



Produced by David A. Schwan





HOW MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ARE BRIBED.

An Open Letter.

A Protest and a Petition.

From a Citizen of California to the United States Congress

by Joseph H. Moore.




The Lobbyist.


If a persistent intermeddler without proper warrant in Government
affairs, an unscrupulous dealer in threats and promises amongst public
men, a constant menace to sworn servants of the people in their offices
of trust, a tempter of the corrupt and a terror to the timid who are
delegated to power a remorseless enemy to wholesome legislation, a
constant friend to conspirators against the common welfare for private
gain--if such a compound of dangerous and insolent qualities merged
in one personality, active, vigilant, unblushing, be a Lobbyist--then
Collis P. Huntington is a Lobbyist at the doors of Congress, in its
corridors and in its councils, at Washington.

He is the spirit incarnate of Monopoly in its most aggressive form.
Among the intrenched powers which have sapped the vitality and are a
menace to the existence of our form of republican government, he is
strong with their strength, dangerous with their power, perilous with
the insolence of their courtesies, the blandishment of their open or
covert threats.

For nearly thirty years he has engendered broadcast political corruption
in order to enrich himself and his associate railroad magnates at the
public cost.

The declared representative now of those who have been thus far
successful conspirators against the general Treasury and ruthless
oppressors of every vital interest of defenceless California, with
resonant voice and open hand he is clearly visible upon parade,
demanding attention from the elected servants of all the people, and
easily dwarfing the lessor lobby by the splendor of his equipment.

The English Parliament would relegate such an intruder to the street;
the French Deputies point to his credentials with infinite scorn;
Italian statesmen would shrink from a perusal of his record, and the
Spanish Cortes decline to listen to any plea that men who are at one and
the same time known robbers and declared beggars have blended and vested
rights as both such to millions of public money.

To the vision of thoughtful rulers and myriads of patriots throughout
the world, reading history now as it is being created from day to day,
the Anarchist naturally looms in the background of such a spectacle.




A Search-Light.



In order that a proper side-light be flashed upon him; that his choice
methods of dealing with men and accomplishing his purposes may pass
in review; that some Californians and many national legislators may be
informed of that which they never knew, or reminded of that which
they may have forgotten; that the record of his accidental and forced
confession in open Court of an appalling use of money in defending
stolen millions and grasping after more shall be revived; that his low
estimate of the honor and integrity of public men, and his essential
contempt for the masses, may be contrasted with his high appreciation of
the debauching power of money; that the enslavement by himself and his
associates of the naturally great State of California and her indignant
people may be once more proclaimed with bitter protest and earnest
appeal to all the citizens of our sister States throughout our vast
commonwealth; and to the end that no such palpable embodiment of
political infamy may continue to stalk without rebuke through all
the open ways and sacred recesses of popular power crystallized at
Washington--I propose to revive the recollection of--and to briefly
comment on--the whilom notorious Huntington-Colton Letters which became
public property as part of the records of the Superior Court of Sonoma
County in this State.




Huntington-Colton Letters.



Of an apparent nearly 600, only about 200 are in evidence. It is to be
regretted that more did not come to light. If the public could only
be privileged to read what he wrote to Leland Stanford, and to Charles
Crocker, and to Mark Hopkins--as well as to David D. Colton--there
there would be much to reflect upon. But the public never will see such
letters. The nature of them required their immediate destruction.

As Huntington explains:

"I am often asked by my associates in California about my views in
matters that I have written to the others of, and allow me to say that
all letters that I number consecutively, I have supposed would be read
by all, and then go into the basket together." (No. 561. N. Y., April
7th, 1875.)

That was the safest way. It is not wise to allow great numbers of
thinking people to read that they are victims of chicanery, corruption
in high places, bribery, hire and salary, and oppression through
conspiracy. There might be something more than a spice of danger in much
carelessness.




Tone of the Letters



The letters under consideration, written during the four years from
October, 1874, to October, 1878, tell a plain enough, tale of their own.
They abound with cool and easy allusions to various men and things: to
"convincing" public servants; to "fixing" committees in Congress;
to "persuading" the most exalted officials; purchasing National
legislators, as well as Territorial Governors; to deceiving local
communities, and the United States generally, with well considered
cunning; to working noisily with blatant instruments and quietly through
masked agents; to creating public opinion by means of false showings;
to electing or defeating candidates for office; to smiting enemies and
rewarding friends.

Viewed as a contribution to the literature of fatal political infection
the letters are unique. They embody an epitome of just such work as
their writer is prepared to now continue, if the temper of the American
people will permit him to do so.

The plane upon which his exertions will possibly be made may be justly
imagined from the intimate knowledge and implied approval of bribery on
a col