Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-09-04


July Col. Taylor delivered speech in the
House on the Senate amendment to the
Mexican pension bill, in which he re-
ferred to his colleague, who Is the chair
man of the committee on pensions, ,boun-
ty and back pay, and declared that his
committee had proven the graveyard for
every bill that had been introduced in
the interest of the Union soldier. Col.
Taylor mad this speech printed at the
government printing office, and sent out
to his constituents. Gen. Warner, at
ths time of the delivery of the speech.
was at Chicago. but when he read the
speech he wrote Col. Taylor very caus-
tic letter in which he used this Ian
guage:
.Of course, no word Of this speech was
ever delivered. Indeed, it is safe to say that
you would not have presumed in open House,
and in the presence of those who could have
made answer, to have delivered such aspeech. "
The General alleged that the Colonel
had abused the privilege of the House /;
of an abuse of the courtesy due to mem
bers; of Misrepresentation and mis-"
statements in his speech. Te this letter
Col Taylor replied, simply accepting
the Generals challenge to joint dis
cussion at this place.
Gen. Warner opened the debate with
a speech of an hours duration in which
he reiterated the assertions made in his
letter to Col. Taylor. He opened by
saying, Having made the charge did
the duty devolves upon me to show that
Mr.. Taylor did not deliver that speech
in the House" He then read letter
from Mr.. HeweLt, representative from
New York, who was also not present in
congress, and which virtually proved
nothing. He then commented on Mr..
Taylors course on the Hewett bill, and
his vote on the Townsend bill. He made
pretty general denial of the charges
made in Col Taylur's speech, said nObo-
dy read it, certainly not any member of
the House He wandered far away from
the real point at issue, speaking of Mr..
Matson's report; of the 1000 bills that
were introduced into the House; count
ed the cost of the bills that Mr.. Taylor
had introdu duced said that it would take
all the money in the world to liquidate
the claims that would arise under them.
Why did Mr.. Taylor not introduce a
pension in the preceding congress ?
Spoke of the Republican party paying
the bondholder in gold, but not the SOL
der; said that Gen. Grant, with the same
pen, vetoed the arrearase of pension act
and doubled his own salary. He closed
by charging Col. Taylor with "abuse of
the privilege of the house, and conduct
that no gentleman would have been
guilty Of"
Col. Taylor was next introduced. and
met with perfect ovation. He COM
menced by saying that he had lived
among this people for twenty-four years !;
that he had lived in this county since
his childhood, and was born in this dis
trict. That he had been indicted by the
statesman from Marietta for some great
crime. and before this people-his
neighbors of lfetime-and the Union
soldiers, he was now ready to plead,
Not guilty" This, he said, is no hour
for empty declarations; it is the hour
stubborn facts. No giant however tall,
no bully however great, had ever driven
him from the path Of duty. La all the
bills he had introduced he had made no
difference between the private sol
diers and the officers. He then read
bill which Gen. Warner introduced in
Nv
acres of land and the brigadier general
420 acres. and this to be in lieu OF all
other claims against the government.
thus cutting off from the manned and
crippled veterans. their dependent wild
ows and orphans, all pension claims
against the government. He read from
the congressional directory, showing
that Matson, whom Warner had quoted,
was not member of the pension com
mittee at all. He referred to the speech
of Gen. Warner on the tariff, which
when delivered was but one page in
length, but when printed had been
strung out to SO pages He showed that
the General had, in one speech he had
printed, made 1873 changes, in some in
stances striking out as much as so lines,
and in other places adding AS much
The General had had his speech printed
at the Rockingham printing office in
"rat" alley, and sent out under his
| frank which was in violation of the
| franking law. Mr.. Taylor read letters
from Gen. Nathaniel G'ff. of West Vir
ginia, Gen. Robinson, of Ohio, Congress
man Boutelle, of Maine, and others, who
were members of the House, and who
heard his speech.
Gen. Warner, in reply, declared that
the bill he had passed was 'sound in
principle to apply to the soldiers of the
late or any other war;" lie would take
| from the railroads all the lands the Re-
publican party had squandered and give
them to the soldiers. The General read
what purported to be the stenographic
report of the speech delivered by Col.
| Taylor, and said there was not one SEN
tence the same as appeared in his pub
lished speech. He then rambled away
from the point at issue and spent the Ie-
mainder of his time in bare assertions,
unsupported by any testimony.
Col. Taylor than read from the Ma
tional Tribune, paper published ex-
clusiyely in the soldiers in erests, to
show that the Warner bill had been de-
nounced at the time as "delusion and
snare" He said that Gen. Warner was
the only member of the House present
that did not vo.e for the Senate amend
menS TO the pension bill; even Confed-
crate soldiers condemned him for his Op-
position. He quoted from the writings
of Garfield and Mcpherson, two of the
best authorities on the questions of
privileges of the House and of members,
to prove that his course throughout was
entirely consistent with his obligations
as member. He then closed with the
anecdote of the bull and the locomotive,
and said that the General was in the
same dilemma as the courageous but in
discreet bovine.
Gen. Warner replied in a twenty min
n
which showed that he was not altogeth+
'er pleased with the outcome of his 6rst
combat with the Guernsey county states