Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-18
PAYING CARPET -BAGGERS.


ton Which Has just Come to Light
Two Southern Ex-Senators Get a Nice
Sum in a Time of Need.
SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DrspArcH.i
WASHINGTON, March ia little clause in
the big deficiency appropriation of the recent
liberal Congress reads as follows: ITO pay ex-
Senator F. A. Sawyer under Senate resolution
of February q. 1891, s6,543 3S; to pay ex-senator
George E. Spencer, under Senate resolution of
February 2s. 1891, s6,543 3S" Congressman read
the clause with some interest, because it was
an explanation of the presence of the two old
time carpet-baggers IN Washington. The OBJ
ject of their return to publicity has been some.
thing of mystery.
Mr.. Sawyer was a Senator of the United
States Is years ago. Mr.. Spencer went into re-
tirement IL years ago. For years, however, the
robust, red-faced, curly-haired, ex-carpet-bag-
ger has been in Washington a great many
times. He rarely found it congo NAL or neces-
sary to visit the Senate chamber, but many of
his colleagues knew that ne was an active man
of affairs, They did noe know, however, that
MI. Sawyer was in the land of the living, and
his sudden popping into publicity and an ap-
preparation was like vision from the dead It
Recalled the good old Republican days Just
after the war, and brought again into public
notice man who long ago passed OF the stage.
Mistaken for a New Member.
As Mr. Sawyer sat on sofa in the Senate
Chamber during the last few days of the session
not more than half a dozen in the entire body
recognized him. In fact, it was generally sup
posed that he was Senator-elect Claggett. of
Idaho. and many an entertaining paragraph was
printed about the quiet. white-headed old gen.
tIeman from the new Western State who
looked like Senator Edniunds. 1t turns out.
however, that Mr.. Claggett is not bald headed
and he has no whiskers, and he is as much un-
like Mr.. Edmunds' double as he possibly could
be.
Dr. Sawyer's little windfall of more than
S6, 600 having brought him for a moment into
prominence recalls the facts of his political ca
reer. He was born nearly 20 years ago in little
town of Massachusetts. He graduated at
Harvard with high honors in the class of lS44
and for 10 years he was professor in some OF
smaller schools and colleges of the old Com
monwealth. In 1853 he removed to Charleston,
s. C.. where he was placed at the head OF the
State Normal School. He was an intensely
loyal man. and with many other people OF this
class in the South, he was allowed to go North
on the breaking out of hostilities in 1861.
When the War was over he could not subdue
mis- love for the South and the Southern peo-
pie. and in 1855 he returned to Charleston.
Being prominent in the Republican party. he
became Johnson's Collector of Internal Reve-
nue. and held the place two years when, taking
advantage of the food-tide of Republicanism
in the good old days of the reconstruction, he
threw himself on its bosom and hoated into
the United States Senate. He was not bril-
liant Senator, but he was far above the average
OF carpet bag statesmen. and the records OF
Congress during his term show that he took
part in many of the debates and acquitted HIM
self with credit.
Left Out in the Cold.
ShortIv altar his form, evnrad in 1872 whan
the South came into its own control. and he was
made Assistant Secretary of the Treasury by
President Grant Fortune, which had thus for
years been smiling upon him, began to frown,
and the turn of the Political wheel soon made
him private citizen. He could not 90 back to
the south, and there was no place for him In
the North. His political friends had slipped
away. and he was without fortune OF business
experience. His financial matters went from
bad to worse until he was glad to accept an ap-
pointment in the department of which he bad
been the assistant chief. He was assigned TO a
desk in the Coast Survey Bureau and all the
men with whom he had been associated in
public life dropped him from their memories.
After few years of work as a department.
clerk Mr.. Sawyer slipped out of Washington,
and with his wife and family lived in retire.
ment and quIetude in a small Eastern village.
Some time ago his name was again brought
to public notice by the publication of a So
called political novel written by his daughter.
the subject being the experience of the
closest friends supposed him to be in his grave
Mr.. Sawyer bObbed up in the Senate Chamber
as beneficiary of one of the appropriation
bills. Six thousand dollars is fortune to the
ex-senator now, and, having secured it, he will
no doubt pass again into obscurity shining
example of the possibility of an American citi-
zen as well as warning to all men who sigh
for political life.
The success of the ex-Senators, Spencer and
Sawyer in pocKeting Sc. 900 was due not to any
inventive genius of their own, but to the in
spIration of an imDecunious lawyer Of WASH
ington who few years ago conceived the idea
of collecting the money constructively due to
these old carpet bag Senators and rewarding
himself with a fat fee.
The Basis of the Claims.
The ground on which the claims were based
is that many of the Senators who came to
Washington in the reconstruction days were
not paid their salaries for the time that inter-
yened between the date when they presented
their credentials and the date when their con-
tested seats were finally passed upon and they
were sworn in. Last session this ingenious limb
of the law. whose relative had been one of the
long suffering, but finally victorious Southern
Senators. took his relatives claim on a con-
tingent fee and succeeded in securing favorable
action on it. This established precedent, and
as everybody knows, there is no lever in exist
Senators as precedent.
Almost any legislation conceivable can be
enacted il there is precedent. The Washing |
ton lawyer made it very easy sailing for all the |
old-time Senators who were as unfortunate as |
to he kept waiting several months in the ante |
room of the Senate chamber before being adj
mitted to membership. Several of these ex- |
Statesmen besides Messrs. Spencer and Sawyer |
have collected their back pay and more are to |
be heard from. One thing seems TO have been |
omitted when these appropriations were agreed |
to. No provision was made for the payment OF |
interest," on the money during all the years it
had been kept out of the pockets of the ex-
Senators and this omission will probably be |
made the basis for other claims in future /