bulwark of republican institutions, the shield which can alone effectually resist the onslaughts of discontent, and assure their maintenance even, not to say supremacy, is the inviolability of their organic and municipal law. Absolutism, so to speak, must attach in some way to every form of government whatsoever. In monarchical countries the ruling monarch possesses this really royal attribute. In the American republic, however, its consti- tutional and statute laws are the only kings of the people. They must stand immutable in respect to their supremacy over all other agencies, for all attempts to make them sec- ondary, as in the case of the present Administration, are simple efforts, however well intended, to change the republic to an empire to take a step backward from the confines of civilization. The triviality of offences in this direction affords no excuse for their commission. As Carl Schurz has truly said, " The rights of the people are never taken away with sound of trumpet, but in a quiet, unobtrusive way, under some far-fetched text." The immediate antecedents of the American people give some reason for the present era of centralizing tendencies and the violation of law on the part of the General Gov- ernment. They have just emerged from a stupendous con- THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER. 5/3 flict, wherein the heat and exigencies of the struggle fre- quently led to expedients which couid hardly claim the element of legality. The masses, in short, have become accustomed to the spectacle of a disregard of legal restraints by public authority, and the chief executive, schooled to undoubted perfection in the arts of war, but almost wholly untutored in the requirements of peace, has very naturally tended to shape his action by the code of personalism which alone attaches to military life and the administration of despotic government. The sunlight of peace, however, again smiles upon the entire length and breadth of our national domain ; and while "Our Country and its Institutions" should be the burden of every morning orison and evening supplication to the King of kings, "the only sovereignty that will be hereafter tolerated in the American republic is the sove- reignty of law " should be written in deathless letters above the portals of every abode of official power that stands within the territorial limits of the United States. INDEX. ABSOLUTISM must exist in all govern- ments, 572. Adams, John Quincy , as a statesman, 517. Agriculture, pursuit of, 428, 429, 435, 436, 443< 444 : needs no protection in the United States, 464-466. Alabama, how reconstructed, 202, 205, 294 ; abuse of custom-houses of, 371. Alcavala, Spanish, 500. Amnesty, general remarks on, 296; the several measures of proscription, 297, 300, 305 ; the abstract causes which in- voke amnesty, 301, 302 ; the ends sought, and means for their accomplishment, 302, 303 ; the moral argument, 303, 304 ; the question in the United States, 304 ; the last measures of proscription con- demned, 304-308 ; universal amnesty demanded, 309,310; legality of Presi- dent Johnson's pardons, 310-312 ; am- nesty in Missouri, 315. Aristotle on man, 422 ; on life, 515. Arkansas, how reconstructed, 200, 20!, 305, 218, 270, 293. As, Roman, 150. Assessments, political, 354, 373, 374. Ayr, Bank of, 64. BALANCE of trade, 40-45. Banks, Ayr Bank, 64; United States Bank, 6$: Gold banks, 74, 75; the cause, origin and growth of banking business, 95-98 ; private banking in England and the United States, 112-115; Bank of Kngland, nature of, na; how chartered, 164; Banks of Amsterdam, Genoa and Venice, detailed and inter- esting description of, 115-119; Hank of England pays a tax on it* circulation, '33- Bank, N. P., in Louisiana, TOO. Barter, ja. Bismarck on the sovereignty of law, 571. Blackstone, William, on evils of funding, 163. Bowen, Francis, upon decline in value of money, 49 ; on evils of funding schemes, 163 ; as a writer upon public economics, 163 ; on taxing bachelors, 486, 487. Bradley, Justice, on effect of Fourteenth amendment, 244. Breckenridge, John C., as Vice-President, 197- Brokers, Wall street, 51, 52. Bronson, Justice, on the Constitution, >n. Brougham, Lord, on salaries, 374. Brown, B. Gratz, on amnesty in Mis- souri, 315. Huff m on genius, 366. Burke, Edmund, on government, 263. Butler, B. F., on legal-tender notes, 182. CALHOUN, JOHN C., on tariffs, 452. California, gold-mines of, 