Arkansas true Democrat., 1859-04-27
Geo. M Dallas on Mileage and Per Diem

and worthiness of what we have said; to learn that we have dealt in facts alone
 Geo. M. Dallas on Mileage and Per Diem.
 DEAR SIR: The question propounded to the Vice President, as president of the Se- nate by several members of that body, is one of much interest and delicacy, and 1 cannot repress my surprise at finding, that according to the researches into the jour nals, both by yourself and Mr. Hickey, no distinct and controlling decision has here tofore been made. It arises upon the con- struction of the act of Congress, passed on the 22d January, 1918. entitled '.-An act oltowing compensation to Me members ot Me Senate, members of Me House of Represen- tatices, and to Me delegates of Me territories, and repeoling aU other laacs on Mat subject,, which act is the only existing legal provi sion carrying into effect the first clause of the 9th section, of article 1st, of the con stltution towit: The Senators and Re- presentdttoes shall receiye compensation for thear servaces, 70 be oscertoined bv Iog. and pa'd out ct Me treasury of Me United States." mere were prior and temporary acts of Congress upon this subject, essentially. however, of the same character, and fur nlshlng little or no assistance in the effort to ascertain the exact meaning of the one under consideration
 .'' The act of the 22d January, ISIS, pro. vided Tn its ytrst section, that at every ses- sion of Congress and at every meeting of the Senate in the recess of Congress after the third day of March, 1S17, each Senator shall be entitled to receive eight dollars for every day he has attended or shall attend the Senate, and shall also be allowed eight dollars for every twenty miles of estimated distance by the most usual road from his place of residence to the seat of Congress at the commencement and end of every such session and meeting, and that all sums for travel already performed to be due and payable at the time of passing this act, and Tn case any member of the Senate has been IS, or shall be detained by sickness on his journey to or from such session or meetino or after his arrival has been. is, or shall be unable to attend the Senate, he shall be en. titled to the same daily allowance. And the president of the Senate pro tempore when the vice president has been or shall b. absent, or when his office shall be vacant shall, during the period of his services re- ceive in addition to his comnensation as a member of the Senate, eight dollars for every day he has attended or shall attend the Senate; Propided, always, that no Se- nator shall be allowed a sum exceeding the rate of eight dollars a day from the end of one such session or meeting to the time of his taking his seat in another Proyided also, that no Senator shall receive more for going to and returning from the meeting of the Senate on the fourth day of March last. than if this act had not been passed'
 In its Serond section, the same enactment IS repeated in reference to the members of the House of Representatives, emitting only the last proviso, which obviously was inappicabie to that branch of Congress, which had not and could not have met on the fourth of March preceding. In its h'rd section the act requires the presiding officer of the respective houses to certify the compensation due to the members. and directs thelr certificates to be passed as pub he accounts, and to be paid out of the trea- sury. In its tourh and laa section, all prior acts on the same subject are repealed from and after the 30 day of INarch last, to-wit, lSl1. Such then being the statute now Tn force, let me premise in the first place, that It IS my duty to conform strictly to its lnjunctions. 1 am not at liberty to construe 1t away in order to introduce an- other more narrow or more liberal system Ii assured of its meaning, l must abide by that, be the consequences what they may. In the second place 1t is proper to say, that l concelve the action or certificate of the presiding officer on the amount of compen- satlon payable to each member at the expi- ration ot every session of Congress, to be in the nature of an irreversible judgment and the acceptance by any member of the adJudicated amount without protest to be in the nature of an estoppel, precluding all subsequent claim
 These views arise as well from the phra- seology of the act of Congress as from the peculiar nature of the subject, which in great measure, must turn upon the contem- poraneous personal representations of each misunderstanding the presiding officer from creating complicated and minute is sues of tact--such as relate to attendance distance, sickness, etc., at least beyond those generally notorious. In the third place, the second proyiso in the recited act does not, Tn my opinion, throw the least light upon its true interpretation Before the 4th of March, 1877, the rate of daily pay and mileage was sir dollars; and Con- gress Tn legsating on the 18th January. 1918, to etgM dollars from and after the Sd of March, 1877, by this proviso, only guarded against the increase being made applicable to the mileage of Senators who convened at the called session on the 4th of March. No doubt, at that session. there were new Senators not previously members of either house of Congress; they had gone to and returned from the meeting of the Senate III the expectation of receiving only the then legal rate of mileage, and without deciding whether there was any difference in the rule as to new and old Senators, or what Senators were entitled to mileage, and what not, Congress simply by the proviso, excluded any Senator of that past special session from receiving the augmented rate.
 With these preliminary remarks, I pur- sue the main inquiry, in order to reach nv conclusions. The act of Congress has for its object Compensation. In providing for that it was impossible to do more or wiser than to prescribe clear and compre- hensive rule. It involved necessarily very many considerations which could not be set out in the law; and the rate and conditions.