The National tribune., 1881-03-01
The Forty-sixth Congress and it's Action on
Pension Matters.
your action,


In looking back over the field Of battle one cannot
fail to be astonished at the determination and vim
dictiveness with which the contest has been waged
ON the part of the Commissioner.
No means of success were too high or too low to
be used Labored Official presentations backed up
by supposed special information, tables without
end, garbed statistics erroneous basis Of accounts
calculations made up to suit present emergencies,
from sources of information inaccessible to the pub
/ lie, and only to be counteracted by the inherent
contradictions which appeared upon examination
of one statement as compared with another-these
were the heavy batteries of the Commissioner and
they were delivered with a sound and smoke that
were tremendous. To this was added the infantry
movements of long and skillfu testimony of himself
and his dependents, forming an admirable line of
1 battle, and sweeping away in their rush the Senate
Committee on Pensions and several other members
of that venerable body.
4 Then came his cavalry evolutions now in mass.
now singly in charge upon isolated Senators and
Representatives, capturing them by one by
personal interviews, persistent solicitation, and all
the lighter arts of this guerrilla warfare
Finally and not the least effectua was the en-
rollment of corps of bummers, correspondents of
4
dignitary, whose scent for FRAUD is like the vul-
ture's scent for carrion, and whose appetite for
scandal is as Unsuitable as the crave. To each of
these most willing listeners the Commissioner
poured forth his complaints or rather furnished
them under the disguise of an intercieso "a
carefully prepared statement whose sole purpose
was to prejudice the public mind and make the
people believe that an irresistible food of fraud
corruption and perjury was pouring in his Office.
Il Never since the majestic spectacle of Ajax defy
ing the lightnings of Jove has there been seen sit
uation at all comparable to that of the man Bentley
as he stood all alone resisting the horde of conspra
tors who purposed to rob the Treasury Mrs
Partington sweeping back the tides of the Atlantic
with her broom, as they threatened her sacred
threshold, was nowhere in the scale of moral sub
Unity.
He placed his boots across the entrance to the
/ Pension Office, and over them this legend from
Bombastes Furioso
Il 'Whoso shall dare these boots displace,
Shall meet John Bentley face to face"
And many men bowed down and did reverence to
the boots. Still there were certain people in each
house of Congress that chose to think for them
selves and to speak for themselves, and on each of
these, as they planted themselves in the way of
" Bentleyism, the vials of the wrath of the cheap
correspondent were poured out Logan, the
very best of our Western soldiers was charged
with representing claim agents, and no man be-
lieves that that charge made without Bentley
appreciation.
} The abortion which he sought to give life to
could not bear public discussions, he sought to
attach it to an appropriation bill, but this failed.
} The House of Representatives was against him.
} He himself and his official conduct was under in
vestigation before committee and his surprise was
only equaed by his indignation when that commit
tee declined to take his unsupported assertions for
gospel truth against clear evidence from his own
official reports and other sources No man lost
friends so fast when once the curtain was lifted and
he was compelled to descend from his stilted eleva-