Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1878-08-29
soldiers Orphans HOme-NO More
DOdging.


James w. Owens, member of the Ohio
State Senate, has stepped to the front as
the champion and defender of the outrage
committed by the Sixty-third General
Assembly in the passage of what is
known as the O'Connor bill for the reor-
ganization of the Soldiers and Sailors
Orphans Home. This news will, to say
the least of it, be rather discOuraging to
certain gentlemen, who have been en-
deavoring to pull the wool over the eyes
of the veterans and their friends by tell
ing them that the Democratic members
of the Legislature passed the infamous
law without knowing what they were
doing, and that they will hasten to cor
rect the mistake as soon as they meet next
winter. He says the law is just and right,
and intimates that he and his Democratic
colleagues are proud of what they did.
Now let us hear no more of this damna-
bic act as having been passed ''inadver-
tently" and by mistake.
This learned Senator justifies the ac-
tion of the O'Connor Legislature by say
ing that the original act establishing the
Home allowed the Trustees, in their wis
dom, to admit other than soldiers or
phans to the benefits of the institution.
| But he fOrgets to tell his readers that
when the Home began to 1illup; when it
was discovered that there would be no
room for any but the children of soldiers,
and that when an effort was made to in
duce the Democratic Legislature of 1874
to change this feature of the law, theidea
was secuted at, and it was left for a Re-
publican Legislature to make this change
in 1875.
But it seems that this sainted gentle
man is the author of the very meanest
and most Objectionable features of the
law, and he says that his object was to
make it a Home for the children of sol
diers exclusively. Well, we will agree
that he has succeeded in making the law
exclusive enough in all conscience. II
excludes the children of all soldiers who
were not so unfortunate as to have been
killed, or so badly disabled as to have
been placed on the pension rolls of oul
Government. The child of no other sol
dier need apply for place in this Dem
Ocratic Home, no matter how poor or how
destitute it may be. The Republican Law
was too broad and too comprehensive fo
these very exclusive patriots-it provided
for the admission of the children of ''al
deceased, INDECENT and permanently dis
abled soldiers
: But this accomplished legislator did no
want to tear the child from its mother
, breast, and thus break her poor heart
hence he was careful to provide that IL
child should be admitted during the lif
of its mother until it had arrived at tn
age of twelve years-that she shoul
wash on, rub on, scrub on, and make
l living for her dear one until it was ahl
to take care of itself, and then these re
formers would take it and undertake t
receive the benefits of its labor. Provided
however, that the poor mother will agre
to pay them the pittanee she receives a
a pension in consequence of the death c
the child's father.
d But then this immaculate patriot sees
: ''step-father" in the dim distance, an
It fearing that the poor widow may sui
: cumb to the Establishments of some moC
:, ern Democratic reformer, who wOul
| nCE 14LLAG pOEG4On III EIOLOuS IL
= ing, he says it will be much better for he
g to pay it over to the men for whom hi
= son or daughter is working-the Trustee
of the Home. Ye gods, what a pictul
= of philanthropy is this
Now that these men are throwing c
i. their disguise and are entering upon
defense of their nefarious conduct, tt
;s people of the State will no longer be d
% ceived by the cant and hypocrisy of tho
who are going about with lie upon the
~ lips, telling the veterans that the passal
: of the law was a mistake, and callir
upon the voters to forgive its authors, f
D. they knew not what they did. It is trl
al that the attempted defense of Owens
8, so weak that it will disgust every hone
III man who reads it, but then it will pr
es vent them from pleading the baby act al
r longer. They must now "assume tt
d. pressure" as the immortal J. N. wou
al say, and we believe that before they ha
r. borne it long they will feel like callil
lei upon the rocks and hills to fall upon the
er ana hide them from an outraged peopl