65. Capital, laws of, 413-416. Centralization, 333-336; as seen in an- cient states, 552 ; the difficulty of the question, 553, 554 ; State Rights -$. National Authority, 554, 555 ; the Jcf- fersonian theory, 555; line of division between State and National authority, 556 ; how denned by the Constitution, 55<>p 557 : powers conferred upon the General Government, 557-559 ; how con- strued, 560; secession denied, 561 ; the battle-ground of State Rights vt. Na- tional Authority, and the instances in which the present Administration ha* acted illegally, 561-566; suffrage should be made a national institution, 566-571 ; the prime defect of the present Admin- istration, 571, 572; the reason of pres- ent centralizing tendencies, 572, 573. Certificate* of deposit, i*ues of, 73. 575 576 INDEX. Cheapness, law of, 404-406. Chicago, fire at, 258. Chicago, platform of, 258. Chorpenning, claim of, in Post-office De- partment, 565. Circulating medium, amount now needed in the United States, 82-84; >ts issue belongs to the people, 107, 108; circu- lating medium of London, 109 ; con- vertibility of, fully considered, 110-112. Circulation, its issue belongs to the peo- ple, 107, 108 ; amount of bank circula- tion in the United States, 112; of no benefit to city banks, 115 ; country banks abuse it, 115. Cities, question of, 431-436. Civilization, stages of, 511, 512; as con- nected with government, 511-517. Civil Rights (see RECONSTRUCTION). Clanship, difficulties of, 524, 525. Clay, Henry, financial measure of, 65 ; on tariffs, 452-455 ; an aspirant for the presidency, 455 ; as a statesman, 517. Coal, protective tariff not needed on, 464-466. Colbert, the originator of the idea of making a public debt perpetual, 160. Colfax, Schuyler, on the election law, 562. Competition, 409-418. Compound-interest notes, 71, 72. Confederation, a State league, 202-204; suffrage under, 257, 258. Confiscation, acts of, 193, 194, 215, 216. Congress, what constitutes two-thirds of both Houses of, 197, 198 ; on recon- struction, 72, 8l, 82, 85-88, 200, 201, 205, 206; error of, in reconstruction, 222. Constitution, not a State league, 202-204; amendments to the scope of the subject, 190, 191 ; the Thirteenth amendment, sentiment of the public in respect to, 192, J 93 ; legality of vote proposing the Thir- teenth amendment, 196-198 ; legality of its ratification by the States, 198206; constitutionality of, 206-216; promul- gation of, 226 ; power to amend the Con- stitution, 207-210 ; special, general and implied powers of, 207-210; the Su- preme Court on said powers, 208 ; Four- teenth amendment of its cause, origin and import, 223-226: proposal, ratifi- cation and promulgation of, 227; legal- ity of vote on, in Congress, 227 ; legality of ratification of, 228, 231-236 ; status of late insurrectionary States in connection with, 228,229,231-236; measure taken by Congress to secure its adoption, 229, 230; constitutionality of, 237; woman suffrage under, 237-240 ; effect of, on mo- nopolies, 243-247 ; general effect of, fully stated, 247; Fifteenth amendment its cause, origin and ratification, 248, 2 49 ; right of a State to withdraw its ratification of an amendment, 251-253 ; constitutionality of Fourteenth and Fif- teenth amendments, 254-260 ; extent of power of amendment, 258, 259 ; results of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amend- ments, 261, 262 ; criticism of the same, 262268. Culture, the plea for, 430, 431. Currency, convertible, its basis, 50-52 ; the theory and utility of, 52, 53 ; the characteristics of, 53 ; the proper amount of a convertible issue, 53 ; inconvertible, or paper money, its cause, 54 ; its theory, 55. 56; fractional, 70; "equalization" f> 73. 74 : mutilated, evils of, 86 ; cur- rency, equalization of, in United States, why not accepted, 131. DAVIS, HENRY WINTER, fiasco of, on Mr. Lincoln's reconstruction policy, 221. Davis, Jefferson, as connected with am- nesty, 310. Debt, public, origin of, and viewed his- torically, 143, 144; why governments can easily negotiate loans, 144, 145 ; when first originated, 147; France, England and Holland cited, 147; the manner of contracting, 147, 148 : the means of payment of, as seen by history, 149-151 ; the theory that it is a national blessing examined, 151-155 ; why governments do not "pay as they go," 156; funding of (see FUNDING SCHEMES); public debt of the United States amount of, before the war, 164, 165 ; inappreciation of the extent of the late rebellion by Govern- ment in contracting, 165, 166 ; history of the acts of legislation authorizing its con- traction, and the issue of evidences of indebtedness thereunder, 166-170; the financial errors of the war-policy of Government, 169-173 : the proper course to have been pursued, 171-173; state- ment of public debt, 184 ; decrease of, 184 ; how it should be paid, 503-507 . INDEX. 