The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-03-11
soNs or rFMPERANCE.
OUR DISABLED VETERANS.
A Speech by General Sherman.


On Monday evening, 2lst ultimo,
mass meeting of the citizens of New
York, without distinction of party, was
held at Cooper Institute, for the pur-
pose of approving the proposed pas
sage OF law to establish n Soldiers
Home, as an asylum for the wounded |
and disabled who tonight to put down
the rebellion. Peter Cooper presided. |
Addresses were delivered by Gen. Sher- |
man, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and |
Horace Greeley, and letters were read
from President Grant Gov. Hoffman,
Gen. Sheridan and others. Gen. Sher-
mans speech was as follows:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: 1t was un- |
derstood by myself and by my friends |
that ] would not be called upon more |
than simply to acknowledge the kind |
ness of the parties present; and even |
now may hope you will pardon me if
] make my remarks as short rs posi- |
BILE, just enough to fulfill your expecta- |
tions, 1 must confess that am some |
what astonished, and hurt as q soldier,
to find that soldiers MANNED and
wounded and thrown upon the charity
Of the great State of New York have
been sent to Blackwell's Island. hope
1t il not so. If it be that any of my
old soldiers are there, / will undertake
to put them where they will not be as
ISOLATED with criminals. [Great ap-
Plause.] But, it seems 10 me, the mere
knowledge of the fact is enough. If
the knowledge of this be spread abroad,
every citizen of New York will be will
ling to give his little mite towards a
home that will enable them to live in
honorable comfort, where the soldier
may 60, not in charity or as q pauper,
but as . matter OF right and justice.
Applause. 1 remember well when
we went to the 'front.', when through
every State of the South we were
cheered on, we were assured every man
would be held in remembrance, provid-
ed we saved our Government and coun-
try. Every soldier was assured that If
he lost his life his children should be
cared for every one was assured that
II he lost his limbs he should be cared
for In his helpless state. 1t is not char
ity, It Is q national compact, Gcheers,1
and q compact which know the people
Of the United States, when they under
stand it, will fulfill. 1 have been to
many of those Soldiers Homes, perhaps
TO more than any one here present; /
know something of them in my official
character, but will not undertake to
describe them to you because the Com
mittee can find all the facts and their
cost to the very cent. General Scott,
who established the first one in the Uni
ted States, when he took Mexico, left
100000 to endow q Soldiers Home for
the old and feeble soldiers ofthe regular
army. That has been well distributed
In the city of Washington. Congress
added to 1t from the fund resulting from
zines to soldiers, and provision has been
made to establish one in Harrisburg,
where the disabled soldiers will be sup
ported in Independence, and accorded
permission to 60 and come as they
choose, with simply enough restraint
for their own welfare. In like manner,
since the war closed, under certain Com
missioners. Homes have been estab-
ushed in Augusta, Me-, Ohio and Mil
Waukee and other Western States, and q
Home has been spoken of here. went
70 milwaukee three years ago and saw
the children cluster around me, clean
and healthy, their little faces upturned
and their voices asking me if l knew
their fathers. remember once / told
. little girl / knew her father, and /
never will forget the look of gratitude
she gave me. l have no doubt if you
saw that little child you would have
contributed your share towards the Sol
dfers' Home in the State of New York.
again repeat what Mr.. Beecher has
well said, far better than can, that this
Is not charity, for If ever there was
just debt on earth this is one. Think
for q moment what would have been the
result had the Confederacy been estab-
lished as q nation with the frontier close
to our own, and nothing to separate us
but n fancied line, which could, at a mo-
ment, be crossed? Slavery on one side
and freedom on the other. War inter-
minable, there would have been little Sc
curity for life and property in New y ork.
Think of commerce here-what would
this house be worth? What would be the
worth of those great business marts in
BroaAlway9 Nothing. Every thing
would have to be taken for the state of
war which would probably last one
hundred years but by the valor of these
men who left their arms behind them
You have now n whole country, uniform
in its character, uniform in its popula-
ton, and with greater prospects for the
future before il than any nation on
earth. lCheers. 1 hope this appeal
will not be made in vain, that you each
and every one will be an agent to tell
the citizens of New FORK, and that be-
fore another month passes you can look
the Western people and the Southern
people in the face and say that your SOL
diers, your MANNED soldiers, are not on
BlackwelPs Island. [Great Cheering. ]