The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-09-01
Radical Pretended Love for Soldiers
ChiIdrsn-The Robbery of the Sol
diers' Relief Fund.

w StNC IL ChGLlOy lllO Od1 eau
may see to what miserable shifts the
Radical party is driven to sustain it.
self:
"Soldiers and their friends: will bear
in mind that the Republican party
stands pledged to establish Homes for
Soldiers Orphans whenever the peo-
pie give them the power to do so.-
They will also remember that the last
Democratic Legislature rejected a bill
introduced by Republicans for this
purpose, for the alleged reason that
this class of the destitute were amply
provided for by law. We insist that
the fact is notorious that soldiers or
phans are not now properly provided
for by law, and that almost two thou
sand such children in Ohio are subsis-
ting on the uncertain charities of town.
ship trustees, or are inmates of county
Poor houses. The Republicans have
a plan by which without expense to
the State these Soldiers Orphans
Homes shall be built, and then the
State in whose service these orphans
fathers have died, will provide for the
education and care of tbose who have
been bereft of their natural protectors.
To preserve the credit and good name
of the State these bene client plans
and purposes must. be carried out
The Democratic party has declared
through its Legislature its hostility to
making any farther provision for the
children of soldiers. Soldiers and all
friends Of soldiers and their families
will know therefore how to vote in
view of this question" r.r-
The last Democratic Legislature re-
jected no bill introduced by Republi-
cans to provide homes for soldiers or
phans. The falsehood was first start
ed by Gov. Hayes in his Opera House
speech i'll this city, and repeated the
same night by Lieut.. Gov. Lee. AT
the time we pronounced it a falseEood,
and we again place the brand upon it.
Because a committee reported that all
the objects asked for in the bill were
already provided for by law, the bill
was laid on the table. And so patent
&, every Senator was the fact that the
bill was entirely, useless, hat neither
the Radical that introduced it, nor
any other Radical Senator ever sub
mitted 4 motion to take it from the
table.
So far from the bill, thus laid on the
table, being one that would entail by
expense ON the State, as, stated no
Governor Hayes, in his Opera House
speech, and as repeated above, its pas
sage would have been n severe tax on
the Treasury. The Trustees to be APP
pointed by Gov. Hayes were to get no
pay for their services except expenses,
but to these there were no limit-their
drafts on the Treasury were not to be
audited, but Eere to be paid, no mat
ter how great the amount, or how
much cheating there were in them,
without dispute. These Trustees had
the right to appoint officers, and to fx
their salaries and were allowed to APP
point themselves. For every child
they were allowed to draw from ono
hundred and eight, to one hundred
and forty-four dollars per annum from
the State Treasury the two thousand
neutrality-suspicious. children which tht
Journal claims there are in the State
and the expenses of Trustees, sala:y
oHaoficers. etc., costing at least ono
hundred thousand dollars per annum
to the tax payers of the State, eacll
and every year.
Some years since, in consequence o.
the misery caused by the war-tht
wives made widows, and the children
of soldiers made orphans-a law wa:
passed raising Il fund by taxation, call
ed the Soldiers Relief Fund, to be ap
propriated to the support and educa
ton Of soldiers orphans and their wild
owed mothers, and to enable the sol
diers wounded, and not able to work
to have such support, in aid of then
pension, rs would enable them to live
in comfort. This tax, promptly ant
willingly paid by the taxpayers O
Ohio, was placed for safety in the
State Treasury, until it could be dis
tcibute1 to the counties, in pr"porti I
to the number o! destitute soldiers or
phans and widows. That fund excit
ed the cupidity of the Radical officials,
and at their instance the Redical Leg.
islature passed 4 law, every man vot
ing for it being a Radical, berrowin.
eight hundred thousand dollars, of this
sum, with the pledge that it should be
repaid. The next session, the same
Radical Legislature passed Il law, ev
cry member voting for it being q Rad
ical, that this loan should be a perma
nent one, without interest and thu:
was the crippled soldiers the soldiers
widows and the soldiers orphan chill
dren7-swindled by q Radical Legisla
ture filching from them the means foi
their support. The law was passed,
in contempt of the provisions of the
Constitution which says that money
raised by taxation for one object shall
not be used for any other purpose, and
was rs bold and barefaced a robbery
as ever was committed by scoundrels
in or scoundrels out of office.
The bold and base conduct of Wil
liam "A. Gibson, one of the Radical
stump orators, in taking from the
Treasury, and using for private pur.
poses, a large amount CT the peoples
money, for which he was removed from
office, arrested, indicted tried, and by
a jury Of his countrymen convicted oil
a penitentiary offence, but managed to
get a new trial, and then to get a sub
s~ervient Attorney General to note the
indictment-the Wholesale stealing OF
nearly four hundred thousand dollars
by Il Radical Architect and his con-