Wilmington daily gazette., 1873-03-13
Back Salaries.

In New York we have been SO accustomed tc
legislative erontery and fraud that we do not esti
mate atits true depravity the law giving IS OOC
back pay to every member OF the Forty-second
Congress. People hereabout are ant 10 saw sTt 4
smart :" bat not sit is infamous" which should be
tne words. but away back In Nhe country, where
more primitive notions of rectitnde and delioaey
shll hngeF, the people of all parties are furious
against the members Of Congress who voted this
sum eat Of the treasury into their own pockets
The persons who assisted in this wrong have anv
quantity Of plausible excuses TO justify them
selves; but the plain.thinkinR riRht-n1inded men
in the country call it robbery, and nothing else.
and We Will not say word TO break the force of
their censure. Il Is apparent from all the facts be-
fore US that the real object of raising the Presi
dents salary TO $5O,OOOs and coupling that pro-
Posal with the increase for CoUgressnen and the
6aek-pay clause, was TO make morally sure Of the
Presidents approval of the bill In fact IL wac
bid of 100000 -four years augmented payl for
the signature OF the executive. Perhaps ii was
zoe much 70 AK o. the ne PTsaident to deprive him.
self Of an extra $25, 900 year, in order to frus.
trate medltatod publie wrong. And vet there
have been, though not many of them, men in the
world who would have risen above personal con.
Slderations and vetoed that scandalona bill
The simple country folk have a reckoning 10
make with ths men who pulled 5000 of the na.
rons money, apiece cut Of the treasury, and the
coming elections VIII show what they think of it
The election in New HamPshire yesterday fol-
lowed soon after the outrage that its effect NAV
not be seen to q marked degree in the returns Al
hand this morning. There is less feeling on tbe
subject IN that one State than in others becanse
all three OF the representatives voted against the
increase Had those members-all Democrats-
voted the other way, there is no doubt that The |
Democratic party In that State would have been |
defeated by large majority.
FoRs after all that has been said of the necessity
OF doubling the Presidents salary the economical
people of New Hampshire do not understand wbv
President Grant cannot live in a StyIe beRttiDSS
ms station on the same salary which sufRced bim
Tor the last four years, and was ample enough for
PRESIDENTS johnson and Lincoln (neithsr OF whom
We think, would have signed that bilA II "a true
IN one sense, that the Republican PARTY should
bear the odiom of taking over u 500 600 from tbS
treasury fol back pay, and also for increasing nm
necessarily the pay OF future Con0resses. ana
presenting the President with $751; wear In
order that be might sanction the wrong. Having
the msiority capable Of preventing this iniouitous
measure, they should have stopped Il; or rather
they should not have originated 1t as they did ri
they take the gloryas they do, OF every act Ihicb
benefits the country (for exmample the exceiisnt
law against circulating obscene literature and ar
lelea through the mAiIs) 70 too they are, primar-
lys ehArReable with the back pay iniquity and
ts attendant Incidents Of corruption ofI
y Is