The National tribune., 1883-01-04
The Hue and Cry.

ter Of the attempt which is being made by
certain uDscrupulous journals to fasten pub
lie suspicion upon our pensioners, and cover
our ex-soldiers generally with shame and
dishonor. The fierce and cruel delight
which, these journals seem TO take in de-
flaming cur veterans reminds us of nothing
so much as the blood-thirsty blood-hounds
OF Andersonville, and they are none the
less hateful because it is the private
character, and not the deformed and en-
feebled bodies, of our ex-soldiers that
they seek to tear to pieces AS one
listens to their hue and cry it seems almost
as if he could hear again the crack of the
sIave-drivers whip and see the yelping
pack spring at the throat of its victim!
Can it be, after all that the rebellion did
not end with the surrender of Lee at Apo
mattox? Is it possible that our soldiers,
when they returned triumphant from the
battIe-felds Of the South, came back to be
assailed by an enemy much more formidable,
because less honorable, than the one they had
vanquished at the mouth of the cannon? Can
it be true that aftera all the long years of pro-
found peace and unexampled prosperity,
which the valor of our soldiers has secured
to the country, they are to be called on once
more 10 take, not their lives, but what is still
more preciOus-their honor, in their hands?
It is an awful thought, but it cannot be
Tepressed, that the blood that was shed and
the treasure that was expended in putting
! down the rebellion must have been poured
out in vain il, at this late day, the Nation
is content to stand quietly by and see its de
Tenders SO cruelty Teviled and slandered! A
monstrous and horrible change must have
taken place in the hearts Of the American
people if they no longer swell with indig-
nation when the soldier is made the target
Of ridicule and scorn! What have these
men done to merit the abuse which is poured
out upon them? Are they not the same
men who in 1865 were hailed as the saviors
of the Republic 10y these selfsame news
/ papers? Do not the scars on their bodies
! still testify to their vGlor? Has aught oc-
/ CURED to lessen the value of their sacrifices
Havenota all the magnificent hopes of national
prosperity which were predicated upon
/ the suppression Of the rebellion been fully
realized? Has not the Union of the States
/ been firmly re-established, and the last trace
of sectional hate effectually removed?
| What, then, has occurred since the close Of
the war to cancel the debt of gratitude
which the Nation then publicly acllnowl
! edged to its returning veterans? Has not
/ that debt been enhanced rather thau di-
minished as time has made more and more
evident the magnitude of the blessings
which have resulted from the suppression OF
the rebellion? If, twenty years ago, the press
/ Of the country lauded as heroes the men
who went forth TO offer up their lives on the
altar of their country, why should it now
seek to brand these very men as robbers and
frauds and imposters? Is it crime on their
/ part, wracked as they are with disease con
tracted IN the camp, on the field of battle
and in southern prison pens; crippled as they
are by wounds inflicted by rebel bullets
impoverished as they are by the sacrifices
which they made at q time when those who
remained at home were coming money; is il
crime, we say, that these men should claim
at the hands of the Government the fulfill
ment of its sacred promise to "care for him
who has borne the battle, and for his widow
and orpbans?" Nay, would it not be in
gratitude Of the basest and blackest sort on
the part Of the Government did it now re-
pudiate its debt to its defenders? Yet this
is what the press Of the country to-day is
clamoring for. 1t is because our ex-soldiers
have ventured TO claim the fuIillment of the
sacred pledges which were made to them
when the existence Of the Republic was at
stake that the newspapers now denouuce as
imposters and frauds the men whom twenty
/ years ago they extolled as heroes. They
would subject them to the same indignities
which the fugitive slave was compelled tC
undergo in the auction mart. They would
compel them to bare their bodies to the
gaze Of the public and display their scars and
deformitios to prove that they are not de
frauding the Government which they fOugbt
to preserve! Could human malice go fur
ther? Yet all this they would Dc
under the poor pretence of protecting tn,
Government What protection does th,
Government need that does not already ex
ist? Are not the pension laws already 81
hedeed about with technicalities that many
a deserving claimant is deprived of thei
benefits? Are there not at this very mo
ment 297,2O1 claims pending in the Pen
sion Olfice, payment of which is long sinet
past due? Has any trustworthy evidence
been offered to sustain The wholesale charge
of fraud which have been made by the pres
of the country? What justification is there