The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-27
VETERANS OF THE G. A. R.
They Denounce the Management Of the
Soldiers Orphans Home,
And Call for Needed Amendments to the
Law Under Which 1t Is Governed
Election of Officers.

The State department Of the g. A. r. met
again yesterday at Masonic Hall, with full at
tendance of officers, delegates and members.
The committees appointed to examine into the
reports of the various officers of the organization
who submitted reports on Wednesday returned
favorable commentaries.
A committee was appointed to prepare and
submit suitable memorials of appreciation and
regard for the services of Officers John h.
Hager, the first department commander of this
State, and also for Edward Near, the retiring
commander
A resolution was unanimously passed asking
the Legislature to pass bill appropriating $780,
900 for the erection of monument and hail.
dedicated to the memory of the departed heroes
of the late war. The militia bill pending now
in the Legislature was urged TO be passed and
become law.
The question of pensioning the soldiers of the
Mexican war was discussed and resolut
was passed that each Mexican soldier, not
than sixty years old, who had not borne arr
against his country $50 as to exclude JEFF
Davisl ought of right to receive pension from
the government.
Bill 1877, now pending before the Legislature,
providing for the raising OF funds for the burial
of ex-Union soldiers and marines who may die
in INDECENT circumstances, defining the duties of
certain officers in relation thereto, was urged to
be passed, but the amendments to the same were
unanimously condemned.
The election of officers for the ensuing year
resulted in the choice of the following comrades:
Department commander, D. n. Foster, Fl
! Wayne: senior vice-commander, G. w. Miller,
| Terre Haute; junior vicecommander, [. A.
| Young, Middletown; chaplain, +. f. Blackburn
| Lebanon: council OF administration, J. n. Run.
| yam of Warsaw, Mr.. Pedigrow, Mr.. Metcalf, of
| Anderson, j. A. Closer, city, and ID. c. McCoi
lum. of LaPorte; staff, Robert Stratton, A A
| c., FIT Wayne; F. T. Benjamin, A @. M. g.,
city; Inspector general, Jasper E. Lewis, of
| South Bend
| The committee composed of r. s. Robertson
Thomas Hanna and j. T. johnson, appointed to
| test the question, raised concerning the Soldiers
and Seamen's Orphans Home. at Knightstown,
| recommended that the law which now controls
the Home should be amended to the following
| effect: First the separation OF the soldiers
orphans from the feeble minded children; sec
ond, the repeal OF the law permitting them to be
indentured; third, providing for the soldiers wild
ows as well as orphans; fourth, extending the
benefit Of the institution to the orphans and
widows of all resident soldiers and sea-
men, whether enlisted from Indiana
or other States The committee suggested
that bills were now pending nm the
Legislature which will partially remedy the evils
| that all now depore but they are not such as
will fully meet the demands of the people, yet
they are steps in the right direction it they pre-
vail and become the law.
IAN investigation is now progressing report
ed the committee, which leads to the belief that
horrible atrocities, which are the shame of the
| State. have been perpetrated upon the wards of
| the State whose fathers died that their country
| might live. We hope that the charges may not
| be true, but we fear that much is true which
ought never to have been perpetrated and that
| a stain will rest upon the government
| of the institution and upon the people, and upon
| those who are responsible for the management
Of it, which will never be wiped out The State
| owes it to these orphans that no man be APP
pointed to govern and care for them whose char
| acter is not a guarantee of good faith honesty
| and virtue and no drunkard, libertne or person
| of doubtful character should have a position,
| much less control of those helpless innocerts,
! where he can wreak vengeance on childish
| offenders, or can ply the arts OF eeducer upon
| the daughters of the State, the sacred wards of
| the people, who are unfortunate enough to be
| placed in his care.
| 1--WE recommend the following resolutions,
and that copy of the same be furnished the
| Governor and both houses Of the Legislature:
Resolved That this encampment of the g. A.
| r, of the Indiana Department, in behalf of all
| the surviving soldiers and seamen of Indiana in
the war of the Rebellion in behalf of the widows
and orphans Of those dead, in behalf of human
ity, justice and patriotism, and the good
name ard fame of the loyal State
of Indiana, does most respectfully but
urgently demand that such legislation in regard
to the Home shall DO enacted that each and
every person whose character is not above suS-
picion shall be at once removed from his posi-
ton in the Home, and that none but those
| whose more virtuous, sober character is guar
anty that the unfortunates shall be cared for as
| a grateful commonwealth intended, shall
be appointed. That we especially recommend
it will enact laws which will
separate the soldiers orphans from idiots; ex-
tend the privileges of home to the orphans and
widows Of all the soldiers and seamen of the late
war, residing In Indiana at the time of decease;
abolish the odious features of indenturing them
to strangers, and make it truly homo in all that
sacred name implies, SO that the loss Of homes
once theirs, but lost through the loyalty devo
ton and heroism of their fathers, may seem less
by reason of the kindness OF the people of this
State by whose generosity the Home is estab-
| lished and maintained