American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-08-02
The Fuss Over the Pork.

Once upon time, as tradition reports,
there lived worthy Israelite who was
tormented by hankering after the for
hidden food. At last, his curiosity and
appetite got the better of his religious
principles; he ordered a pork-chop for
dinner. Absorbed in the sinful delight
full repast, he did not notice the approach
of a thunderstorm. Suddenly loud clap
set the windows rafting. dropping his
knife and fork in panic Holy Abraham"
he exclaimed, what fuss about little
piece of pork"
A good many honorable Senators and
Representatives regard the storm of pop
ular indignation now blowing with very
much the same feeling. They are scared,
but they are also aggrieved. They find it
quite uncalled for and out of all proper
ton to the exciting cause. RecOllecting
their many previous visits to the public
pork-barrel, the much bigger loads logged
away on those occasions, the utter indif-
ference displayed by the people, this hue
and-cry over the salary grab, actually
seeming to grow louder from month to
month, puzzles quite as much as it alarms
them. They had not counted on it at all,
and they find it very unreasonable and
absurd. "What a fuss about little piece
of pork,' says General Butler in his
famous postage-stamp letter. 'What a
fuss about little piece of pork echoes
Senator Carpenter in his GAINESVILLE speech.
In all the published apologies and de-
lenses, we detect this sense of injury, this
accent of complaint and remOnstrance.
Putting ourselves in their place, looking
at the matter from their point of view and
by their lights, we are forced to own that
the aggrieved statesmen have just cause
for feeling themselves hardly and unfairly
used; that there is no little reason and
force in what they say. In itself the grab
is very small matter; compared with
| previous robberies at which the American
public has indulgently winked, it is the
merest bagatelle. Ii our Lawmakers had
rot the notion into their heads that they
could steal with impunity, that there were
no limits to the good nature of the con-
stituent and taxpayer, pray whose fault
was it, Approaching the subject from
this side, we find their surprise and re-
monstrances entirely natural. We agree
with them that, if the people were dispo-
sed to make fuss about this sort of thing,
they ought to have made it good while
ago; that there is in this tardy clamor an
element OF inconsistency, caprice, unrea-
son.
We will go step further. There is a
real danger that this clamor may be over
| DONE This is not saying that the people
can be too angry with the unfaithfui and
dishonest public servants guiltily active
| IN the contamination OF the theft; or too
| rcsolute in their determination to punish
| them. But if the storm spends itself up
| on this one offense, this one set of Offend
| ers, and then dies away, it will have ac-
complished very little toward the perma-
nent cleansing and sweetening of the air.
As soon as calm and sunshine return, we
| shall see the practical statesman making
| hay as industriously as ever.
What the people want to clearly under
stand is, that the grab is only an outward
| and Visible sign of an inward and spiritu-
al disgrace; surface symptom of Il dis
| ease that is attacking all the vital func-
tons of the body polite, that has already
been allowed to make dangerous head
| way, and that is sure to terminate fatally
| unless its progress is in some way arrest
ed. The grab is comparatively very
small and trivial affair; the diseased con
dition of politics, public sentiment and
legislative morality, which made it posi-
BILE, demands the most serious attention,
as it may well excite the gravest anxiety,
of every intelligent and patriotic citizen.
| That public servants should openly and
directly put their hands into the public
| treasury for the benefit of their own peck
cts, merely shows how far we have gone
on perilous road. 1t is milestone, and
it is well the people should be startled by
it and should call halt in front of it.
| But it will avail them very little to de
molish the milestone. The important
thing is to face about and get back as
soon rs possible to the hi MISUNDERSTANDING
feld (Uass.) RepuJiicaa.