The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-07-15
The CInsa Of the Session.

Inc HISG seSSIOu OF UHe L OTty -SeFeDtil
Congress draws towards its close, although
it is impossible at this writing to predict
the precise date Of adjournment, and the
coming week viii probably witness the
passage of the appropriation bills upon
which the two Houses have rs yet reached
no agreement, and possibly the dispersion of
the members to their widely scattered homes.
Il is to be regretted that the lack of time
has compelled several important measures,
as, for instance, the Bankruptcy bill, to be
laid over until the next session, but upon
the whole the record of work actually
accomplished is far from insignificant, and
It is, perhaps, well that some of the things
left undone should never be done, at all.
The passage of the Tariff and Utah Gem
mission bills viii alone suffice to make the
session memorable Our ex-soldiers and
sailors have pretty substantial reasons for
being satisfied with the legislation secured
in their interest. It is true that several
measures, such as that providing for the in
Identification of such of our soldiers as were
tortured in southern prison pens, failed to
receive that consideration to which their
importance entitled them, but when we
consider how gloomy the outlook was at the
beginning Of the session we cannot but feel
that more has been accomplished than at
one time there was reason to expect while
there is every prospect that the next session
viii find Congress still more favorably dis
posed to recognize the just claims of the
soldier than it has shown itself during the
latter part of the present session. 1t must
be remembered that Congress had scarcely
assembled, in December last before the
enemies of the Arrears bill began the agita-
ton for its repeal, and we now know that
they were confident of success. They had
the aid OF such powerful newspapers as the
New York Herald and the New York Sun
and they counted upon stampeding both
parties by their allegations OF fraud and
corruption. Had Commissioner Bentley
still been in Office they would doubtless
have had q cunning ally in him also, but
fortunately he had been succeeded by an
old soldier in the person of Commissioner
Dudley, whose business-lille conduct of the
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alike of pensioners, Congress, and the coun-
try. Their plans were well laid, but they
popular affection for our crippled veterans
and the degree to which Congress was
sensible of it. AS it was, from the day that
Senator ingalls, turned the tables on them
by introducing his famous resolution, re-
affirming the principle embodied in the
arrears bill, they steadily lost ground, until
finally they were forced to abandon the
struggle and retire from the field The
debate in the Senate over the Ingalls,
resolution aroused the whole country, and
when Senator Voorhees, entered the lists in
defense of the Arrears bill he carried nearly
every Senator on the Democratic side of the
Senate with him. 1t was worse than
defeat for the opposition-it was a rout; and
even Senator Beck was glad of the OppOr-
tunity to relapse into discreet silence. There
can be no doubt that the attitude which the
Senate took thus early in the session had
most salutary effect on the deliberations Of
the House Pension Committees. The pro-
vision which was made in the Legislative,
Executive, and Judicial appropriation bill
for increasing the clerical force in the Pen
sion Bureau and kindred offices, and the
unanimous passage of the forty dollar total
disability bill, attest the truth of this state
ment. Had the Senate shown any signs of
wavering neither of these measures would
have had chance of success.
Our readers will bear witness that during
this entire period THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE
was on the alert to protect the interests of
the soldier at all points, and earnest in the