Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I suppose we nre as competent to decide upon the question now as we shall be after it has been referred to the ComFinance. The 2 cases to which I have called the attention of the Senate my friendfrom Illinois has not noticed. One was an act passed in 1827, giving $20,000 for the relief of sufferers from a fire in Alexandria, and the other was an act passed I in 1812 appropriating $50,000 for the relief of Q sufferers by an earthquake in Venezuela, at Caraccas, I think, and 0th hills passed, as far as I can see, without any objection. The principle is precisely the same. My friendfrom Illinois I have no doubt opposes this bill upon what he considers to be grounds of duty; but he could not help thinking, when making the objection, that perhaps he had himself recommended legislation which was as obnoxious to objection as this could be. He recommended the Freedmen‘s Bureau bill, and we have passed it. That provides for the education and the maintenance of colored people and refugees, and, instead of taking $50,000. perhaps it will take some 20 millions. My friend has no doubt as to the constitutionality of that measure or as to the expediency of that measure, and the other day he voted, and a majority of the Senate voted for a continuance of that bureau for 2 years after the period when it would have expired by the original limitation. I am not finding faultwith the motive of that; but I say that if there ever was a case ofcliarity, one resting alone upon the motives that influence us in doing acts of charity, that was one. Now, I want to know if that law was right, if that law was expedient, why it is not equally right and expedient that we should relieve these people? I know that we cannot provide for all the people who suffer loss by fire. I‘here must be some mode of distinguishing between the cases. This is a loss by fire such as never occurred anywhere else. It is a loss, the sufferings caused by which cannot be provided for, and hardly mitigated. by individual contributions of citizens of the State in which it occurred. Millions upon millions of property have been destroyed; everything belonging to the people themselves has been destroyed and they left penniless and Houselcss upon the world, and looking to charity alone to relieve them from the calamity which Providence has seen proper to involve them in. It seems to me, Mr. President, to be right in itself, to be what the Government should delight to do if it has the power to do it, that we should contribute in this way. We see now that the individual contributions that are being made throughout the country are very inade quate to the wants of the people. Most of the insurance, I understand, was in the local offices, and the loss was so extensive that many of the offices may fail to respond. At any rate, the insurance will be paid to the owners of the houses who are, perhn s, able to bear the loss; but there are thousau s and 1000s of co ple there without a dollar, as I understan.I see no necessit for referring the bill to the ComFinance in any event, however, and I hope the Senate will act on it at once without a reference.