Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1873 — A Sew Fact in the Congressional Larceny. [ARTICLE]

A Sew Fact in the Congressional Larceny.

As Butler denies tiie authorship of tiie back pay amendment we are at a loss to guess what congressman could have bedn equal to so ingenious an Tnquity, since the latest development shows that the scheme meant back pay for everybody. It seems that every member of congress elect who holds the proper certificate and whose seat is not contested now draws his salary monthly at the rate of $625 per month. Thus, there having been no March session, the members may draw $5,625- before they take their seats in December, which is $625 more'than the whole amount of the old salary, and is to be paid before a day’s service has been rendered or before even the forms of membership have been complied with. The effect of this is to insure the United States treasury against the possibility of saving a few dollars by reason of resignation, death or a vacancy from any other cause. A case lias 'lately arisen which illustrates this. Air. Williams Whiting was last fall elected to congress in the third Massachusetts district. He died on the 29th of June. His heirs are therefore Entitled to four months’ pay unless Mr. Whiting had already drawn it.— Oil the 4th of November his successor will be elected, and as soon as he receives liis certificate from the Governor, he can draw $625 per month from the first of July. If he has other business more attractive or more imperative than his duties as congressman, he may resign on the Ist of December,. before congress assembled, having three thousand dollars in hiss pocket without even seeing his name enrolled in the official record. If Butler had not so positively denied the authorship of the bill, uncharitable persons might have said that he was already counting upon his election as Governor in November, having meanwhile added this second five thousand dollars of back pay to his income to defray his campaign expenses. The salary bill seems to have been designed for a swindle from beginning to end. While every chance is given the indolent and useless members to draw pay before they earn it no chance is given the taxpayers. They must pay in full for service which was never rendered. If the authors and abettors of this scheme think that after these repeated exposures such an affair will “blow over,” they mistake the public judgment. And this reminds us once more to draw the attention of those congressmen who have announced that thev “have not drawn the back pay” to the fact that something more is necessary. A congressman who is competent to make laws did not need the assurance of the Secretary of the Treasury that the “elaims for this salary against the United States never lapses,” for a little common sense teaches that repudiation is not a part of*our Constitution. What will Senators Sherman, Edmunds and Morton do about it? They have boasted that they left the back pay in the treasury; but it.may remain there to credit for a lifetime. They must make a formal restitution or they must bear the discredit of accepting the booty. Further than this it is well to bear in mind