577 Decrees, Berlin, Milan and Rambouillet, 451- Democrat, St. Louis, manipulation of, 566. Deposit, 98-106 ; amount of, in New York City banks, 106; amount of, in entire country, 106. Discount, 104, 105. ELDER, WILLIAM, as a writer on public economics, 163. Emancipation, proclamations of, 193, 194, 215, 216. England, status of, in respect to free trade, and why she advocates it, 437-443. Examinations as a test of fitness, 391-393. Exports, 43, 83 ; protection does not pre- vent, 420-423 ; connected with tariffs of the United States, 459-462. FAMILY, its purposes, 540. Fashion, code of, 493-495. Ferguson, Adam, on animal life, 532. Fesscnden, William Pitt, on impeach- ment of Andrew Johnson, 313, 314. Fifteenth amendment. (See CONSTITU- TION.) Florida, how reconstructed, 293. Force legislation, the Ku-klux law stated, 316,317; constitutionality of, 317-331; the plea of necessity, 331-333 ; as con- nected with the centralization of power, 333-336; action taken under the law, 336 ; the policy of the scheme, 336-342. Fourteenth amendment. (See CONSTITU- TION.) France, farmers-general of, 148. Frcedmen, Bureau for Relief of, 273; scheme vetoed by President Johnson, 2 73. 2 74-' comment on, 282, 283; adopted over President's veto, and commented on, 284, 285. Free trade. (See PROTECTION and FREE TRADE.) French armies, 565. Funding schemes, viewed historically and philosophically, 156-158 ; sinking fund*, 159; process and progress of, in Eu- rope, 163, 161 ; eviU of funding, 161-163 : opinions of eminent writers upon the same, 163 ; the recent funding schemes of the United States, 174, 175 ; the Syn- dicate operation of the Department of Finance examined, criticised, proved illegal, and collateral comment, 176-179; 49 the practical results of the funding schemes of the United States, 181-183. GEORGIA, how reconstructed, 202-205, 249, 293-295. Ghent, treaty of, 451. Gold the standard measure of value in the United States, 31 ; reason for hoarding it by the United States Treasury, 80. Grant, U. S., nomination and election of, to the presidency, 258, 294 ; action of, in reference to the Chicago fire, 336 ; reduction of public debt during Admin- istration of, 184. Grimes, James N., on impeachment of Andrew Johnson, 313, 314. HABEAS CORPUS, suspension of, 326-328, 563- Hamilton, Alexander, on protection, 450 ; as a statesman, 450, 517; on the Consti- tution, 559, 560. Hare, Thomas, on minority representa- tion, 549, 550. Hume, on evils of funding, 163. ILLINOIS, railroad policy of, 376. Imports, 43, 459-462. Indiana on ratification of Fifteenth amendment, 250, 251. Interest, 45 ; effect of moneyed needs of Government upon rate of, 46 ; effect of the age of a nation's commerce or the state of its productive industries upon same, 46, 47. Ireland, cause of famines in, 443. Iron, protective tariff needed on, 464-466. JACKSON, ANDREW, illustrates the lawless- ness of military Presidents, 343. Jameson, Judge, on woman suffrage, 243. Jefferson, Thomas, as a statesman, 517. Johnson, Andrew, in Tennessee, 200; is President, 201 ; course on reconstruction reviewed, 218-222, 291 ; vetoes of (see RECONSTRUCTION); legality of pardons of, 310-312 ; impeachment of, 312-314. Joint-stock companies, evils of, 114. KU-KLUX, 308, 309, 335-339. LABOR, the ultimate measure of value, 28; how laboring classes are affected by our present money circulation, 85-89 ; rude 578 INDEX. and skilled, 427, 428, 443, 444; English and American labor contrasted, 436, 437 ; status of English labor, 439-442 ; how unjustly taxed in the United States, 498, 499. Laing, Samuel, on political economy, 400. Law-business and lawyers of the United States, 391, 392. Ledyard on woman, 534. Lee, General, as connected with amnesty, 310. Legal-tender notes, first issue of, 69 ; sec- ond and third issues of, 70; criticised, 76, 77 ; action of the United States Su- preme Court in reference to, 77, 78 ; authority of the Secretary of the Treas- ury to make further issues of, 78, 79 : what they cost the Government, 80; should be retired, 