The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-03-27
SPEECH OF
GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN,
OF ILLINOIS,

tataceS on Wednesday, March IL, 1857
Mr.. CHAIRMAN: 1 do not intend t.
detain the committee any great length
of time in discussing the proposition
before us. l have entire confidence
sir, in the integrity, as well as the good
intentions in all things, of the noble
officer in charge of the Freedmen's
Bureau. His generosity and philan
trophy is coextensive with all suffering
humanity. Any appeal addressed to
him on behalf of any class of people
who may be represented as suffering is
sure to find in his bosom a sympathetic
response, and, owing to the generosity
of his nature, may sometimes surpass
that which would by others not seem
just and proper under the circumstances.
Now, sir, / ask who is this that demands
this Unprecedented charity at the hands
of Congress? What class of people is
it? Is it the poor downtrodden freed
men? Is it the poor white people? or
is it the families of the leaders of the
rebellion that have caused SO much
weeping and wailing in our land I?
We have no information further than,
that there are some sixty thousand peo-
pie who are suffering, or who soon will
be in suffering condition, in the rebel
States. I would be as willing as any
one to put my hand In my pocket, and
so far as l am able relieve the sufferings
of any unfortunate class ofpeople. But
looking at this resolution as I do, 1
cannot put my hand in the pockets of
the taxpayers, many of whom are as
poor as those who pretend to ask this
Government to be made an almshouse,
and assist in appropriating 100000
as a pension to one-armed and one-leg-
ged rebel soldiers or their families of
that class. This resolution, sir, is moth
ing more than dodge to make pen
sioners ofrebels that cannot be provi-
ded for in the usual way. You do dot
put them on the United States pension
rolls, by the side of the wounded sol
diers and widows andsorphans of those
who died in defense of their country;
but by another mode you put them on
the bounty Of the Government.
This House but yesterday refused to
pass bill equalizing the bounties of
soldiers that fought on the side of their
country in the great struggle for the
existence of the Union. Yet without
accomplishing that, without amply
providing for our own widows and cry
ing orphans that prattle about the re-
turn of those they will see no more, we
are asked to give 81 900, 900 for the pur.
pose of supplying the wants of some
body, without knowing who.
When you talk about dealing out
81 100000 of commissary stores to these
poor people of the South, we but have
to reflect for one moment to see that
labor is at high price in the New Eng
land factories; and when we look at
the vast domain of the Northwest, we
find in many instances the pillow has
been permitted to stand in the furrow
because labor has been SO high, and if |
any portion of the poor people any
where or laboring classes toward whom
gentlemen desire to be so generous are
suffering, the road is broad and open to |
the Northwest, where the poor and la.
boring classes of all climes and all COM
plexions are invited by our smiling
prairies. We need their labor and are
ready to pay them for it, we will help |
them to live until harvest season, we
will alleviate their wants and allay their
sufferings; but they must apply in the
proper manner. They must show a
willingness to work and earn their live
lihood by the sweat of their face as our
own people have always done. Sir,
this is not the first time we have been
asked to show our generosity to this
same people. During the war against
traitors and rebels, and while we were
fighting the men who sought the life of
this nation and the lives of its defenders,
we were feeding and supporting their
wives and children left behind who
were by the fortunes of war cast within
our lines. | have seen many times long
lines of them at the doors of the COM
missary department at different posts
receiving food, while we were fighting
their husbands and friends at the front.
They were not then above asking us to
feed them, while they despised us and
our cause, and l have no doubt the
same class are now to be fed under this
appropriation. hear no complaint on
the part of the freedmen or from any
class who have tried to preserve and
protect themselves.
There is class of people in the South
that never did make bread, and never
will, who will always be starving, and
on the bounty of the Government, if we
will allow them to become pensioners.
lfthey had used ordinary industry and
had energy they would not to-day be
in want Of assistance to save them from
starvation. There is no spot on earth
more inviting than those southern fields.
They are carpeted in green, and deco
rated by the hand of the Almighty with
the rarest and most beautiful flowers.
1t wants but the well directed energy
and industry of its inhabitants to make
it as prosperous and abundant as any
land the sun shines upon. Yet it is in
this land of beauty and richness we are
asked to feed the mouths of sixty thou
sand people, and while we are in hot
hasteato feed them what do we see?
In the State of Arkansas short time
ago an appropriation was made pro-
viding for the pensioning of soldiers not
provided for by Congress, meaning the
rebel soldiers, not for the weeping wild
ow and crying orphan Of the Union sol.
der No, sir; but money they could
for the rebel soldiers, their