Year: 1873

Among the resolutions adopted by the
! Springfield Farmers Convention, on
! Wednesday, was one consuming the Presi-
! dent for not vetoing the bill containing
| the provision for the increase of salaries


As much has been said about this, it may
! be well to examine the matter little
The salary clause could not be considered
| separately by the President, and if he
! had declined to give it his sanction, the
whole Legislative Appropriation Bill


would have failed. This bill provides
| for the pay for all the officers of the Gov
ernment and the contingent expenses of
| all the officers. The legislative judicial
and executive branches, with all their
! thousand attaches, great and small are
dependent on this bill for their pay But,
! besides these, there were incorporated in
| the bill three other important provisions,
all of which would likewise had failed
had the President vetoed the measure.
One was a provision relating to the dis
position of captured and abandoned prop
erty, long-considered and vexed ques-
ton that was finally disposed of by the


bill Another was the clause presented


and advocated by the Wilson Credit


Mobilier Committee, providing that suits
shall be brought to recover all moneys of


which the Pacific railway has been de-
frauded by the Credit Mobilier. A third
Was Gn0 CGudG0 dIQ6nQn6QG lnSDeucUlng
the Secretary of the Treasury to with
hold all payments to the Pacific Railway,


on account of transportation of mails
and supplies, until the Government shall
be reimbursed for the interest it has paid


on the bonds of the road.


If the President had vetoed the bill,
not only would the appropriations for


carrying on the Government have failed,
but these important measures also An
!
been inevitable, involving an expense
amounting to more than the salary in


crease, and with the ultimate result,
probably, of the repassage of the bill
These conditions were in themselves suf-
fcient to cause the President to hesitate:
But there was another of even more
weight. The Congress is composed Of


the immediate represe of the peo-
pie. For the President to assume that
they were placing false value upon their
| services, and inform them that he would


regulate their pay according to his own
! ideas of fitness, would have been an act


for which he would have been roundly
denounced; and though this interfer-


ence was richly deserved in this case, the
question of its propriety is very serious
one. The President is not elected to


guard the people against their own rep
resentatives but he is to "talxe care that
Tic laws are dlGLAluAly SA6CulGu. Al


though he is clothed with extraordinary
power, which, upon occasion, he can
exercise, it may well be doubted if it


would be proper time. to interpose his


veto where the subject of an act related


simply to the pay of members of Con-
gress, matter which is left by the Con-


stitution entirely under their own con-
troll and subject to their own regulation.


So far as his own salary is concered it


is fair to presume that, if $4,000 was
| reasonable salary at the foundation of
the Government, $4,000 is not unreason-


able now. The salaries of other officers
have been doubled and trebled, while


that of the President has remained the


same. 1t is even now not the half of
what is drawn by high officials in Europe,
and a great country like this ought not


to be too niggardly with its chief execu-


tive. Besides, the Presidents salary was


no grab of back pay in his case, the in
crease only applying to the future.


In view of these facts, we do not think
the Presidents course calls for censure


or resolutions of condemnation, no mat


ter how much we may wish that some


power had INTERVIEWED to prevent so


disgraceful a consummation as the pas


sage of the retroactive salary clause.