Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-09-10
Kirkwood at BURLINGTON.

In MS speech ut Burlington on the
LIST inst, Gov. Kirkwood made an
swer to the batch of falsehoods con-
corning him that form the sole stock
of trade of the Democratic press in
this campaign. With regard to his
action on the salary matter, he made
the following manly and candid state
ment, which cannot fail to satisfy cv-
cry reasonable and non-partisan read
or:
The Governor prefaced his speech
by a few remarks personal to himself.
Considerable stress had been laid up
on his action upon the salary ques-
ton. He would explain very briefly
the exact condition of that affair.
Senator Harlan resigned in 1865.
Seven or eight months later he (Gov.
kirkwood) was elected to fill the I'M
expired term. Upon his arrival in
Washington to take lis place in the
Senate, he found law passed some
four years previous regulating the
salaries of members of Congress, and
among other things, providing that
members should receive pay for the
time for which they were elected,
whether a whole term or TO fill II va
cancy. Every member OF Congress,
no matter what his politics, drew his
pay IN accordance with that law, and
no one had word against it. He
drew the salary the law gave him,
and he believed he did right in doing
so, and no one questioned the propri-
ETY. until after the recent Republican
State Convention, when all of a sud-
den his Democratic friends had dis
covered Il great wrong in doing what
the law provided should be done, and
which every other member Of Con-
gress had done. TO illustrate: The
California election is now in progress;
the representatives elected from Cal
itornia will draw their pay from the
4th of March last. Iowa elected her
representatives last October, and they
drew pay from the same date March
4th, 1878. All members elected af-
ter the 4th Of March drew pay for
the full term, the same rs those cleo
ted previous to that time. The same
law applies in the Senate, and per
sons elected to fill a vacancy, whcth-
er the vacancy Is caused by death or
resignation, draw pay from the date
Of the creation of said vacancy. lie
was elected some seven or eight
months after, to fill the vacancy oc-
casioncd by Senator IIarlan's resig-
nation; he found his compensation
regulated by law enacted several
years previous; a law that no one
had called in question as unjust, and
which he believed was right.
At that session of Congress in 1866,
the pay of Congressman was increas-
ed from $4,000 to $4,000, and the
mileage was reduced one-half This
action was rendered necessary by the
high price of living in Washington.
Not a single man in the Senate,
neither Democrat, johnson man nor
Republican voted against the in
crease. The idea was that the pay
which had been adequate before the
war, when prices of everything were
on gold basis, made it impossible
TO cover the cost of living in Wash
ington under the initiation prices Of
deprecated currency. People may
say the increase was not right, but he
believed it was, and he thought SO
still. The law was very generally
approved by the people at the time
and subsequently. Neither the press
nor the public at large raised any OBJ
iecticn to it thch-and in 1872, six
years later, when Congress again in
creased the pay from $1,000 to ST.
5O0) and public opinion compelled
the repeal Of the law, what action
was taken: The law was repealed
and the salary put back to s., 1000, the
same as. it was in 1866, when he was
in the Senate, and drew his salary
Thus on two distinct occasions the
people had approved the increase of
1866, and this is the law now, and
nobody has thought to raise an OBJ
lection to it until now his Democratic
friends suddenly discovered the
amazing Improperly Of his drawing
the same salary as any other member
Of Congress-which both Republi
cans and Democrats drew in 1866.
AS tor the famous "salary grab" law
of 1872, he was not in Congress then
and had nothing to do with it. This
is all there is of the so-called "salary
grab" so far as he is concerned. He
believed he was right at the time; he
believed so now, and although as a
candidate for Governor he would tie
glad to obtain the votes of the peo-
pie, he would not change his convic-
ton for that purpose. lie might
have said he might have made Il mis-
take and regretted it; but he did not
think he made mistake, and he
would not say SO to gain votes. Gap
n1auSa)