Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-05-05
SALARIES OF GOVERNMENT OFFICERS
AT THE DISTRICT PENITENTIARY.

having always been satShed from your disan.
terested editorials that you were tho unterri-
fed champions for the rights of the poor man,
permit me. through your columns, to inquire
whence and why such uncharitabie discrimi-
tions as those which characterized the passage
by Congress of the late Clerks Relief Bill
do not wish to be understood as maligning the
motives of that distinguished body, but must
be permitted to say, that if, as they represent
ed, they partcok Of that pure, disinterested,
been imputed to them, they have most signal
ly failed in accomplishing that object. Philan-
thropy, sirs, viewed, as I have always been
taught, in its most narrow sense, implies q
natural desire to mitigate and soften, irrespec-
tive of sects, classes, or conditions-the suffer-
iugs and Affections incident to life. Poverty,
l contend, is an affection and naturally pro-
dnces suffering; and, here | would ask, is
philanthropy the relative import, and are
these the legitimate constructions implied in
the bill? / answer, no-its only application
was to benefit the clerks, with the few poor
messengers, laborers, and watchmen, whose
duties were so intimately connected with those
of the clerks and other employees that to sink
the one and swim the other would have been
preposterous-worthyo of the days of Nero; and,
therefore, have justly met with the indignant
| rebuke of the people. Was not, sirs, the first
bill (that Of 1852 more than tainted with such
| anti-republIcan feelings and spirit; and, al
| though the doctrine is admitted that the la
borer is worthy of his hire, have they received
| the same justice with the clerks, in having had
melted out to them so generally, even in the
same departments, an advance Of pay common
surate with the enormous expenses of living
l again answer, no-and it was not until the
present bill of 1854 was brought mp for the
special relief of the clerks that. stimulated BIZ
previous injustice, they held meetings, and set
forth their wrongs and grievances, in the form
of memorials, to Congress, praying the same
relief that they were thought of, or cared for
| Well the bill eventually passed, compromising
more generally and with less distinction, which,
SO far as it goes, is worthy of an American
| Congress-; but yet, in my judgment, it still re-
mains, so far as justice makes right, in stain
quo. They seemed, to the last, disposed to
avoid, by the most adroit and shrewd man
ner of parliamentary legislation. the main
features of the bill, by excluding a Dor.
| ton of the mos5 meritofious and self
sacrificing Government employees here in
Washington, simply because some technical
phrases relative to the implied duties (not
powers) of Congress, with that of their natural
reserved mOdesty in for bearing to be impOrtu-
nate and troublesome. Then where, ask, is
the conceded magnanimity, it, as l bell eve. it
was designed, when first reported to the Senate,
to benefit all alike? Then, like Esaus birth
right, the true merits of the bill has been sac
rihced for mere mess of pottage, for the few
hundred dollars saved thereby, will never add
much to their fame as legislators But this
poor deluded portion, whose anchor of hope
was their unbounded confidence in this mis-
judged philanthropy, are now told that be-
cause their duties do not come directly under
the nose of the Heads of the DEPARTMENTS or
that the regulation Of their pay is left to the
option, as it may be, of q corrupt aggrandize-
ing and parsimoniOus superintendent, he IS to
be, and must be, prescribed. Are these the
primitive doctrines of republicanism? If so,
The glorious Magma Charta for which our
fathers offered up their lives, fortunes, and
their sacred honor, is, and should be- pro
nounced forgery, and the wild Arab of the
desert may with propriety laugh US to scorn
| as being more just than we are. What be.
comes of the poor guards and watchmen I'M
der this bill, whose time is wholly devoted,
and whose lives are perilled in guarding the
peace and interests Of society, by holding in
duraRce the murderer, incendiary and bur
glar! yea, the piratical mutineer Of the high
seas, and highway mail r0bber pests at least
if not terrors, to society. What becomes, I
again ask. of the officers who have the safe
| keeping of such spirits as these committed to
them, and who are now confined within the
walls of the only United States Jail and peni.
tertiary here in Washington Does not Con.
gress legislate for their Government. Did
hui cStdDiISu d COUe OF laws ana rules
for their discipline? and are not the officers
of said prison amenable to the laws of Con-
gress even by Imprisonment for the prisoners
safe Keeping and proper government? and
lastly do they not come directly under the
supervision ofthe Interior Department? Why
then, use the false and flimsy argument fol
the mere purpose Of prescribing them, that
Congress does not regulate their pay false
and fimsy as applicable to the penitentiary
| hac1nSa frnv 70 ~
to the present indefatigable incumbent, have
In their annual reports represented strongly
their very Intricate and complicated duties to
the favorable consideration of Congress with.
out effect; and one (hOnOr to his name) made
himself a martyr in their cause having been
ruthlessly removed from Office. But no ways
daunted, each OF his successors have gloried
In doing justice to merit by appealing annu.
ally to their sense OF justice in their officers
behalf, uttering no complaints on their part
they contented themselves with hoping on
thinking that the magnanimity of a generous
Congress would at least let one day be arrest
ed in their favor. But their beacon, as thew
believed the last bill to be, has proved but q
delusive phantom, and they are now forced to
exciaim, Oh. consistency. theu art jewel ~
" shame, where is thy blush' Is it not evident
to any rational mind. from the wranging and
clubbing disposition NANTES ed by certain
members during the passage of the bill, and
upon the most minor points, that they designed
to defeat it in tntoto; or, have it to suit th cir
own selfish views in excluding from its benefits
a portion Of the most worthy, and that, too, in
the face OF the fact, that but few hundred
dollars would be saved thereby when thous.
ands, yea, millions. of the public treasury, is
squandeTed recklessly for naught but ambi-
tious purposes. Yes, "Tell it not in Gath
publish it not in the streets of Askelon" Is
il doing justice to those superintendent, such
as the Board Of Inspectors to the Penitentiary
in whom Congress has delegated the power OF
fixing salaries, by holding them responsible
| when their recommendations and applications
to Congress for appropriations to justify them
in such benevolence, meet no other acceptance
at their hands than as always with the very
ungenerOus argument that the institution
should support itself? Even after every board
and warden have most lucidly and triumph
antly explained the reasons why such results
cannot be, by reference to the present war
dens first annual report, which does infinite
credit to the head rs well as the heart, he en-
tiers into the most minute details for their in
formation, and concludes by making simple
but feeling appeal for the relief of his officers.
Has that appeal been answered? When Col
Dade was warden, after making similar inef-
fectual appeals to Congress in their behalf,
always being answered, why don't you make
the place support itself? he at last thought
that he would try the courage of the board Of
inspectors, who had frequently expressed the
| will but Congress having acted so nars;mon;