Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-09-03
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PENSIONS AND WAR CLAIMS
II the Democratic party shall ceme into pow
sr, there is one thing You may reasonably eX-
Deet. There Is in the Southern States so far as
he Democratic party is concerned, one object !
hat you will find in the breast OF every one OF
hem; and to very great extent the same feel
ng is extant in the North; that is, that every
distinction mad between the men who fought
n the gray and those who fought in the blue
should be wiped out say to you that is the
feeling in the South. ''lf you pay pensions 10
your crippled soldiers why not pay ours pen
;ions: Ii you pay your people for their proper
y destroyed in the rebellion why not pay us:
These Southern claims will come up upon Con-
5ress not only by the thousands but by the
hundreds of thousands whenever they think
they have the power to put them through lap-l
plause
MODEST PETITION.
During the last Congress there was claim
to the Committee on War Claims Pc
titions, and there was bill introduced also in
the House and referred to that committee IL
pay the Southern Methodist Church for the
property OF their Book Concern at Nashville
that had been taken and used by the Federal
troops; and that proposition had its advocates
on the floor Of the House, not only from the
South but from the North; and there were Re-
Z
from the State OF Tennessee, advocating that
proposition. Now, those of you who know what
the Methodist Churcn South was at the break
ing out of the Rebellion, who remember its his
tory, would not wonder after proposition to
pay for its property has been made to the Amer
lean Congress, at proposition to pay for any
species OF property in the South in the hands
of Gideon j. Pillow or any other man Why,
when the Rebellion broke out, those who had
charge OF that property in the city of Nashville
lent every power and assistance they could
command to the Rebellion, and when Fort Dom
elson was attacked TUNED out its employees
with battery to fight down the old flag. That
Church was as thoroughly rebel as the Congress
that assembled at Montgomery and Richmond
Applause and they have just as much right to
receive pay for their property as the people of
Richmond would have to receive pay for the
use Of Libby Prison or any other property that
might have been used or destroyed in Rich
mond by the Federal troops and no more. That
Is question, gentlemen, for you to consider.
THE CHARGES OF REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION
But it is said the Roubican party have
grown corrupt; and men say to us: ''rhis par
ty has glorious record, its past history is one
we may well be proud of, but in these latter
days it has grown fat and kicked and the time
has come when it should go out of power and
some other political organization should come
into power that can be purified from those that
vULTUREs WHEREVER THERE Is A.CARCAss
Now, gentlemen, let me say to you upon this
subject: Those of you who propose to camp out
side of the Republican organization, whether
you seek to attach yourselves to some party that
is camped high up on the hills under the
white banner of Reform" or whether you go
into the Democratic party-wheTever you may
go when you come into power, if you ever shall,
remember what 1 say here to-day that those
men who, like Sanborn and others, seek econ
tracts'' for their own pecuniary profit, those
who creep into power and into place for the
purpose of prostituting their place or power for
their own personal advantage, will be found
in your camps They will get among you; and
like Ruth unto Naomi, they will say: "Entreat
me not to leave thee Thy people shall be my
people, and thy God shall be my God.' They
will stay with you, because wherever there is
victory there you find these men.
REPUBLICAN sELF-PURIFIcATIoN
But ask you another thing: If you should
ever come into power, to be as vigilant as the
Republican party has been in the last three
years in hunting them out of place and in pun
ishiDg them? ''If you will the people will say
"Well done good aud faithful servants Zap
plause.
CREDIT MoBILIER INVESTIGATION
When the charge was made two years ago
that leading men in the Republican party had
been engaged in contracts in building the Paci-
tic Railroad and that they had taken an Unfair
advantage of the Government of the U. States
in that regard, you found the Republican Con-
gress with committee organized on the hrst
day of the session to hunt these things down;
and they turned upon the transactions of these
men the full light of history They brought
witness after witness; they stopped not at the
rules of Courts, but they went through and in
vestigated to the very uttermOst; and they not
only Investigated but they condemned the gull
ty. Applause.
sANBORN CONTRACTS INVESTIGATION.
And again, gentlemen of the Convention,
when last year Congress met ehere were whis-
perings that there was something wrong in the
Treasury of the United States These .sSan-
born Contracts were referred to. The Ways
and Means Committee, the leading committee
of the House OF Representatives, took it upon
themselves (they were in fact charged BY reso-
luton offered by one of their own memb bers
with the duty of investigating these charges.
They went with lighted lamp into tho Treas
uIy Department and they drove out with a
scOurge of thongs the Secretary, Assistant Sec
retary aud Solicitor of the Treasury Of the U nj
ted States. Applause. Why? Not because
there was man in the City of Washington
that believed Secretary Richardson was a cor
rupt man but because IN his ineffciency he had
permitted the Government to be wronged by
those who were under him. They drove out
these linen, and to-day the Treasury Depart
ment, recognized. with Secretary Bristow at
its head. is the work Ofthe Republican party in
hunting these men out of their places. Why
they hunted down this man who had the con-
tract. Sanborn; tcSy tracked him through all
the years he had the c-:;Jract; they were after
Ben Butler, and they hoped they might catch
him when they got SanbOrn, and they worked
with will. Inever knew committee bend
its energies more to any work than that CON-
mittee did to the work of finding out wheeler
there was anything wrong in these 'Sanb0rn
Contracts" and whom the wrong was with
The result was that the law was repealed, a
law that was not enacted by Republican Con-
gress recently. but statute of a similar kind
had been on the statute books of tine nation
ever since Alexander Hamilton was Secretary
of the Treasury. But they repealed and wiped
out the whole thing because, forsoOth the
Treasury OF the United States had been wrong
ed out of about $200,000 in these ~Sanborn
Contracts" at the same time however, collect
ing ten times that amount.
THE DISTRICT RING" INVESTIGATION
The Republican party rot only did this. bui
during the last winter there was whisper
that there was something rotten in the Dis
trict government. That government was a
creature of Congress to some extent. They
raised committee. and that committee work
ed the whole winter; and the result was that
in order to get ride of the very suspicion that
government, they abolished the governm't and
set afloat all the officers Of that government
MAIL LETTINGS INVESTIGATION.
There was whisper then that there was
something wrong in the POst-ottice De. .ar;ment
and the committee on Post-Otiices and Roads
Investigated that Department.: and an inveSti-
CATION lasting for month in relation to the
lettings of the mails was had, going over the
contracts let especially in the West. The re-
suit of that Investigation was that there was no
one in the Post-otfice Department that was in
any way guilty of wr0Gging the Government
This was the unanimous report Of committee
by members OF all palties
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY VIGILANT
AGAINST CORRUPTION.
The Republican party, repeat. have iGves-
tigated wherever there has been n whisper;
and whenever there has been anything found
that raised even a suspicion of wrong, they
have wiped it out This has been their history
And now If the Dpn,oeratif. narfv or any ~