| |
I have said I do
not dread industrial corporations as instruments of power to destroy
this country, because there are a thousand agencies which can regulate,
restrain and control them; but there is a corporation we may all
dread. That corporation is the federal government. From the
aggressions of this corporation, there can be no safety, if it
is allowed to go beyond the well defined limits of it's powers.
I dread nothing so much as the exercise of ungranted and doubtful
powers by the government. It is, in my opinion, the danger of dangers
to the future of this country. Let us be sure to keep it always
within it's limits. If this great, ambitious, ever growing corporation
becomes oppressive, who shall check it? If it becomes too wayward,
who shall control it? If it becomes unjust, who shall trust it?
As sentinels of the country's
watchtower, Senators, I beseech you to watch and guard with sleepless
dread, that corporation which can make all property and rights,
all states and people, all liberty and hope it's plaything in an
hour, and it's victims forever."
Senator
Benjamin H. Hill (before the U.S. Senate, March 27, 1878)
|
 |