A Journal for Western Man-- Issue IX
Dr. Gary M. Galles
* ...the injustice of maintaining protection for protection's sake enjoins upon the people's servants the duty of exposing and destroying the brood of kindred evils which are the unwholesome progeny of paternalism. This is the bane of republican institutions and the constant peril of our government by the people. It degrades to the purposes of wily craft the plan of rule our fathers established and bequeathed to us as an object of our love and veneration. It perverts the patriotic sentiments of our countrymen and tempts them to pitiful calculation of the sordid gain to be derived from their Government's maintenance. It undermines the self-reliance of our people and substitutes in its place dependence upon government favoritism. It stifles the spirit of true Americanism and stupefies every ennobling trait of American citizenship.
* While there should be no surrender of principle...if in lifting burdens from the daily life of our people we reduce inordinate and unequal advantages too long enjoyed, this is but a necessary incident of our return to right and justice. If we exact from unwilling minds acquiescence in the theory of an honest distribution of the fund of the governmental beneficence treasured up for all, we but insist upon a principle which underlies our free institutions. When we tear aside the delusions and misconceptions which have blinded our countrymen to their condition under vicious tariff laws, we but show them how far they have been led away from the paths of contentment and prosperity. When we proclaim that the necessity for revenue to support the Government furnishes the only justification for taxing the people, we announce a truth so plain that its denial would seem to indicate the extent to which judgment may be influenced by familiarity with perversions of the taxing power. And when we seek to reinstate the self-confidence and business enterprise of our citizens by discrediting an abject dependence upon government favor, we strive to stimulate those elements of American character which support the hope of American achievement.
Grover Cleveland's last words were "I have tried so hard to do right." But unlike so many today, he checked his desire to do good through the government. He did so because of a deep respect for the Constitution and the limitations it imposed on the legitimate activities of government, an attitude that many today view as archaic. But he also did so because he had the wisdom to know the answer to his self-reflection that "I am honest and sincere in my desire to do well, but the question is whether I know enough to accomplish what I desire." That answer was "no." We would do well to remember that answer, and the dangers of a government that ignores it.
It is perhaps fitting that Grover Cleveland had the honor of dedicating the Statue of Liberty, because he was a President who truly tried to live up to that dedication: "We will not forget that Liberty has made her home here, nor shall her chosen altar be neglected...A stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man's oppression until Liberty enlightens the world." We could certainly use a man like Grover Cleveland again.
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Gary M. Galles is a professor of economics at Pepperdine University. Send him mail at Gary.Galles@pepperdine.edu, and see his Mises.org Daily Articles Archive. See the book Reassessing the Presidency.
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