Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-16
GarfieId's Back Salary.

There hes been great demand for infor-
nation as to General Garfeld's connection
with the ''salary grab" Toe Nsw York San
IN an editorial presents several dates which
are of prime interest in this connection
The Forty second Congress came to an end
on the 4th of March, 1873, and in its last
hours voted itself nearly $2,000,000 of back
pay. Mr.. Dusey, of Des Moines, Iowa, re-
Gently sought information at the treasury
department as to the exact time Garfield S
back pay was returned, and received the fol-
lowing letter:
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE Sec
RETARY, WASHINGTON, June %, ISS0.-H. Du-
sey, ESQ, East Des Moines Iows-Sir: In reply
TO your letter of the 18th inst. asking to be
informed on what date the Hon. Jas. A. Gar
field paid into the treasury his back pay, and
how the treasury books show this transaction,
l have to inform you that it appears from the
records of this Office that the sum of 81, 54S
was deposited TO the credit OF the treasurer of
the United States in the name of Jas. A. Gar
field on account of retroactive increase of
salary on the 22d (?) of April l573 and that
this amount was covered into the treasury by
miscellaneous covering warrant No. 704, second
quarter 1873, and csnnot be withdrawn except
by act of Congress. Very respectfully.
j. K. UPTON, Assistant Secretary"
The Sun has not seen the original of Mr..
Upton's letter, but observes that most of the
papers publishing it make the date of Gar
fields conscience deposit the twenty second
of April, while the New York Tribune makes
the date the second of April. The latter is
the earliest date mentioned, and accepting
it as a correct one. Garfelds conscience had
four weeks in which to operate, and its eper-
alton was possibly accelerated by a resolu-
ton of the Republican convention of Trum-
bull county, (the most populous county in
Garf5ld's distrct,) which was held on the
twenty-sixth of March, between the ad.
journment of Congress and the time the
back pay was restored to the treasury. The
resolution, which was adopted with only
two dissenting votes, censured Gen. Garfield
for voting FOR the bill, and requested him to,
resign forthwith. The Cleveland Leader
speaking of the Trumbull county conve n
tion, said:
This, therefore, is the verdict of the people
upon the salary grab, measure which in itself
without justification, and which has left
stain upon the good name of its perpetrators
which they can never outgrow. Such of Gen
eral Garheld's friends rs were disposed to de-
fend his vote for the retroactive clause of the
salary BILL on the ground that, as chairman of
the appropriation committee, ne was RESPONSE
BILE fog the general appropriation bill, have
been silenced by his subsequent failure to ap-
pear among the virtuous few who have refused
the back pay thus secured. Had he, like
Messrs. Monroe and Epson, spurned it and re-
manded it to the treasury in such way as to
bar all future claim upon it, his action in sup
porting the bill would have been so far atoned
IS to have spared him the present reproof from
his constituents. How he will treat this sum-
mary demand to Vacate his seat remains to be
seen"