Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1876-01-16
THE DEBATE ON THE AMNESTY
BILL.

Mr.. Blame IS the anu
official leader of the Republican side
of the House of Representatives. His
speech on Tuesday may, according to
all presidents of political interpreta-
ton, Re regarded as an exposition of
the probable programme of he Re-
publican party during the approach
ing campaign. 1t is only in this view
that the speech appears of national im-
portance. From any other stand
point it seems but the impotent and
vindictive utterance of a defeated par
tisan. But as a declaration by the
chosen Republican leader of the prin-
ciples animating the Republican party,
it deserves consideration. The reply
of Cox was unanswerable and worthy
of its author; but it was reserved to
Hill, of Georgia, in a speech worthy OF
the great days of American eloquence,
to exhibit in a proper light the utter
talsehood of the charges preferred by
Blaine against the Southern people
upon the ground of inhumanity to
prisoners during the civil war.
If Blaine be regarded as the ex-
ponent Of his party, it is evidently the
purpose of the Republicans in the
coming cam paign to keep open the
"bloody chasm'' and to refuset to shake
hands across it; to appeal for the sake
of party success to the bitter passions
which were aroused during years of
in~ternecine strife; and again to sum-
mon from the Vastly deep the evil
spirit of sectional hate which all good
men had hoped was buried beyond the
possibility Of a resurrection.
But we have an idea-we al
most call it a hope-that in
reopening the old Andersonville
sore Blaine was actuated more by mo-
tives of personal ambition than ofpoliti-
cal expediency. He must have knows;
any one 1t all conversant with the af-
fairs during the last years OF the re-
.bellion must have known, that the tri-
umphant reply would be made that
General Grant, by reason of his per-
sistent refusal to permit an exchange,
wa at least the secondary cause of the
unavoidable sufferings of u prison
ers in Confederate hands. We make
no charge against Grant fol b course.
1t was inhuman beyond all doubt, but
all war is or ought to be inhuman-
and it won. He must have known that
Grant, with all the discipline of the
Government offices and of the rings at
his service, and with the solid negro
vote of the South under his control. is
his most dangerous opponent for the
Republican presidential nominations;
and knowing this he sought to cast, at
second hand, an odium upon Grant
that lie (Blaine) may succeed. In this
effort to put an end to all third-term
aspirations, we sincerely hope he has
been successful; but we also believe
he has committed political hari-kari,
and that his presidential hopes are bur
led in the grave with those ghouls Of
fable who prey upon the bodies of tie
dead for their CHASTITY food.
THE recent agitation of the question
pertaining to the taxation of church
property has brought out some facts
and figures pertaining to the total val
nation OF this branch of property in
the United States, which in 1870 was
about S354,4S3, 5S1, and to which about
ten per cent. may now be added. The
amount is thus classified among the
different religious denominations:
Methodists, 500, 1854, 12l; Catholics, $780,
9s5,566; Presbyterians, S54, 800, 900:
Baptists, Sal 500, 900; Episcopalians,
S36, 5l4,5io; Congregationalists, $780,
069,699, and so on-Protestants own
ing five. sixths of the whole.