The National tribune., 1882-02-04
Will the Republic Prove Ungrateful?

ignorance prevails as that of pension legislation
The fact, however, is not SO surprising when we
consider that the general public derive their in
formation as rule from the daily press, and the
daily press in turn from conflicting and erroneous
statements from the Pension Office itself 1t was
but the other day that a leading New York
journal made the absurd statement that the
compensation of pension agents was $4,000
year and SIS for each voucher paid in excess of
1000 vouchers per annum, whereas the COM
pensation for each voucher is but fifteen cents
instead of SIS. This discrepancy, however, was
not more remarkable than that which existed
between the various statements of the late Com
missioner Bentley as to the amount which the
Government would have to pay out under the
Arrears of Pensions Act In the United States
Senate when the bill was first reported from
committee Mr.. Bentley was quoted as fixing the
maximum expenditure which it would involve
at S20000000, but his estimates were revised
from time to time until they reached the icti-
tious sum of $5OO,0O0000 There was as little
warrant for the gross exaggerations of the last
estimate as for the palpable differentiation of
the first 1t is not to be wondered at, we say,
when public officials depart so widely from
the truth in their estimates that the press
of the country should be guilty Of absurd
blunders or that the public should accept those
misstatements for actual fact. At the same time
it must be admitted that these constant attacks
upon the pension laws, unjustifable though they
are have mischievously affected public opinion.
1t should be remembered that there has existed
ever since the close of the war bitter even
if silent, opposition to the passage of any
pension laws whatever, proceeding from the class
of citizens that covertly favored the rebel cause
during the war and cast their votes persstently
course and brought it to successful conclusion.
By the whole South, it is scarcely necessary to
point out, the appropriations for pensions are
garded with the most unrelenting hostility, and
the people of that section, had. they the power,
would gladly put end to them at once and
forever. The spirit of antagonism to recent pen
sion legislation, which the Northern press now
seems DESTROYS of melting, will be fomented, we
may be sure, to the utmost possible extent by all
who bore arms against the Republic or sympa-
thized with the movement to overthrow it.
We do not believe that any of these efforts to
array the patriotic sentiment of the country
against the just recognition by the Government
Of the priceless services which the soldiers and
sailors in the war of the rebellion rendered to
their country, will be successful, but it is import
ant on the one hand that the false statements of
ignorant and sensational correspondents should
not 90 unchallenged, and on the other that the
country should not be permitted to forget the
debt of gratitude which it will ever owe to its
defenders. Twenty years have rolled away, it is
true, since the men of the North were called upon
to give up their lives for the preservation of the
Union, and the events of that epoch are begin
ming to fade from public memory. A new gen
Grafton has grown up and the time is at hand
when the youth of the country will learn only
from the school histories the story of that awful
struggle for national unity but if the recollec-
ton of that period is no longer keen it was the
measure of the Nations obligations to it's heroes
is certainly full as heavy-increased, indeed, by
every year ofincreased prosperity. The more rap
i'd the development of the Republic the more sta
BILE the Government, the more productive the soil,
the more plenteous the crops, the more thriving
the business, the more universal the culture, the
more profound the happiness Of the people, the
greater should be the gratitude of the Nation to-
wards those whose sacrifices made all this prosperi
ty possible. If in 1865 justice demanded that the
invalid survivors Of the war and the families of
the dead should be made the wards of the Nation,
how infinitely greater is its obligation to care for
them now when it is enjoying to the full the
blessed fruits of their sacrifices But for their
valor this Republic would long ago have per-
ished from the earth. No fancy, however keen,
can picture the train of evils that would have
followed the triumph of the Confederate arms.
Compare the travail of the Southern States in
the years Immediately succeeding the war, with
the prosperity of the North during the same
period, and think what might have befallen us
had the event of Appomattox been reversed
Can any money recompense ever wipe out the
Oh,