When the bill for establishing the Court of Claims was under consideration, Mr. Johnson moved as an amendment

"That if any member of Congress shall appear as counsel or attorney, or otherwise aid any claimant in establishing any claim or claims against the United States before said Board of Commissioners, the seat of such member shall be vacated, and the member rendered ineligible for the remainder of the term for which he was elected."

Mr. Johnson said he "thought members of Congress should be kept out of this business; if they are not, they will monopolize all the business of this new court. It is opening the door to corruption-it is offering an opportunity to members of Congress to receive bribes in the shape of fees. As an evidence of the propriety of some such restriction, we see notices put in the newspapers by members of Congress, proposing to prosecute claims against the Government of the United States. If this court is established, it will be merely transferring the business of the Committee on Claims to the Board of Commissioners, and gentlemen know that these considerations must exercise an influence over the minds of members, when the cases are brought up here."

Mr. Johnson was equally severe in his strictures upon the custom, for many years past prevailing, of members of Congress voting to themselves heavy douceurs, in the shape of very valuable books. This had become to be regarded as a great outrage, even among members of Congress themselves, and throughout the country. The only decent pretence ever put forth in its mitigation was, that it had been long sanctioned by custom, and that every Congress, in voting to themselves these books, only did what others before them had done. In the Twenty-eighth Congress, on a proposition to purchase Greenhow's "History of Oregon

and California," Mr. Johnson moved an amendment to rescind the resolution of 1844, which directed the Clerk to furnish to each member of the House such books as were furnished to the members of the Twenty-sixth and Twentyseventh Congresses. Mr. Johnson said:

"I think it is time, as expressed in my amendment, that this matter should be put an end to. There is no difference between members voting themselves five or six hundred dollars additional pay, and voting the amount in books. I know an instance in which a member got the books ordered, and then sold them for one hundred and fifty dollars. The Government pays this enormous price (five hundred to six hundred dollars), members then sell them at this greatly reduced price (one hundred and fifty dollars), and put the money into their pockets. The next Congress orders them for its members, and pays this same excessive price to those booksellers that thus buy them of the members, who do not care enough for them to take them home. No public benefit results from these purchases of books by Congress for members; for when not sold by them, they are taken home and deposited in their private libraries. If this practice is to continue, what an immense expense will it entail on the Government! I am informed, by a gentleman who has investigated the subject, that it has already cost the Government nearly a million of dollars."

In the cases thus referred to, Mr. Johnson's purpose evidently was, to guard the character of Congress against any grounds for suspicion. He regarded legislation as designed for the protection of the people's rights, and the advancement of their prosperity. He knew that the public treasure and popular freedom must suffer if the representative was unfaithful, and hence his anxiety to guard the latter against temptation even. It also shows what a high estimate he placed on the position of a Representative of the people. Some members looked upon these practices of procuring warrants for their own sons in the army and

navy, or of swapping influence with fellow-members in regard to the promotion of their sons, as small matters, not involving any stigma whatever. Others regarded the taking of fees, for prosecuting claims against the Government, as mere professional transactions. Not so Andrew Johnson. He wished to preserve immaculate the character of the Representatives of the people. He thought of them as Cæsar did of his wife-that they must be not only pure, but unsuspected.

CHAPTER VIII.

Public Opinion of Congressional Character-The "Gardiner claim "—Indignation of Mr. Johnson-Denounces it in the House-The Position he assumed-Bearing of his Views at the present time-His watchful Vigilance over the Treasury-Views on the Increase of Salaries-His Position on the Tariff Question-The Object to present his Views and settled Opinions-His open-hearted Candor and Freedom from PrevaricationSympathy for the People-Effects of the Homestead Act-Opposition to the Know-Nothing Movement-Union Character of that Movement.

It is well known to the reader that, for many years past, the prestige of Congressional character has become materially impaired by the thousands of rumors that go out from Washington, in regard to the demoralization of the members, in perverting the influence of their official station to their own interests and to the advancement and promotion of friends, etc. Whether true or not, these charges have greatly affected public opinion; and, to a considerable extent, the popular respect and admiration for the legislative department of the Government have become lessened. This is much to be regretted. For in order to make a people proud of their Government, and proud of themselves as being the citizens of a Government which they admire and respect, they must have confidence in its purity and in its faithfulness to the great principles on which it is founded. The people of the country have much to hope from President Johnson, on this subject. His stern and uncompromising opinions in regard to the purity and integrity which should mark the character of

the Representatives of the people are well known. The public mind may rest secure that he will not only never tamper with their integrity in his high executive capacity, but that he will exercise his executive power and influence, whenever necessary, in resisting every tendency to corruption in the legislative branch of the Government.

The fraud and peculation exposed in the celebrated "Gardiner claim" aroused in Mr. Johnson the most intense indignation. His speech on the subject is marked with the eloquence of indignant wrath, and reminds the reader of those forensic displays of the old Roman orators, in which they exposed the peculations and abuses of their times, which followed in the wake of the conquest of Roman arms. It is probably known to the reader that Gardiner was an itinerant adventurer in Mexico, a man of great shrewdness and energy, who preferred a claim against the Mexican Government for $500,000, under the treaty of 1831 with that Government. By the treaty of peace with Mexico in 1848, our Government reserved $3,250,000 of the $15,000,000 to be paid to Mexico, for the payment of the claims of our citizens against Mexico under the treaty of 1831, and a commission was appointed to adjudicate the claims. Under this claim the commission awarded to Gardiner $427,000. It leaked out, after a while, that this claim was improperly allowed, having no merits to sustain it. Mr. Johnson thus boldly and fearlessly denounced it in the House of Representatives in January, 1853:

"One thing has been ascertained since this claim was allowed, and that is, that it is a fraudulent one, based only on perjury and forgery. We know that perjury and forgery were the means by and through which the amount of money I have specified as being awarded to Dr. Gardiner was taken out of the Treasury. This fact no one will controvert. The committee