Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-06-29

pOrt,'' and How they Cared TO
|. lfhe Soldiers Widow and his Or
phan Children.
The Journal, few days since, in speak
ing In praise OF the party platform of th,
late Negro Suffrage Convention, says:
'Piatforms have heretofore been pro
verbal for their meaningless, platitudes
or their giittering generalities, and hav
been built simply for ornament, and keI
only because they are "a good thing to hav
in the house, In the recent Convention
however, the platform makers builded 70
service. and gave us structure to stan
on with confidence that 1t will sustain an
weight"
One ofthe planks in this platform ssbuilde
for service," which the Journal says is ''A
structure to stand on with confidence" an
which will sustain any weight" we pro
pose to examine: FottA si
A"Fifth. That the American people owe
debt of lasting gratitude to the brave sol
diers and sailors, who, In the late struggl
for our national existence, so nobly fough'
for our liberties, and, for the privationt
sufferings and sacrifices which they enduI.
ed, the loyal men of Ohio hereby pledge t
them, and to the widows and orphans,
those who fell in defense of the nation, ou'
sympathy and substantial support" -os
In, view of the facts, which transpire
during the two sessions of the Legislator
which adjourned in April last, this reso
luton adds insult to the injuries "the wild
ows aud orphans of those who fell in de-
tense of the nation" have already receive
at the hands of the leading men of tn
party who made it into platform. .
Years ago, a tax was levied to suppoI1
these very widows and orphans of thos
who fell In defense of the nation" and il:
was cheerfullv paid by our citizens. JANE
II. GOODMAN, Auditor of State, VIM. b
WEST, ATC0rney General, poJn nominate
by the Convention and on the platform
above noted, in connection with VIM. HEN
RY SMITH, the Negro Suffrage Sec
retary of State, form by law, and /
virtue of the offices they fill, the Board O;
Fund Commissioners, whose duty it is t.
see the interest on the State debt regularly
paid, and the principal liquidated when j.
becomes due. One year ago, dating from,
January last, these men, having neglecte
their Constitutional duties, found
that "a portion of the Stat.
debt was due, and no funds hav-
ing been provided to meet it, proposed to
seize upon the Soldiers, Relief Fund, and
aided by the Negre Suffrage majority in
the Legislature, they took eight hundred
thousand dollars of this charity fund from
the swidows and orphans of. those who tei;
In defense of the nation" and against the
clear and explicit words of the Constitu-
ton, appropriated it to another and differ
ent purpose from that for which the tax
was raised. t.e ~ T-s..- essr q
There is now, and has been since the war
commenced. much suffering among the
families of those who, relying on the
feared the draft would take their precious
carcasses, volunteered for the war. Some
of these heads of families have returned
reft of limbs, and unable to labor for the
support of the loved. ones at home-thts
bones of others bleach on the distant bait
tle-field, or are now lying in some hospital
graveyard. In Ohio, at the time this
cruel act, which thus.took, as it were, the
bread from the starving widows and
orphans of those who fell in defens.
of the nation, there were, according to
the returns of the County Auditors in
seventy-one counties of Ohio, fue thou
sand three hundred and thirty families in nez
cesitous circumstances, dependent, In whole
or in part, on this very fund, thus literally
stolen. because wrongfully taken, by the
Fund Commissioners, who were placed on
the Republican Ticket and are now candi4
dates on the Soldiers Family protecting plat+
form above given, aided, as they were by
the negro suffrageites in the Legislature,
whose conduct the Platform indorses.-
These $3.50 necesitous families do NOS
form the entire number, for in nineteen
families are returned by the County Audit
ors. This omission, had it not occurred,
would have added 20 per. cent, to the
amount, increasing it to over six thousand
three hundred destitute soldiers families
robbed by the ''loyal' Fund Board and the
''loyal" Legislature, who now seek the votes
of the people in favor of negro equality.
q The report of the Auditor of State, from
which we CLEAN these facts, also gives six
hundred and seventy two, as the number of
soldiers who, either from impaired health
or loss of limb, we're dependent ON this Sol
diers' Relief Fund. To support the $3.50
destitute families of soldiers, it was esti-
mated that s497, ,so1 would be required-to
support the 672 crippled soldiers for the
year 1866 would require SIC, 81 making in
the whole Five Hundred and Forty-Four
Thousand, One Hundred and Ninety Two
Dollars ($54, 1922 How they were sup
piled, during the past and the present year,
when, within moments warning, the
money raised for their support and
as much due them as if 1t was
deposited in bank to their credit is a
another question. To tell the scenes of
suffering, consequent upon this high
handed robbery of the wounded, the
widow and the orphan, wouId,if collected,
fill volume descriptive of the most heart
rending suffering and starvation. And yet
the political party, whose candidates and
whose Representative men in the Ohio
Legislature committed this great crime,
now pretend to be the soldiers friend, and
to shield him and his family from want,
after robbing the latter of the money raised
for their support.
Such is the sympathy" the Republica an
party, as soon as its leaders had their fears
of the draft quelled, such the Substantial
support they gave ''the widows and Or
phans of those who fell in defence of the
nation" by taking from them, the money
contributed by generous people and using
it to cover up the official delinquency of
men now seeking the vote of the people.
Taking this soldier loving resolution of
the Negro Suffrage Platform and contrast
ing it with the action of the party leaders