Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-12-13
Piutocrats and the United states
SEN ate.


Paatocrats and she United states
Senate.
The discussion of the candidacy of Cal
vim s. Brice for the seat in the United
States Senate which will be made vacant
by the retirement of Hon. Henry 3.
Payne, has set great many journals to
discussing the inroads which are being
made in that body by millionaires. 1t is
said that there are now upwards of thirty
plutocrats in the Senate, and the cry is
still they come. Should Mr.. Brice be
elected by the Democrats, one million
aire will replace another, and the rich
guild will not be advanced in its progress
towards quorum Of the higher branch
of Congress. That this tendency is not
. healthy one must be admitted by
everybody.
Not content with reprobating the plan
of giving preference to men who have
large bank accounts which many Lsgis-
latures have shown lately, our Repub-
lican contemporaries undertake to make
comparisons in the matter disadvan-
tageous to the Democrats, utterly over
looking the fact that the vast majority of
the Democratic Senators are poor men,
and that nearly all the millionaires
are to be found in the Repub-
lican ranks. They dwell on the fact, in
commenting on the candidacy of Mr..
Brice, that that gentleman is very re-
cent resident of Ohio and that he puts in
most of his time in New York City.
They seem to be delightfully."- oblivisus of
the fact that Senators Stewart and Jones,
Of Nevada, very rarely see that blessed
pocket borough, and spend two-thirds
Of their time not spent in Washington in
the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. which
city is their true residences. The late
Senator Sharon, during his whole
six years as Senator from Nevada,
did not spend three weeks in his
seat in Washington, or three months
in the State of Nevada. His residence
was divided between the Palace Hotel
and Belmont. As to the scandal of pur-
chasing seats in the Senate, Mr.. Sharon
bought his way into that august conclave
in the first instance, and tried to buy his
seat q second time, but the longer purse
or superior merit of Senator Fair knocked
down the persimmon. In that celebrated
contest the purse-proud Republican
Senator was indiscreet enough, in
an interview with q Nevada editor,
to boast that he would be his own
successor because he had money enough
to buy the Nevada Legislature. Mr..
Fair, who "scooped' Sharon. had at
least the decency to make no such
breaks.
There is good deal of frozen cheek in
q Republican editor venturing to refer to
the purchase of seats in the United
States Senate in view Of the record of his
party. The first seat ever openly Bought
in that body was by Simon Cameron,
in 1857. The Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania was Democratic by o small
majority, and the Democratic caucus
nominated Col. John w. Forney, who at
that time had not quarreIed with Pfesi-
dent Buchanan. Simon Cameron was
the nominee of the Republican party,
and under the usual conditions Forney
would have been elected. Cameron,
however, had big sack and he bought
three Democratic members, Lebo, Minear
and Wagonseller, whose memories are
held in execration in Pennsylvania to
this day, and was elected. All that came
of this gross scandal was the burning of
these purchased wretchss in effigy in
every township in the keystone State.
Even at that day the Senate was not
very hypercritical in scrutinizing the
credentials of it's members, and Simon
found no difficulty in making his footing
good. 1t is true that he was afterwards
turned out of LincoIn's Cabinet on alle-
cations of corruption on a petition signed
by an overwhelming majority of the Re-
publican members of both Houses of
Congress, but his outright purchase of a
seat in the Senate was condoned at the
time.
Such an incident fittingly led up to
Pomeroy's purchase of the Legislature of
Kansas, transaction in which eur own
lameDted Kalloch, of happy memory,
figured. The multitude Of Republican
millionaire Senators who grace the high
est Council of the Nation may or may not
have purchased their seats, but one
thing is PLATA, viz, they had the where
withal to do so, and they are there.
The less our Republican friends harp
upon the candidacy of Calvin s. Brice,
the less will be the inclination to revive