91-94; contest be- tween, and the National banks, 138- 142. Lincoln, A., offer of pardon by, to the Southern masses, 199, 200; refuses to indorse Congressional measure of re- construction, 2QJ ; death of, 201 ; course on reconstruction reviewed, 218-222, 291. Literature, nature of, 533. Lobbyists, female, of Washington, 542. Longstreet, General, as connected with amnesty, 310. Louisiana, how reconstructed, 200, 201, 205, 218, 270, 293 ; purchase of, 564. Lucca, silk manufacturers of, 444. Lumber, protective tariff not needed on, 464-466. MALTHUS, theory of, as to population, 440, 441. Marcy, William L., on civil service, 342 ; author of, " To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy," 342. Marshall, Chief-Justice, on the Consti- tution, 208, 256. McCulloch on evils of funding, 163. McPherson, Edward, " Political Man- uals" of, 295. Medium of exchange, necessity of, begins with division of labor, 32. Mill, John Stuart, on evils of funding, 163 ; on protection, 425, 426 ; on house- taxes, 486; on governments, 513; on suffrage, 529-531. Minorities, representation of, 543-551. Mississippi, how reconstructed, 249, 295. Money, its invention, 20 ; its origin with the ancients, 20-24; the subject classi- fied, 24; its requisites, both material and potential, 25; the precious metals appropriated for, 26; money denned, 26 ; the offices of money, 27 ; a measure of value, 27 ; a mere nominal measure, 27 ; the nearest absolute measure of any material token, 29 ; the cost of produc- tion its basis, 29, 30 ; a medium of ex- change, 31, 32 ; a producer of value, 32-34 ; relations of, to commerce, 34 ; amount needed for commercial pur- poses, 34-39 ; the character of money needed, 39, 40; prospective decline in the value of, 48, 49 ; the kinds and sub- stitutes of, 49 ; two in number, convert- ible currency and inconvertible currency, or paper money, 50. PAPER MONEY, its cause, 54 ; paper money in the Ameri- can Colonies, 54; in France, 54; in Great Britain, 55 ; its theory, 55, 56 ; its characteristics, 56-58; the proper amount of an issue of, 58 ; the effect of excessive issues of, 58-65 ; kind of money now in use in the United States, 67 ; history of the same, 68-75 ; tne amount of money in circulation before the war, 68 ; the amount and kind of money in circulation in the United States at the close of the year 1871, 76 ; the amount needed in the United States at the present time, 82-84 ; evils of the money now in circulation, 84-89 ; how laboring, salaried and agricultural classes are affected by, 85-89; evil re- sulting from mutilated currency, 86. Monopolies, protection does not create, 417-419 ; as effected by the Fourteenth amendment, 243-246. Morton, Oliver P., on legal-tender notes, 182. NAPOLEON, what it cost to banish him to St. Helena, 147, 450, 451. National banking system, its cause and origin, 120; the main features of, 120- 122 ; its material basis, government bonds, a great advantage, 123, 124 ; arguments against this feature refuted, 124-126 ; capital stock of, 125 ; circu- lation of, 125; bonds of, on deposit at Washington, 125; the uniformity of INDEX. 579 the system an advantage, 127; argu- ments against this feature examined and refuted, 127, 128; its circulation cannot be in excess, 128; the system a mo- nopoly, 129, 130; circulation of, should redound to the benefit of the people and not to the banks, 131-133 ; the system taxes the people in the sum of nearly $20,000,000 annually, 133; the reserve feature of the country banks wrong, 134 ; the sum-total of the reserve of the National banks, 135 ; the inadequacy and non-necessity of its scheme of con- vertibility, 135, 136; depositors of, no claim upon the Government, 136, 137; the contest between the National banks and the legal-tender theorists fully examined, and the latter shown to be in the wrong, 138-142. Nation, New York, on Fourteenth amend- ment, 245, 246; on status of the South, 339-341- New Jersey, withdrawal of ratification of Fourteenth amendment, 231-251. New Orleans, case of Crescent City Live- Stock Landing and Slaughtering Com- pany of, 244-246; abuse of custom- house of, 371. Newspapers, attaches of, should be ex- cluded from civil service, 384, 385; influence of editorials of, 384, 385. New York on ratification of Fifteenth amendment, 249-251 ; how jeopardized by universal suffrage, 265; corrupt manipulation of legislature of, by a col- lector of customs and a national legis- lator, 