Year: 1873

I q


newspaper attack from any quarter how


ever scurrilous it might be. But having
lately ceased to be a servant, | now claim


to be one of the sovereign people possess


ing rights in common with others. Hence


a few words in self defense may not be


inappropriate. Your attacks upon me In


every number of your paper for the last
six weeks to say nothing of former years,


have been so marked and so grossly per-


sonal that doubt if any one has failed
to see that some pent up and private


grief has long been ranking in your


heart, awaiting some pretext to belch


forth in a torrent of Shiny abuse, and


you seem determined to persist in ma


ligning me in each successive issue for


getting the adage that "those who live in
glass houses ought not to throw stones.


The passage of the late law increasing
salaries affords a subject for just criti-
cism by the press and the people. But
when journalist fails to criticise in
chaste and general terms, and resorts to
the vocabulary of the fish market for
terms to apply to a single individual, he
only gives evidence of deep depravity and
a desire to make an ass of himself In
the STANDARD of last week you commence
an article as follows. 1--WE have been re.
luctantly forced to the conclusion that
the late member Of Congress from this
district has received aud appropriated
his share of the peoples money, which
was stolen from the public treasury.
This sentence embraces the question in
Volved and will be replied to. The re-
mainder of the article as we'll as some
| preceding ones SAVIOR so strongly of false
hood and billingsgates not to say black
guardism, that | cannot allow myself to
reply at length, as 1 never handy words
with fish women" Ifyou really desired
to know whether or not | had received
any pay beyond that allowed by the act
! of 1866 why did you not address me
note OF inquiry, as you have often done
| on matters relating to business or poll
tics, and you would have been promptly
advised But your objects and aims were
altogether in another direction, as | shall
! presently show In order that you may
! have a distinct target for your pOp-gun
| exercises in future, | will state that did
not take stolen money from the Treasury,
| as you alledge but | did take $4, 1876 al
| lowed me by law as back pay and in this
/ acted precisely as my predecessors in
seven different Congresses had done be-
fore me- none of whom so far as | know,
were ever accused Of stealing, that epithet
having been reserved seemingly, for the
use of the Editor of the STANDARD. And
| just here, it may be we'll to inquire
| wheather the late act increasing salaries
| is an infraction of the organic law of the
| land, or a departure in its retroactive
! feature from the uniform practice since
the foundation of the Government. The
| Constitution declares that Senators and
| Representatives shall receive compen-
sation to be ascertained by law, and paid
out of the Treasury of the United States,
and in pursuance of this clause the sew
eral acts increasing salaries have been
approved. Without going back further
than 1918 it will be found that in Janu-
ary of that year, an act was approved
providing that the pay of members should
be $500 per day and $500 for every
twenty miles of travel to and from the
Capital which was forty cents per mile
both ways; thus giving members from
the South and West decided advantage
and if the law existed now, the mileage
alone of members from the Pacific States
would be largely more than their present
salaries, $500. This law not only in
creased salaries but like all others on the
same subject, was retroactive running
back to March 4, 1917. In 1856 an act
was approved increasing salaries to $4,000
per annum, leaving the mileage clause as
before This act applied to the Congress
which passed it. On July %, 1866 an act
was approved increasing salaries to SIS 900
per annum to be computed from the first
day of the then existing Congress which
was March 4, 1865, nearly year and a





travel being one half of the former rate
but excepting from this reduction of
mileage, the accounts which had already
accrued Hence it will be seen that
members of the 39th Congress by virtue
of this act received in addition to 5000
per annum mileage for the first session at
the rate of forty cents per mile making
an aggregate sum which approximates
the present salary of 81, 500 under the
to laI 1ubi ioh aI1fc off oil ,11ilaono aT1
stationary allowances, and l may say in
this connection that each of the preced
| ing Con crosses that considerably increas-
ed the pay of their members deferred it
until the last session. But according to
the STANDARD all these men (and they are
many embracing some of the purest and
best of our statesmen) were thieves and
robbers.


l submit therefore whether it is not
better to examine this whole question in
the light shed upon it by the constitution
| and legislative precedents before pro
! ceeding TO characterize either individual
members or an entire Congress as a pack
of thieves. Much as | was opposed to
the measure it is law of the land, passed
| by majority of the peoples Representa-
| tiVes in the exercise of legislative powers
and must remain until it can be repealed.
Your "stop thief" cries however crafty
| ing they may be to yourself will proba-
| bly, not convince your readers that you
| either know or care much about the sub
! iect further than to crafty your own
! private feelings.


| Men of brains seldom msrepresent
| questions, at issue while the weak and
| feeble often do in order to cover their
imbecility. When the people find time
to examine the salary question | have no
doubt their verdict will be against the
increase. But at the same time they will
find that the present salaries of members
of Congress without mileage or stationary
| allowances does not amount in the ag
gregate to a sum largely in advance of
the former rates and they will further
find that the preteXt for increasing the
salaries of the President, Vice President,
Judges of the Supreme Court, Cabinet
| officers and their assistants, together with
officers and clerks of the Senate and
House was even more fimsy than that
urged for the increase of the salaries of
Senators and Representatives, and that
the increase all told does not amount to
more than about three quarters of one
million dollars per annum which will not


be likely to cripple nation much whose
people have been able to pay into the


public Treasury annually for eight or ten


wears past, on average of more than four


hundred million dollars, and still are the


most prosperous people upon the Globe


But, sir, the salary question, as have


intimated, is not what troubles you; one


or two little matters of personal and


private nature to which / shall allude,