Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-10-04
O. 0 IN mnaifate6.
FOR THE sENTINEl
Southern Revolutionary Claims.

Southern Revolutionary Claims.
GENTLEMEN EDIToRs: Ii is fact, which nc
historian dare dispute, that as hard fighting and
as valiant service was performed by the soldery
of the Southern States during the Revolutionary
struggle as by any other soldiers in America
and yet, strange to tell, they never were paid by
the Pension Department for their services, nor
have their widows and children Jared any better
and such are the rigid and senseless requirements
Of the Department, that to be Southern soldier,
his wife his child, is tantamount to denial of
the claim at the Department, while the Northern
soldier, his wife or child, is paid without the
usual paraphanala, and it may be in some in
stances without demanding the usual unnecessary
rigamarole Of proof.
We are informed that it is fact, that the
quantity Of proof which would gain cause in
any court in America, will not and cannot pass
the ordeal of the Pension Office, if the claimant
be Southern soldier or officer. If this is cor
rect, it is wrong in practice and principle. In
the days which tried mems souls, this was n
pioneer and wild country; there no regularly
organized military system in the South; there
were few or no records; there were no public ar
chives; hence il was impossible tor the Southern
soldiery to be recorded, ink was scarce, paper
scarcer, and men who could write as scarce as
BOTH How unjust, then, is 1t that the govern
ment should demand Of those old soldiers a re-
cord Of their names, or to require the record from
excludes them from the benefit Of the various
acts of Congress. Then the Department re-
qures that the soldier, if not originally an APP
plicant, should give his reasons for it. Was ever
such folly heard of before' Fighting, with
Southern soldiers, was not pecunary affair, it
L.. a 49,.
expected to get ything, and they took no care
of their papers; if they took any discharges at
all, the children often made school thumb papers
of them; hence the Southern soldiers would
never apply, because of these and other facts,
such as Tories getting pensions, &C., when some
of them could not. The truth is, it appears,
that every applicant from the South is considered
a liar or knave at the Pension Department, or
his claim is passed over for months and years in
contemptuous silence. These acts Of injustice to
the Southern sodery have had strong and con-
trolling influence in estrangng the Southern
people from the General Government, and well
it might, when such injustice has been practised
There are now hundreds of the widows and chill
dred of Southern soldiers in the States of South
Carolina and Georgia who cannot obtain cent
for the services of their ancestors, through the
unmeaning and unjust acquisitions of the De-
partment, whereas it is believed were they North
Of Mason and Dixon's line, to ask only, lcould be
to be paid.
The writer of this has known Tory captain
paid when Wing captain was refused, and the
latter, because dlsgusted never applied there
after, until Folks administration, when he APP
piled, his commission found, and the money
promptly sent. We appeal to the justice of the
country to see into this matter; because the old
soldiers of Virginia, North Carolina, South Car
DINA, and Georgia, did not feel disposed to be
beggars at the Department, it is no good reason
that they, their children widows, should be
excluded from the annuity granted them We
hope the present head Of the Department will at
least see the of the position, and rectify it
for the benefit of the present Administration.
If the heroes Of 1776, their wives and children,
cannot be paid, ,oho can
SOUTHERN DEMOCRAT.