The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1876-04-05
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
THE SOLDIERS OF 1912 AND THEIR
RESTORA TTON TO THE PENSION
ROLL-A CASE IN POINT
WASHINGTON, D. c., March 81, 1875.

WASHINGTON, D. c., March ST, 1875.
To the Editor of the Morristown Gazette:
have had many Inquiries as to the
probability of Congress passing an act
restoring the soldiers of the war of 1912
to the pension rolls and giving a pen
sion to their widows A bill has been
reported from the Committee on Revo-
iutionaFy pensions and war of 1912,
which has been printed and Tecommitted.
1t will probably ne reported on Monday
next and n motion made to suspend the
rules and pass the bill This bill pro-
poses to repeal an laws making any test
on account of loyalty; to give all sol
diers of the war of 1912 who served ten
days in that war a pension; and to all
widows of such soldiers, married prior
to 1850. pension also This bill makes
no provision for the invalid pensioners
of the Mexican war whatever. Several
bills have been introduced, the purpose
of which is to place them upon the same
footing with the soldier Of the war Of
1912, so far as those already pensioned
are concerned. A bill has also been in
troduced to give pension to all officers
and soldiers of that war. 1t appears
now that there will be no opposition in
the House to restoring all pensioners of
the war of 1912; the opposition will be
TO the payment of arrearages of pensions
since the war. The House at the last
session passed the bill to restore the
pensioner of the war of 1912, but it fail
ed in the Senate. The opposition to the
bill if it attempts to pay arrearages will
probably again defeat it in the Senate,
if it should pass the House even. The
friends of tire bill are disposed to try to
get bill through the House that will be
acceptable 10 the Senate Every con-
sideration of public justice demands the
prompt passage of the bill, not only to
restore these old gray-headed veterans
to the pension rolls, but simple justice
equally demands that the arrearages I'M
paid since the war should also be paid.
Those who have been denied the pension
are in the South; men, all of whom were
over 20 years of age when the war of
1861 commenced. They have been stig-
matiZed as traitors and enemies of their
country, not for any act, but perhaps
for the crime of permitting their sympa-
thies to go out with their children and
with their section, in bloody strife, in
attempting to vindicate what they re-
garded as the right.
An old man, known to the writer, was
enlisted as a soldier in 1912, marched
from the mountains of East Tennessee,
on foot, to the Canada frontier; was shot
down on the field of battle; after the
war was placed on the pension rolls and
received a pension down to the war of
1861. After the war he asked again and
again to be restored, but was refused,
stigmatized as an enemy to his country,
and has gone to his grave in poverty and
want, with the sense of wrong and in
Justice ranking in his heart; carrying
to his grave the marks and scars receiv-
ed on the battle field, in defense of his
country against the attacks of foreign
enemy He knew no North, no South,
but when his country was in peril he
marched promptly to the public defense.
Now, what was the "head and front "
of his offending? He never did an act,
but his crime consisted in permitting
the sympathies of his nature, which he
could not control, to go out with the
people of his section and with his own
children. Such is one case; many of
similar character exists all over East
Tennessee. Such is public justice; such
the gratitude of the Republic.
l hope to advise you of the passage of
some measure on the subject now of
such general interest to our people.
OBSERVER.