The Ottawa free trader., 1880-07-17
GARFIELD AND THE BACK PAY GRAB.

GARFIELD AND THE BACK PAY GRAB.
! We showed in former article that although
Gen. Garfield made quite pompous pretense
during the pendency Of the salary grabin con
grcss in 1873 of opposing it, he flew the track
at the final pull and the infamy really became
a law by his vote. For had he opposed it in
the conference committee and subsequently on
its final passage in the house, it could not Lave
become law. The excuse that lac voted for It
at that decisive moment to save an important
appropriation bill from defeat had no weight
with him on later occasion when he forced
the defeat of the army bill and an extra session
of congress because the bill contained rider
to which he made no other objection than that
1t was rider, exactly as the salary grab was,
and for which he expressed his readiness to
vote as an independent measure, though lac
went back on that pledge when it was thus ac-
tually presented to HIM.
But, say the republican papers, the charge
that Garfield's opposition to the salary grab
was hypocritical is disproved by the fact that
after the outrage became law, he refused to
accept the money but paid it back into the
treasury Mr. Garfield himself even goes SO
far, IN his celebrated speech IN his own de-
fense at Warren, Ohio, in 1874 as to intimate
that he was the first OF the ten or fifteen mem
bcrs of congress who returned that grab" to
the treasury. But let us see about that Con.
grcss, in 1878, adjourned on the 4th of March,
and the members were paid off the same day.
The books of the treasury show that Mr.. Gar
field on that day accepted not only pay at the
increased rate OF $500, but $45iS in addition
for back pay from the beginning Of that con
gress up to the passage Of the grab law
Strange, if he held the grab in such abhor-
renee, that he should draw the money from the
treasury at all. His colleagues congressman
Monroe and Upson, had refused TO accept it
from the start AIr. Carried, 1t appears, how.
ever by letter from J. X Upton, assistant
secretary of the L, S, treasury, did not return
his back pay grab to the treasury until the I'd
of April, 1873 having had the use of the mon
ey nearly seven weeks before his conscience
was ready to operate. Why this delay, and
why act then?
The explanation is found in the fact that
when Mr.. Garfield, in March, 1873, returned
to the bosom Of his constituents he found
them greatly excited and full of indignation
over the SALARY grab" and on the Goth of the
same month Republican convention was held
in Warren county, the largest county in his
district, at which resolution was passed cen.
surng Gen. Garfield for his vote in favor of the
salary grab and requesting him to resign forth
with. The proceedings of the convention were
published IN the Cleveland Leader, a rcpubl-
can newspaper, March 22d, 1873, accompanied
with editorial comments IN which the editor
says the excuse offered for Mr.. Garfield, that
he voted for the grab to save an important ap.
preparation bill, "is sllenced by Lis subsequent
failure to appear with Mr. Upson and Mr..
Monroe among the virtuous few who refused
to receive the back pay thus voted them"
Thus again we have Mr. Garfield playing
the sneak in the matter. He talked and voted
against the grab at every preliminary stage
during its pendency in congress, but voted for
1t on its final passage when his own vote would
have defeated it; and then he accepted and
| pockecd the pay and only paid 1t back when
his constituents called upon him to do SO or
resign forthwith" Then only was he ready
, to sacrifice the money when he had to do tito
save his seat Yet in his speech at Warren a
year afterwards he had the lmpudenCe to tell
: his constituents that he was the first congress
man who returned the stolen cash to the treas.
r ury.