The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-02-01

habit Of considering ourselves net only awake,
but wide awake. Nevertheless, we are CON-
PEELED to suppose that we are walking about
In state of chronic somnambulism-that all
life Is illusion. Is 1t the fact that q live men,
Der Of the House Of Representatives, a
veritable being In the flesh, a pahtaloon- wear
ing, balance-at-his-bank possessing, tariff
concocting, procreating, eating, drinking,
digesting, sleeping human belng-a man made
In the image of common sense Creator and
OF the same pattern as ourselves-has really
brought in o bill making it penal to sell or
give intoxicating liquors for drink to all the
civil and military officers Of government Is
that SOP Or have all the newspapers of the
United States been made the victims OF a
stupendous hoax played upon them by
their correspondents at Washington OF
the two suppositions we really do not
know which Is the more difficult to en-
terrain. But upon sober consideration
Of the probabilities of the case we are COM
PEELED to believe that the correspondents have
not confederated to make game Of their en-
ployers and the forty million citizens of the
United States. No; 1t must be- that 1t is the
Representative who has gone to the mad, not
the correspondents who have all, like the pack
of wild swine that went over the precpice,
gone to the bad for the correspondents owe
duty to their editors, failing in which they
can be deprived Of their salaries; whereas
members Of Congress, we are fast getting to
think, owe us no duty. or at least think they
owe none to any one in the heavens above or
the earth below.
1t is, then, Mr.. Morrill, who has unhappily
are sincerely sorry. That gentlemen has, evil
IDENTIFY, parted with his senses, and his friends
must lose no time in taking the steps which
the law provides for distressed families on
| such melancholy occasions. Much learning
made Paul mad, according to Festus. Much
bordering on moral duties has evidently dis
turbed the mental balance of the eminent per-
son from Maine. This prophet Of total absti-
nence has imbibed morality in such reckless and
profigate quantity that he has become the
victim Of a new form of delirium-not the
delirium tremens of alcohol, but the deliriuna
tranQui1um of fanaticism. It Is curious
case for pathologists-very curious-and we
shall await with eagerness the comments of
our brain doctors upon this original form of
brain disease, which 1t is proud thing for
our great country to introduce to the attention
Of medical mankind.
In what other way are we to treat this
amazing incident? 1t is not possible-no, it
is not possible-for any sane man to suppose
that such proposal can be passed into law
by body of sane legislators. It is not pos
sible for any sane man to imagine that it
could be executed if it did. It is absolutely
unnecessary to comment upon such proposal
as the offspring of serious legislative pur-
pose emanating from mind in condition of
normal health. But we cannot consent to
forego our own privilege of reason, in spite of
such eminent and respectable temptation to
make fools of ourselves. We are sane, and
by the blessing of God mean to remain
80 as long as we can. How long that
will be while this epidemic of contagious legis-
lative irrationality Is in the air we don't know.
But we will do our best. "'Tis mad world,
my masters" But we are still sensible enough
to ask what is the meaning and what is to be
the end Of these inekcusable vagariesp Why
are the forty millions of sensible business peo-
pie who inhabit the country to be disgraced
and worried by such freaks of legislative i'm
pertinence as this2 Why is Congress to be
turned into an arena for half-cracked people to
crack bad jokes in the face Of an overtaxed
and insulted publicp Is there any remedial
agency anywhere which will stop this morbid
development of foolishness in high places
Or are we to go on until our whole public bust
ness breaks down under the weight of public
contempt Do not let anybody mistake.
There is something rotten in the state Of Den
mark when anybody going about at large can
do such thing as PROFOUND a crazy bill to
make it penal offence for government
officials to take drink. And that rotten
thing in Denmark's state was Ham
let's misfortune-a doubtful condition of
sanity-that very doubt which we are
compelled to raise about the gentleman from
Maine. In the name of the public veal we
demand that people who deal with political at
fairs should try to think soberly upon the pro-
prieties and probabilities of public life, as
they are condemned, under the heavy penal
ties of insolvency and social ostracism, to deal
soberly and decently with their private affairs.
When Mr.. Morrill, proposes to make 1t "a crime
against the peace Of society to offer the Com
mander-in-C Chief of the United States Army,
for example, glass of wine, does he not
know, to speak seriously, that he is himself
guilty of crime against human reason itself?
If he does not know it, do his constituents know
it? If they know it will they discredit them
selves and all of US by keeping such Repre-
sen tativeP If neither he nor they know 1t is
there any one who can and will teach them? ?
And if there is not what In the name of the