Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-02-24
Gureka Dailp 5entinel.
SUNDAY. ........F FEBRUARY "a. 1884
A NICE

luton approprlating @ovo,voo y = ~
lief of sufferers by the Ohio Hood! These
are their names:
Beach Of N. Y. Oates Oh Aia.
Bennett OF N. G. Ranney OF Mass.
Cox of N. Z. tucker OF va
Hewitt Of Ala. Wise OF va.
Lanham OF Tex. woodward OF "is'
Mcmillan of Tenn. York of N. q.
Thew deserve honor, because, knowing
their duty, they did it under circum-
stances that made fidelity peculiarly
difficult.
If the proposal had been that each Of
the three hundred and twenty-five men,
beers of the House should personally con.
tribute a thousand dollars for the relief
of the homeless people in the Ohio val.
lev, possibly these IL Congressman would
have been as quick with their pocket.
books as their colleagues who answered
the appeal for charity by voting away
other peoples money. =,
But that was not the proposal. The
two hudred and twenty-three members
who responded with a~lacrity to the cry
of distress by voting other peoples
money knew as well as did the IL that
there was no warrant in the Constltu-
ton for the appropriation. Mr.. Follett
of Ohio, who introduced the resolution,
declared that necessity knows neither
law nor Constitution" Hiscock, who
voted for the resolution, declared that If
the proposal came from his W State he
should vote against it. Mr.. Eaton OF
Connecticut, who voted for the resolu-
ton, admitted that he had grave doubts
about its constitutionality. MIR. Cox OF
New York, who voted for the resolution,
believed that the appropriation ''should
have PASSED in silence, and if there was
any breach of the Constitution God
Almighty, in His kindness, would par
don it," What an extraordinary doc
trine from a legislator Of Mr.. Cox's expert
ence and intelligence!
There is not a member OF the House
who does not know that Congress has no
more right to take $500, 600 out of the
Treasury for the benefit OF the unfortu-
mates in the Ohio valley than it has to
appropriate 500, 900 to relieve cases OF
restitution in the Sixth Ward of New
York City, or to appropriate $4,000
for the widow of the victim OF a railroad
disaster in Illinois, or to vote $1,000 to
pay a consumptive's expenses from Maine
to Florida.
Yet it appears that with only IL Rep.
resentatives was the sense of duty
stronger than the fear Of unpopularity.
The IL were right. The two hundred
and twenty.three were wrong.-New
York Sun.
This presents a very nice question for
the moralists to chew the cud over. The
gentlemen who voted no will delight
that school of ethical philosophers who
hold that expediency is gross and never
enters into questions of conscience's But
this conscience is a vague thing, and the
hair-splitters disagree because they can't
agree on a definition of it.
This little country paper, which makes
no ~pretensions to any mental strength
beyond a wholesome use of the fine
senses, common sense, that without
which a man is said to be non compos
mentis, subscribes to to the opinion OF
the great metropolitan luminary in this,
that the negative voters are men of pro-
nounced and immovable convictions OF
right under their oath as representatives
of the people, sworn to carry out the
law as it is. The only thing that weakens
our faith In their honesty is that the
great majority of them are men from the
South
.'The two hundred and twenty-three
were wrong" Yes, perhaps So; but men
can afford to be wrong in the abstract,
when. in acting, they give voice to the
heart of over so, OOO, 900 people. Those
men who did wrong supplied bread to
the hungry and blankets to the cold.
They did not do it with their own
money. They could not have done ii
with their own money If they had
wanted to, for the simple reason that
they had not their own money to give,
except in driblets. The occasion called
Tor a grand charity purse, wlthout an
hours delay. The IL who voted no did
s'right" and the 223 who voted yes did
wrong" judged by inexpedient ethics.
The former voted for morality, the latter
for humanity. The former acted upon
nice appreciation of abstract principle,
the latter upon an emergency which
knocks niceties on the head and makes
the natural impulse of pity superior in
the human breast. The former judged
for themselves, the latter vigorously for
a sympathetic nation.
May the human 223 live forever. May
the philosophic IL never die.