The National tribune., 1882-02-11

handsome, strong and bu0yant; MS step was 1lrm,
his hand steady, his eye clear, aud his voice full of
hope and courage At that time he wore good
clothes and bore prosperous and happy air. His
wife and two children strained their eyes after him
as he marched away; with pride that he looked so
we'll and with tears that he had to go. With his
eye on the colors of his country he served until
nearly the close of the war; he supped full of its
horrors he at all those places where the soil was
most enriched by the red rain OF human slaughter;
he lived to return to his home, and to his loved
ones there: but oh how changed how blasted and
withered He was emaciated, SCARED, and worn
there look in his face if there was nothing
more for him to endure, if the angel of death
had lowered close and low over his PROSTATE form
as he lay wounded on the field, and as if he had
already tasted the bitterness of the parting moment
But, feeble and languid from wounds and disease,
he was, still he the beloved husband and father
and he put forth all his faltering energies to shelter
and care for his brood How he had succeeded could
see when he called upon me, as have stated a few
days ago, at my home. His frame was thin and
bent; his garments were in tatters and almost too
scant for decency much less for comfort; his hair
was gray, but not with years; the ashen hue of
premature age had settled in his face, and in his
lusterless eye there was expression of fixed and
submissive melancholy. He told me that nearly
fourteen years ago he commenced taking steps to
procure pension on account OF wounds which no.
body disputed, but the technical proof of which,
by the witnesses designated by the rules and regula
tons of the Pension Office, and according to the
prescribed forms, he had never yet been quite able
TO make. lie nad Struggled anu earnestly, he
said, more account of those dependent upon him
than for himself, and now, he thought, that if he
could get statement from the surgeon OF his regi
ment, whom he heard was somewhere in Texas, he
would succeed at last told him that would
help him all could, and that promise shall keep.
But what | want to know is, whether upon
the conscience Of Senator'S that mans pension, if
he overcomes all difficulties, and makes full proof
shall commence when it is granted, If 1T ever be-
when it is earned, under murderous shot and burst
no ShOul0 he
time he performed the conditions on which it will
rest. What say you? | say that when soldier
has performed his part of the contract with the
Government by paying down his life, or his mutt
lated body in its defense, he or those whom he left
are from that moment entitled, in all honest minds,
and in all honest legislation to the full performance
ON the part of the Government of all its under
takings under the contract. Who says otherwise?
Let him stand forth who wishes to do so. He will
not have an idle encounter on this floor.
But, again; let us recur to the mere question of
the expenditure of money under the law for the
payment OF pension arrears. AS one of the servants
of the public standing here in representative
capacity ana ready to meet the precise issue made
that point by the opponents of the act of January
25 1879. | assert that the money is paid to those
to whom it is justly due, and assert further that
every dollar paid out under that act is not only in
discharge of individual obligations but that it also
enhances the public welfare. Sir, who receives the
money, and where does it go? Does it go out of
the country, and make money scarcer here? Is the
payment of pension arrears drain on the currency
engaged in carrying the business of the country?
We hear angry and prolonged howl that the
people are being robbed to pay pensions Instead
of that being true the people and all business in
terests are benefited by the payments, and conse-
quently increased circulation, made under the act
for pension arrears Allow me to Illustrate this
fact by individual case. There are three men
whom know, living i'll the district which formerly
represented in Congress, who blind from injuries
received while soldiers in the line of duty, serving
@l,o.,. 4, o.
and fro, led by child, on the streets of Terre
Haute, for over seventeen years. He has been i'm
prisoned, as it were, in total darkness during all
that long and dreary time. He has known nothing
but deep, black night around him. The sun, moon,
and stars are to him blotted out forever. He can
remember how the beautiful earth and sky once
looked, but he sees them more. The 0dor of
flowers may recall to his recollection the appearance
of the sprngime, with its orchard blossoms and its
gay attire the scent OF new mOwn hay may con-
jure up harvest scenes to his mind; the signing
winds OF autumn may remind him that he once
saw the foliage OF the forests turn purple and gold
in the fall of the year; the music of the sleigh
bells may revive in the faded canvas of his memory
the fantastic beauties which the frost king displays
in the winter-tme, but all seasons are alike to him;
they all wreathed in funeral colors they are
all shrOuded in darkness, the emblem of the tomb.
He can know not even the faces of those most be-
loved. He once knew them, but they are changed,
and he wonders in vain how they look they are,
like himself, growing old. Blindness, total blind
ness, a misfortune by the side Of which death is a
sweet mercy, | will not mock the sensibilties of
human nature by asking whether such an atfliction
can be compensated in money.
But this man of whom l am speaking had much
difficulty and delay in securing the grant of his
pension; there was defect in the muster-rolls of
his company, and it only after years of careful
attention that his claim made out according to
law and evidence, and allowed. On account of this
delay, caused by no fault of his, he became entitled
to and received some three OF four thousand dollars
under the act for paying pension arrears will
not insult the senate by asking whether he ought
to have had this money every man fit for this
presence knows he ought; but | will ask what in
jury, If any, the business prosperity of the country
sustains by such an expenditure as this The money
paid to this blind soldier passed on at once from his
hands into hundred different channels of trade
With some of it he paid for humble home in which
to pass his benighted old age and in which at last
to wake, by the touch Of death, with eyesight
cleansed, to brighter morning than earth can ever
know. With the remainder of his pension arrears
he paid his little debts and added something to the
comforts of those about him. And such is substan-
TALLY the history of all the money expended under
this beneicent law so basely and so insanely vii
td. 1t goes at into circulatiOn it paws debts
it passes from hand to hand it is not boarded as
coupon cutters hoard their interest; makes money
plentier among the people where it ought to be
plentiest Sir it is dead money which does no good
to the people, money which is packed away in bags
crammed into iron vaults, there to cOrrode and eat
into the labor of the people with an immense never
ceasng, cancerOus interest account. Public expen
ditures which go in that direction are indeed a
curse; but not with money which is alive and
active in the daily transactions of life But it is in
connection with this very idea, and, in fact almost