The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-05-09
4 P0inNbie Hit.

DO a
sents the Western Reserve (Ohio) dis
trict in Congress, voted for the extra
nav swindle For having done so, his
constituents have raised perfect storm
of Indignation about his head and de-
mand his resignation. He addressed
a long letter to them in reply, the fol-
lowing concluding extract from which
we reproduce from our last issue in
order to make. few editorial com
mentS thereon:
eff the delegates believe the retroactive
salary clause is SO infamous that / ought
to resign for voting for the appropriation
bill to which it was attached, will they fol-
low out their logic and insist that the Pres
ident ought to resign tor signing it My
vote did not make it law. Has Signature
did,
This is what is called the drgumen-
tltne dd hOmiRem, and hits the nail
square on the head. Although the
members who voted for the increase or
back paw section, which was cunninglv
inserted in the general appropriation
bill, and thus plundered the treasury to
the extent of more than q million and
half Of dollars, deserve to be held up
to public eXecration, Grants agency
in consumlnating the fraud was even
greater than theirs. Repeating his
well remembered lobby operations in
the disgraceful San Domingo job, he
exerted all his personal influence, both
in the House and Senate, to make this
extra pay iniquity a success. The
same bill dOubied his own salary, and
true to his instructive avarice and
greed, he jumped at it with the same
eagcrness that hungry trout dashes
at baited hook in the early spring.
What President, from Washington
down to the predecessor Of the present
gift-taker in the White House, would
have signed a bill putting annually
into his pocket $25, coo of the peoples
money in addition to the sum the law
allowed him and which lie had agreed
to take? Would Jefferson, Madison,
Monroe, or Lincoln, poor as they were,
have so lowered their high office or so
compromised their nice sense of per-
soLaI honor and official integrity
Apeila, the Jew, may believe it, but
no American will.
The prcteXt, or apology, set up for
Grant by his friends is that he was
compelled either to sign the apprOpri-
alton bill, Of which this extra pay steal
was a part. or permit the wheels of
government suddenly to stop. This
argument is very shallow, and is not
worth q row Of pins. If Grant could
have divested himself of his inordinate
love Of money and promptly vetoed
the bill, as any other President would
have done, and if, when he sent the bill
back to the House with his objections
he had expressed his disapprobation
of this particular portion of it and con-
demned the back pay clause in plain
and emphatic language, the same bill,
with its Objectionable features stricken
out, could and would have been passed
through Congress in 4 single day, and
the reputation of the country and its
chief executive officer been preserved
untarnisked
We trust that the constituents Of
John A. Garfield, as well as the con-
stituents Of every ether member, rad
ical or democrat, who by his vote con-
tributed to this open and ndunprecedented
robbery, will visit upon him and them
the full measure Of their just and in
dignant wrath.