New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-01-27
A DIRT DE HONOR

The Nation has never meant to be disoyal
to the memory of her sons who died for her
i'll battle. If their monuments have renamed
unbuilded, if their families have suffered hun
ger, or cold, or needless prvatiOn, If the
manned and wrecked survivors have been
homeless and mOneyless it is her misfortune,
even her disgrace, but not her deliberate cru
city. 1t has been hard to distinguish between
wise helpfulness, and that weak and idle
almsgivng which harms far more than it
helps. 1t has been easy, in the press
and turmoil of everyday busy-nesS and
the claims of present service, to neglect the
recompense of a past service or the claim of a
dead pensioner Still, all excuse being made,
and all leniency of judgment exercised, the
sorry fact remains that we have not dealt by
our soldiers, dead and living, as became rich,
humane, and grateful people. In case like
this, individual effort is futile measured against
the largeness Of the work. Even organizations,
depending for money OIL the voluntary contri-
buttons of so pre-occupied communities find
themselves constantly restricted and defeated
in the execution of their plans, by the
want of means. States and the United
States must establish Soldiers Homes, Homes
for the widows and orphans Of soldiers. and,
through Agencies, must supply work to such
men or families of men as are able to under
take it. Every manned soldier, organ grinding
on the street or vainly hawking prize-pack-
ages of cheap paper from house to house,
every soldiers widow sewing slOpwOrk in a
garnet, every soldiers orphan sweeping cross
walks and learning the worst lessons that the
pavement can teach, impugns the tardy justice
oil 70 uiy nr
comfortable shelter.
There is still another roll of martyrs whose
families are a sacred legacy to the people; the
list of men who, serving the Commonwealth in
council as zeaously and self-forgetfully as in the
field, died in her service, as truly victims of the
War as if they had fallen at the head of their
columns. OF these were Rawlins and Stanton
First of these, and most fragrant of all in
memory, was Abraham Lincoln. The subscrip-
tions for the families of the great Secre-
taries-whOse chiefest honor it is that,
with boundless opportunities for self-seeking
and gain, they died poor-promise, we hear, to
free two households from the veXing cares of
poverty. 1t is not less the business of Congress,
acting for the Nation, to secure them such a
pension as, should other sources of income fail,
would provide for their future. Most especially
and instantly is it the business of Congress to
make certain that the widow and children of
Abraham Lincoln have the means to live as BELTS
those who bear his name and represent his honor.
The small sum voted to Mrs Lincoln, over
which the Houses hlggled till the debate was
the scandal of the country, is insufficient. 1t
is less than the income to which she had been
accustomed in the lifetime of her husband,
while her expenses are, of course, large, with
her boy to educate and the necessity of travel
and change which her own broken health en-
tails. Besides, no woman wholly unframed in
business habits can manage her affairs as
economically and judicously as a man whose
whole life has taught him the value and
capacity Of money. That Mrs. Lincoln was per-
sonally unpopular does not in the least invali-
date her claim, any more than the prevalent
and unjust notion that money given her would
be ill-spent. She is the woman SO hOnOred by
the man whom the people delight to honor
that he gave her his name, made her the mother
of his children, received no advancement which
he did not share with her. This woman, there
fore, stands above the shafts of malice and I'M
chsrtableness. Before all things else, she is
the widow of our great President. The people
should be her guardians. not her detractors
We appeal, therefore, to this Congress to
give to this lady a liberal annual pension,
not as a charity, but simply as an act Of JUS
tice. All tho patriotic service of Abraham
Lincoln was INCOMPLETE without the costly