The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-11-12
9rwe axe sorry Judge Foster has made it

Wv EDNL kCDA1 ". LIZ
6FWe are sorry Judge Foster has made it
necessary for us to say anything more in relf-
ton to the railroad bonds. The subject has
been settled for the present by the vote Qfthe
Council, not to issies them; The matter will
now. we presume, go before the courts, who
will decide upon the positions taken by the
Council, in the present discussion, if they. shall
abide by tia .grourNlS Assumed But we fear,
and have always feared, others more danger
GUS to the credit of the city, will, in the last
resort, be adopted. We trust not. We
scarcely deem it necessary to make any re-
marks on Judge Fosters card. The manner
in which we have discussed the subject is
known to our readers; we improved the occa-
sion-the subject being dry one-to express
some very general sentiments, applicable to
other matters as well as that under discussion
which seem to be rather dstasteful to the
Judge, who would have viewed with more
leAity thirty year ago.
We have referred to the 10th clause of the
city charter, as requested by Judge Foster,
and we find that it authorizes the city to take
stock in any company for watering the city,
building bridges, or roads leading to the city
provided that no stock shall be subscribed or
taken by the Common Council, in any such
company unless it be on petition of two-thirds
"of the residents Of said city, who are free
holders of said city, distinctly setting forth
"the company in which stock is to be taken
"and the number and amount of the shares
to be subscribed" This embraces the whole
power conferred upon the freeholders. They
simply have the right to state by petition their
assent TO a subscription by the Council, for a
certain amount of stock in certain corpora
tons, organized for any Of the purposes desig
mated by the clause Of the charter. Upon the
presentation of their petition to the Council,
their power is exhausted, and their rights
cease. They have no more power to nullify,
afterwards, their own act than they have to
repeal the city charter. 1t would not have
been greater burlesque upon all legal pro-
ceedings, to have referred the subject, as they
have. some of their problems. to the boyswof
Mr.. Shows school, than the farce of referring
it to the decision of the freeholders, so far as
they had any legal or constitutional right to
dscids.it Is has ssrZsd boNszsEs t0S q coXsE
to shield those who proposed it, from the re-
spohsibility of foregone determination. Will
the Railroad Company, or their creditors,
when they shall have obtained a judgment on
the contract, and shall levy an execution, take
such property only as belongs to the free
holders? Will they not seize upon all the
public property, and upon the taxes in the
hands Of the Collector, which shall have been
paid by all the citizens upon all sorts of prop
erty? Wont the poor mans pole tax-the
engine houses-the public lands, buildings and
property of every kind, purchased by the con-
tributions of all classes, be subject to the
Debt What right, then, have the freehold
ers to subject the city to lawsuits costs, and
disrepute, more than any other class ? The
act is a gross usurpation of power, with the
connivance of the Council, and dangerous asa
precedent.
We have not inpugned the motives of any
gentleman in this matter; we have treated it
as an error Of judgement as to the manner of
proceeding; we have cautiously refrained from
any allusion to undue influences, though the
position of some Of the gentlemen has been
one of extreme delcacy, wherein their acts
should have been directed by the utmost eau
ton, lest their motives might be questioned,
by the world But one ofthem at least seems
not to feel the same delicacy towards others,
with which he himself has been treated; and
for ourselves we can say to him, that neither
he, nor Mr.. Willard Carpenter, has fortune
enough to purchase from US through our pa
per, undeserved praise, nor to screen himself
from merited censure in any of his public acts.
This paper is no venal print while we hold
control of it. We know no distinction be-
tween one party and another, except the poor,
as the weaker party, have stronger claims up
ON our sympathy and aid. Mr.. Carpenter we
scarcely know except by his public acts and
general character, all of which bespeak him to
be man of enlarged views-ofgreat capacities
and with most remarkable mental and physi-
cal energies; man capable of conterring the
most important and valuable services on any
community to whom he will devote his, abOrs.
We have not extolled his powers to do good,
beyond what all admit they deserve. We are
biased by no private influence, by no private
views. This discussion has disclosed to us
one lamentable fact, that the influence and
power to serve the public, of both parties is
destroyed by mutual imputations and suspi-