The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-17
TO SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.
The Question OfPensions-Call for National
Convention, To Be Held in This City.

The following correspondence which carries its
own explanation, needs no comment recommend
it to a careful reading by every man who served
the Union in the late war.
WATERFOWL, Me-, Sept IS, 1884.
Hon. b. r. Jones, Chairman Republican National
Committee. New York CITY:
Dear Sir: Two thousand Grand Army Posts
have petitioned Congress for the enactment of a
law granting service pensions to Union soldiers
Through that organization. and in other ways
fully $50. 900 veterans have asked for the
adoption Of that measure On behalf of these
petitioners, desire to invite the attention of
your committee to this subject.
None arJIreeate more fully or acknowledge
more heartily than do the Union veterans that
. the United States government has most literally
treated our comrades who suffer from wounds
or other manifest physical injury, but the fact
remains that very large percentage OF low
grade disability pension claims are rejected be-
cause of the inlpossibilitY Of obtaining the evil
dence required by the stringent rules of the
Pension Office, and this operates very unfairly
to the majority of meritOrious claimants whose
claims have been rejected, or which now
pending.
The almost universal penalty paid by the vet
Grams who performed arduous field service,
marched to exhaustion, exposed to extremes of
heat ana cold, subjected to malaria in the
swamps of the South, where they lay at times
for months, was impaired health, broken con-
situations lowered vitality, exhausted energies
and shortened lives. While all this is painfully
apparent to themselves, it may not always be
manifest TO medical examination made at the
present day. Such examination cannot deter
mine the physical deterioration OF men from
what thei condition would now be if they had
not rendered faithful service in the field.
1t is a fact that not one man in thousand
came from the war uninjured b. his service.
This is the main ground upon which our claims
for service pensions rest.
We waive the questions of claims to the graft
tude of the Republic the unfairness in the fail
ure to equalize bounties the paying Of monthly
pay mainly in forty-cent dollars. and ask simple
| Justice TO those who have given to the country
much for which they have notreceived an equiv
alent
trust the reasons adduced will warrant your
committee, representing the great national par
ty which has stood as our friend in the past, iii
extending your aid TO the Union veterans i'll their
efforts to secure recognition of their claim to
justice Very respectfully, your obedient ser
want +. W. HASKELL
REPLY or THE REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE.
Major f. W. Haskell, watervilIe, Me.
NEW YORK CITY, Sept. q, 1884
Dear Sir: The Republican national commit.
tee have directed us to say in reply to your let
ter of the 25th inst that the Republican party
favors to day. as in the past full and substantial
Justice and liberalty to the men, who, by their
sufferines and sacrifice, saved the Union, and we
point with pride to the fact that it was the Re
publican party which sustained you while in the