The National tribune., 1882-08-26
ARREARS OF PENSIONS.
A Ringing Defense of the Act from Western
Newspaper.


A Ringing Defense of the Act from Western
Newspaper.
From the Chicago Herald.
In its watchdog carefulness for economy in
the administration of the public purse, the
Chicago Tribune sayg: "The arrears of pensions
act will forever be monument to tho ignOr-
ance and improvdence of the Congress that
passed it," We entertain the very opposite
opinion. and for what appear to us unassailable
reasons. There is no more sacred obligation
than that which the country owes to its patriot
soldiers, to their widows, orphans, and depend
ent relatives. Their noble deeds emblazon the
pages of our national history, and shed there u
halo of imperishable glory. By their valor,
marches, discipline, endurance sacrifices, suf-
ferngs, victories, they preserved the Union,
worth far more than all the property then or
now existing in the ownership of our people, if
the value of the Union can be at all reckoned
in dollars or material forms of wealth. Let it
be considered what the soldiers gave to tho
cause of national unity. Without exaggeration
it may be declared that every man who entered
our armies, and remained in the service any
considerable time, came out with his health
impaired, or with his vital powers permanently
diminished. Livery one, on going into camp,
made a radical change in his mode Of life and
in all his previous habits. His clothing, his
food, his work, his thoughts his sleep, all be-
came entirely different. He was separated
from all the direct influences of home. Often
he stood guard in a soaking rain, or amid the
chilliest blasts Of winter. Over-eXertiOn was
common task. Long marches were taken
along dusty roads under q blazing sun, some
times with scarcely any water, and without
any chance for ablution at the days end of the
tramp Time and again, worn out and foot
sore, he cast himself upon the sodden ground
for sort of stupified rest. He has quenched
his thirst at stagnant pools in which the tad
poles shot away as his hand swept aside the
disgusting on the surface. On occasion,
he has subsisted for days or weeks on half or
quarter rations. He has found it necessary to
ford streams that chilled him to the bone, and
without the reaction which is needed to pre-
vent harm. He has long stood waist-deep in
water to build bridges or trestles In battle,
besides death and wounds, there was constant
drain upon every physical and mental resource.
Every campaign was a round of hardships.
Many, in order to go into our armies, surrend-
cred places of honor and emolumept, or situa-
tiOns with good salaries; many gave up an
tabished business; many made equal sacrifices
of different kinds. Tens upon tens of thou
sands died on the field or in the hospitals.
Other tens of thousands were captured, some of
whom were tortured into the grave in the
encmy's prison pens, and some of whom were
exchanged in the last stages of emaciation from
starvation and disease. Multitudes came home
on furlOugh to die Other multitudes have
never seen perfectly well day since their dis
charge. A vast number of men carry around
in their bodies the bullets and the never fully
healed wounds received in the service of their
country. In nearly every case the energies of
vitality are not as strong as if the hardships of
the war had not been endured. Added to all
are the deaths, lnaladies produced, lives short
enod by the griefs of widowhood and orphan
age, and by the privations and struggles in
ficted by bereavement. 1t sounds like the
moekery of economy TO talk of Il few hundred
millions of dollars to be granted to our soldiers
as the "improvidence of Congress-" They
were not stinting in their whOle-sOuled sacri-
fees. 1t is impossible to sufficiently reward
the men whose patriotic exertons saved the
Union, and who thus preserved all we hold
dear and sacred as the fruits of republican lib
erty. But at least this can be bone. They or
those they have left behind can be made to
feel that gratitude is active in the national
heart, and that gratitude is anxious to take a
more substantial form of expression than the
cheap one Of wordy praises. The arrears of
pensions act can be safely trusted to the ver-
dict of history. There is no instance on record
of people who over-appreciated the defenders
of their nationality. The error has always
commit.