Dishonest Abe

The Congressman from Illinois felt strapped. The pay and perquisites seemed inadequate for duties so important to the health of the Republic. Worse, he had to travel home each year to visit his constituents, and the allowance was a meager 40-c- a mile. What did he do? He padded his expense account, of course. He apparently claimed that he had traveled a total of 3,252 miles round trip from Washington, nearly double the actual mileage, producing a reimbursement of $2,601 for two trips home.

A familiar ploy, perhaps, but the culprit was none other than Honest Abe Lincoln, who served one term in the House from 1847 to 1849. And he got away with it. The House Committee on Mileage specified that Congressmen could return home by "the most usual route," thus allowing Lincoln to claim he took the long way home.

The accuser in this case is another Illinois Republican, Rep. Paul Findley, who has just written a book about Lincoln's years in Congress. He discovered the details of Lincoln's padded expense account in muckraking stories written at the time by Horace ("Go West, young man!") Greeley of the New York Tribune. Findley is less than outraged by Honest Abe's exaggerations. He points out that the future President only earned $4 a day for his service in the House.

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