Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1878-08-01
Headouarters Soldiers and Sail
Ors' Memorial Association.
C1Nc1NNATI, O., July Is, 1879


CINCINNATI, o., July Is, 1873.
To the Soldiers and Sailors Of Ohio;
CoMRADEs-It has been resolved by this
Association to hold Mass Meeting Of the
ex-Soldiers and Sailors of the State of
Ohio, at the City of Dayton, on Wednes-
day, August IA, 1873, to take into consid-
Grafton, and to adopt measures lookingto
the repeal of, 'sAn Act for the Re-organ-
ization and Better Management of the
Ohio Soldiers, and Sailors Orphans
Home, at Xenia, Ohio" passed by the
Legislature, May 15, 1873, and better
known as the fsO'C0nnor Law"
Here is the language of the law as
passed, and which, if enforced, will re-
suit in the destruction of a home which
the patriotism of the State has provided
for the orphans of those who willingly
gave up their lives that the nation might
be saved. ID -
ssSESc.r 3. Said Board of Trustees are
authorized to receive into said home the
indigeRt children of the deceased soldiers
and sailors who lost their livesin the mil
tary or naval service of the UHlted states
during the late rebellion, or have since
died bV reason of wounds received or dis
ease contracted while in said service, and
in the line of duty as such soldier; pro-
vided, however, that no child of such de-
ceased soldier shall be received into said
home under the age of twelve years, dur
ing the lifetime of the mother of said
child, and provided, also, that no child
shall be received into said home except
the child of deceased soldier, on account
of whose death the United States has paid
or is paying pension.
''SEC. 4. That after the passage of this
act the said Board of Trustees shall admit
and continue in said home no child or
children unless the mother or guardian of
such child or children shall pay over to
said Board of Trustees, for the purpose of
clothing said child or children, the mon
ey paid by the United States as pension on
account of the death of said soldier
1t seems eminently proper that the sur
viving soldiers and sailors of Ohio should
meet and consider this question calmly,
The passage of this odious law has shock
ed the patriotic feelings of the citizens of
the entire State. Its enforcement would
drive from the Home all soldiers children
whose fathers are living, but unable, ia
consequence of wounds and sickness, to
support them; it drives out upon the cold
charities of the world all undor u years
of age, and all whose fathers never drew
a pension-these three classes alone num-
bering over three hundred children now
in the Home. And it does more than this:
It refuses to receive into the Home any
children of the widow of soldier or sail
or unless she is drawing pension, and
unless she pays the pension into the
hands of the Board of Trustees, for the
maintenance of the child or children for
whose admission application is made.
Those are some'of the outrages which
this wicked and cruel law would perpe-
trate upon the children of our dead he
roes. g.,- 81 sla.s4a slss
We call upon you therefore, comrades,
and with confidence urge you, to at once
take such steps as your wisdom may sug-
gest, to insure, large attendance from
your neighborhood at the meeting at Day
ton, on the 14th of August. Call upon the
railroad officials of your town, and make
arrangements for excursion rates over
their respective roads.
In this way we shall have. such an out
pouring of the tFboys in blue" at Dayton
as will convince our lawmakers that those
who fought to preserve the Union will see
to it that the children of those who suf-
q
fered the hardships of the camp and the
march, the dangers of the battle, the dis
eases attendant thereon, or who died In
defense of the old flag, being entitled to,
shall receive the fostering care Of the
State, and that the Home established by
the people of Ohio shall not be perverted
from its true purpose, butsha1 ever stand
monument to the patriotism and graft
tude of those whose firesides these chill
dren's fathers died to defend.
The repeal of this law is what we de-
mand, Let us seeto it that our demands
shall not be made in vain.
On behalf of the Soldiers and Sailors
Memorial Association. a
J.V. GUTHRIE,
JAMES BEGGS,
J. "A. REMLEY,
H.G. ARMSTRONG,
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