The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-02-07
(From the Ohio Statesman, 24.)
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION.

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION.
Re Il resolved by the Senate and House Of Rep
resentatives of the General Assembly of the State
OF Ohio, That the Senators representing the state
in the Senate of the United States be, and they are
hereby instructed and that the Representatives. IN
Congress, from Ohio, In the House OF Representa-
tives be and they are hereby requested 10 vote IN
favor of bill 10 grant pensions 70 the surviving
soldiers and widows Of the deceased soldiers VINO
served in the army OF the United States during
the war against Mexico.
requested to transmit copy Of these resolutions
to the several Senators and Representatives IN
Congress from OHIO.
Mr.. EsTILL's SPEECH.
Mr.. SPEAKER 1T is now more than
thirty years, nearly onethird of a centu'
ry, since the Congress of the United
States, with almost entire unanimity, de-
clared that by the act of the Republic of
Mexico, in the murder of American citi-
zens on American soil, state of war ex-
listed between Mexico and the United
States. AS in the days of the outbreak
of the Revolution, when American blood
was shed at Concord and Lexington, the
American people rushed to arms to
avenge the wrong. The plow was left
standing in the furrow, the seythe in the
grass as brave men rushed to avenge the
wrongs their countrymen had suffered
on the Rio Grande, maddened with the
recollection of the atrocities committed
but few years before at the terrible mas
gacre of unarmed prisoners at the Alamo
in the revolution that made Texas free
republic. Upon the call of the President
for limited number of volunteers, ap-
portioned among the States according to
population, three regiments were assign
ed to Ohio. In shorter time than his
tory ever before recorded, more volun-
teers assembled at Camp Washington,
near Cincinnati, than doubled the num-
ber called for, and other companies we're
being recruited and their ranks rapidly
filling when the word went forth that no
more volunteers could lie received. The
feeling of the rejected men was 80 intense
that there were well-fOundeI fears of an
outbreak. The blood of the hardy peo-
pie of the West was so fred that each
particular man deemed his rightto defend
the honor of his country and avenge the
insult offered her flag as good as that of
those who had been chosen to perform
the duty. Happily, by wise words and
equally wise actions the anticipated re-
volt was quelled. The aw-abiding feel
ing more innate in the American than
that of any other country, asserted itself,
and the volunteers rejected by the officers
charged with the enrolment Of troops
destined for the invasion of Mexico re-
turned to their homes, to brood, it is true,
over the ingratitude Of their country in
refusing them the right to imperil
health and life ia an inhospitable cline
in behalf of their country and Its insult
ed flag,
The American army in Mexico achiev-
ed triumphs which to the future reader
of our country's history will seem much
more like romance than reality. From
the Rio Grande to Buena Vista, always
with force much inferior in numbers to
that of the enemy, the march was a sue
cession of triumphs. Amid the iron hail
at Monterey, though unused to the "wrin-
kled front" of grim. .visaged war;" they
were never exCelled in courage and dar-
ing by the most accomplished veterans.
At Vera Cruz, battling at almost every
step, they fought and struggled-the Cap
ital city of the enemy was stormed and
terms of peace we're dictated from the
Halls of the Montezumas. The desperate
battles on the line of march, the success
es attendant on their attacks, taught 9TH
er countries and their rulers that the cit-
izen soldiery of the United States, gath
cred almost at a moments warning from
the fields and the workshops-men of
mind and men of might as they were
could compare favorablY in all the ele.
ments that constitute the true soldier
with any other power on earth.
The American people, without distinc-
ton of party, are justly proud of their
citizen-soldiery and take delight in hon
oring them on all occasions, and in deal
ing Justly by them, under all circumstan-
ces. When age had crept upon the brave
survivors of the revolutionary struggle,
although the country was then crippled
by debt and almost without credit, the
patriotic sense ofjustice to our Country's
defenders impelled Congress to comfort
their declining years with pensions there
bv keeping the gaunt wolf of poverty
from many doors. The same has been
done to the remaining soldiers of the war
of 1872. True, to many brave man the
relief came too late. Their hearts, true
as the steel of we'll tried blades" ceased
pulsatiOn before their country's justice
reached them. And many once manly
form, which on sea "braved the battle
and the breeze" with Decatur, Bainbridge
Hull, Stewart, McDonough, Jones and
others, or on land periled life on the hot
ly contested fields of that second war of
independence, filled, when time and
age had done its work, pauper's grave.
Pensions are not to be deemed charity
any more than honest debts. True, they
are sometimes grudgingly given as debts
are sometimes grudgingly paid. To re.
fuse them is repudiation-worse, ten-fold
than the reputation of money debts due
from man to man. He who does not
hold that debt from the Government to
its gallant soldiers, for dangers braved
and fatigues incurred, when sufferingand
age anu pON0IJy COmUluou uondnu lOo
fulfllment, may call himself honest and
patriotic, but in the great hereafter, when
man is judged according to the deeds
done in the body, credit will be given for
neither.
The Union soldiers of the late civil
strife, in bounties paid, and in pay nearly
double that of former times, were well
provided for, but not too well. Politi-
clans struggle to see who can do most for
them and when time has elapsed to
show their need, then, too, their claims
for promised aid and promised sustenance
will be granted.
The remaining soldiers of the Mexican
war are now tottering under the weig ht
of accumulated years, and many Of them
are stricken by incurable disease. They
four g, nrnoho. h,,A Eftto LonJ ~