Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-03-24

terday one bounty bill; Mr.. SCHENcKi OF
Ohio, another; Mr.. PERHAM, Of Maine,
added q third, and there were two more
Bills 10 take money out Of the Treasury
and put it into the pockets Of the sol
diers. Mr.. SCHENoR said last session
that he thought the bill he was then en-
cheering would do to begin with. IL
was estimated to take about $4OO,OOO,OOO
out Of the Treasury. Mr. BANKS said
he did not care whether It took S400, 0OO,-
600 or $500, 900, O0O-he vas for opening
the doors and telling the soldiers TO help
themselves. The natural fruit Of this
wild .alk is the present crop Of additional
bills. We suppose the enthusiasm Of
these gentlemen will stop somewhere,
but we fear not till they see the bottom
Of Uncle Sans strong box.n
Before the war, we wrote, on the
subject of bounties and other modes of
paying for patriotism:
"NOthing could more tend TO annihi-
late all disinterested patriotism than the
general prevalence of the idea that
whomsoever imperils his life for his
country, or suffers loss Of property by
the accidents of war, has . claim for re-
m~uneradon out of the public treasury.
II a man has ever enlisted and marched
for a week under our flag, though he
NAV never even have smelled gunpoW-
der. he must have bounty land and q
pension. II he has received a wound
In battle, he must be paid for it so many
dollars q month. If he has lost a horse,
ar his tobacco or cotton has been de-
stroyed by the enemy, he ome with .
great clamor to Congress for compensa-
ton.
We thus set a money value upon al
that which in other countries and ages
was always held incapable Of pecuniary
estimation, and to be rewarded by honor
and glory alone. Is it no injury to the
country to set that low estimate on such
services and losses? If / were the son
Of n of those whose feet bled at Valley
| Forge, 1 would not at any price give up
the right of saying that m father fought
and suffered there, and never came to
Congress to ask a compensation in money
for his blood.
To toll, to incur hazard, to die, for
| ones country, without hope of pay or
reward, is the noblest aspiration and am
hilton of a freeman. It is wise and well
that the pay should be so small as that
none can mistake it for an inducemeRt
or a compensation, but only as the
means of actual s~ustenance for the time;
I for duty, honor and glory are the only
/ inducement and the only compensation
consistent with the dignity of a freeman
or of a free country; and when the
former needs any other, the latter may
wrap her robes around her and prepare
/ to die with decency.
The Republic, grateful to those who
have served it, bled for it, died for it,
ought to see to it that they or their
| widows and children do not lsnguish
and suffer in perjury and restitution.
! Nothing does q nation more honor than
its Greenwich Hospital, its HOpital des
Invelides, its Retreats, Asyla, Soldiers
and Sailors Homes and Harbors. But
let this not &c put upon the ground OF
compensation, or hsTaism be made igno-
bic by the habit of pSying for 1t IN
acres of land or p~ittances OF money.
Let not the idea, already too current be
in any way encouraged, that a man Is TO
do nothing for his country without being
paid for it, without having a right to be
paid for it. When that idea becomes
general, all the wells Of patriotism will
be poisoned. LBoNIDAs and his three
hundred were not induced to die at
Thermopyle by any hope Of pay. To
serve the country CithOUt pay, is the
duty and pride of q patriot and the
music Of bullets o dissipstes the ar
dor excited solely by the expectation of
q pension or bOunty-land.
We are carrying the system Of paying
for services and losses to an extreme that
makes it ridiculous. Not n in a hun
bred Of those who have received bounty
land, or money in lieu OF it, needed
the land or money and not one in fifty
deserved it. It is only the same misera-
BILE system, in another aspect, of putting
merit and absence Of merit aud demerit
on a level. What estate, in money or
goods, can equal in value that legacy Of
glory which HERNDoN left his widow,
when he went down into the ocean with
his laundering ship? What, that be-
queathed by every immortal hero to his
children? And when the live hero, or
the widow or children Of the dead one,
come to Congress and ask for pay or pen
sion, they have first of all to surrender
up this legacy for the nation instinct
lively feels that having discharged its
debt Of gratitude with money, it no
longer owes them anything. Is it the
nations fault if it accept their own esti-
nation and measure Of value, and hold
the debt discharged with cash or land?
Continue this system, and after a time
there will be no disinterested patriotism
and an interested patriotism is q contra
diction in terms. Why endeavOr to
N0eAA AAC BNtHaC ~ III HAL - btAhA ~
lose or suffer for the country without
pecunisry compensation 1t was not
by producing that conviction that Sparta
and Rome became great that France
at Valmy and Marengo, and
England at Aboukir and Trafalgar and
on the bloody fields OF the Peninsuls; that
the farmers Of New England crowned
Bunker Hill with immortal glory, and :
the men Of MARION discounted TARLE- s
TON and distressed CORNwALLIs. This !
Of paying, inducing every man !
70 regard the Republic as a carcass to be Z
preyed upon, is as demoralizing and de- {
Dasing as that Of feeding the people and 3
gratuities, by which the Roman !
Emperors made the Roman people :
dawes; and If persisted in, must make {
- ne ~an.a.,ra g-a - a. I n