The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-06-29
From the Ne,o York Courier and Enquirer.

! We are glad to see that the subject of providing
| additional security against steamboat casualties
| has been submitted to the House, and referred to
an appropriate committee. The destruction Of
the Griffith is the terrible climax of series Of dis
aster5 that, within ten years. have swept from the
| western lakes alone more than one thousand per-
sons into ctcrnty and it has wrought up the pub
| lie mind to pitch of horror and Indignation that
will nQt permit such things longer TO be- The VIC
tins were, indeed, strangers, but this Is not, like
the story of far of battle, idle tale, that for
moment perifes the attention and chills the blood,
and then passes away from our thoughts forever.
| IL is calamity that has left an everlasting scar
| upon the memory, and klndled up avehement
sense that fate just as appalling daily threatens
ourselves, some OF our most cherished ones.
Figures may easily denote the number of the
scorched blistered. dead, dragged up from the in
hospitable water and ranged in dreadful array on
| that funeral strand, but who shall measure the
| tears OF the living? Who shall compute the afec-
tions crushed the joys extinguished and the hopes
blasted Who shall depict the warm, rich hearts,
! full of bright anticipations and sweet sympathies,
| now forever shrouded in gloom and despair! Death
often comes to the bedside in the form of angel,
when the spirit of the departing one, surrounded
by the warm prayers, the fearful regards, and the
kind offices Of kindred and friends serenely puts
its heavenly raiment and gently looses itself tie by
tic from Garth, till at last life steals away from the
vital cords like dying strain Of music. But death
is indeed grissy shape, and worthily entitled the
| King of Terrors, when he hurrics through the
darkness DER the deep amid raging hames, and
| prostrates his victim far from home, without note
or preparation, one single circumstance 10 mlu-
| gate the severity Of the blow.
| Two hundred and fifty human lives have been
sacrificed, not 10 divine vengeance, but TO human
reckles=ness This, like almost every other catas-
irophc that has occurred waters, has been
the consequence OF culpablc negligence-just such
\ negligence as in England France would be ac-
counted Inansaughtcr, and be rcquited with the
i .eyercst punishment. We will not submit to the
/ claim of the old world that their machinery and
their nautical architecture superior TO ours, and
/ vet we must submit to the damning imputation
| that our machinery and architecture occasion
hundred deaths where thoirs occasion one. There
| is fearful guilt somewhere. Carelcssncss is often
more criminal than passion. IL the man who in an
uncomfortable fit of anger drives home the murder
cr's steel more dangerous foe to society than he
| who, charged with u hundred livcs, wantonly neg
| ects and endangers his trustS Is the cupidity
which impcls the robber to the highway any less
respectable than the cupidity which withhods the
means Of safety from hundreds Of men exposed to
i destruction
The act Of Congress of 1888 Is narrow enough in
its provisions and yet, narrow IA II is II has never
been half enforced. Who ever heard Of conviction
under that clause which threatens hard labor in a
/ pcnitentiary against every person through whose
negligence or inallcntion life shall be lost board
a steam-vcsscl? And yet such crimes Of every
months occurrence. Fearful facts, facts as fearful
as blood can make them, affirm that inspectors and
prosecutors have been rccreant TO their duty IL Is
time for tie Press speak out boldly upon this sub
jcct, and, wherever IL IL deserved aiix the stigma
| Of its burning reprobation.