CHAPTER XX.--_At the Capitol._
"There is no greater monster in being than a very ill man of greatparts, he lives like a man in a palsy, with one side of him dead; whileperhaps he enjoys the satisfaction of luxury, of wealth, of ambition, hehas lost all the taste of good-will, of friendship, of innocence," saysAddison.
If this can be said of a man whose influence is of limited scope, howmuch more horrible the "palsy," the moral stagnation, of the man whosepower for good or evil extends to millions of people, to unlimited time;whose influence shall be felt, and shall be shaping the destinies ofunborn generations, after he shall be only a ghastly skeleton, a bundleof crumbling bones!
Would that the power, the wisdom, the omniscience of God had not beenrepudiated, discarded, abolished, by modern thinkers, so that now butfew feel any moral checks or dread of responsibility; for if there is tobe no final accounting, morality ceases to be a factor, there being nofear of any hereafter; and as a natural sequence, there is no remedyleft for the terrible "_palsy_." For it is a well demonstrated fact that_sense of justice_, or pure _philanthropy_, alone, is but frailreliance. Fatally has man elevated his vanity to be his deity, withegotism for the high priest, and the sole aim and object of life theaccumulation of _money_, with no thought of the never-ending to-morrow,the awakening on the limitless shore! no thought of his fellow-beingshere, of himself in the hereafter!
"It is a high, solemn, almost awful thought," says Carlyle, "for everyindividual man, that his earthly influence, which has had acommencement, will never, through all ages--were he the very meanest ofus--have an end! What is done, is done; has already blended itself withthe boundless, ever-living, ever-working universe, and will also workfor good or for evil, openly or secretly, throughout all time. The lifeof every man is as a well-spring of a stream, whose small beginnings areindeed plain to all, but whose ulterior course and destination, as itwinds through the expanses of infinite years, only the Omniscient candiscern. Will it mingle with neighboring rivulets as a tributary, orreceive them as their sovereign? Is it to be a nameless brook, and withits tiny waters, among millions of other brooks and rills, increase thecurrent of some world's river? or is it to be itself a Rhine or aDanube, whose goings forth are to the uttermost lands, its floods aneverlasting boundary-line on the globe itself, the bulwark and highwayof whole kingdoms and continents? We know not, only, in either case, weknow its path is to the great ocean; its waters, were they but ahandful, are _here_, and cannot be annihilated or permanently heldback."
But how many of the influential of the earth think thus? If only the_law-givers_ could be made to reflect more seriously, moreconscientiously, upon the effect that their legislation must have on thelives, the destinies, of their fellow-beings _forever_, there would bemuch less misery and heart-rending wretchedness in this vale of tears.Now, the law-giver is a politician, who generally thinks more of his ownpolitical standing with _other politicians_ than of the interestsentrusted to his care. To speak of constituents sounds well, but who arethe constituents? The men who govern them, who control votes, those whoguide the majorities to the polls; the politicians, who make and unmakeeach other, they are the power--the rest of the people dream that _they_are--that's all. And if these law-givers see fit to _sell themselves_for money, what then? Who has the power to undo what is done? Not theirconstituents, surely. But the constituencies will be the sufferers, andfeel all the effect of pernicious legislation.
These were George Mechlin's thoughts as he sat, with his uncle, in thegallery of the House of Representatives, listening to a debate, a fewdays after their arrival in Washington. The attention of George,however, was divided between the debate and some papers he held in hishands which a member of Congress had given him. These papers containedseveral arguments, speeches and petitions, praying Congress to aid inthe construction of the Texas Pacific Railroad, thus to help theimpoverished South to regain her strength wasted in the war. Among thesepapers there was one which more particularly arrested his attention. Itread as follows:
43d Congress, _House of Representatives._ Mis. Doc. No. 1st Session. 68. -------------------------------------------------------------------
_Central Pacific Railroad Company._
*Preamble and Resolutions submitted by* _Mr. Luttrell_.