The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-09-29
Pension to S,trUiarag Soldiers
Of the Merican War.
SPEECH OF
Hon. r. L. Taylor,
Of Tennessee,
IN the House Of Representatives.,
Apr1 3, 1880.
Of Tennessee,

r. The House being in Committee of tn
ID Whole for general debate
M1. TAYLOR, Mr.. Chairman, his
tory demonstrates that society can ne
exist without the safeguards and the re
straints of civil government aad tha
civil government can not be maintained
without the aid of military force. 4
= civil government may be founded upo1
the purest principles of justice, equali
ty and liberty; it may be supported by
the most Yirtuous public opinion anC
may abide in the Warmest affections and
| enthrone itself in the very hearts of the
people, yet without the presence of the
sword as minister of its wrath and a
representative of its might, it is power.
less to maintain its dignity and honor
and to preserve. its existence among the
nations. But, sir, it must be admitted
that while military force in its appro-
pirate sphere is a necessary element of
civil government, it is nevertheless, as
history proves and as we have learned
from recent unhappy experiences, a dan
gerous power. .. Ill. -.
In government like ours, of checks
and balances, it is fraught with many
and perilous dangers. Unmatched by
jealous eyes and undisturbed by the SOW
ereign hand of civil authority, it may
turn upon and destroy that which it was
! designed to protect and to preserve.
! When wicked and ambitious men are
intrustrd with the reins of government,
military power may become in their
hands deadly foe to liberty. Welded
/ by au Inscriptions executive it may be
! made an engine of intolerable opp1es-
sion. 1t may dare with bloody hands
! to violate the most sacred institutions Of
! the Republic. 1t may be made an in
I strument TO overthrow State govern
ments at will, to fence in the ballot box
with menacing bayonets, to inaugurate
reigns Of terror, aud to foist upon un-
willing States as rulers and satraps hun /
cry boards of unprincipled adventurers,
whose only business is to plunder the
people and to foment sectional animoai-
ties
But, sir, as / have said, military pow
er when confined to the exercise of its
proper and legitimate functions is an in
dispensable element in effective civil
government. Without it our Republic
could not have been born; without.it we
could never have had secured to US the
blessings of liberty; without it the uni
on of our States would have long since
been broken up and destroyed, and the
grand fabric of our National Govern
ment would have, long since crumbied
to RUNS. 4, s.. -s .as... ta. +
If, therefore, military power inspired
and sanctiied by patriotism has been so
essential in the preservation of the life
of the Republic through all her tragic
history; if at every step in the pathway
of that history she has been baptized in
the blood other soldiers and sailors who
made up that military power, how vast
are her obligations to those soldiers and
sailors who have served her so heroical.
.ly in all her glorious struggles and have
barred their bosoms to death in her de-
fense. They stood like wall Of fire
around her cradle in tue dark days of the
Revolution and parTied the death blows
aimed at her infant breast by the ruth
less hand of British Herod. AgaiH, in
the second struggle of 1912 they paral-
yzed the arm of the same foe and hurl-
ed him reeling, dismayed and defeated
back to his distant Isles In the bloody
conflicts of hundred years they have
crushed the spirit of the savage Indian,
and sweeping him westward made way
for the advancing empire of Caucasian
liberty. Fighting against overwhelming
odds at every step, they penetrated into
the heart Of Mexico, and vaulting over
PROSTATE and conquered armies planted
the victorious standard of the Republic :
in the city of the Montezumas And,
sir, IN that last great Struggle, yet fresh
in our own memories, when the iron
tread OF that dread ''irrepressibe con-
fict" shook the cOntinent aud sent :
shudder throughout the whole world,
when ''the sun in heaven was shining
upon the broken fragments of once
glorious Union, on States dlsseYered,
belligerent--on a land rent
with civil feuds and drenched with fra
ternal blood,' it was then that the tri- !
umph Of American arms was more com g
our country. received a more precious !
baptism of blood, a baptism of fraternal
blood, which washed out the stain and l
blight of glaring national sin and bro't
a fresh salvation and new birth to free ;
and reunited America. Far be it from 6
me, sir, to tear open a single one of the 2
old war wounds or to awaken single $
one of its hatredsl The flower of our / |
country bit the dust in that struggle; it
is my wish that it may sleep in peace,
Uode: the roses inc blue, I
Under The I les the gray.
My only object is to show that the sol 0
diers of the Republic have stood by her t
in all her gloomiest hours Of peril and a
distress; theY2hsvs freely laid their lives a
a w1lhng sacrifice upon her altar; they o
have poured out their blood for her like s
Of water; they have brought i
the trophies and fruits of more than a !
hundred victorious battles and laid them c
at her feet; they have Kept her flag i
proudly floating In mid-air with not a
stripe erased or polluted, nor a single r
star obscured," and made it an object Z
Of unfeigned respect in every land and /
every CLINE under the. sun wherever the a
breezes Of hesyen have kissed its welling s
folds. How vast, then, frepeat, are the c
obligations of cur Governh1eftt to her r
faithful soldiers. Sir, I assert that this ia