Year: 1877

Iuo lcTrlLOTlaI Legislature au-
thorizing the several counties to
take stock, in a specified amount,
in the Seattle and Walla Walla
Railroad, provided majority OF
the voters in each county shall
so determine by their suffrages.
AS rule, we are opposed to the
principles of this bill; to the CO.
partnership of the government
in enterprises under the control
of private corporations; to re-
cognizing the right of the major
ity to compel the minority to in
vest their own private means in
stock or contribute to the capital
of an Incorporated company
This is safe and salutary rule;
but like most good rules in the
uncertain conditions of human
affairs, at times the exception be-
comes the paramount law, and
the higher law of self-preserva-
tion-the law of necessity, to
which all other laws are subser-
vient-rightfully prevail. In
the conditions of war, civil laws
are silent; the rights of person
and property guaranteed to eve
ry citizen by the government,
must be held subordinate to the
public defence, and both person
and property liable to conscrip-
ton and seizure by arbitrary
power. These are among the
exceptional conditions of organ
lied society, and the necessity Of
transcending the abstract rules
of personal rights are liable to
occur under civil as well as mil
ltary rule; the condemnation Of
private property for public uses;
the destruction of private prop
erty to stay the devastation Of
fire or the spread of disease, are
acts which can only be justified
by the higher law of necessity.


We are willing to endorse the
Act authorizing a majority of
the voters of each county to tax
the property of the same, believ-
ing it to be fully justified by the
higher law OF necessity; as a ne
cessary means Of repelling inva-
sion and defending the rights of
the people against common en-
envy.


, Our Territory is divided into
two nearly equal parts by nat
ural barrier which can only be
overcome by artificial means,
and the project which this Act
is intended to aid, is the only
one which promises any practi-
cal result to that end. Without
it our political unity will be but
the shackles which hold two dis
cordant bodies, with seperate in
terests and intercourse, in bond
age to each other, each RESPONSE
BILE for the acts of the other
without any community of inter
ests, which must inevitably re-
suit in interminable envy, jeal-
ousy, pickering and strife, fatal
to the general prosperity of the
commonwealth. This thorough
fare would form a ligiment Of
perpetual unity between the now
divided sections, a main artery
of personal and commercial in
tereourse, and the facilities for
commercial interchange such as
is are enjoyed by no other rail
road of the same length upon
the continent; opening the i'm
mense gram and grazing fields
of Eastern Washington to a con-
venient market, and furnishing
to that section what it most
needs, lumber and fuel from our
inexhaustible forests and coal
fields, at reasonable rates, thus
developing resources of com
mercial wealth possessed by the
Territory of Washington to a
greater extent than any other
State or Territory in the Union.


The common enemy of the
whole Territory, whose hostile
actions and designs have created