The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-07-11
The Methods Of Bribery.

sent They prefer W penoso C1ao ~
ner publishers and correspondents nave
rrudges to crafty, or are actuated ~ MAJ,
ice and meanness, rather than creoit the
;ntimation that men chosen BY the people
for the functions of legislation can delber,,,
atelv betray their constituents ana sell
their votes. This Notwithstanding the
fact that the nearer you get to Legisla,
ture the louder, more pronounced, anu
snecific are the charges of corruption, ana
that around the average State House the
nrices of venal members are matters OF
common talk, things being sad openly
that the newspapers from sense OF inc
shame involved in them would refuse 70
give place to- The reason for this lncred,-
ulousness we presume to be the unfamll-
arity of most people with the methods by
which corrunt men accomplish corrupt
nnrnoses, the subtleties of approach, the
ingenious devices, sophistries, and eva
sions, and the processes of casulstry by
which conscience is strangled and the
palm allowed to be corruptly crossed, 1t
is impossible for the steady going sober
minded citizen of the rural districts to
conceive that his neighb9r whom he has
selected by his vote to represent him IN
the Legislature has become at once cor
rupt and bribe-taker upon getting into
the atmosphere of the State House. They
will credit no such SANDER. What makes
the bad atmosphere of the Capital is the
disposition to abuse public officers and the
depraved taste for coarse, low scandals;
legislators are, they say, for the most part
honest and upright. and only they who Ii
bel them are false and unworthy.
Well, there might be some force in this
line of thought were there only one
method of approach. Were bribery only
possible by abruptly asking men their
price and paying it down in open mar
ket, tits safe to say there would be but
little of it anywhere Unhappily
there are a thousand approaches to
the venal and selfish side of men, and is
not infrequently happens that under some
of the subtlest forms Of temptation the
palm closes over the price and the bride it
appropriated before the victim realizes
that he is in the market Cash in hand is
the coarsest, crudest, and most vulgar
method of all your practiced operator IL
the lobby never uses il. The cunngist O.
vote-manipulators and lobby agents begin.
his work back of the Legislature, and ever
of the primary meeting he works up thu
preliminaries, secures the nomination fo
his victim, and contributes handsomely tt
his election. Ordinarily the legislator 81
chosen is bribed and bought before h
takes his seat, and before he has the re
hottest intimation of what his purchaser
expect to do with him. There are yer.
few men, in the present condition of poll
tics, who, having been assisted in thi
manner by the active politician and lobby
list, can look their creators in the face
when the pinch comes and give decided
mo" We say in the present condition
of politics, not because politicians are an.
worse now than ever before, but becaus
there are more of them, and more tempta
tions to corrupt and venal legislation. Thu
paying down OF so much money for vot
is too gross temptation, unworthy th
ingenuity of the tempter, the position o
the tempted, and the spirit of the age. IT
contribute money to detray the election
expenses of the person whose assistance
you will need by and by, is much NOR
refined and gracefully winding approach
and it amounts to the same thing in thu
end There was once a case of this kline
in Iowa. No State is without its instances
and illustrations. If ever the truth were
known hundreds of Post Offices and Col
lectorships have been sold in the last ten
or twelve years by members of Congress
who had incurred large expenses in secur-
ing their own election, and reimbursed
themselves by contributions from Office
seekers, which were named subscriptions
for election expenses.
The indirections of the Credit Moblier
bribery are too freshly remembered to re
quire any analysis. Whatever may be
said of the purity of motive and honesty of
purpose of the holders of the stock placed
where it'would do most good, the prac-
teal honesty and good sense of the peo-
pie did not hesitate to pronounce the
whole transaction corrupt, and carried
on in the spirit and with the un,
purpose OF bribery.
That ingenious scheme had, in addition to
is original subtlety, another element OF
strength in the fact that the honest men
who were approached with the temptation,
but saw through it and repealed it, were
from denouncing it by the fact
hat so many men of good reputation and
standing were concerned in it,
and they did not want to seem pharisaical
n condemning what others saw no harm
IN. Legislatures and Congress are full
TOO of that most indirect and untraceable
form of bribery which is carried on in the
process of swapping votes" Millions of
dollars have been voted away in appropri-
atoms which would never have been made
except as the abettors of great number
of them combined to carry them through.
A member of Congress desires to have a
l.ls l.x1 r t-.,f
which is the starting point of appropria-
tions-in his district; another wants an
for harbor or river in his
district another hayward, and so on /;
not one of these schemes would go through
on its merits, but each brides the other.
The votes are snapped and the whole
batch goes through. What for? Simply
that the member of Congress may
strengthen himself in his district, and by
the distribution of public money secure a
reelection. 1t is only another form OF
raising election expenses.
But it may be asked, if bribery is so
common why is it not more often exposed
specifically instead of being treated at
armslength and in such roundabout fash
ion? The answer is that what with the
ingenious devices of the lobby and the OK
pedients by which it is either entirely con.
cealed or made so general that it is almos,
impossible to bring it to book. the
whole business is beyond the
reach of remedial LEGISLATION, ana
almost of Individual PEN lties. Take an
instance that happened not long since in
New England capital, when acoarse- grain
ed, low bred. lobbying politician approach
ed leading member vi the Legislature,
who was a lawyer by profession, with al
offer of retainer to make an argument il
a special case before the Legislature MAJ
x,.~allx, anouph the pentisman soanuroarh.