Conger Gridlroned

Watertown, Oct. 2. Hon. O. D. Conger: Sir - The people of the Seventh Congressional District of Michigan have selected yourself and myself as the two opposing candidates for member of Congress at the approaohing election. Now, as I always did prefer the quiet though arduous pursuits of private life to the turinoü, the intrigue and the chioanery of politics, I will makü you pubiicly and in good faith this distinct proposition : If you will answer a few plnin questions that I shall propound to you in reference to your past stewardship, to my satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of the poople of our district, I will retiro from the canvass and leave the field to you, with all its honors and emolumenta, without opposition. 1. Were you sincere in your action when you voted against the bill to increase the pay of the members of Congress, faniiliarly kiiown as the " salarygrab" bill ? 2. If so, with what consistency did you afterward pocket the pay, to the amouul of some five thousand dollars ? 3. How was it a few years ago you were willing to serve as a rnember of the Michigan Legislature for three dollars a day, and could not now be satisfied with $5,000 for a session of Congress occupyonly about half the year, and being per diein more than ten times as great 'r1 4. Were there not other good and competent men in the district who woulc have been willing to serve their country in Congress for $5,000 a year, withoul stealing $5,000 more ? 5. Was not your country in vol ved in an immense public debt, &nd was not every dollar in the government treasury deraanded to pay the interest on that debt, to meet curren t expenses, and to pay the pensions of wounded soldiers and of the widows and orpbans of those who died in defense of their country's flag? 6. Have not the greatest men in the country, such as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Silas Wright, and Thomas Hari Benton, served their country in Congress for eight dollars a day, and servec it faithfully ? 7. Can you point us to some public acts of yours, some achipvements oi statesmanship that should render your services worth seven times as much to the country as those of such men as Clay and Webster ? I ask these questions in good faith, the voters of our district have a right to expeet an answer at your hands. Please let us have it at the earliest possible period, and let it be pointed, and withoul equivocation. The people are not willing to be put off. When the salary-grab law was firsi made public the honest indignation oi the people was aroused to a high pitch. A voice of indignation went up from the public pre8S, without distinction of party that could not be misunderstood. When the cry of " stop thief " rings out on the midnight air the robber in his flight sometimes drops his plunder. So it was in the present case. Most of the culprits laid down their plunder that they might run with the greater fleetness before their indignant pursuers. Of the Michigan Bepresentatives four clung to their plunder. When the timid cur is closely pursued he drops his bone ; but the stubborn bull-dog hangs on with the tenacity oi grim death. Such was your action, and that of some more of your public servants. They have quailed before the blast of public condemnation, and slunk to ignominious retirement, but you have the effrontery to stand up before the public and ask another election. Not content with the plunder of the past four years, your rapacity deinands more. The Bible tells us " there are three thinga that are not satisfied, yea, four that never saith enough." Had the divine writer lived in these times he would have added one more - it would have been the radical office-holder When Gen. Washington was appointed to be chief commander of the arrny of the revolution he addressed the Continental Congress in these word : " As to pay, I beg leave leave to assure the Congress that, as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous ernployment, at the oxpense of my douiestic ease and happine6s, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses. Those, I doubt not, thcy will discharge, and that is all I desire." Again, when the war of the revolution closed and this disinterested war-worn soldier returned from the blood-stained battle field of a neven years struggle, he was in8talled by a giateful public as first President of the United States. In accepting the responsible trust and the well-earned honor, he said : " I must decline, as inapplicable to myself, any share in the emoluments which my be indispensably included in a permanent provisión for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the sta tion in which I ana placed may, during my continuance in it, be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good ujay be thought to require. Such was Washington, the " Father of his country." His sacred dust sleeps cnlmly beniüith the sbades of Mount Vers on, and, if his spirit still livts, it certainly was not inherited by the Hon. O. D. Conger. Webster, the great defender of the Constitution ; Clay, the inimitable orator and profound statesman ; Benton, the lion of the West, and the hero of " thirty years in the Seuate," could serve their country for eight dollars a day, and be satisfied. The proud escutcheon of these able men is stained with no Credit Mobilier, or salary-grab, or back pay record. May their shadows never be less, and that the spirit which actuated, incited and enobled the character of these men, and shed a halo of glory around their country may yet return to light us onward in the road to national prosperity and honor is the earnest wish and praver