@techreport{NBERw11908,
 title = "Who Should Govern Congress? Access to Power and the Salary Grab of 1873",
 author = "Lee J. Alston and Jeffery A. Jenkins and Tomas Nonnenmacher",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "11908",
 year = "2005",
 month = "December",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w11908",
 abstract = {We examine the politics of the %u201CSalary Grab%u201D of 1873, legislation that increased congressional salaries retroactively by 50 percent. A group of New England and Midwestern elites opposed the Salary Grab, along with congressional franking and patronage-based civil service appointments, as part of reform effort to reshape %u201Cwho should govern Congress.%u201D Our analyses of congressional voting confirm the existence of this non-party elite coalition. While these elites lost many legislative battles in the short-run, their efforts kept reform on the legislative agenda throughout the late-nineteenth century and ultimately set the stage for the Progressive movement in the early-twentieth century.},
}