The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-01-16

oonsednent fratricidai garbage. How
| could snoh o purpose. be promoted
otherwise than by political associations
efSpereoual intercourse With citiaens of
different States, including those OF
States professedly disafected to the
Union? Should tho only possible meaus
OF laboring to prevent civil war be stig-
matized as disloyalty to the Constitu-
ton? But Immediately on the OCCUR
renee OF tho first act Of hostility to the
Union being struck in the State OF South
Carolina, took my stand with the
Union and its Government. publicly
announced my adhesion to them in the
most unequivocal terms; rendered my
services to the Government in the field
or in any other why which might testify
my fidelity to it, and have continued
from that day to this, as we'll in official
| as unofficial action, to tread in the path
OF unswerving devotion to tho Union,
whether during the notual progress of
! hostilities against it, or in the subse-
quent events OF its reconstruction and
Of the successive amendments of the
Constitution. rendered necessary by the
changed conditions and relations OF tho
several States of the United States and
OF their respective inhabitants. The
recent amendments of the Constitution.
eachsone and all of them as they were
in turn adopted. and tho Legislative acts
for their enforcement and for accom-
plishing reconstruction, hqd my CO. ope-
ration aud adhesion, and have sup
ported them constantly, if not in poiiti-
cal debates, for which my comparatively
reserved habits of life afforded neither
occasion nor opportunity, yet in legal
| f1,.a 20
or discussion with officers of the Go
vernment, members of Congress and
private persons, I entertaining the same
us for other provisions of the Constitu-
| tion. aud also rendering the special OBJ
servance due tD them as the just and
necessary incidents of the reoonstrac-
ton of the Union. While my nomiua.
| tion was undergoing consideration in
the Senate, it would have been unseem-
ing for me to speak in explanation of
my acts or my opinions; but now, with
relative Indifference to whatever else
may have been said, either honestly or
maliciously, to my prejudice, it belongs
to my sense Of public duty. and it is
my right to re-affirm and declare, that
nave never, in the long course OF not
inactive life, done on act, uttered
word. or conceived thought of dis.
loyalty to the Constitution or the
| Union. 1 have tho honor to be, very
respectfully, Q. GUSHING.
| In the Senate, numerous petitions for
woman suffrage were presented. A bill
tosestablish post routes throughout the
country was taken ap.
The conventions OF Mexican Veterans,
Cheap transportation, Patentees and
| Women's Rights, are all in session to-
day.
| The delegates to the National Con-
vention of Mexican War Veterans repre-.
sent all sections Of the country. They
ut noon marched from their headquar-
| ters to Willard's Hotel. with eight ban-
| ners and band OF music, under escort
OF the Presidents mounted guard-a
local organization. The convention
was called to order by General J. W.
Denver, who said its objects were tie
preparation OF q memorial to Congress,
asking pensions for all survivors of the
Mexican war, in tho passage OF law
similar to that OF 1871, giving pensions
to the survivors of the war of 1919; also,
to adopt measures for the organization
of National Brotherhood of Mexican
| Veterans, and for representation at
the centennial exposition at Philadel.
phia, in 1876. The convention, how
ever, need not be confined to these OBJ
ieots alone. Those who framed the call
were animated by desire to meet their
comrades from all sections of tho coun:
try, and thereby renew old associations.
There were some who behaved we'll, but
were now INDECENT and unable to take
care OF themselves; therefore. ono of the
objects of the convention shond bo to
prevail upon Congress to pass law to
admit them to the Sol 1iers' Home, To-
Gated near Washington, which was pur.
chased and established with money OLD.
tanned from Mexico by the valor Of our
nrms-the institution now being open
only to soldiers of the regular army.
In speaking of tho Mexican campaign,
General Denver said our troops attacked
the Mexicans in their own country, and
captured their strongholds, opposing
to them not more than one.third or one
fourth Us many Americans as there were
Mexicans in the field; that the war con-
tinued two years without single re-
verse to onr arms, and hence 1t was
right that the surviving veterans should
meet and remind the people of the
country that the victories we're secured