The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-05-08
THE SALARY SEIZURE.

Hon. John +. Farnsworth. of Illinois, is
Inconsistent lie transfers his ''back pay"
to the county treasures in his district. If
he had taken the ground that the money
| belonged to him, and that he wished to be
generous, no fault could be found but
when he publishes letter denouncing the
back pay as an "act of mutual bribery by
an expiring Congress and a recently elected
President" we pause to inquire why he
took the bride? The letter and the gift
have the appearance of double stroke of
policy The Hon. John f. purchases the
good opinion of his constituents with
money he thinks he ought not to have in
| his pockets and as for the virtue of il
both virtue and profit.
Mr.. Farnsworth thinks the President de-
served impeachment for signing the bill,
and that the people have a right to be in
dignant and wrathful, because, among
other things, they have Immense public
| debts, national and state and local." -ex-
ccllent reasons why Mr.. Farnsworth should
| have left the money in the treasury.
Mr.. Farnsworth states that the President
and Congress mutually understood that the
bill was desired before it passed. About
| that we know nothing. He was in posi-
ton to I've informed lie makes very
good point, however, in quoting the fol
| lowing provision of the Constitution:
"Thc President shall at stated times receive
| for his services compensation which shall
neither be increased nor diminished during the
period for which he shall have been elected"
The point is that in the clause of the
constitution preceding the above quotation,
the word "tcrm" is defined to be four years.
| The word period, therefore, means some
thing else, and applies 90 all the time for
which the President may have been elected.
There is too much splitting of hairs
| about tina, kind Of an argument.
The cX-congressmans next point is bet
ter. He says the object Of the Constitu-
ton in the clause above quoted is TO pre-
vent President from bribing Congress TO
raise his salary. In this case Congress Of
ferci to pass bill raising the Presidents
salary if he would sign bill giving them
over IL million dollars beyond the salary for
which they had worked; and the act
was no better for being done at midnight
on Wednesday than if it had been done at
noon on Thursday. We must concedc that
this logic is irresistible. The people, how
ever. have not complained of President
Grant Tley have not forgotten how he
brought them out from under the cloud of
war with personal services so incstimable
that they would not bcgrudgc him mil
lion. But no other President will ever be
allowed the eccentricity of attaching a
hundred thousand dollar signature to bill.
| AS for the Congressman, there is neither
excuse nor mercy in store from the people.
In reply to the assertion that larger COM
pensation was necessary to secure compe-
tent and worthy senators and representa-
tives in Congress, Mr.. Farnsworth points
to Webster. Clay, Calhoun, Benton,
Wright Buchanan, Adams, Corwin, Chase
and Douglas, who worked for SO per day
uuIIllS tilc ACTUAL scSslOIl, Nullc DuIlcT,
Jones, Smith, Brown and Farnsworth Gf
the latter should ever 20 back), are sup
| posed to earn about 500 per day during the
actual session.
Mr.. Farnsworth points out some of the
new needs for money INDUCED in by mod
en congressman. They must have fine
residences in Washington, and when they
have settled down and feel at home they
want to beautify things around them, and
hence at the last session they voted three
million and half dollars for the streets of
| Washington. This is very astounding
statement, but not being a congressman we
are not prepared to dispute the figures.
Such an appropriation in Rutland would
give us gay streets.
| Besides this the same authority states
that the last Congress voted half million
for various hospitals, the board of health,
the reform schools, and some other things
intended to be covered by an ''etc." Be-
sides these four millions there were liberal
appropriations for government buildings
and grounds. We shall not undertake to
guess at what congressman might call a
''liberal appropriation.
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