New-York tribune., 1873-05-27
A CONNECTICUT LOBBY.


rather two capitals have rejoiced in the State
from the date of the charter. 1t is not
convenient arrangement for the people, because
it makes the habitat of the State Government
almost as uncertain as its legislation and
while the State officers are vibrating between
Hartford and New Haven, people who want to
return conscience money to the treasury hesi-
tate about it from uncertainty as to the where
abouts of the Treasurer. Of course there are
other disadvantages, but we mention this be-
cause it is the only one that seems to
have escaped notice. !All the disadvan-
tages of the double headed system were
borne very quietly for the most part, with only
an occasional futile suggestion of the advisa-
bilty of change, till some four or five years
ago a representative from the town of Meriden,
half way between Hartford and New-Haven,
with twice the ambition of the aspiring youth
." that fred the Ephesian DOME" undertook
to blow up both capitals and start new one
at Meriden. His resolution PROPOSING to locate
the capital at Meriden, doing away with both
the present ones, was amended on motion of
a Norwich representative, by the substitution
of Hartford for Meriden, in which shape it
received q majority vote of the Legislature,
and went down to the next Assembly for
two-thirds Endorsement before submission to
the people. This was the beginning of the
liveliest local quarrel the State has known
for a great many years. In one form
and another the Hartford interest has
succeeded in getting majority vote
of the Assembly for the proposition for single
capital every year since then, but has failed
every time it came to the second stage of the
proceedings in getting the necessary two
thirds. The two cities have spent a great
many thousand dollars in pushing and oppOs-
ing the change, and it is believed that quite
number of persons, with and without legal
requirements. have been enabled to live COM
fortably through the Winter on the proceeds
of their labors in behalf Of one side or the
other during the Spring and Summer
Very few people enjoyed the controversy so
much as the gentlemen who had Influence"
with members of the Assembly. Leading poll
| ticians in the State, men who went each year
| before the people on the stump with great
asseveratiOns of honesty and sincerity and the
purest patriotism, men who impressed their
fellow citizens with their profound earnestness,
and who with their faces to the moon howled
their devotion to moral ideas through
whole campaigns, were in the lobby
of the Legislature one year for Hartford at
$500, retained the next year for New-Haven
at 81 900. and the next year in one or other
branch Of the Assembly for the Lord knows
who and for what price. The taxpayers of
| the two cities paid each year from $4,000 to
| $4,000 to scurvy set of politicians, who were
not only encouraged in idleness and vice by
| the amounts they received, but were given
| political position and influence and command
of partisan machinery which offered them the
largest opportunities for perpetual mischief
| The i'll effect of this great expenditure was
beyond calculation. 1t bred liars, drunkards,
vagrants; it gave the pernicious lobby system
| the sanction of an official Endorsement from
the largest and most intelligent populations
in the State; it poisoned the sources
of legislation, and it engendered q bitter
ness of rivalry between the two cities that
years cannot allay. Stories were rife of mem
| bers being bribed on one side and the other
by cash in hand by valuable gifts, and by
| that most common of corrupt considerations
| in legislative bodies, trading of votes upon
pending questions OF official appointments.
The amounts distributed to the lobby were so
|
appropriations for that purpose were passed
in secret session and the bills subsequently
audited privately, so that the public was kept
| in ignorance of the extent to which the busi-
ness was carried on. lot of greedy lobby
lists from all parts of the State-some of them
scheming political managers who earned their
dirty wages by packing caucuses and conven-
tions, some fouth-rate lawyers, gamblers, and
pot-hOuse people, and some members and ex-
members of Congress and State oficers-kept
the business going and fed fat the local quar-
| rel out of which they were making comfort
| able subsistence.
So fostered and fed the quarrel grew, and
it was not strange that last April it entered
into the State election and affected very
sensibly the popular vote. The New-Haven
Republicans made business Of trading off
votes for Ingersoll, Democrat for Governor in
exchange for votes for Kellogg, Republican,
| for Congress. The consequence was the de-
| feat of Haven, the Republican candidate for
| Governor, and English, the Democratic candi-
date for Congress. After the election was
| over and the New -Hayeuers had rejoiced suf-
iciently over their victory, it occurred to
| them to footup the proceeds. They found they
had New Haven Governor who was powerless
on pending the Constitutional Amendment,
| not having even q chance at IL with veto,
! and that in electing him they had offended
all Of Hayen's friends, who would certainly
oppose them. They had defeated English and
set all his friends outside of New-Haven in
array against them. They had elected a pre-
siding oficer of the State Senate who was
Hartford man, and they remarked also as a
singular fact that in ono or two Democratic