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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



ceived under the existing law, and the com- 

 plaint is that it is violative, if not of the letter, 

 at least of the spirit, of the Constitution, as 

 impairing the obligation of the contract under 

 which the money was paid. 



" This position would have great force in 

 case it were well founded ; but the amend- 

 ment which I have offered is prospective in its 

 operation ; it compels no Senator, no member 

 of the House of Kepresentatives, to refund a 

 dollar of the money which he has received 

 under the act of March 3, 1873. Under that 

 law the compensation for the entire Congress 

 would be $15,000. Up to the 4th day of 

 January in this present year the compensation 

 under the law amounts to the sum of $6,250. 

 That, subtracted from the compensation es- 

 tablished by this bill ($10,000 per Congress), 

 leaves $3,750 yet to be paid to members of 

 Congress, to be distributed over, the fourteen 

 months remaining of the Forty-third Con- 

 gress ; and, according to my calculation, that 

 will leave $268 per month to be paid to each 

 member of Congress in the future. Nothing 

 is to be returned whatever; so that I think 

 that objection is not well taken. This amend- 

 ment contemplates no return to the Treasury 

 of any dollar that has been received undei- an 

 existing law, but fixes the compensation in the 

 future so that those who have received under 

 the existing law $625 a month will hereafter, 

 during the remaining fourteen months of this 

 Congress, receive but $268 a month. That is 

 the whole of it." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "The commit- 

 tee, after a careful consideration of this sub- 

 ject, with the House bill and with all the de- 

 bates in the House before them, concluded that 

 it was better from this time forth, from the 

 passage of this bill, to restore the salary of 

 $5,000 a year and the ordinary allowances and 

 mileage. It is true that objections were at 

 once made that the old mileage system Avas 

 objectionable, was unequal, by giving to mem- 

 bers from remote States a greater portion than 

 was their due. On the other hand, it was in- 

 sisted that men who come from a great dis- 

 tance, from their business and from their fam- 

 ilies, ought to have some additional compensa- 

 tion, more than the mere expense of traveling 

 from their remote place of residence to this 

 point. Other considerations operated. At 

 any rate, this was a long- established system, 

 that had not given rise to much complaint; 

 and if there was any gross injustice in it, that 

 might at any time be corrected by a reduction 

 of the rate of mileage. If twenty cents a mile 

 is now too high, owing to the cheapness of 

 transportation, it can at any time, by a mere 

 amendment of the law, be reduced to ten cents 

 a mile. The committee thought it was better 

 simply to restore the law as it was on the 3d 

 of March, 1873 ; and there are grave and serious 

 reasons why this system of mileage ought to 

 be maintained, but perhaps at a lower rate 

 than that now fixed by law. 



"In regard to other allowances, as to which 

 so much complaint has been made, what are 

 they? They are fixed and ascertained. We 

 were allowed under the old law $125 per an- 

 num apiece to pay for the ordinary stationery 

 and the incidents connected with the ordinary 

 discharge of our duty. It is true that the 

 newspapers say that five or ten thousand 

 knives are supplied to members of the Sen- 

 ate. If so, they are paid for by members of 

 the Senate. The whole amount of our allow- 

 ance as fixed by law is $125 to each member, 

 and that is not more than sufficient for the 

 purpose. "What other allowances are given? 

 None other. No member of Congress can by 

 any possibility draw from the public Treasury 

 under the old law any thing but his compensa- 

 tion, the $5,000 a year, the mileage allowed 

 by law, and this allowance for stationery. 

 The franking privilege being repealed, as a 

 matter of course, we are relieved in a great 

 measure from the burden of franking public 

 documents. The amount of postage that may 

 be paid by any of us probably would range 

 somewhere in the neighborhood of two or 

 three hundred dollars a year. That may or 

 may not be provided for, as Congress may 

 hereafter deem wise. I say, therefore, Mr. 

 President, that the amendment reported by 

 the committee is substantially correct. 



"As to the proposition now offered by the 

 Senator from Indiana, I certainly would not vote 

 for it. I have n more power and we have no 

 more right to take from members of Congress 

 money which they have earned and received 

 in pursuance of law than we have the right to 

 take your house, or your farm, or confiscate 

 your property. It is their property, and al- 

 though it is in the form of money, as exhibited 

 here yesterday by my friend from Texas (Mr. 

 Flanagan), what he has received is property 

 his property and no man has a right to take 

 it from him. With all due deference to my 

 friend from Indiana, who I know would never 

 like to do any thing by indirection, I do say 

 that the legal effect of his amendment is by 

 indirection, by a device, to take money from 

 the pockets of the men who earned it, and 

 hold it, and have it now by law. Why, sir, 

 what is the proposition? Senators are dis- 

 cussing the various forms in which the propo- 

 sition may be put. They say if it is framed 

 in such and such words it is constitutional, but 

 if framed in other words it is unconstitutional. 

 Sir, I care not in what form you put it, it is 

 unjust, and therefore I will not vote for it. I 

 would not vote for it under any demand. 



"Mr. President, there are one or two other 

 points that have been made on which I desire 

 to say a word, because I do not wish to speak 

 on this bill again. When the committee re- 

 ported this bill thoy considered other ques- 

 tions, which, I see from the amendments pre- 

 pared all around me, are to be presented, 

 and we have got to debate them over again ; 

 and I wish now in advance to give, as neai 



