Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-04-18
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.


be passed as it came fromathe Senate, without
debate. Mr.. Jones, of Tennessee, however,
obtained the floor subsequently, on motion
to reconsider, and made an able speech against
the measure, and was followed by Mr.. Cling
man, who also addressed the House with great
earnestness against it. These two speeches-
there being none in reply-lost it few votes,
doubtless It was however, the part of wis
dom in its friends, who were in decided ma
iority, to refuse to waste the time of the House
in the work of making assurance douby sure,
by speechifying at that season.-W hen-they
adjourned for the day, il was evidentthat there
was clear majority in the hall for the enact
ment of the bill, as 1T came from the Senate;
that is, in the only form SO far suggested, in
which it can possibly give the relief it proposes
to accord to the under-paid employees in the
Executive Departments in Washington. With
many, who are to be provided for in the origi-
nal Senate's bill, it is simply a question of a
su6aciency of5read, their present pay for serv-
ing the Government being in some instances
less than the pay which day laborers in Fri
vate employ, are now receiving here; and in
others, less than that which the good sense and
proper feeling of private employers in Wash
ington, induce them Tin these days Of high
prices of all the necessaries of life in this i'm
mediate section of country to accord to jour
neymen engaged in various mechanical call
ings. We may add further, that the prices Of
days work in various callings which now rule
here, rule everywhere, within, say 100 mics
of Washington, the cost Of living having ad-
vaneed similarly everywhere around us. ...
So far as the proposed increase of the
Clerks pay is concerned, we have to say that
the duties required Of them are important,
demanding the application of talents and at
tainments pro rata with their respective
grades, in the public service. More or less of
the Clerks, whose pay it is proposed to raise
thus, to meet the current scale Of the prices
of living, discharge the duties, practically, of
| jurists; and, Others of accountants cempe-
tent to the management Of the most intricate
and extensive commercial concerns. All OF
them ELL positions wherein want of due
fidelity to their trusts must work incalculable
injury to the public service. To continue t.
pay them salaries, insufficient in these times
for the proper support of their families, will
be paying premiums for infdelity to thei
respective trusts-the poorest possible econo-
my, as members of Congress will realize on q
moments reflection. 7sas5 .l5.-ssa-s ...E
As for the messengers and laborers provided
for in the bill from the Senate whose very
| a. fho 1hufifS, 4 for
ten, we repeat, the question in their case i,
simply one of sufhciency of bread for thei
families; appealing strongly, indeed, to the
sense of justice of the representatives Of the
people. The latter are all we'll aware tina,
they are almost all of them very poorly paid
at eight dollars per diem and mileage. MOI
one in twenty of them are able to save six
pence out of their receipts from the Nationa
Treasury, without pinching themselves We
doubt not but that q large majority thinI
with us, that the public interest would b,
eminently subserved by increasing their owl
we can perceive, principally by the pre-
vailipg impression that it would be exceed
ingly difficult to explain to their respective
constituencies the fact that member of Con
gress can barely live in Washington ON eish
dollars per diem; though all realize in Their
respective pockets, the force of this truth.
As the bill came from the Senate, it accord:
than rule at this IN the pa pay 81 per
sons in private employment, laboring a,
faithfully, and discharging similar grades o.
services. We regard" it as unnn ecessary IL
waste words on the subject, the verify of the
facts, as we state them, Being so plain, thai
all may easily understand them who will.
The Hon. Thomas D. Eliot, who yesterday
took his seat in the House of Representatives
having been elected to ell the vacancy from
the First Congressional District of Massachu
sets, caused by the resign alton of the Hon
Zeno Scudder, was reared in this city He is
the eldest son Of our former highly esteemed
fellow citizen, the late Wm. G. Eliot, for SO
many years one Of the principal clerks of the
Post Office Department. Mi T. D. Elio. came
to this city from Boston, his native city. J
when quite young, and grew to mans estate
here. He studied his profession (the law H.
the Office of the late Richard Wallach, ESQ.
having for his fellow student the Hon. John
L. Taylor, Of Ohio. These gentlemen on being
| admitted to the bar of the United States Cir
cult Court in this city, separated to seek Their
fortunes, one going West, and the other East
They thus meet again to renew their old as
sociations, in the House of Representatives Of
the United States
The Rsjec ton Of the Gadsden Treaty has
been anticipated here by all well-informed
persons since the adjournment over OF the
Senate on Thursday afternoon last We have
| written 30 much on the subject, that We see no
propriety in numbering our columns with fur
Their speculations as to the causes producing
this result Eighteen Senators have, in the
exercise of their constitutional preIogatve,
chosen to take the responsibility of refusing to
settle all the questions at this time, which
may not long hence result in another Mexican
I" ar, and the acquisition of another large slice
Of our neighbor's territory, by the way Of in
demnity. -s.5 l..r --.f. (.
Nwar eventuates from the current Mesilla
Valley dispute, land he who fails to recognise
fhA AL