The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-04-26

others in the convention to fix the amount
Of compensation in the Constitution 50 that
| members could not insrease their own pay,
| was full Of wisdom. Madison uttered a
truth when he said il was an indecent thing
for members to fix their own compensation.
Then, again, high congressional salaries
| are wrong and hurrful in policy. They eN-
cite the merely mercenary with desires to
secure the seats. This begets scrambling
and trading IL every election. Men of high
abilities will not be parties to such contests.
Thus mercenary men get control OF the Con-
gress. and. as they are chiefly moved by a
passion that is insatiate. if the salary We're
a hundred thousand dollars they would nse
the office to double the sum. This will
finally reduce our craftsmanship to one gov
erning standard-nse money to get office,
and Use office to get money. with few ex-
ceptions Congress is now bnt a sad congre-
CATION of negroes, knaves and imbeciles and
no people ever won, or preserved. or re-
covered either liberty or right under
such civil leaders You can not scat
ter flock Of carron birds by railing
at them. but if you burn up the sinking
carcass that attracts them they will scatter
themselves. 50 we shall never get rid of
these creatures from Congress by portray
| ing their characters. They cannot see the
mischief they are doing, and, if they could
they have not manhood enough to he made
ashamed But abolish the high salaries that
tempt and feed them, and they will leave
the places that furnish to them no Other al
lurements. If high salaries continue, the
greatest age of American craftsmanship is
| in the past. We shall never have another
Clay or Webster, or Calhoun in the national
councils. These great men served willingly
on IA salary of fifteen hundred dollars and
less The Buffers and Chambers, with their
negro carpet-bag allics-all, but the spawn
of a mad revOlutiOn-need seven Thousand
five hundred dollars to support their
dignity. 1t is sad to see a republic dying
as other republics have died, and the people
still unable to see the evils which work
death until life is eXtint.
| But one comfort the Southern people and
| their children must ever have. Whether
| constitutional government shall continue or
| faIl whether the States shall remain OF be
obliterated; whether liberty shall be recov
cred or die the death that knows no waking,
we shall be vindicated! If the Union Of the
States under constitutional government,
and securing the blessings of liberty be re-
covered and perpetuated, the work can only
he done by returning to the great principles
for which we struggled. The General Gov
ernment must be restrained within the lin
itations of its constitutional delegated pow
tTS, anu llc otiIeS ItSUbTtu 10 VIC IuIt-
strained control of their domestic affairs
under their reserved rights, or Union States
and liberty must perish. If this glorious
work shall have success, then the rejoicings
of according States. and happy millions
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from
the lakes to the Gulf, will syllable forever
the halleujahs Of Southern triumph.
But if blindness, madness, hate and am
biton shall continue coercion and recon
strnction as accepted and approved
principles of Federal administration then
the wall that shall come up from the
universal wreck of Union, States and liberty
will drown the thunder in loud vindicaton
Of Southern wisdom and fidelity. The
graves OF Davis and Lee will become Meccas
for jonrneyimg, sorrow stricken pilgrims Of
right for ages to come and the future his
torian. reviewing the records your care shall
have preserved, Will write the epitaph foI
the Confederate dead: These were the last
h.r .,f f,....l,,,n IN A