The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-12-10

nlcation irVAn one OF our W aGhlngt0n correspond
ents, pictu ing the lobby agent system carried
on in the halls OF legislation, and describing the
cbaTacte rstics Of the various classes of operators
REQ lily time that the people Of the United States
should. fully comprehend the mode in which their
interests are sacrificed at Washington, and should
insist upon the publication of both houses Of Con-
| gees from the communicating influences which
new beset them. We do, and shall continue to
do, our duty in the premises, by exposing and
calling public attention to the state of things in
I Washington, because the mode in which tle Of
fairs of the nation are transacted there is at
once prejudical to its interests and disgraceful
TO its republican institutions
This lobby agent system which we have been
exposing is OF modern origin and growth. When
we were in the habit Of attending the sessions Of
Congress, several years ago, it was then unknown
tr if practised at all, it was in such compare
lively insignificant manner as not to attract at
enton. 1t is within the last eight or ten years,
| perhaps, that the lobby has become a
recognized power in the State, and it
within the last four or five that it
has assumed it's present large and alarming pro-
| portions If allowed to continue and progress as
it has done, the legislation Of the country will be,
ere long, not in the hands OF the peoples repre-
sentatives, but in the hands of the lobby. We
are already indeed, upon the very verge of that
condition. For the last two or three sessions,
most of the measures that have been carried
through Congress particularly those wherein
private or corporate interests were affected-have
| owed their success more to the efforts of the
lobby than to their inherent merits. In fact, to
| such pass have we come, that in the House of
| Representatives, the lobby, and those whom it
succeeds in enlisting, are generally able to pre-
| vail over the honest, incoruptible members
and private claims and railroad grants, however
fraudulent in their conception, are carried
through in spite Of the efforts of the minority,
which is composed principally of Southern repre-
sentatives At the present session the combination
is so great particularly in reference to the Pacific
Railroad scheme-that there is but a slight
prospect Of the minority being able to oppose a
successful resistance to their efforts and it will
not be at all surprising if the footing up of the
measures OF this session should show loss to the
country, in public lands and otherwise, of three
or four hundred millions of dollars. If such
should unfortunately be the result it will be attri
butable for the most part to the liberation and
encouragement which have been given to those
land sharks at Washington.
1t is difficult now to rid ourselves of this incu-
bus which preys upon the nation and is sapping
away the vitality of our institutions. As we
have said, the lobby has become power in the
State. Its baneful influences permeate and cor
rupt every branch of the national govern
ment except, perhaps, the judiciary and even that
may fall before it if its progress be not at once
arrested. In Washington the patronage of the
lobby enters into the calculations Of the hotel
keepers even for more than does that of the men,
beers of both houses. The lobby member when
in pursuit OF high game is most lavish in his ex-
pendtures He occupies the best parlors in
the hotels, gives sumptuous aud costly enter
tainments, and is most liberal in his wine orders
The proprietors OF those miserable caravansaries
known as the National and Wizards, would de-
plore the worst fortune that could beiall their
business any change by which an estopel would
be placed on the operations OF lobby agents so
too, would many Of those INDECENT and corrupt
politicians from the Northern and Western
nothing more than a capital opportunity TO make
a fortune. To them lobby agents are the springs
ard sources of wealth. The operation is simple.
They have merely 10 vote for the renewal of this
or that patent-the passage Of this or that bill,
granting large gratuities TO contractors, or lands
to speculative railroad companies, and the quid
pro quo is conveyed in such a delicate and uneom-
promising manner as will leave the member a.
liberty to answer satisfactorily any impertinent
question which investigating committees may
proponnd.
Why will the people elect to Congress, as they
do, men whom they would be 10th to employ In
airy office OF trust in their own business! Why
will they send there The nominees OF corrupt par
ty organizations who have only brains
enough to be petty politicians. and too little re-
gard for integrity 10 care about even the reputa
ton Of honestly OF course, 20 long as the people
vote for such representatives, so long will the
lobby increase aud flourish. The wonderful
prosperity Of the country at large the ease with
which some lucky individuals have rapidly at
tanned immense fortunes through business or
speculation-tbe immense impetus that our trade
and commerce have received particularly stree
the acquisition Of California, have created on all
sides morbid desire for wealth and a prop r.
tional regardlessness Of the means by which
that wealth is TO be acquired. Our North
ern and Western representatives are, for
the most part, men who have the orran
OF acquistiveness inordinately developed aud
so they seem pretty unanimously resolved to
make hay while the sun shines.
The trifing compensation Of $4,000 year,
attached to their position representatives, j. al
together insufficient TO support their families in
Washington in the style in which they are CON-
PEELED to live. Few business or professional men
would be content with such an income The
member Of Congress who has 70 depend on bis