Year: 1873

A Thievish Congress.


The table which we print this morning
has an eloquence of its own beyond any
power of words to highten. The back
pay outrage is now five months old. 1t
has received the unanimous denunciation
of the press. 1t has been singled out by
State conventions and by county meet
ings for severe and energetic reprobation.
No one has risen to defend it except one
or two of the most audaeious of the men
who carry the plunder in their pockets.
The country has rarely ever been SO
united in feeling and expression in re-
gard to any public question. 1t is every
where agreed, where two or three men
meet and talk politics, or where larger
number come together to take action in
political affairs, that this performance of
the majority of Congress was low and
thievish, and that every man who profit
ed by it stole $4,000 of money to which
he had no claim but his own vote. 1t is
one of those acts which are as disreputa-
BILE as they are dishonest-as bad in taste
as in morals. Yet look at our table and
note the result. This storm of public in
dignation has been blowing for months,
and the Congressman still cling tightly
to their plumber About one in ten of
the members of the House of Representa-
tives, and about one in five of the Sen
ators, have BEEN led by conscience or
driven by shame, or induced by consid-
erations of policy, to return to the
Treasury the money of which it was rob-
bed by the Salary bill. t.ae


This is certainly not a cheering exhibit
yet it should surprise no one. Of course
the majority voted for the robbery, and
in common consistency they must take
the fruits of it. Many who had cunning
enough to vote against it secretly desired
it's passage, and availed themselves of the
votes of their more cynical colleagues to
handle the cash. The men who voted
against the outrage are therefore greatly
in excess of those who have refused to
profit by it. They have plenty of sneak
ing arguments to Justify this meanness.
Some say it would be the act of dema-
gogue to give the money back; some pre-
tend it would be a reflection on their
friends; some think they need the money
more than the Government; some have
begun hauling sand for their new houses
But at the bottom of every mans heart
who takes this stolen cash is the thought
that people are not in earnest in con-
demning it; that the damage to their
character is not S., 900 worth. The moral
tone of the political class to which these
Back Pay congressman belong has, by
slow gradations, fallen so low that they
refuse to believe in the existence of a
conscientious scruple in which they do
not share They persuade themselves
that the public criticism this act has met
with is as conventional and theatrical as
their own professions of patriotism and
honesty upon the stump. 1t certainly is
annoying while it lasts. But they think
it will not last long. This is dull sea-
son in politics, they say. and the news
papers must have something to talk about
They will keep their money and defy
ing their critics, to make $4,000 of capi-
tai out of it.


But this is no question of political cap
itaL No party or faction, no State or
section can carry this miserable business
into a partisan fight and try to make a
slogan of what is too general a shame
Republicans and Democrats and Liberals
are all stained alike with the same un-
cleanness. The frugal New-Englander
and the liberal Westerner have yielded
to the same temptation. There are bank
rupts and millionaires on the same list.
Of course. the more prominent part in
the swindle was taken by the Republi-
can leaders of both Houses, and it is upon
them that the heaviest responsibility
must fall But the Democrats with equal
greediness aided with their votes and
shared in the plunder, and even the little
band of Liberals furnished their full con-
tingent to the grabbers. 1t is disgrace
to the party under whose rule it was ac-
complshed, and disgrace no less to the
opposition which permitted and abetted.
and divided the spoils. 1t is system of
a grave general disease which cannot te
localized We shall make great mis-
take if we content ourselves by punish
ing few scapegoats. In Massachusetts
most respectable body of gentlemen
make of this outrageous theft their prin-
cipal indictment against the reckless pol
itician who carried it through Congress.
But while they denounce him, they have
only praises for the President, by whose
signature this fraud became law, and
who profted by that dishonest legisla-
ton ten times as much as any Congress
man. We shall draw no wholesome
moral we shall take no effective warning
from this lamentable occurrence, If we
try to use it to flatter our own prejudices.
1t is incumbent upon every citizen to
mark his disapproval of the men who
committed this larceny at whatever cost
of personal or political feeling. 1t is
only when the mass of voters rise above
party, and show that they consider COM
mon honesty in public affairs more I'M
portant matter than party success, that
the men who make politics trade are
taught that they cannot steal with inn
punity.