The Republican journal., 1876-01-06
Gratitude to Wounded sold;ers

ton OF the House of Representatives
Most people who have carefully read the
proceedings of the House will be Duzz1od
to determine just where and when tb;s
step was taken - but the remarkable
sharpness of the Age is at no loss in find
ing it. Here is the guideboard that points
right at it. Says the Age
Among the first resolutions presented 10 that
body, was that presented by Mr.. Fort Of IIji.
nois, in substance, that wounded union sal
dierS, who were incapacitated for labor. should
receive the preference in appointments to sub-
ordinate Offices in the House. The resolve Gro
ated an intense excitement and hubbub, as the
question was the key note to the future action
of that body. The resolve was defeated on y
strictly party vote, and Il substitute adopteJ
which not only denied the principle asserted
but proclaimed it its stead the doctrine that ey
rebels and rebel sympathizers are entitled TO
Just as much consideration at the hands of the
government as the disabled veterans who have
become incapacitated for work by wounds re-
ceived in defending it. A like ungratetul reso-
luton never passed Il public body in any ration
under the sun.
1t is remarked that people who are bad
ly frightened are never able to describe
things accurately. Our neighbor is an
example of this rule. The fact is that no
resolution on the subject passed the House
at all. Mr.. Cox's substitute for that of
Mr.. Fort was referred to the appropriate
committee, where it still remains. The
substitute is as follows
Resolved, that inasmuch As the Union of
States has been restored, all citizens thereof
are entitled to consideration in the appoint
ment to office under this Government.
Is there anything there about rebels or
rebel soldiers being entitled to lust MS
much consideration at the hands Of the
government as the disabled veterans, )"
NC, &c.? Not at ali That's a bit OF
the romancing imagination in which our
neighbor is apt to indulge. 1t simply
says that all citizens are entitled to con-
sideration. The relative amount of con-
sldcration can be determined in eases as
they arise.
The actual facts in the matter of these
are given by the Wash
ington correspondent OF the New York
W orld-
The Republican side of the House recently
made an attempt to make Il little cheap capital
out OF the appointments of eXConfederates to
some of the minor places under the doorkeeper
and endeavored to put through q resolution de-
clarng that none but Union soldiers should be
appointed. The record of the appointments
thus far made shows that only light out of the
HI,
fled oath, while 800 members Of the Union Sol
diers' Home at Dayton, Ohio, have sent the
doorkeeper a letter thanking him for giving
one OF their number 4 position. There are
several Union soldiers who are yet to be
named for appointments.
From its knee-quaking terror al the
coming OF the Confederates, the Age
passes to condition of pathos blows its
patriotic nose and gets out lis handker-
chief to wipe the sympathetic tear, rs it
remarks
No nation can afford to be ungrateiul to its
defenders. When it turns its back on the
manned and helpless men who have sacrificed
to preserve the national liberty and
integrity it loses the respect of all mankind and
paves the way for its own disgrace and down.
fall. What an example for the rising genera
ton! What an inducement to patriotism when
a nation turns the cold shoulder to its crippled
The defenders aforesaid will be truly
grateful for this exhibition of feeling, no
doubt. But we can't always tell Just
what is done or isn't done at Washington
1t is a good way Of, and the telegraph
dispatches sometimes lie feartully There
can be examples cited of the considera-
ton that ought to be extended to manned
home. Take for instance the locality of
Belfast and Waldo county, which all of
us know about Here we have custom
house, with half dozen officials, not one
of whom was wounded in the army, or
ever in it at all. The post Office force
does not include any soldier. There are
about eight fat places among the county
not one Of which is held by a
soldier, except that Col. Fooler is County
Attorney, the least desirable place of all.
How does it happen that with the great
solicitude expressed for wounded soldiers
by the Age. it has never insisted that they
should be considered in the distribution
of desirable places at home?
In fact, now we think of it, there has
recently been an excellent opportunity for
the editor of the Age to give practical eff
tect to his solicitude for the disabled vet
Grams Of the late war. Hon. Asa Thurlough
a few weeks since resigned his Office as
Judge of Probate, leaving the unexpifed
term of one year to be filled by appoint
ment from the Governor. Col. Philo Her.
sey, who was shot through the shoulder
at the battle Of Irish Bend, and who, after
lowering for long time between life and
death, recovered with a crippled shoulder
and arm, sent to the Governor a modest
application for the place. He is Repub-
lican, 4 lawyer, and man of judicial
mind. His request was backed by moth
ing but the simple rhetoric of soldiers
record and a soldiers wounds.
The reader will perceive this to be a
case that we all can understand and ap-
preciate. The Age need not 60 five hun
dred or thousand miles away to get up
sympathy for wounded soldiers, or the OPP
portunity for gratitude to the nations de-
tenders. We have it right here, daily
our streets. The public would
Of course expect that an influential and
prominent Republican, holding the senti-
ments that we have quoted from the Age,
would have sought out this deserving SOL
der and suggested, nay insisted, that he
should take the vacant place. If those
words and professions have meaning and
force, he would have carried around pc
tition for the veterans appointment, and
solicited for him the office by personal in
terview with the Governor
Did the editor Of the Age do this F.? Nay.
Let Freedom weep, and Patriotism blush