Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1873-10-17
The Back Salary Steal.

In another column we publish COM
from our friend ''Times-man,"
which is intended, we suppose, as reply
to our editorials of last week. So far as the
quotation from the "cheap matrimony"
editorial is concerned, we have nothing to
say, because we suppose that every man
who is capable of reading it would under
stand its irony.
With regard to that portion of our
friends article which seeks to hold the
Democratic party responsible for the back
salary steal, because five out of the seven
of Maryland took their
portion of it; we have to say, that we do
not now, never have, and never will justi
fly them in doing SO. We think their con-
duct is simply indefensible. And we ven
ture the assertion that not one of them will
again hold Office from our party. The late
Democratic State Convention emphatical-
ly condemned these unworthy members of
the party, in the following words:
N6SOCUeU, Hat Tie ldL0 dCIlOu vi
in enacting law for the increase of their own
and the salaries of other officers of the govern
ment is, in view of the depressed condition of
the laboring taxpayers of the country, upon
whom the burden mostly falls, utterly unjusti-
fable, and its immediate and unconditional re-
peal should be demanded by the people"
This attempt to prevent Democrats from
denouncing this robbery, because some
members of the party disgraced themselves
by participating in the stolen fruits, has
been about the only defense that the Re-
publican party and its allies have pretend
ed to make. But it will not do. The
Republican party is responsible, and re-
sponsible alone for this thing, and it may
squirm and twist as much as it can, but,
like the shirt of Nessus, the odium of this
piece of rascality will stick to it forever.
That there have been,. and are now some
bad men in the Democratic party we do
not deny. That there have been men in
its ranks, who were Democrats only in
name and not from principle, and sought
to, use its organization for their own adj
yancement, we think the so-called INDIE
pendent movement in this county fully
illustrates. But when the party repudiates
such men it has cleared its skirts of all
responsibility for their misdeeds. Demo
cratic State Conventions, not only in this
State, but everywhere, have, in unmeasur
ed terms, denounced this back pay bust
ness. But, with the single exception of
Massachusetts,, we cannot recall now one
instance where Republican State Con-
vention has said anything on the subject,
and even there, this exceptional action was
the result of fierce and unrelenting person
al hostility to Gen. B. F. Butler. The
Republican State Convention here did not
say word on the subject. The reason for
this silence is obvious. The whole thing
is SO entirely indefensible that the party
dares not undertake to defend or justify it
in the face of the storm of popular indig-
nation which it has aroused throughout
the land. 1t dare not condemn it, because
by so doing they condemn President Grant,
and the Convention being largely COM
posed of Office holders and expectants
they would not run the risk of offending
this mighty potentate.
With an overwhelming Republican ma
jority in both houses of Congress, the bill
was passed. Still it was not law with
out thegsignature of the President. By
the Constitution he was invested with a
power which was intended to meet Just
such an emergency. This power was am
pie for the occasion, for if, after the Presi-
dent had vetoed the bill, the Senate had
passed it unanimously over his veto, still
one vote short of two-thirds of the House
would have defeated it. Did this Repub-
lican President use this great power with
which he was entrusted for the protection
of the peoplea No! He promptly signed
the bill and thus wrote his political death
warrant, We hope. Why did he do this
great wrong9 Was he too stupid, or too
something else to perceive the rascality of
the measured If so, he is not fit for his
place. But that was not the reason. The
reason was-"O, tell us gently, whisper it
lowly"-because it doubled his own sala-
ry, thereby putting in his pocket the a
mount of 100000. Thus was the Repub-
lican President bribed by Republican
Congress to connive at this most iniquit-
Gus robbery. No such foul stigma rests
upon the integrity of the great party of
which we are an humble member, but it
can point with pride to its history when
in power. Its preaching and practice are
and have always been consistent. If our
so-called Independents support the ticket
of the Republican party with such record
as this staring them in the face, we can
not do otherwise-and we say it in sor-
row-than judge them by the company
they keep.
Nesmith, the Democratic candidate, has
been elected to Congress from Oregon.