353, 354. New York City, report of clearing-house of, 83 ; abuse of custom-house of, 371. Non-intercourse measures, 451. North Carolina, how reconstructed, 202, a5, 93- Nullification by South Carolina, 455. OATHS, test, constitutionality of, 315. Ohio, withdrawal of ratification of Four- teenth amendment, 231-351. Orders in Council, British, 451. Otway, Thomas, on woman, 534. PALMER, GOVBKNOK JOHN M., as con- nected with the Chicago fire, 336. Panics, commercial, of 1837 and 1857, 65, 461, 469. Pendleton, George H., on legal-tender notes, 182. Politics, nature and associations of, 535, 536. Price, law of, 407-410. Production, extent of, in the United States, 37-42, 82 ; laws of, 404-409 ; the basis of national prosperity, 422-425, 43*. 43 2 - Proscription, general measures of, 297- 300, 304-306; as a means of punish- ment, 307, 308. Protection and free trade viewed scien- tifically, 399, 400 ; line of argument of the opposing forces, 400; protection and free trade defined, 401-403 ; the conditions upon which the opposing doctrines rest, 403-406; limits of the two systems, 407-426; protection does not permanently enhance price, 409- 412 ; does not divert capital and indus- try to their prejudice, 413-416 ; does not create monopolies, 417-419; does not foster ignorance, 419, 420; is not tax- ation, 420; does not bar exportation, 420-423; production the basis of national prosperity, 422-425 ; protection increases production by placing producer and consumer together, 422-425 ; collateral tendencies of the two systems, 426-433 ; cities and villages in this connection, 430, 431 ; culture, 430, 431 ; the ques- tion of civilization, 432, 433 ; the proper policy for the United States, their peculiar status considered, 433-435 ; free trade indefeasible as to raw materials, 436, 437; labor, English and American, 436, 437; England and America com- pared in this connection, 437-439 : rea- son why England advocates free trade, 439-443; English labor, abuse of, 439- 443; the Malthusian theory of popu- lation, 440, 441 ; England has natural protection, 442, 443 ; our condition wholly dissimilar, 443 ; protection de- fensible for the United States, 444, 445. QUESNAI on land taxation, 480. RANDOLPH, JOHN, on tariff of 1816, 452. Real estate, exchanges and sales of, 82. Reconstruction, power of General Gov- ernment thereon, 204, 205 ; act of March 580 INDEX. 2, 1867, 229, 230; initiatory measures of, 270 ; chronological record of, to 1866, 271, 272 ; position of Congress on, 272, 273, 281, 282 ; Freedmen's Bureau bill vetoed by President Johnson, 273, 274, 282, 283 ; adopted finally, 284, 285 ; civil rights measure adopted over Presi- dent's veto, 275, 276 ; constitutionality of, 276-278 ; constitutionality of, con- sidered, 276-281 ; progress of, in 1866, 282, 283, 285 ; act of March 2, 1867, 285, 286 ; commented on, 286-288 ; vetoed by President Johnson, 288-290 ; the policy of the scheme, 290, 291 ; the legality of the Presidential schemes for, 291 ; completion of, 292-^94. Register, Niles's, on tariffs, 453. Representative government, elements of, 511-517- Revenue reform, 507. Revenue, United States, sources and extent of, 498, 499, 505 ; amount now required, 504. Ricardo on evils of funding, 163. Ryswick, peace of, 147. SALARIES of government officials, 374- 377- Santo Domingo, Grant on, 564, 565. Schurz, Carl, on amnesty in Missouri, 315 ; on the election law, 562 ; on the liberties of the people, 572. Scotland, commercial convulsion in, 64. Secor, claim of, in the Navy Department, 565- Seigniorage, 31. Service, civil, past history of, 342, 343 ; definition of the phrase, 344; outlines of the present system, 344-346 ; defects of the present system, and their bear- ings upon the President, members of Congress and members of the service, 346-350; bearings of the same upon State elections, 350-352, 353 ; bearings of the same upon national and State conventions and local primaries, 350- 352 ; bearings of same upon State legis- lature, 353, 354 ; assessments, political, 354; esprit de corps in party organi- zation, 354356 ; bearings of the system upon individual character, 354-356; statement of the number, grade and salaries of members of the service, 356- 359 ; how appointed, 359-361 ; a scheme of reform, consisting of twelve changes in our organic and municipal law, pro- posed and separately discussed at length, 361-385 ; constitutionality of the scheme, 385, 386; legislation necessary