Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-07-29
The Robbery of the Soldiers Re
lief Fund.

dent, who spoke for sMANY SoLDIERs,n in
the present issue of TIE STATESMAN, to
give such facts as were in our possession
relative to the robbery, by the last Negro
Suffrage Legislature, of Eight Hundred
Thousand Dollars of the fund, raised by
taxes, for the relief OF the soldiers and
the widows and orphans of those who fell
in-battle or died of disease contracted while
in the service of the; country. Below we
endeavor to redeem that pledge: 4
During the war the large number Of
persons, widows and children of SOL
diers, and others dependent on the labor
of men who had sgone into 1.-The. army,
who were then suffering the sting OF
poverty, if not of absolute want, be-
came subject that forcibly impressed
itself upon public attention. At the time
the draft threatened to tear men from their
families, and men of wealth, fearful that
their sons might be drafted, did their ut
most to get others to volunteer, that them
selves or their children might escape the
fatigue and the danger of the war, and in
so doing, all must remember. their prom
ises to care for the families of those who
might enter the army.
In many cases, men with dependent fam
lilies, impelled by ardent patriotism, and
believing that successful prosecution of
the war alone could save the Union from
disruption, and fully confiding in the
promises of protection to their families,
entered the army and fought with SHEER
MAN in his famed march to the Sea, or
was with GRANT in his battles of the Will
,derness, and before Richmond. The num-
Der is fearfully. large of the men who,
broken in health or with the loss of limbs,
returned, or whose bones now bleach the
battlefield or fill shallow and nameless
grave, whose families neglected were left
to suffer, victims to the broken pledges of
men who, as soon as the draft was filled,
the absent Union soldiers. The dead SOL
dier's sufferings were over. After life's
fftful fever is past, he sleeps well. But
his widowed wife and her half-starved
demanded aid. They could not
get it from those who promised it. The
pension allowed the widow of the dead
soldier, for each years support, was less
than the fiftieth part of the pay proper of
q member of Congress for few months
labor atfWashington, and, including mile
age, stationery, costly books, ETC., less than
the one hundredth part of members sal
ary and perquisites. The ninety-si dol
lars per annum, in greenbacks, with pro-
visions and house rent enormously high,
Afforded but little support to the widow
and her orphan children.
To SUPPORT these the Ohio Legislature,
April 6, 1865, ordered tax to be levied
and fund to be raised, known on the Du-
plicate as the "Soldiers' Relief Fund.-" the
proceeds CT which were to be distributed to
the counties in the proportion of the ne
families. This fund, at the COM
of the first session of the last
was sufficiently large for the
purpose for which it was raised. But it
was not so applied. -i5i-i a siA
Early in the first session of the Legisla-
5ure which adjourned in April last, after
passing the Negro Suffrage Resolution, the
of the House and Sen
ate were called together in extraordinary
session by the Auditor of State, to meet
an emergency which, if the Auditor and
mis- colleagues in the Fund Board were not
the greatest blockheads that ever attempt
ed to manage the Finances of a State, must
have known was sure to happen. Drafts
were presented at the Treasury for payment
Of portion of the State-sdebt, past due,
md which must be paid, and there were
lofunds to meet them. The State was in
langer of having her paper protested, and
1er credit thereby placed among the dis
lonored and repudiating States. The Con-
'titution makes it the imperative duty of
;he Fund Commis sioners, Immediately be-
'ore each regular session of the General
Assembly, to estimate the probable amount
IF the fund required for the public debt, and
t is made the duty of the Legislature to
make all necessaryprovisions fol: raising the
smount by taxation. Neither the Fund
Board or the Legislature did their duty,
md thus the credit of the State has been
placed in imminent peril. The previous
legislature had not been warned of the
peril in which the credit of the State was
placed, or else that body, more anxious to
tue political supremacy of the
party to which majority of its members
belonged, neglected its sworn duty.
An important election, for Governor and
members of the Legislature, was then ap-1
the people were harassed to pay
heir taxes, already large beyond prece-
lent, and the Legislature, upon whom the
1ly made appropriations SO large for other
purposes, that they dared not make those
necessary to- save the credit of the State
without fear that the still larger taxes
night elect Democratic Governor and re-
urn majority of Democrats to the next
And the fact that the taxes
we're not increased, as Democrats charged,
rom the excessive appropriations for un-
necessary objects, they must necessarily
,e. was much used in the campaign that
elected Gen. Cox Governor of Ohio, and
the Negro Suffrage majority to
,he last Legislature. Itg Il
The paymentofthep public debt, past due,
was the reason assigned for the assembling
of the Finance committee of the two
Houses by the State Auditor, and the seiz-
ing of this fund, sacred to charity, was
put upon the plea of necessity to save the
honorof the State. This plea was false
one. Even though the Board of Fund
had neglected or refused to
provide for this Indebtedness, tempora-2
~ loan could easily have been effected to
save the State credit, to be repaid by money
raised for that purpose. The Intention
of the Fund Commissioners was to lay
their Vandal hands on this fund for the re-
lief of the necessitous families of soldiers
and to appropriate it, in direct and tiagrant
violation of the Constitution, for another