1524 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
tunately die to-night the Senate would vote to my wife the sum of one 
year’s salary. Mr. President, I know that that has been done hereto- 
fore; I know that appropriations have been made for the widows of 
deceased Senators and members of Congress, but it was never done by 
my vote. I have never given a vote of that character yet; and I 
assert here that we have no more right to give it to the widow of a 
Senator than we have to give it to any other individual. Whenaman 
accepts a seat in the Senate of the United States he knows the amount 
of salary; he knows what the law has fixed for it; and when you stick 
on an appropriation bill what you dare not and have not the nerve to 
put in the general law so as to make it applicable to everybody, you 
simply take the people’s money and misappropriate it and give it 
where you have no right to give it. 
I say that the principle applies to the widow of a Senator the same 
that it applies to these heirs. It is the principle against which I con- 
tend that we as representatives of the people can take money that does 
not belong to us and give it to whomsoever we may see proper, If, 
you can give them $10,000 you can give them a millon, you can give 
them ten million. The amount does not change the principle, but it 
is the wrong that we do whenever we give away that which does not 
belong to us, which we hold in trust for others. 
These are my objections to the amendment, and to speak of that 
which is done for the widows of Senators is no justification for it, 
because there is no justification for that appropriation. If you think 
that the salary of a Senator or Member is not sufficient, then the only 
bold and manly way would be to either increase the salary or put a 
provision in a general law and say whenever a Senator or Member dies 
during his term of service his widow shall be entitled to a year’s pay 
after his death. That would be the bold and manly way to do it, and 
not try to deceive the people of the United States by not passing such 
a law, but putting it into an appropriation bill, where it is never heard 
of, and thereby taking their money. That is the objection I have 
to it. 
lsay, Mr. President, small as this sum is, that the principle upon 
which it is based is that which is sowing seeds of discord throughout 
this country to-day. We see dissatisfaction all over the land.. We 
see parties of every class engaged in every pursuit coming to the Gov- 
ernment and asking that something may be done for them. They 
say, ‘‘ We want to know what the Government is going to do for us.” 
That cry comes up from the farmers and the agriculturists of the land 
to-day; and why is it? It is because of precedents that have been 
made whereby we took money and misappropriated it. They see the 
Congress of the United States giving away their money to the widows 
of Senators and Members of Congress, to deserving ladies, as there is 
no doubt these are, and to many other persons, and what is more 
