Columbia democrat and star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1867, 1866-08-08

OF The MONEYS OF THE UNITED OIAIEoJ
FOR THE RELIEF OF THE SUFFERERS BY
THE.LATE FIRE IN PORTLAND, MAINE.
Mr.. JOHNSON. Imove that the Senate
proceed to the consideration of the bill intro
duced by me for the relefo the sufferers by
the late fire in Portland, Maine.
The motion was agreedto, and the Senate,
as in Committee of the whole, proceeded to
consider the bill Is. No. 428) for the relief
of the sufferers by the late fire in Portland,
Maine
1t proposes to authorize the President of
the United States to cause to be purchased
such provisions and clothing and such other
articles as he shall deem advisable, and to
tender the same in the name of the Govern
ment of the United States to the State of
Maine, for the relief of the citizens who have
suffered by the late fire in the city of Port-
land in that State, and appropriates a sum
not exceeding $50, 900 for that purpose
Mr.. JOHNSON. / move to amend the
bill by striking out all after the enacting
clause and inserting the following as sub
stitute: a.
That the President of the United States
be, and he is hereby authorized to render to
| the Governor of the State of Maine, in the
the sufferers by the late fire in the city of
Portland, $500 to be used in such man
ner as he may think best.
! SEC. 2. And be 1t further enacted, That
said sum of $4,000 be, and the same Is
hereby appropriated, to be paid out of any
moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appro-
priated.
Mr. President, if measure like this is to
pass, the sooner it is done the better. The
fire at Portland was unexampled in its de-
Struction, covering miles of streets, and has
thrown upon the world, houseless and i'm
poverished, thousands of citizens The in
dividual contributions that have been made
throughout the United States, see, are not
adequate to meet the immediate wants Of
the people.
Mr. BUCKALEW. I suppose that the
! proper motion to be supported by those who
are unwilling or unable to vote for this mea-
sure would be one to postpone it. / see no
propriety in referring it to the committee
which has charge of the expenditures of the
| Senate alone.
Mr. President, a few years ago the large
and fourishing town of Chambersburgin in my
State was burnt to the ground. The greater
part of 1t was destroyed, not by the act of
| God, by mere accident or casualty, but by
the act of the public enemies. 1t was done
at a time, too, when the Government of the
United States had stripped our Common
wealth of her whole armed force our sol
diers were under the control of the military
authorities of the United States and remote
from our borders: In that defenceless situ-
alton, caused by our responding to the appeal
of the General Government, our State was
! invaded, and one Of our large, fourishing,
/ wealthy and interesting towns wassweptfrom
I the face of the earth by fire. Great desti-
tuition and suffering fell upon our people.
| If there ever was a case when an appeal
could be made to the General Government
for aid because of the destruction of prop
| erty by fire, that was the case. All the cir
cumstances surrounding that calamitous event
would have appealed powerfully to this Gov
ernment for aid and for relief to our people,
because that act was caused by the default
of this Government in defending our terri
tory it was caused by the act of this Gov
ernment in Withdrawing those forces which
would have defended us on our borders and
indiscreetly and unwisely disposing of them
in such situations that we were not protected.
Not one dollar has this Government con-
! tributed to those sufferers or to reimburse
our people for the property destroyed on that
occasion. If our people of Pennsylvania
possessed twelve votes in this body instead
of two. it is possible thatsome appeals would
have been made here and strongly pressed
appeals to the charity of the Senate for
| relief or for reimbursement to us, for the
injuries which we suffered Instead of that,
sir, what has been done? Private liberality
was appealed to to alleviate the suffering
which fell upon our people, and subsequent
! ly our State Legislature appropriated half
million dollars to pay for the property thus
destroyed, and destroyed under circumstan-
ces that if there was any fault at all, 1t was
| fault that rested upon this Government, and
not upon the Government or people of Penn
sylvania.
Now, sir, the difficulty, the pressing and
sharp difficulty, which is in the mind of
every rejecting member against voting for a
measure of this kind is, that there is no
boundary, no limit to the exercise of char
liable power of this description. You can
not distinguish between cases of casualty or
of accident in different parts of the country,
and administer system of charity from this
point upon any intelligent and upon any fair
principles of justice. -
1t will always be a system of favor1tlsm II
YOU enter upon it. In responding to some
appeal in case of famine in ireland, or some
total destruction of great city in Venezuela,
there are limits to the charity of the nation:
This is one of the powers of the earth, and
/ in its capacity as a member of the family of
nations you may, perhaps, infer some color
| of power for charity of that description.
But in exercising this power among the
States of our Union, in distributing our
charity and our bounty where suffering ap-
peals to us in the various States, we are en-
tering upon field of expenditure, We are
entering on the exercise of a power which
has no limit, no boundary, no rule, no equal
ity, and finally, to sum it up in word, no
principle of justice by which you can be GER
tain that your bounty will be administered
in proper manner and that it will reach
the proper persons.
Now, sir, we are unacquainted with the
special facts of this great disaster we
know that it is one enormous IN Its magni-
tnde and most affecting in its character, but
T think the State of Maine herself should
stand forward upon this occasion. Being pos
sessed of all the facts pertaining to this great
| I.oIa,nit,r and heing sneciallY interested In it