Litchfield enquirer., 1873-03-20
WHAT oCcAsloMED THE SALARY
 CRAB. A A

the Eighth Commandment involved in the Salary Steal as itdeserves to be character lzed, and are wondering how body of picked Americans could ever have been brought to disgrace themselves and their country in that shameless fashion. The chief occasions of this rascality we take to be chiefly three: hurry, irresponsibiH- ty, and carpet t-baggery. .s 5.2 a.s.5
 A very mischievous arrangement of our Congressional sessions occasions the two first evils. In nearly every State, elections for Congress occur in the November be- fore the last session of each Congress. The half of the members at each 'sshort session, therefore, who have not been re- elected, have in reality ceased to repre- sent their constituencies. To such, pop. ularity or unpopularity is no longer of any consequence. Even the reelected have so long lease of power in prospect that their feeling of responsibility is at its lghtest. Moreover the 'sshort'' ses- sion, ending on a day certain not snscep- tible of postponement, is always charac- terized by degree of hurry in the con- sideration of necessary business, and a disposition to disregard all business not of absolute necessity, that makes it speci- ally fertile in iobbery and specially un- productive of important work. Locking over the list of ayes and noes on the sala- ry bill We are not surprised to find that but one reelected New England member of the House, voted for that abomniable measure, and that one was Gen. B. F. Butler! Three other Massachusetts, members who had not been reelected, voted with Butler. The Connecticut and New Hampshire congressman, having to face the people within month, felt as the entire House would have felt had they all been similarly circumstanced. The pres ent absurd arrangement which elects con- gressmen more than year before they are wanted, and in the meantime allows an old Congress at least half of whose members have been repudiated or super seded to hold stunted session of ninety evil days, must be changed if we are ever to escape the hurry and rascality of the 'fshort session" ~.r. -e...l.. .-
 A second and more obvious occasion of the salary steal is to be found in the po- litical demoralization of the Southern States, particularly in the Republican party of those States. An excellent arti- cle in the New York Times calls attention to this fact and shows by classification of the vote that it was by the extraordinary unanimity of the Southern members that the rascality was made practicable. We supplement the Times table with further calculations which set the matter in still clearer light ]:
 Of the twenty-four Republican mem bers of the House who were present from the eleven reconstructed States, taventy- three voted for the salary steal The sol itary Republican 'tNo" came from South Carolina, and was, we presume, an inad- vertence. The entire Louisiana delega- ton was Republican, and, with the fraud ulent Sypher at it's head, voted ''Yea." Mississippi was also blessed with dele gation unanimously Republican, ,and unan- imously in favor of the grab one pairing with Tennessee Democrat who opposed the measure Of the seventeen Repubi- can Senators from the reconstructed States, fifteen were in their seats, and all voted for the salary increase. The five Southern Democratic Senators present, all voted 'tYes, l" and of twenty-four Southern Democrats present in the House, only six voted ''No;" two of them, Dox of Ala bama, and Mcintyre, of Georgia, being especially deserving of credit, for they had not been reelected. In the Northern States, on the contrary, five Republicans out of every seven Republicans voting, and trife over half the Democrats, are on record against the. iniquity.
 In fact the salary increase was a raid on the Treasury by all Carpet-Baggery and Ku Kuxdom combined, assisted by a Northern minority under the lead of Ben. Butler. If this were to be the end of Congressional thieving, we could bear it with greater equanimity; but Massa- chusetts has returned the Republican Tweed and the South has sent him up contingent of over seventy, mainly Carpet Baggers end Ku Klux, with sprinkling of old-fashioned Democrats, and may we hope one honest Republican? What such a crowd can effect, with such a leader, the next two years will demonstrate<~