The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-01-18
THE LATE EPIDEMIC.
THE CLAM0R FOR AN EXTRA SESSION or
THE LEGISLATURE
And Governor stones Action A bout II.

n the late epidemic of yellow fever in Missi'
t sippi. The popular idea at the time wa
0 that he ought to do something any hoy
" without regard to consequences. He wa
a called upon to lay violent hands upon tn
e State Treasury, or to pledge the State
!. 600. When it was found that he could nc
n be induced to attempt an unlawful thing Q
this kind, a powerful clamor went up TO
an extra session of the Legislature. Man,
y of the newspapers lifted their valves an,
> turned all their pressure upon him. 4
. prominent committee of citizens with
portion of the Board of Health summoned
him by telegraph from Iuka TO jackson, t.
. hear their potent reasons for some sucl
! step. This committee of respectable doc
tors and citizens seemed to have unbounded
faith in their own conclusions and powers
of persuasions and. apparently, considered
that the only thing necessary to capture the
Governor was to bring him within EN-
range Of their forcible arguments. Proba-
bly, they thought that the Governor had
never seen Mr.. Streets letter, and that the
luminous epistle that dropped off of one of
our new brick walls into the Clarion
columns from our own Conrad Lusk, had
escaped him. Perhaps, they imagined that
he didn't know that there was a dreadful
epidemic sweeping over the State, and had
never given the subject thought How
ever, when he met them to consult about it
they found that he had given to the whole
subject a tar maturer consideration than
any of them habitat he was ready to meet
them at every p int and as result of that
consultation instead of the Committee
capturing the Governor, The Governor
captured the committee.
In another place we print to-day pri-
vate correspondence between Governor
Stone and the Hon. J. H. Field, of Colum- |
bus, written, as will appear from the dates, |
about the time our trouble was greatest.
This correspondence was never intended by
either of the parties to it for publication,
and, perhaps, we violate to some extent a
trust in giving it to the public now. But
as the people want the truth. and as the
letters speak the truth, we risk the dis
pleasure of the writer's for the sake of the
sound, statesmanly, and genuinely philan-
thropic sentiments which the letters
breathe. Here will be found the reasons
why Governor Stone did not convene the t
and, in the absence of legisla- |
i've authority, was not guilty of the folly {
If attempting to use the States money. L
They are impregnable and unanswerable,
md leave nothing more to be said in his Ii
lefense on that point. t
Now let us look at the result of Governor e
stones action, and see whose head was the I
argest and whose heart was the warmest
Turing that depressing period.
If the men who clamored for the assem-
bling of the Legislature had controlled our /
lestinies at that critical juncture the men, S
'ers would have been called together in
session, and for the sake of
he argument we will suppose that quo r
UNI could have been gotten together in the t,
curse of two or three weeks, though that n
j doubtful. Then another week would go tt
y in organizing and wrangling about the st
preparation. Finally, however, we will T.,
rant, for the sake of argument only, that b
ley would have passed an act appropriate
lg $50,000 or 100000 from the State. h,
hen would have followed the selection of
sbursing committees, and this would
Ike another week. Here is a month or re
ore gone before any relief the Legisla- gu
re might have consented to give, could TT
,ssibly have reached the sufferers; mean tn
ne, the victims were dying for the want Ye
timely aid. lar
Co
All the Legislature was expected to do or era
Md have done was to appropriate some vol
ty or hundred thousand dollars, and no
is at the fearful cost of fatal delay, to eul
Y nothing of the additional cost of thirty sor
forty thousand dollars to pay the ex- mt
nses of the extra session. What sort of ter
lief could this paltry sum have given to OF
r stricken fello w-citizens? Why vicks- ii''
rg alone received from charitable sources In
arly two hundred thousand dollars. And
> received this munifcent sum as her
nts developed the need of it in time to
of solid service. Other stricken COM to
mites met with the same timely and can
and open-hearted generosity. fro
Governor Stone planted himself on the lsd
ition that the calling of an extra session fra,
the Legislature, for the purpose indica 8"
, was the most senseless and the most VIII
ell thing he could do for our suffering crea
dying people. 1t would say to the al
ritable world that the State of Missis, If !.
oi, if you gave her month to mature it wi
programme, was going to take care of scn
own sick, and thus turn the opportune
len current of God-like benevolence
y from her shores, Such aid as the
e could give would be wholly insuff> u,
Il, and 1t was startling impossibility to
cure such aid in time. 1"9
hus, by his frmness and devotion to the tho
interests of the people, as well as to dealt
Constitution and laws of the State. conn
ernor Stone saved to the sufferers in orph
sissippi hundreds of thousands of dol> ahl o'
during their distress aud shielded the eral
ayers from an additional burthen of P. NJ
q one hundred to one hundred and fifty trial
Island dollars. VI ia
Notwithstanding the result has so clearly far a.
IN the wisdom of Governor Stone in un'n
ing to convene the Legislature dur but
the dark period of the epidemic. spec Tste
} are yet parties who seem to have gener
blime faith in an extra session as r ns.t'
lacea for all ills preset or prospective a a,f
Board of Health has come to the front Irish
with a recommendation for an extra ratioT
IN to consider the subject of quaran- ness ness