The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-24
THE DUTIES OF A REPRESENTATIVE.
From the NJ Y. Tribune.

RTO7n INe ~ H I7tOU4le-
Judge Kelley is entitled to the public graft
tude for fresh protest against that theory,
express or implied, which would make mem
Der of Congress the newer of Congressional
wood and the drawer of Capitoline water for
every man, woman, and child in his district
Among these labors, as Mr.. Kelley states it,
is that 'of finding places for all unemployed
people of both sexes known to the member
and promotion for all ambitious or discon
tented employees of the Government" He
tells us (what indeed we knew before) that
''this practice of sending people to their
Congressional representatives for employ
ment has become so common as to be insult
ferable"
The member has to read and presently
consider all the notes which fifty or five hun
dred ''good hearted people Gas Mr.. Kelley
calls them) see fit to write setting forth the
patriotism, the virtue, the fidelity and the
capacity of the ofice-seeker who brings it.
These patrons at home fancy that the patron
in Washington has only to ask for others, and
others will receive. He is the dispenser of
all manner of work, for all degrees of COM
pensation, which the Government may have
to do. We can fancy the extreme distraction
of his fate. Every morning the mendicants
are knocking at his gate They follow him to
the Capitol: they arrest him in the vestibule;
they seek him in the committee-room; they
send pages to call him from his seat; they dis
turb his dinner, and they make his evening a
season of labor instead of needed rest. If he
could do what he is asked to do, and, notably,
if he knew the secret of giving the same place
to twenty different people, his sorrow would
be mitigated one. But the age of miracles
has passed. The poor member cannot feed
all these hunary folk upon the limited num-
Der of loaves and fishes at his command
Frequently nothing may be left him to
distribute, save the stones of disappointment,
or, paternal as may be his feeling for his con-
stituents, the serpents of denial. But Mr..
Kelley is less severe upon those poor people
who bring the notes of recommendation, than
upon those who write them and who should
better understand what Congressman can
do, and what is utterly out of his power. He
speaks feelingly of the bitter disappointment
which this facility of careless Endorsement
often occasions, and declares that, for one, he
is unwilling to be a party to such u practice.
II the convention which may nominate him
will pass resolution approving q proper
Civil Service bill, and 'instructing the can
didate to make it his rule of action, if
elected, he is willing again to be candidate
We suspect that these are the first notes of
protest of which we shall, sooner or later,
hear good deal more. The evil indicated is
rapidly assuming such great proportions that
Congressional flesh and blood will not be able
to stand it forever, especially as it is an evil
which unless cured must of necessity in
crease. Senators, holding their offices by a
different tenure, can afford to be little in
dependent; but Representatives are compare
lively the ephemera of Congress, and are NO
sooner warm in their seats than they are in
danger of losing them. 1t would be great
relief to them, it would be of great political
benefit to the people of the whole country, il
it could once for all be understood that, by
the terms of the Constitution, Representa-
tives are elected not to be claim-agents, office
brokers, and attorneys for everybody, but
after due consideration, to enact wholesome
and necessary laws, and to repeal those which
are unwholesome and unnecessary.