152 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



its justice ; no appeal to reason would be lis- 

 tened to. My distinguished friend from Ohio 

 (Mr. Garfield), who struggled against it until, 

 in a conference report which he had resisted 

 to the last, it was brought before the House 

 attached to one of the most important appro- 

 priation bills, and then, as all of us who are fa- 

 miliar with the facts must confidently believe 

 (and it is but justice to him to say so here), 

 voted for it in the conscientious discharge of 

 his duty to the country, has fared no better 

 than anyone else. 



" I do not doubt that this unstinted abuse 

 has been indulged in by many honest, consci- 

 entious men, who, in my judgment, came to 

 hasty conclusions ; and certainly by many who 

 thought they could see in it their opportunity 

 for preferment, hoping for official honors upon 

 some demerit of others, rather than upon any 

 merit of their own. 



' ; Mr. Speaker, I may be mistaken, but I 

 have thought that I could see, in what has 

 transpired here since this question came before 

 the House, a disposition upon the part of some 

 gentlemen to seek to gain popularity for them- 

 selves by trying to cast reproach upon their 

 fellow-members. 



"Now, sir, it is not my purpose to argue 

 against the repeal of that act, nor that it did 

 not fix the salaries too high, but to show that 

 there is nothing in it that is immoral or dis- 

 honest ; that a man might vote for it, or re- 

 ceive its benefits, and still be the peer in integ- 

 rity and conscience of the very best of all the 

 multitude of his detractors. The limit fixed 

 to this debate will not permit me to enter into 

 an elaborate consideration of this subject in its 

 various aspects, and I must necessarily treat it 

 briefly. As the Constitution now is, the pow- 

 er is granted to each Congress to fix its own 

 compensation. This power was granted for 

 the reason that it was not deemed wise to al- 

 low one Congress to fix the compensation of its 

 successor ; it was recognized as a delicate duty 

 for members to fix their own salaries, but, after 

 weighing all the arguments pro and con, it was 

 deemed best that it should be so. A great 

 many newspaper articles have been published, 

 and speeches made, in which it has been as- 

 sumed that, when a Senator or a member of 

 Congress is elected, it is a contract to serve, 

 during the period for which he was elected, for 

 the compensation provided for at the time of 

 his election. But, sir, nothing is plainer than 

 that the assumption is without foundation. 

 On the contrary, as before remarked, for rea- 

 sons which the framers of the Constitution re- 

 garded as outweighing those that were urged 

 against it, it was provided that each Congress 

 might judge of its own compensation. Such is 

 not only the plain letter of the Constitution, but 

 there is history which shows that so the peo- 

 ple themselves desired it to be. 



" Now, -Mr. Speaker, five Congresses have 

 increased the salaries, and each time dated the 

 increase back to the beginning of the Congress, 



or, in other words, have embodied in the law 

 this feature, which the gentleman from Ohio 

 (Mr. Lawrence), a short while ago, so earnest- 

 ly objected to as ' back pay.' 



"The Constitution was purposely framed so 

 as to allow each Congress to fix its own salary, 

 and, acting within its express constitutional 

 power, the Forty-second Congress, in passing 

 the act to which I have referred, has followed 

 an unbroken line of precedents, and has trodden 

 in the footsteps of many illustrious predeces- 

 sors. 



" Having the right to fix its own compensa- 

 tion, it is of course wholly immaterial on what 

 day of the Congress it is done. The merit or 

 demerit does not in any way depend upon 

 whether it is done on the first, or the last, or 

 any intervening day. It might be done on the 

 first day, and then it would all be 'front pay,' 

 to use the language of some of the newspapers ; 

 but the effect upon the Treasury would be 

 precisely the same as if fixed upon the last 

 day.- The merit or demerit, the good or bad 

 qualities of the act, depends, therefore, not on 

 the time in the session when it is done, but al- 

 together upon the amount. If the amount 

 fixed would have been right if it had been fixed 

 at the beginning of the Congress, it is equally 

 right if fixed at any later day in the Congress 

 to date from the beginning. Upon this ques- 

 tion of amount it is but natural that there 

 should be a diversity of opinion, and that dif- 

 ference may exist between honest men. 



" I shall not argue the question whether or 

 not the action of the Forty-second Congress 

 was ill-timed or indiscreet, although it would 

 possibly not be difficult to convince a thinking 

 man that it is never ill-timed nor indiscreet to 

 do what is right ; but this would involve the 

 single question, and it is the only question in- 

 volved, as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Law- 

 rence) now admits, whether or not the amount 

 fixed by that Congress was in excess of a fair 

 compensation. Those who had experience 

 here would differ in regard to it, and those who 

 have had no opportunity to know to what ex- 

 penses Senators and Members are subjected 

 are not in a good condition .to form a correct 

 opinion. 



" It is sufficient for us to know that the 

 people, whether wisely or unwisely, are un- 

 willing to pay the amount fixed by that Con- 

 gress. We cannot now argue that they are 

 wrong. They have a right to dictate what 

 they will pay. They have a right to demand 

 that it shall be repealed. They have made 

 that demand, and we are now about to accede 

 to it. When repealed we must once more fix 

 salaries; and that, also, we are about to do. 

 Whatever we' may do will be criticised; but 

 we must do something, and perhaps the best 

 guide to us in disposing of the matter is the law 

 as it was before, and I trust that the House 

 will place the bill upon that basis." 



Mr. Townsend, of Pennsylvania, said : " The 

 people of the country are willing to compen- 



