The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
End of the Infamous Forty-second
Congress.

COAA CS-
The forty second Congress expired at
noon on th e 4th inst Within the last
che hundred and fifty years, says the n.
Y. Sun, there have been more famous
legislative bodies than this, but we do not
remember one more infamous There
were console nGOus gentlemen in the SON
ate and in the House; but prima tacje
the case is against the whole of them,
and till the close Of the present century
membership in that Congress will, in the
estimation Of the general public, throw
upon the incumbent the burden of PROV
ing that he was not a dishonest man.
The entire term Of this Congress has
been characterized by series Of disrep~
utable transactions which have no paral-
lei in our History. We went through all
the temptations Of the war without seeing
anything so outrageous a the doings of
the two Houses over which Schuyler Col
fax and James g. Blaine have now rre~
sided. Amid the ething mass Of these
transactions, perhaps the two which will
hereafter loom up the most conspicuOusly
| and be the longest remembered are, first
and chiefly, that though some twenty
mem bers of the two Houses were proven
/ before lenient committees of the one
/ House or the other to have been guilty of
/ fraud, bribery and corruption, and of
/ double dealing and rank perjury in vain
/ forts 20 explain their Offenses, not one
| of them was expelled, only TWO, and they
| on false pretPnses, were mildly rebuked,
while the rest were whitewashed ever till
their reputation shone again; and, sec
| ondlv, that after this scandaIous betrayal
| of their trusts, the two Houses filled up
the measure of their iniquity. by voting
themselves large increase Of their SAL
aries, not excepting the disgraced mem
| bers, whom even Ben Butter thought so
infamous that they ought to be indicted
by the Grand Jury and sent by the petit
| jury to the penitentiary.
The Forty second Congress As its
members sneak home with the money Of
the people lining their pockets, even boys
at their marbles in the street will point
to them, one saying to his cOmTade,
| "There goes "A member of the FOTth-seC-
ond Congress- and the cOmrade, not
deigning to raise his eyes from his play,
will respond, "And Of course ii thiefI'
This has been Secor RObeson's Con
gress,
This has been brother>in law Casey >
Congress.
This has been brazen-b;owed Pinch~
backs Congress
This has been drunken Judge Dureil's
Congress.
This has been the Congress of the
French arms swindle.
This has been the Congress Of Grant S
New York Custom house whitewashing.
This is the Congress which looked ap-
provingly upon HarIan's acceptance of
Durant's checks for $4,000 to aid him
. | in yoI1rob sine his EpuqtOrIaI Saat
This is the Congress which saw Ben
Butler overawe one Of its committees be-
cause it allowed to be proven that Ben
took $40 600 from the Union Pacific
Railroad Tor drawing up contract
This Is the Congress which has con
doned Colfax' perjury.
This Is the Congress which let Pomer0y
out at the back door Of the Independence
bank dodge.
This is the Congress which furnished
Professor Patterson with coating o
whitswash to 20 home in-but very tbin
though.
This is the Congress- which, in face o
the damning proofs Of Senator Clayton
frauds, said to that shameless scouudrel
''Weil done, good and faithful servaGtn
5 This Is the Congress- v hich dared no
turn out Caldwell for buying his seat il
the senate because JHe senate ISdFel tiid
in response to nearly every vote in th'
affirmative, the culprit would rise up an
? say, " ou re another =
/ This is the Congress which bound tbs
, sins and iniquities Of Colfaz, PatteI
Allison, Logan, Wilson, Kelley, Dawes
Blaine, Bingham Garfield, Scoheld, anc
we know not how many other tainted
] Senators and Representatives, uIOH tn,
2 shoulders of Cakes Amcs and Jane
, Brooks, with intent to send them a
scapeguats into the wilderness, but ia3ley
Z to do so because it turned out that tier,
} were not enough virtuous members in TIA
? I House to expel the corrupt ones.
This Is the Congress which great rail
way corporations owned and used rs thei
needs required, and which a venal iobb.
} | bought and sold day by day.
This IS the Congress which soma Ma
D., cauleY of the next century viii descTib
as more infamous than that ParIiamen
which originated Law 5 celebrated Mis-
T sissippi scheme, and more corrup, tina
q those ParIiames.ts 77h:ch Walpole used {
purchase as he bought Merino sheep an
II Flanders mares to stock his estates il
d Sussex
l. In Gne, this is the Congress which tn
American PEOPLE, as the clock struc
taelve, hOoted ou5of the Capitol