Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-09-18

would agree IN the future that these amend
ments should go with the bill and abide Its
fate. The rules OF the House are such that
the committee has absolute control of the
bill; and it is useless to attempt to amend a
bill unless You have the consent of the COM
mittee. That is the fact, and / only wanted
that promise from Mr.. Hewitt; and that gen.
tleman's letter, and / am glad that he has it
here, proves one thing, that, whether right
or wrong, early in the session, perhaps early
n February, / was over there on the Demo
ratio side of the House trying to do some
thing for the Union soldier. Where was he?
don't say know all about these rules. /
heard q man say once in Congress il he did
he would not be fit for anything else; it
would destroy his brain.
Now, gentlemen, l propose that this audi
ence shall not be deceived The gentleman
stood up here and read part of my speech, in
which l arraigned his committee for bring
ing into the House no report of the kind OF
which l spoke. He stated that l had never
seen report of Mr.. Matson, which he pa
rades in your presence, and which, he says,
was sent to every member of Congress.
Think of that, gentlemen, when / tell you
that Mr.. Matson was not on his committee.
[Applause. The names of the members of
the committee are:
Messrs. Warner of Ohio. Connolly, Pierce,
Rogers of Arkansas, Greenleaf, Brewer
of New York, Whiting and Anderson.
l don't propose to slander Mr.. Matson.
He is Democrat from Indiana, and friend
of the soldiers; and he stood by a hundred
pension bills that General Warner resisted
by night and by day. [Great applause
have read from the Congressional Directory.
When the gentleman tried to make this audi
ence believe there was lie in my speech,
l"He didn't do it, thought and applause, I
after he said that Mr.. Matson had made a
report, sent to my house for the Congress
sional Directory and have read from it in
you presence. Shame upon such miserable
conduct in the face of an intelligent audience.
l"ShameT]
General Warner says he didn't stand alone
when he voted against Townshend's Mexi-
can pension bill, which passed the House,
went to the Senate, and was there amended
in the interest of the Union soldiers of this
country. He didn't stand alone, that is true
There were forty-slx votes against that bill
and two hundred and twenty-seven for it;
two Democrats against it and forty -four Re
publicans against it. But want to tell him
when he did stand alone, and that was when
the Townshend bill came up in the House,
when it came back with the roll of amend
ments in favor of the idiotic and imbecie
and the blind children, whose fathers per-
ished in the war; when it came back with
amendments in favor of the widow, of the
aged father and the dependent mother, and
when it came back providing for every SOL
dier who was disabled in war or out of it,
after he was disabled and had to depend
upon his daily labor for support; there were
none forgotten; all the poor soldiers were
gathered in this bill. Thus it was that this
Mexican pension bill came back to the
House; and then it was that the gentleman
was alone. Applause. OF the forty-six
men who voted against that bill when it first
passed the House every man of that forty-six
voted for it when it came back to the House,
except General Warner, and he was alone
upon that occasion. ["Wouldn't ne like to
be alone now"
1t is very strange thing, too, that the
gentleman worked so hard and so many
hours, that he lost so much sleep at night,
when it took him until the 2Ist day of April
before he could make his first report on any
bill in which the soldier had any interest.
December had passed, and January and Feb
ruary and March, and twenty days of April
had gone by before he succeeded in preparing
any elaborate report on the pension business.
C''Good enoughT1 And that you may know,
gentlemen, how hard he worked at nights,
how many sleepless hours he spent, I am
going to show you that report Oh, the gas
and the oil, and the sleepless hours he
wasted And here it is before you to-day.
Colonel Taylor here exhibited the report.
Three lines; three lines in plain language.
lDerisive shouts. Wait until I read it:
REPORT OF WARMERS COMMITTEE.
"Mr. A. J. Warner, from the select com.
nittee on the payment of pensions, bounty,
and back pay, submitted the following
REPORT:
ITO accompany bill H. R. 6,s3s.1
"The select committee on the payment of
pensions, bounty, and back paw, to which
was referred sundry bills, unanimously re-
port in lieu of certain of such bills the accom-
panying bill, and recommend its passage"
That is the bill of which he is the author
and of which have some very important
things to say hereafter. General Warner:
Sand it passedw1 And it passed! But it
would have been a better thing for you
Ispeaking to General Warner if it had never
been born. [Applause.] said, gentlemen,
in that same speech, which is here to-day,
something which he says is a falsehood. l
must read it. because it cut him to the quick:
"a bill was reported from this committee
soon thereafter by General Warner, its
chairman, but for some strange reason it
was passed under suspension OF the rules,
when no amendments could be made and
when all discussion was limited to thirty
minutes. 1t contained only one provision
in the interest of the soldier, which was the
provision that dispensed with proof of prior
soundness while it contained some object
ionable features that prevented its favorable
consideration in the Senate. l say this be-
cause it has been asked why the Senate never
acted on General Warmers bill. The bill
did not go far enough to amount to any
thing, while it contained some very object
ionable features"
1 want to say that every word of that
speech, from the first to the last, is true;
every word of it is true; and no one knows
it better than Gen. Warner himself. ZAP
plause.] And if he does not know it, it is
his duty to know it before he makes such
accusations as he has.
l hold in my hand sixty-eight bills, all of
which were introduced in Congress, and re-
ferred to his committee; and he reported for
passage but one, and he made this lengthy
report which l have exhibited to you.
Here is the first one, the bill of mine re
pealing all limitations as to the time when
meritorious applications for pensions may be
filed; then the next referring to bounties to
soldiers who served in the late war for the
Union; then comes one from Gen. Thomas
Brown; and then one from Mr.. Wood; and
then one from Mr.. Henderson,; and then
one from Gen. Rosecrans; and all these and
many more are permitted to :" sleep the
sleep that knows no waking" in the COM
mittee over which the gentleman had the
distinguished honor of presiding.
But, gentlemen, that is getting somewhat
away. l have been dragged out of my
course in this discussion.
The charge, that no word of this speech
was ever delivered, deny, and leave to the
gentleman to dispose of as he thinks best.
But before doing so will read in the pres
ence of this audience a few letters. He
read one, which, instead of proving what
he claimed, corroborated my declarations in
this speech. l will read some letters, gem
tlemen, which will not corroborate any,
thing which Gen. Warner has said here
to-day. The first is from Hon. w. H.
Calkins, of Indiana.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND, Aug. %, 1884.
Hon. +. d. Taylor, Cambridge, o.:
My DEAR SIR-I recollect we'll that you
submitted some remarks orally on the Mexi-
can pension bill in the House of Repre-
sentatives on or about July 5, 1884.
have not read your speech as it appears
in the Record, but remember the fact of