Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1873-06-14
Our Washington Letter.
WARRINGTON, D. c., Nav %, 1873.

onAo-ThElh SOBER SECOSD THOUGHT.
I have seen and conversed with a
great many Republican Congressman
from various parts of the Union who
have visited Washington lately, and
they all concur in the opinion, based
upon their experience of public senti-
ment in their respective Congressional
Districts, that
THE BIGGEST BLuNDER OF THE REPUBLICANS
since the administration of public affairs
fell into their hands, was the forcing
through the 42d Congress, during the
closing hours, of Grant and Buffers
salary bill with its infamous retroactive
clause. Representations have been
made to the President, by many of his
most prominent political supporters,
that not only will his denomination in
1876 for third term, upon which he is
known to have set his heart, be ont of
the question, but that the Republican
party itself, already moribund, will be
hastened to an early and ionominious
grave, unless he, the President, public
ly disavows all connection. with the
framing of Buffers bill, refuses to ac-
cept his share of the plunder, and rec
ommends, in his message to the 43d
Congress the passage of an act which
shall restore to the public treasury as
much of the stolen money as may be
recoverable, and make such barefaced
robbery by federal Legislators impossi-
BILE in the future. In reply to these
representations of his friends and sup
porters.
GRANT SAYS HE WON'T GIVE BACK A CENT.
So there the matter stands. 1t is
proposed, however, by some of the
leading Grant politicians who wish to
hold on to their money-making offices
through this and another term, to make
an organized effort to induce their leader
to give to their united advice that heed
which he refuses to individuals, and,
in the event of failure, which they an
ticipate, to subscribe and present to
him the amount of his extra salary,
500 900, upon the receipt of which it
has been obliquely limited to some of
them, he would listen to reason, con-
demn the salary bill, Indignantly refuse
the increase voted him, and otherwise
adopt the magnanimous and patriotic
course advised, the propriety of which
is not now clear to him.
THE LEGITIMATE EXPENSES OF LIVING IN
WASHINGTON.
It has been strongly urged by Con-
gressmen as an excuse for voting them
selves an increase of salary, that it costs
so much to live here. That will do
very we'll to tell their constituents.
But the fact is that man can live in
Washington now on from IS to 70 per
cent of what it would have cost him to
live in similar style six years ago,
since which all the necessaries of life
have been falling in price. Rent, cloth
ing, fuel and food are all cheaper here
now than they have been for many
years. And so is whisky.
HoG-AND-HoMINY CONGREssMEN.
1t is fact Well known to all who
have seen active service in the field
that the first men to grumble at short
allowance or an inferior quality of food,
during a campaign, are those who have
not been accustomed to generous liv-
ing in civil life-often miserable wretch
es who had never averaged one square
meal week during their lives, before
entering the army-while the tenderly
reared man who never knew want in
civil life accepts the situation with
cheerfulness. So, many of the loudest
brawlers among Congressman about
the impossibility of living on their sal
ary are men who were raised on hog
and hominy, and who always lived in
a simple unostentatious manner before
coming to Washington. These verdant
representatives, dazzled by the vulgar
display of the noureaur riches who
have interested the capital since the
war, look with admiring and envious
eyes upon their coarse ostentation in
dress, equipages and furniture, which
they mistake for so many evidences OF
taste and gentility; and, to enable
themselves and their families to ape the
manners and rival the extravaganza of
this shoddy aristocracy, they neglect
their duties to their constituents and to
their country at large, and become sal
ary-grabbers and the paid attorneys OF
credit mobilier and railroad companies,
and of every other company or man
who has plausible scheme for swind-
ling the government.
ANOTHER CLASS oF CoNGREssMEN.
Few of the working men in Congress
of the men who shape the destiny OF
their country-either Republicans or
Democrats, give extravagant entertain
ments, wear 81 500 breast-pins. or drive
stylish turnouts, with lacqueys behind
and lacqueys before" in gorgeous livery,
and coats OF arms painted in loud COL
ors on the sides of their carriages.
Who remembers to have ever seen
Trumbull. Pomeroy, Thurman. Wilson,
Hendricks, Summer, Sargent, Boutwell,,
Schurtz, Morton, Bayard, Casserly,
Logan, Anthony, Maynard, vorhees:
Banks, Beck Of Kentucky, Hoar OF
Nfossocbusatta Tawrence of Ohio.