The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-02-03
THE PRESIDENTS GRAB.


derrs who preceded the actual occupant
of the White House no proposition, and
indeed no serious suggestion, was ever
made to change the compensation OF that
Office as it was fixed by the fathers. The
country passed through many transitions,
trials, wars, and financial commissions dur
ing that period of eighty years, and the
nav of Congress, the Supreme Court, the
Cabinet nearly the whole civil list, togeth-
err with the army and navy, was frequent
ly raised without touching that of the Pres
dent.
The arguments and reasons assigned for
increasing the salaries of other officers
certainly applied with far more force to
the Executive when some ofthese changes
were made than they do now. In 1866,
when a Republican Congress increased
their own pay from $4,000 to $4,000, and
the pernicious example of the back grab,
which recently returned to plague the in
ventors, gold'was $50, and the prices OF all
commodities and necessaries of life were
correspondingly high,
That was the pretext for an act which
nearly doubled the Congressional pay. The
war had just closed; and although taxation
was crushing down every industrial inter
est the people submitted to this additional
burden, unpatriotic sit was, because there
was certain degree of force in the then
existing facts to extenuate 1t. But the
reason which made the change good for
Congress applied relatively with equal Wig
Al Ahar alcn all ha
theories which are set up now are false
and absurd.
1t may be naturally asked, why was it
that while all these changes were going on,
from the foundation of the Government
down to the Sd of March, 1873, it never en-
tered into the minds of the statesmen who
illustrated the best days of the republic,
or of the forty-one preceding Congresses,
to raise the compensation of the President?
Why did that compensation alone remain
stationary
The plain answer is that all parties, until
the advent of Grantism, accepted the pay
originally fixed by law as sufficient and
permanent. And it proved to be abundant
by the experience Of every President To-
Guiding Andrew johnson, the immediate
predecessor of Gen. Grant. The intention
was that the Chief Magistrate should live
becomingly, but not extravagantly and in
order that he might be beyond the caprice
or partisanship of Congress, the Constitu-
ton declared, after the subject had been
exhaustiyely discussed in the convention in
all its phases, that the President shall, al
stated times, receive for his services com.
pensation, which shall neither be increased
or diminished during the period for which
he shall have been elected" That clause
made him independent on the one hand OF
Congress, and on the other it excluded him
from exercising undue influence for his owr
benefit by seeking an increase of compen
sation. This provision Of the supreme Law
and these uninterrupted precedents were
never called in question until corrupt com.
bination was formed, by which Constitu-
ton, usage, and decency were overridden
in the salary stealing act.
The records of Congress establish thai
the movement to double the President
salary was the corner stone of the disgrace
full legislation which has excited and still
excites such just and general resentmen
throughout the country. And it is equally
well proven by the most pronounced anC
accredited Republicans that the President
himself was the real author of that scheme
and did more to promote its passage thai
all other influences by official appeals ant
personal persuasion.
A subservient Congress was not conten
with obeying this dictation, but went on ant
voted at the same time extras and emolu
ments to the amount Of $77 600, by which
the President expenditures at the Whit
House are reduced to the minimum 0
providing for his family. In fact til
whole outlay is confined 10 the actual main
tenance of a small private household
and few state dinners, as they are called
while Congress is in session, The public
receptions do not cost him a cent Th
house, lights, fuel, flowers, servants. AM
music are all regular charges upon tn
Treasury, and the only hospitality ever of
fered is a cold and awkward shake of tn
hand.
Green house, stables, kitchen garden
and other costly luxuries are supplied i
addition, to say nothing of $4,000 a yea
for contingencies, and repairs" an
furniture, which have become such al
annual tax that the money granted unde
these heads since Gen Grant came int
Office would rebuild the Executive Man
sion upon a much larger scale than nov
exists More than this, the stock provis
ions of the White House are furnishes
from the Quartermaster department a
cost.
When Congress, under the fear of pop
ular Indignation, recently repealed par
of the infamous act of last March,
stopped short of justice and of the publ
demand. The poor pretence of constitu
tional impediment for not repeating tn
Presidents double pay is little less tina
an insult to the intelligence of the people
The law itself is plainly violation of tn
spirit if not the very letter of the Constitu
ton. independent of the fact that it dis
tinctly authorizes two conflicting salaries
and therefore does not fix certain CON
pensation.
Until every vestige of this iniquity is ex
tinguished and the pay Of the President i
put back where it was, the demand for re
peal will be as urgent as when it drove
venal Congress into a partial act of atone
ment. The Presidents power and patron
age alone stop the way in the Senate an
House Of Representatives. But they hav
no terrors for people who have been be
trayed by both the President and Cor
gress, and this question cannot be kept GU
of the coming elections.