The Portland daily press., 1873-05-07

gresham, like Gen. Garfield or Senator Nor
Kill of Vermont, for instance, to question with
so much pertinacity and vigor their conduct
IN regard to the back pay swindle. The aver
age constituent doesn't at all like to appear
churlish, and accordingly has strong ten
deucy when his Representative excuses him
self in plausible way to exclaim that it is
'all right" and that so far as his conduct is
concerned nothing could be more honorable,
Inore pure and more worthy of unmeasureu
praise IF there is the least chance 10 lake
generous and approving view OF the case .ne
average constituent is sure to 90 IL. ouI lne
Cone---c2ss...,aH have now presumed, as they
find to their cost. much too far on this oft
tried magnanimity. The retroactive clause
in the salary bill was so much worse than an
ordinary robbery that there is not drop of
,atience left in the souls of the people, and
though weeks have Low elapsed since the
crime was perpetrated, public clamor contin-
hes to increase, until those who are in any
way implicated are in constant and visible
torment. The criminals whose pursuit by the
iuries is the basis of the most terrific Greek
tragedies had an easy and comfortable expert
ence compared with that of our erring legis-
lators. Every sinner has his excuse, and of
course volumes Of excuses and explanations
have been made. But every days news par
agraphs tell of the scorn with which the apol-
ogies of the inculpated are received. The
tremendous fact, unaffected by the immense
aggregate of apology and depreciation, that a
clear majority of both Houses of Congress
were in favor of the theft, until the full ex-
tent of the popular disapproval was realized,
gives rise to general impatience of any plea
except that contained in a negative answer
to both of these questions: "Did you vote
for it"-"Did you take it
Unhappy the man who is obliged to answer
either of these questions in the affirmative
There are plenty of instances that may be
cited in proof The well-known Minnesota
Representative who went home with the
swag in his pocket, exultingly proclaiming
81 voted against it, has now wider repu-
tation than ever, and the brusque clergyman
who refused to receive tithes of the stolen
goods, ought to be classed with Rev. Mr.. An
cisnt, his moral courage being as great as the
physical courage ofthe heroic Blue Nose. Rep
resentative Hoar and other gentlemen voted
against the swindle, but took their share of
the spoils. They have sought to appease the
just wrath of their neighbors by giving il
away to local charities. Senator Morrill, o
Vermont gave his to reduce the debt of his
State. This course has found favor only in
the eyes of the near friends of those who have
pursued it. The minds of all impartia
judges instinctively revert to those exciting
tales of Dick Turpin and Claude Duval, il
which those Adventures waylaid traveller
without ceremony, and then bestowed tn
avals of their industry in the sweetest, mos
courteous manner on the first distressed
maiden or infrm old man they chanced t.
meet.
As for those who, like Butler, Banks ant
Ames, planned the assault on the Treas
ury and then pocketed the cash without any
ado, their thick-skinncd effrontery woult
avail them as little as the agonies of explana
tion in which their more sensitive associate
indulge, if they were not, the most of them
men who have no longer any character t.
lose or to tarnish. Buffers moral unsound
ness must have reacted on his intellect, or he
never could have supposed that the PROPOSE
ton to return to each of the sufferers by his
theft the three cents which, according to hi
calculation, is the measure of their loss
would strike anybody as good argument
even Of the Butlerian kind. De minim
Is non curat ter, to be sure-h,
who takes a copper is hardly indict.
able; but what Of the lawyer who defends the
purloiner of gold nugget, because the met.
al is only many cents in lump? But il
Butler, mlsled by his evil genius, runs fol
Governor of Massachusetts,, as he promises
to do, there is strong reason to believe that
he will receive from the people such stag
gering blow, as would make to tingle even
the rudimentary nerves that lie hidden under
his mail of triple brass.
II there is among the delinquents any
whose apologies ought to receive moments
consideration, it is the member who ha6
charge of the appropriation bill in which the
obnoxious clause was craftily inserted. Gen
Gar6eld's constituents have in their county
conventions invited him to resign, not be
cause he took the money, but because his
vote enabled others to take it. His anxiety
to secure the passage of his appropriation bill
was natural, and some allowance is to be
made for his peculiar circumstances. But
after all, his neighbors cannot be expected to
acquit him. For if such reasons were accep
ted for voting in favor of wicked measures,
what unheard Of atrocity might not be ex.
cused in the same way? Is it to be supposed
that schemers SO adroit as Gen. Butler woult
even leave the victims of their wiles without
such fimsy excnse, as the incorporation o
the evil proposition with u good and impor
tant one, if such excuses were allowed? 1
would have been a thousand times better TO
Garfelds honor and fame, if he had bold,
risked the defeat of his bill and taken The re
sponsibiity of an extra session of Congress
rather than be made prominent accomplic,
in robbery.
RECENT statistics show that New Yorl