SELL DEAR; BUY CHEAP. 89 



i 



CHAPTER XX. 



SELL DEAR J BUY CHEAP. 



N another column will be found a letter from a correspondent 

 signing himself&quot; Traveler,&quot; who, after according to this pa 

 per honesty of purpose and ability in argument, joins issue with 

 the positions occupied by the Inter- Ocean on the currency and the 

 tariff. Before taking up the point which we intend chiefly to 

 notice, we shall answer his fundamental proposition, thus stated : 



Government exists for the protection of individuals. This is the sum and 

 substance of its object, and beyond this it should not go. 



Such, however, is not the language of the preamble to the 

 organic law of the Union, in these words : 



We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 

 establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, 

 promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 

 our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of 

 America. 



It thus appears that our Government, at least, looked, in its in 

 stitutions, not to individuals, but to communities that it exists 

 to protect and preserve society ; that its seminal design was to cre 

 ate a nation out of fragmentary bodies of people ; to that end pos 

 sessing and maintaining relations which are external or foreign, 

 besides those which are internal or domestic ; and sometimes, 

 to the same end, depriving individuals of life, or shut 

 ting them up in prison, condemned to hard labor for a term of 

 years. All this embraces much more than is embraced in the 

 statement, that &quot; government exists for the protection of individ 

 uals.&quot; Government exists for many things more, among which 

 are various public interests, as harbors, light-houses, ^military roads, 

 the national lands, education, and the like, these extending far 

 beyond the mere &quot;protection of individuals,&quot; and requiring the 



