Litchfield enquirer., 1873-02-13
CIF

The Birmingham Transcript justiies the Con- gressman who took Credit Mobilier stock. II considers that any member who favored the Pacific road would have been justified in taking gift of this stock, accompanied by the request
 that "he would be hearty and prompt in pushing it along"
 Lst us bring it alittle nearer home and suppose that it should be discovered that the Speaker of
 our House or Representatives, the Lieut. Gov.
 and various prominent Senators and Represents.
 tives previously favorable to the N. T., N. H. and Hartford R. R, Co, had been presented during
 the past session with shares of the stock of that
 company, merely to be ''heai ty and prompt" in trying to squelch the unsquelchable GoodNfn. Would they have acted correctly had they receiv- cd those shares of stock ?-EnQuirer.
 Yes, of course, and why not? for two very good reasons. First, they would
 have squelched an incurable jackass, ard secondly only taken 2 fair perquisite of their position. Let us get rid of all this modern moral "cant," and see things as they are Suppose Bishop had offered them all ride on his road-would they
 have been corrupt to take it? Then why
 are they corrupted by taking ten or even hundred shares of the stock of the same
 company, if Bishop had chosen to offer it
 Remember, we said if we were already
 hand 0sad heart in the road, then would
 we innocently have taken stock if offered
 by the Credit Mobilier; and so we say
 here if we had gone to Hartford heart and
 hand in Bishops project, then would we have taken ride with him if he had of fered 1t, or thousand shares of his capital stock, that pays such beautiful dividends Away with your nonsense and show of moral horror at an act where there's no occasion for it !-7faascript.
 We like the Transcripts frankness, but we nevertheless consider it's position just about what it would have been had it moved to amend the eighth commandment by striking ont the word 'snot" before the word ''steal." If our legislators are to be at liberty to accept stock from suit ors they can accept cash just as honestly, and then we shall have precisely the sys- tenn that prevailed in the courts of chan cery in Lord. Bacon's time. Can the Transcript have seriously considered it's most remarkable position If a legislator takes cash from a suitor how can we ever know whether he takes it for working to change the votes of others. or for his own vote? Are shares of stock in corporations seeking legislation to become "fair per quisite" of the legislator? That the Tran scripts system is carried out in many legislatures, we regret to believe is true. The result in those legislatures has been that the longest purses always win, that just measures cannot pass, if opposed by "heavy interests" nor even if un- opposed except on payment of heavy lobby fees.
 We gladly admit that Messrs. Garfield, Wilson, Dawes, and other good men in- volved in the Credit Mobilier investigation do not occupy any such extreme position as the Transcript considers honest, and we consider dishonest If those gentle men had no suspicion that stock was be- ing offered them at an under-valuation with view to their being ''hearty and prompt" they committed no moral wrong in taking it, though manifestly chargeable with an error of judgment. But such as took shares expecting to be ''hearty and prompt," in part payment therefor, ac- cepted bribe. ..r.-= .
 In like manner, if a legislator or an edi- tor accepts free pass from a railroad with the idea that he is to be "hearty and prompt" in advocating the interests of that corporation, he accepts it as bribe. If, on the contrary, he considers it a real perquisite of his position, and feels as free to act in hostility to the donors of the pass as would an editor to criticise the show that sends him free ticket, or the government that lets him send papers free of postage to county subscribers, then. to him, it is psrquisite and not,a bribe; The evil of the s'dead-head' system springs from the fact that too many are unconsciously influenced by it to favor those from whom they have received that most convenient thing-a free pass. .-