The
Constituents Are Cheated; The Public, Which Pays, Is Cheated; And
The Post-Office Is Cheated.
But the House is spared the hearing of
the speech, and the result on the whole is perhaps beneficial.
We also, within the memory of many of us, had a franking privilege,
which was peculiarly objectionable, inasmuch as it operated toward
giving a free transmission of their letters by post to the rich,
while no such privilege was within reach of the poor. But with us
it never stretched itself to such an extent as it has now achieved
in the States. The number of letters for members was limited. The
whole address was written by the franking member himself, and not
much was sent in this way that was bulky. I am disposed to think
that all government and congressional jobs in the States bear the
same proportion to government and parliamentary jobs which have been
in vogue among us. There has been an unblushing audacity in the
public dishonesty - what I may perhaps call the State dishonesty - at
Washington, which I think was hardly ever equaled in London.
Bribery, I know, was disgracefully current in the days of Walpole,
of Newcastle, and even of Castlereagh; so current, that no
Englishman has a right to hold up his own past government as a model
of purity; but the corruption with us did blush and endeavor to hide
itself. It was disgraceful to be bribed, if not so to offer bribes.
But at Washington corruption has been so common that I can hardly
understand how any honest man can have held up his head in the
vicinity of the Capitol or of the State office.
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