The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1874-08-13
The AntI-Salary Grab Plank
of the DemOcrafIc Platform.

of the Democratic Platform.
The resolution reported by the
Committee on Platform, at the late
Democratic Congressional Con-
ventioD, and which was intended to
do the business for Mr.. Neal, was
the 10th of the series, and it was on
its adoption that Mr.. Sloane, the
Chairman of the Committee, and Mr..
Vanmetre, of Ross, who appeared as
''next friend" of Mr.. Neal, had their
bitter personal fight. In order to a
complete understanding of the reso-
luton, we give in connection with it
the ninth resolution also, which is
merelws preamble to the tenth:
'14. That the receipt of e1ces-
sive compensation by any public
officer, by virtue or under color of
any law, is in direct violation of true
Democratic principle, an outrage up
on the people, and such excess of
compensation, If received and re-
toi1aed, should be refunded into the
Treasury, aohere itrightly belongs.
'X That the amendment of the so
called Salary Grab Law was and is
an admission that the compensation
therein provided for was and is ex-
cessive; and in all cases where the
services rendered were not fully COM
pensatory to the Government while
said law was in force, for the amount
of compensation thereby provided,
the erceSs thereby receioed By any
member aoas and is, to the eatsRt of
the e.rcess, a fraud etpO1a the people,
and should be refunded"
In the language of the immortal
Bunsby, ''the bearings of this here
observation lies in the application of
it." The application" of the two
resolutions to Mr.. Neal is apparent,
when it is remembered that he drew
his pay as Congressman under the
law known as the "Salary Grab, for
nine months before he took has seat,
and never refused" the "excess" of
of compensation allowed by the new
law over and above that under the
old law. He is, therefore, in the
words of the resolution guilty of
perpetrating "a fraud upon the peo-
pie, "to the extent of the excess"
which he received under the ''Salary
Grab" law.
Mr.. Sloane and the So other mem
bers of the Convention who voted
for the 10th resolution, claimed that
they were acting consistently with
the repeated declarations of the De-
mocracy, that the ''Salary Grab" was
an outrage on the people, and justly
charged, that the Democrats who
supported MIR. Neal were inconsis-
tent. There is no denying that Mr..
Sloane and his supporters had the
right and logic of the argument on
their side. It most certainly was and
is inconsistent for Democratic Con-
vention to nominate ''salary grab
Der, after repeatedly denounciDg the
"salary grail" itself, in the most Sc
we're and unmeasured terms. But if
the course OF Mr.. Meals friends was
inconsistent, what shall we say of
Mr.. Sloane, who, after all his just
and merited denunciations of their
inconsistency, turns round and an
nounces his intention to vote and
work for Neal? How can be so COM
pletely forget all his fine declama-
ton about Democratic honor and
purity and consistency, as to advo-
cate the election of a man who, ac-
cording to<his own showing, has per-
petrated "a fraud upon the people?r
Is this the lame and impotent con-
clusion" of all his loud "thundering
In the index?
Whatever Mr.. Sloane may do,
however, we are reliably informed,
that many honest Democrats, who
approve the doctrine of the resolu-
ton he so ably advocated, will not go
back on their professions, but will
quietly deposit their ballots for some
who has not the taint of
the odious "Salary Grab" upon his
and if man can be found
who can combine all the elements of
to Mr.. Neal, the defeat of
that gentleman would not be at all
in spite of the large Dem
ocratic majority in the District.