Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-07-15
.as for their ratification. TIL

!ts ss his. He said: "lf we adopt
!, his may happen. One party will 60
80 nower in q new Congress, but, just
h 10 the old Congress expires; the de-
So.ta5 marty may pass a law reducing the
~ Congress to 10 cents aday. II will
~ aysr do thus to put one Congress into
ths newer of another; ii would be an en-
me of wrong ard injustice" For this
Sesson our fathers refused to put into the
Copst,tution a clause that would prevent
hack nav. Now, il will not do TO say that
nrovision that has been deliberately re-
;ected from the Constitution is virtually
more and il will not do to say that 1t Is
mat 10 call il theft and robbery for Con-
gress TO do what II has plainly the Con.
stitutionsl right to do. | use the word
riQft in its legal sense.
Now. take another step. | hold in my
hand here record OF all the changes of
nav that have been made since this gov
eminent was founded, and IN every case
am not arguing now that II is right al
all am only giving you history OF II,
in every single instance when Congress
has raised its pay, It has raised 1t to take
effect from the first day OF the session oil
Congress. Six times Congress has IN
creased its own pay, and every time IL
made the pay retroactive. say again
am not arguing that this was right and
proper. am only arguing that 1t was
lawful and constitutional to do IL. In
1856 the pay was raised, and was msde
retroactive tor a yesr and four months,
and the member of Congress from this
district threw the casting vote that made
it's law. That act raised the pay by
larger per cent than the act of last Con
gress. Joshua II. Giddlngs was the one
hundredlh man that voted aye: 50 voted
no. Joshua r. Giddings vote the other
way would have turned the score against
it. That vote gave back pay for wear
and four months That vote gave Con
gress nine months back pay Tor time
when members would not have been emit.
tied to anything whatever, because under
the old law they were paid only during
the session. Whist did this district dog
Did i; call him 8 thief ard robber?
few weeks after that vote this district
elected him 20 Congress tor the tenth
time. Have the ethics OF the world
changed since 1852 Would | be thief
and robber in 1873 if had done what
nv predecessor did n 1867 In 1866 the
nav was raised That time it was put in
the appropriation bill, very important
appropriation bin: bill giving bounties
to soldiers. 1t passed through the Senate
and came 10 the House. There was dis.
agreement about it. Senator Thurman,
OF Ohio, had charge OF the bill in the
Senate, and voted against the increase OF
pay every time when ii came up on its
own merits. But he was outvoteG. Finally
il went TO a committee OF conference. The
conference report between the two houses
was made in favor of the bill. Mr.. Sher-
man brought in the report, saying when
he brought ii in that he had been opposed
to the increase OF pay, but the Senate had
overruled him. He voted for the confer
ence report, voted for the final passage Of
the pm. Inat-bM saw paoa p-y for
wear and FIVE months. Was John Sherman
denounced rs thief and robber for
that? Was Benjamin +. Wade called
thief and a robber?
AT that time | was not chairman OF the
committee, and had no other responsible
ity than that Of an individual repre- senia-
tive | voted against the increase OF
salary then at all stages. | voted against
the conference report, but ii passed
through the House on final vote by just
one majority. | do not remember that
anybody ever praised me particularly for
voting against that report, and | never
heard anybody blaming John Sherman
for voting for it.
Now, in 1878, the conditions were ex.
aCtly tie reverse | was chairman of the
committee that had charge of the great
appropriation bill. There was put upon
that bill against my earnest protest
proposition to increase salaries. | take
take it there is no one here who will deny
that worked as earnestly as | could to
q Of al
the bill | did not work against it be-
cause it was THEFT or robbery to put 1t on
there; | worked against it because |
thought 1t was indecent, unbecomiDg and
in the highest degree unwise and inju
Cicious to increase the salaries at that
time, first, because they had been increas-
ed in 1866, and, in proportion to other
salaries, Congressman were paid enough,
paid more in proportion than most
other officials were paid; second, the
glory OF Con Iress has been that 1t was
bringing down the expenditures OF the
Government from the highest level of war
TO the lowest level OF peace; and If we
raised our own salary, unless the raise
had been made before, ii would be the
Keynote on which the whole tune OF ex
uaVagance would be sung ! believed,
TOO, that II would seriously lnjure the
Republican party, and on that score |
thought We ought to resist it. | did sli
IN my power to prevent that provision
being added to the bill | voted against
II eighteen times, | spoke against it.
BUY by very large vote in the House, |
and q still larger vote in the Senate, the
salary clause was put upon the bill. | /
was Captain OF the ship and this obiec
tlonsole freight had been put upon my
deck, had tried IN keen ~ - y W. -,