Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-09-04
OF THE PENSION LAW
ENACTMENTS.
The Party That Made and the Party
That Opposed Them.

Mr.. Mcpherson, Secretary of the Ma.
tional Republican committee. and who
for many years was secretary Of the U.
S. Senate, has prepared letter on the
subject of pension legislation. which, in
view OF the debate last week in this dis
trict between Representatives Taylor
and Warner, on that subject, will be of
especial interest at this time. Mr.. Nc
Pherson is the best authority in the
country on political statistics. The let
ter is dated Washington, August 26. and
is addressed to General James McCart+
ney, of Fairfield, Illincis:
You say that you are met with the
claim that the Democrats in Congress-
have done more for the soldiers than the
Republicans have, and you desire to
know what are the facts connected with
the passage of the pension laws and the
relation of parties to them. In reply
have to say that as far back as 1866. in
preparing the fourteenth amendment,
the Republicans of the Thirty-ninth COL
gress took care to insert in the fourth
section of that amendment the clause
THAT the validity of the public debt of
the United States, authorized by law,
including debts incurred for the pay ment
of pensions and bounties for services in
Suppressing insurrectiOH or rebellion,
shall not be questioned" This amend
ment, you may remember, passed both
the Senate and the House by party votes,
the Republicans sustaining it and the
Democrats opposing it, and in the State
Legislatures it was ratified by like party
votes. l mention this as the first indi
cation of purpose by the Republicans, ,Lo
maintain inviofate their position -on
pension and bouHties. During the For
tieth, Forty-frst, Forty-second, aud For
ty-third Congresses, in all of which the
Republicans We're in the majority, our
pension system was organized, and from
time to time extended and liberalized
The material change in the pension laws
made after the loss of control of the two
houses by the Republicans was in the
passage, through the Forty fifth Com
gress, when the House was Democratic
and the Senate Republican, of the arrears
of pensions bill. This bill was intro
duced into the House ON April =, 1878,
by the Hon. Henry J. B. Cummings, a
Republican member from Iowa, and re
ferred to the Committee on Invalid PEN
sions. That committee having had the
bill in possession more than two mOBths,
and failed to report upon 1t. the Hon.
Dudley c. Haskell, a Republican mem
Der from Kansas, moved ON June 10,
1878, to discharge that com nittee from
further consideration of the bill, to sus-
pend the rules and to pass 1t. That mo
tion was agreed to by 164 yeas to 81 nays.
OF the 164 yeas 116 were Republicans
and 4S were Democrats, three of the lat
ter being Southern. Of the 81 nays all
were Democrats, and with three eXcepr
tions, from the Southern States. At the
next session this bill passed the Senate
by a vote of A yeas to nays. OF the
affirmative vote 16 were Democrats, 27
Republicans and l Independent, Judge
Davis, of Illinois.) The negative vote
was exclusively Democratic.
The next pension bill which provoked
division of opinion was at the late ses-
sion. The House passed, on March 3, un.
der suspension of the rules, bill to
pension the soldiers and sailors of the
Mexican war. The Senate amended this
Oiil 81 do W SlNO W OuOoC =
soldiers in the war of the rebellion who
are or shall become disabled and are also
dependent upon their own labor for sup
port, at rate proportionate to the de
gree of the disability, $24 month being
given to those who are totally incapaci-
tated to perform any manual labor, and
that amount being made divisible on
that basis for any less degree of disabili-
ty. 1t also increased the pensions of
widows or minor children to $l2 month,
repealed the limit us to the age of chill
dren in the case of widows who have
minor children of unsound mind, or are !
physically helpless, and added other
clauses of the relief of dependent PEN |
sioners. This amendment was agreed |
to in the Senate by party vote-yeas 81 |
tall Republicansl.n nays % (all Democrats. |
On the final passage of the bill. four
Democrats voted with 33 Republicans in !
favor of it, and two Republicans voted |
with 25 Democrats against it, the vote |
having been 81 yeas and "a nays.
The bill was taken up in the House on |
July 2, five days before adjournment, |
when tilibustering Was resoited to under |
the leadership of the Hon. Goldsmith |
Hewitt, Democratic Representative from |
Alabama, to prevent concurrence in the |
amendment of the Senate; filibustering
was pai ticipated in chiefly by the South
ern Democracy. AS result no action |