, 1885-02-17
Grants Retirement Again
Defeated in the House.

WASHINGTON, Feb. l6.-Mr. Slocum.
under Instructions from the military COM
mittee, moved to suspend the rules and
pass the senate bill for the retirement Of
Gen. Grant This is the first bill passed
by the senate and specifically names the
officer to be retired. Messrs- Horr and
Werner, of Ohio, demanded a second of
the motion to suspend the rules; the mo-
ton was seconded by ITO to 720. A
thirty minutes debate. allowed under the
rules, was opened by Mr.. Slocum in be-
half Of the bill. This bill. he said, pro-
posed to place Gen. Grant in the sams
position he would have occupied had he
not, On accordance with the will Of the
people Of the country, accepted the Office
of chief magistrate. The form and Ian
guage of this bill is precisely like all bills
passed for purposes Of this kind 1t has
often been said much has been done for
Gen. Grant; but nothing has been done
for him by the United States beyond pay
ing him salaries to which he was entitled
by law.
Mr.. Rosecrans regarded the bill as a
plain proposition to reward Gen. Grant
for distinguished military services, and it
was his duty to say he could not vote for
it, 1t was not his intention to recount
any historical reasons why he thought that
Gen. Grants reputation had been exag-
gerated and misrepresented, and when the
history came to be written, it would be
pared down to very different dimensions.
lie did not propose to go into that. It
had been the interest Of a great political
party to make Gen. Grants services APP
pear as large as possible, for he was their
servant Gen. Grant himself had pre-
pared the first two volumes Of Bordeau's
Life Of Grant, upon which students Of
history had placed the stamp of untrust-
worthiness. The public had been told
that Gen. Rosecrans would not vote for
the Gen. Grant bill because of personal
ill-will. He did not think any ofhis col
leagues would believe that he was capable
of descending to the depth Of being gov
erned in public life by personal dislikes.
He did not oppose the passage Of this bill
on account of any Of those things to which
he had alluded. or other things to which
be had not alluded, namely, statements
made officially by Gen. Grant which were
false, which Gen. Grant knew to be false,
and which he Rosecrans) had stated in
his official reports to be false.
It had been said Gen. Grant was poor;
hat there was nothing between him and
the poorhouse except his income from
$3.50, 900; and it had been circulated
around by his family that that $4,000
was substantially lost That was not true
there was another critical circumstance "a
which he called attention-congress, BY
solemn act, was asked to arrest-whati
Why, the progress of public opinion fol
the investigation in that confidence mil
called Grant and Ward. If gentlemen
could afford to put up a ligature around
that investigation and deceive the public
mind, he could not
The motion to suspend the rules ant
pass the bill was lost, yeas 1853, nays l03
not the requisite two-thirds in the affirma
ate.
The negative vote was cast by Demo
Gratis who were opposed to Gen. Grant
retirement, reinforced by a number o
Republicans, who, though in favor of tn
bill, were opposed to its form, believing
it would place the president under th
necessity of vetoing a measure which h
strongly opposed.