CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



155 



whole scope and aim of political contributions 

 as engineered by congressional committees, 

 whether on the one side or the other, have 

 never been a mystery, and there is no more 

 mystery about it to-day than there ever wes 

 before. No woman has ever been requested 

 except where under her initials she has ap- 

 peared as a man, nor has any poor day-laborer 

 been intended to be even solicited. If there 

 has been any such poor laborer that has re- 

 ceived any invitation of this kind, he may be 

 assured that he will never be troubled again 

 by tha Republican Congressional Committee, 

 whether he pays or not. 



" But the committee, without any pretense, 

 and without any sentimentalism, finds itself, 

 as the organ of the Republican party, con- 

 fronted with a most important campaign. The 

 congressional elections, upon which depends 

 the fate of the next House of Representa- 

 tives, are now impending, and so long as men 

 believe that one thing is right in politics and 

 another thing is wrong, so long as men believe 

 that the party with which the Senator from 

 Ohio is identified, and of which he is a distin- 

 guished leader, is bent upon mischief to the 

 country, and so long as they believe that in 

 the Republican party and in its future ascend- 

 ency is bound up the good of the country, 

 neither you, sir, nor the Senator from Ohio, 

 nor I, will ever find a day when men will not 

 be willing to put in time and effort arid energy 

 and part of the means that have been given to 

 them to maintain the right and keep down the 

 wrong. I want to say to the Senator from 

 Ohio that with all of the pity that he has ar- 

 rayed for the poor woman whom the Republi- 

 can committee has not sent to, for the laborer 

 in his shop whom the Republican committee 

 does not seek, for the orphan that he says is 

 besieged, but is not, and notwithstanding all 

 that he has said about this being compulsory, 

 I can tell him from the Republican Congres- 

 sional Committee that the constituency to 

 which these invitations have been sent has 

 been found a willing constituency. 



" In the last days of the last Democratic ad- 

 ministration that ever was, and, putting my 

 word against that of the Senator from Ohio, I 

 should be tempted. to say that ever will be, in 

 the last days of the Democratic administration 

 under Mr. Buchanan, not only were the clerks 

 in the departments found followed up undr a 

 belief and a threat of removal to the paying 

 of involuntary contributions, but they were 

 hounded from room to room by superior offi- 

 cials, the heads of the bureaus and of the de- 

 partments standing over them ; and the Presi- 

 dent of the United States, the leader of his 

 party, a veteran in political strife and political 

 organization, was found consulting with the 

 instruments through which this was done from 

 day to day and week to week, including Sun- 

 days, for the purpose of making this great haul 

 more exhaustive, so that no man should escape 

 from its meshes. Yet to-day the Senator from 



Ohio stands up in his place and declares the 

 former purity and glory of the Democratic 

 party, and defies the Republican party to point 

 out in its history anything touching what he 

 calls the degradation of civil service by reason 

 of contributions." 



Mr. Van Wyck, of Nebraska: "Mr. Presi- 

 dent, I agree with much that the Senator from 

 Maine (Mr. Hale) has said, particularly where 

 he proved so conclusively that the Democratic 

 party is responsible for the abuse which has 

 crept into and is being exercised by the Re- 

 publican party to-day. That part of his ad- 

 dress may be very well as a reply to the Sena- 

 tor from Ohio (Mr. Pendleton), but certainly I 

 desire some better warrant for my action than 

 the record of the Democratic party. Has the 

 Senator forgotten that in the evidence which 

 he read the charges were made against that 

 organization in the decay of its existence? 

 Has he forgotten that those facts were the ter- 

 rible arraignment aimed against it, and when 

 they were brought into the grand assize of this 

 republic and tried upon those charges they 

 were found guilty and driven from power? 

 Does the Senator desire that the parallel shall 

 be complete? 



u Mr. President, it seems surprising that no 

 better authority can be adduced than that to 

 which the Senator alludes, that this system 

 was exercised to a greater extent, if you please, 

 in the days of the Democracy than now. That 

 is certainly no justification for a weaker exer- 

 cise of the power. 



" The Senator says that the clerk and em- 

 ploye was followed even to the receipt of his 

 money from the Government, and it was paid 

 directly from the Treasury for the benefit of 

 the Democratic party. I ask my friend if we 

 do not go nearly as far to-day ? 



" He further states that the assessment is 

 voluntary, and the circulars are sent to promi- 

 nent citizens throughout the country. I ask 

 the Senator from Maine or the Senator from 

 Iowa if in the circular sent to private citizens 

 any amount is designated? Why is the dis- 

 tinction made when the circular is sent to an 

 employe^ and the committee say they hope his 

 contribution will not be less than a certain 

 sum ? Is that inserted in the circular which is 

 sent to men of wealth, who are supposed to 

 feel a great interest in the legislation of the 

 country? When the circular is sent to the 

 eleven Bessemer-steel manufacturers in the 

 United States, are they asked to give two per 

 cent upon their income? Will the Senator 

 from Iowa explain? " 



Mr. Allison, of Iowa: "Now, my friend 

 wants to know if we assess two per cent upon 

 the profits of Bessemer steel ? I do not know 

 what the circular contains in that regard, or 

 whether we have issued a circular to the Bes- 

 semer-steel men, or have written them letters; 

 but I should say, for one, that the Bessemer- 

 steel people ought to contribute pretty liber- 

 ally to such a fund." 