to put it in operation, 386-388; advantages of, 387, 388 ; report of Civil Service Com- mission examined, and the plan there proposed shown to be a failure, 389-396 ; abuse of, 566. Seward, William H., promulgates Four- teenth amendment, 230, 231 ; as diplo- mat and Secretary of State, 274; as a statesman, 517. Shakespeare on woman, 534. Sharswood, George, on woman suffrage, 2 43- Sheep, flocks and slaughter of, in various years, 466. Sherman, John, on legal-tender notes, 182. Slavery, repeal of its legalization in New Mexico, 193 ; abolition of, in the Dis- trict of Columbia, 193; abolition of, in the Territories, 193. (See CONSTI- TUTIONAL AMENDMENTS for other mat- ter in reference to.) Smith, Adam, on evils of funding, 163. South Carolina, how reconstructed, 202- 205, 293. South, present status of, 308, 339-342, 429, 430. Specie payments, suspension of, in the United States, 69 ; in England, 90; how resumption of, is effected, 89-91 ; how it should be in the United States, 91-94 ; Senator Sumner's plan for, criticised, 92-94. State Rights. (See CENTRALIZATION.) Steele, General, on reconstruction, 200. Stevens, Thaddeus, author of resolution proposing the Fourteenth amendment, 227; on the right of the negro to vote, 224. Strong on the Constitution, 213. Suffrage, woman, under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, 237-243 ; suffrage under the Confederation, 257, 258 ; the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments in respect to suffrage are anachronisms, 262-268; the requisites of suffrage, 519-522 ; universal suffrage denied, 520; the abstract limits of, 522-524 ; the proper limits of, in the INDEX. 5 8l United States, 524-530 ; worann suffrage discussed at length, 530-542 ; suffrage should be made a national institution, 566-571. Sumner, Charles, on resumption, 92-94; on the election law, 562. Syndicate, origin and operations of, 176- 179. Tariffs, history of tariff legislation in the United States, 447-462; act of 1789, 448 ; amendments of, 449, 450 ; United States had natural protection from 1787 to 1815, 450, 451; Lowndes's tariff of 1816, 451, 452 ; tariff of 1824, 453, 454 ; position of different States on, 453; tariff of 1828, 454; position of States on, 454, 455 ; South Carolina and nulli- fication, 455 ; tariff of 1842, 456, 457 ; tariff of 1857, 457; Merrill tariff of 1861, 457, 463, 491, 492 ; distress and disaster have ever accompanied free trade in the United States, 449, 452, 453, 455-462 ; classes of articles to which a protective tariff should attach, 462-466; the case of coal, iron, lumber and wool, 464-466 : agriculture in the United States needs no protection, 465-466 ; the extent to which a protective tariff should be laid, 466-468. Taxation, protection is not, 420 ; general law of, 469, 470 ; it is protection to life, liberty and property, 470; how it is such protection, 470-472; taxes classi- fied, 472 ; taxes defined, 473 ; powers, for, 473, 474; difficulty in equalizing, 475-477 ; proportionate sacrifice and pro- tection, 475-477 ; direct taxation con- sidered, 477, 478 ; land-tax, 478-480, 484; the English land-tax, 479, 480; income taxes, 481-483 ; capitation-taxes, 483, 484 ; indirect taxes, 484, 485 ; house-taxes, 483-487 ; tax on bachelors, 486,487; taxes on vocations, 487, 488 ; excise-taxes, 488; taxes on commcxJi- tics, including necessaries, comforts and luxuries, 488-493; the Lrx on whisky, 492, 493 : commodity taxation by way of tariffs, 495-497 ; present sources of United States revenue, and its extent, 498, 499, 505 ; State taxation, rules for, 500-502 ; rules for United States tax- ation, 502-507 ; errors of tax bill of the last Congress, 504-507. Tennessee, how reconstructed, 200-205, 218. Texas, how reconstructed, 294, 295. Thirteenth amendment. (See CONSTI- TUTION.) Tribune, New York, letter of Davis an 1 Wade in, on Mr. Lincoln's reconstruc- tion policy, 221. Troy, abuse of custom-house of, 371. Trumbull, Lyman, on "two-thirds of both Houses" of Congress, 197; on impeachment of Andrew Johnson, 313 ; as a statesman, 314; on civil service, 367 ; on the election law, 562. UNDERWOOD, JUDGE, on woman suffrage, 43- Usury laws, 47. VALUE of two kinds value for use and value for exchange, 27, 28 ; the stand- ard measure of, in the United States, 3, 3i- Van Buren, Martin, minister to England, 342- Villages, question of, 430, 431, 436. Virginia, how reconstructed, 200, 201, 205, 218, 249, 295. WADE, B. F.,/!