Congress Repeals Salary Grab Act After Public Outrage Over Corruption

Congress officially repeals the congressional portion of the Salary Grab Act on January 20, 1874, sustaining only the salary increases for the President and Supreme Court Justices. The repeal comes after months of intense public fury over the March 1873 legislation that doubled congressional salaries from $5,000 to $7,500 and made the increase retroactive for nearly two full years—giving each member a $4,000-$5,000 lump sum payment. The scandal demonstrates how Gilded Age politicians routinely convert public office into personal profit, while also showing that electoral accountability can still force retreat when corruption becomes too brazen.

The Salary Grab Act, passed on March 3, 1873—the last day of the 42nd Congress when nearly half the members were lame ducks—sparked immediate nationwide outrage. The press quickly framed it as part of a broader pattern of Republican corruption, linking it to the Credit Mobilier scandal that had just been exposed months earlier. Minister to France Elihu Washburne, a Republican himself and former Grant ally writing from Paris, characterized Congress as “simply a gang of thieves…what a pity the President did not veto the salary steal.” In the spring and summer of 1873, as 16 states prepared for local elections, voter fury manifested in state Republican platforms condemning the pay increase alongside railroad abuses and Credit Mobilier corruption.

Despite some members attempting to deflect criticism by returning their bonuses to the Treasury or donating them to colleges and charities, the political damage proves devastating. The Republicans lose ninety-six seats in the House during the 1874-75 elections, resulting in a Democratic majority for the first time since before the Civil War. This massive loss inaugurates one of the most competitive two-party periods in American history and provides Democrats the ammunition to demand “reform”—rhetoric they will weaponize to dismantle Reconstruction and end federal protection of Black civil rights.

The controversy’s long-term constitutional impact extends far beyond the immediate political fallout. As a protest against the Act, the Ohio General Assembly ratifies what later becomes the Twenty-seventh Amendment (finally ratified in 1992), requiring any changes to congressional compensation to take effect only after the next election. The scandal illustrates a recurring pattern in American political economy: elite self-dealing can be checked when it becomes visible enough to mobilize electoral backlash, but this same “anti-corruption” energy is frequently redirected toward dismantling programs that threaten concentrated wealth and power. The Salary Grab repeal represents both genuine accountability and the beginning of a Democratic resurgence that will prioritize ending Reconstruction over addressing the systemic corporate corruption transforming the Republic into an oligarchy.