286 
Gregory—Political Corruption. 
The office which particularly allures wealth in this country 
is that of senator of the United States, as was planned and in¬ 
tended by the framers of our constitution who declared their 
purpose that the senate should represent the wealth of the 
country and resemble the English house of lords as much as pos¬ 
sible; and this leads to a new form of bribery. 
The great fortunes of the state vie with each other in disin¬ 
terested contributions to the campaign funds of the several can¬ 
didates for the legislature, and the representative of the people 
takes his seat in the legislative hall with a chattel mortgage on 
his body and soul held by this or that senatorial aspirant. The 
idea of barter and sale is scrupulously avoided in conversation 
and the contract is disguised under the words gratitude and 
party service. This is not unwhispered of in most of our states, 
and if the practice exists, such a search light as the Missouri 
law will help to reveal and amend it. If our legislators are sold 
to rich buyers, let us insist on knowing the price and the pur¬ 
chaser. 
If such dealings are blameless there is no harm, if guilty 
there is great good, in publishing them. The methods of an 
honest election can stand like primeval innocence “naked but 
not ashamed. ” Bills for corrupt practices acts will be offered 
this winter in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Penn¬ 
sylvania, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and I know 
not how many other states. I am in receipt of letters from 
many sources asking advice in framing these acts. A public 
spirited and experienced senator has offered his services in sup¬ 
port of such a measure before our own legislature. 
I hope Wisconsin will not fall behind her sister states in this 
matter, and that as the old barbarous and historic and universal 
way of buying places in the church, of buying commissions in 
the army, of buying appointments under the government, 
of buying justice from the courts—as these have been swept 
from Anglo-Saxon practice and tolerance, so the still-ex¬ 
isting practice of buying elections, of buying the right to mis¬ 
represent the people, may be swept from our practice and our 
tolerance, and this age prove itself as, with all its faults I be¬ 
lieve it to be, less venal than any age of all that went before. 
