THE LOBBY IN AMERICA.

Southland Times, Issue 1610, 26 July 1872, Page 3

THE LOBBY IN AMERICA.

At the presenfc time, when to Americanise our institutions is esteemed one of the loftiest objects of ambition, the account given by the "Washington correspondent of the New York Herald of tlie " lobby " in connection with Congress at that city is not devoid of interest. The war had much to do with the growth of the lobby, although it existed before the war. Every measure before Congress has a lobby of its own, whicb generally takes its name from the scheme or schemes in whose interest the lobby is at work. This winter, for instance, there are the Steamship Subsidy lobbies, the Railroad and Grant lobbies, the Cottontax lobby, the Indian Ring, and a hundred others. The lobbyists may be classified as (1) the men who have no influence, but boast of having a great i deal ; (2) the men put forward to " see " members and do the possible work of a ring. 3. Ex-congressmen. 4. Congressmen. The first of these classes is by far the largest. They are constantly on tbe look out for people with small jobs and little experience, from whom they manage to extract a few dollars for their supposed influence with some representative or senator. The second class is only above the first in 'influence and importance. They are the " look-out" men ofthe craft, and infest the anterooms of the Houses of Congress, button-holing congressmen and cultivating pleasant relations with committee clerks and doorkeepers. The excongressmen, who by the rule of courtesy have the privilege of the floor of the House, have converted that privilege into an abuse of the most atrocious kind. They congregate in the Vice-President's room, the Speaker's room, the committee rooms, and the reporters' galleries. The exmember is a power in the land, and his influence only begins to be appreciated when the wrong he has done cannot be undone. As a member of the Senate or House he had only one vote, and that very often not his own ; while as a member of the lobby he may control a dozen or score, or even a hundred. "To own a Congressman" is one of the pet phrases of the capital, and some people count their property of this kind as the Southern slaveholders used to count their slaves. The ex- congressman knows every congressman's value, and when he wants a vote he pays only for its value. A man who has not been a member of Congress is, as a rule, a poor lobbyist. Congress itself is the best Bchool of the lobby, and a seat in the House, or even in the Senate, is only sought by a certain class of jobbers as a certificate of fitness for the higher duties of the corridors and the cloak-rooms. Entering Congress is only matriculation for the lobby, and the pay of the member is nothing to the profits of the ex-member. The chairmanship of a committee is a more honorable, though scarcely a more important, and certainly a less influential position than the headship of a ring. No ring is complete without a Congress graduate to assume its direction. "With every job some exmember of Congress has some connection. When his consmueu b» icruoo <^ ~-> — him he ceases to be a tool, and makes other men his instruments. His vote is no longer in the market ; but he is in the market to buy other men's votes. He has been in Congress, and is a " statesman." He has learned something of the rules, and he knows how a trick may serve to delude the new men who succeed him, and the other ex-members who graduated in the same class with him. The secrets of committees are no longer secrets to bim, for he has the " open sesame" which unlocks them at his command. The members of these secret conclaves were once his equals ; now they are his familiars and slaves. The clerks are his obedient servants, and he hails them in hearty good humor as Harry, Jack, and Tom. Hi 3 ministers are everywhere, and his evil spirit pervades the very atmosphere. The congressman on his way to the Capitol bows to him obsequiously, and shakes him by the hand. The senator vacates his curule chair that " the distinguished gentleman who once occupied a seat on the floor" may fill it, and fronze his locks as a man of influence in the sight of his clients in the i galleries. Congress (adds the Washing- | ton correspondent) as a school of villany is unsurpassed by any similar institution in the world, and even Fagin might learn something of the higher branches of his art by observing closely the ways of the ex-congressman.