The National tribune., 1882-10-19
and he is no friend of the latter who would
lessen the ability of the Government to dis
charge these obligations.
Justice, Not Charity.

but the fighting has Just begun. lie
alluded to the wordy conflict that was about
to take place between rival officers of the
Union army M 10 who should be credited
with the victories and who he charged with
the plumbers of the campaign, but the
witticism applies with equal force TO a CON
| flict of very different character. The war
! has been over these seventeen years or more,
! yet still the fight COCA ON between our ex
/ soldiers and the Congress- of the United
/ States for the recognition Ivy the latter of
| the formers rights, When one recalls the
honors that were heaped upon our returning
/ veterans in the early summer of lSG5-the
cheers and huzEahs that filled the air when
our hattle-scarrcd legions passed in grand
review before the assembled mulutudes ut
but n few short years thereafter they should
be compelled To entrcat and petition Con-
gress for the fuliillment of promises made to
them of its own free will, and sanctitied by
baptism of blood. 1t is incredible, we re-
peat that our ex-soldiers, TO whom every
thing was promised in the days when the
cry for more men-send us fresh troops!"
was the burden of every dispatch to the
War Department from the commanders of
our armies in the field, should now be
placed in the attitude of humble suppli-
ants, not for charity, but for Justice
simple, naked justice-at the hands of a
/ Government which owes to them its very
existence. Yet such is the bitter, shameful
truth. The men who could have obtained
anything that they chose to ask from the
Government before the fall of Richmond,
yet asked nothing, are to-day branded as
swindlers and "periurers because they
look to Congress to redeem its pledges.
1t is n state of things that can be tolerated
no longer. Where is the spirit that ami
mated the Nation in 1861? Surely it has
not died wholly out, and there must survive
somewhere among the ashes of the past the
immortal spark that will yet kindle again
the holy flame of patriotism in the hearts of
our countrymen! But how to revive it
ali, that is the question! Our comrades
have themselves permitted it to expire, and
it is they who must relight it. We say to
them with all the earnestness of conviction.
"You have borne too long with meekness
the slight that has been put upon You by
cold and callous Congress. You have re-
manned silent under insults that you should
have spurned with indignation. You have
allowed yourselves to be placed in the atti-
tude of beggars, when you were in truth the
benefactors. You have entreated when you
should have demanded"
1t is time to make an end of all this.
The country must be brought to understand
that the men of '61 are not suppliants for
charity. They ask no aims. 1t is justice
that they want-the justice that the courts
decree to the outraged and defrauded cred
itor-and it is justice that they are resolved
to have The bondholder is paid without a
question being raised as to the equity of his
claim, while the soldier, whose claim is
founded on services infinitely more valuable
than any which money can render, is treated
as an imposter. paid at all, it is under pro-
test, and the obloquy that is heaped upon him
inflicts a wound far more cruel than any
within the power of rebel cannon to cause.
We say, there must be an end to all this.
Our ex-soldiers should not and must not
their spokesman, THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE
does not propose to cringe at the feet of
Congress or seek the thrift that follows
iawning 1t believes the Equalization Of
B0unties Bill to be just and equitable
measure, and as such it will demand its
passage 1t believes the Forty-dollar Bill
to be just and equitable measure, and as
such it will demand its passage 1t believes
the bill to compensate the ex-Union pris-
oners Of war for the vindictive enlistment
inflicted during their confinement, TO be
just and equitable measure, and as such
will demand its passage. 1t will neither
fawn, flatter, entreat, beg, beseech, or i'm
plore Congress to do justice to the soldier.
1t will demand! Take heart, therefore,
comrades; assert your manhood and follow
where We lead.
a