The National tribune., 1885-02-05
AN APPEAL.

sentGtires:
GENTLEMEN: The vicissitudes of politics
have made you arbiters of the fate of thou
sands of ex-Union soldiers. It is in your
hands to determine whether these smitten
and broken veterans shall have relief so
sorely needed and which they have earned
by their services.
The Mexican Pension Bill with Senate
Amendments, now on the Calendar of the
House of Representatives, only lacks your
support to become law. Ifyou yield your
assent to it it will at once be enacted, and
begin its work of benefcence and justice.
There can be no question that this is not
a measure of charity, but of pure and SIM
pie justice. 1t gives to needy soldiers of the
Mexican war what is richly due the gallant
men whose valor won for US territory
greater in extent than an empire and richer
than Golconda. If there is such thing as
national gratitude, then this bill is wholly
right.
To the soldiers who fought for the Union
in the late war the relief contemplated is
merely the fulfilment of the contract the
Government made with them when they
entered its service. 1t then distinctly
promised all who arrayed themselves under
its banner that it would care for them if
disabled, and if killed, for their widows,
orphans and dependent relatives. In all
modern history no Government subjected
its soldiers to the hardships dangers and
destruction of life encountered by the SOL
diers of the Union They fought longer
and more sanguinary campaigns than any
soldiers since the Prussians under Frederick
the Great; and you, gentlemen, their gallant
foemen, are the readiest to bear testimony
to their unfaltering courage and devotion,
as they are the most generous in their &C
acknowledgement of the splendid galiantry
with which you contested every field. The
men who meet each other in the dreadful
shock of battle are always the best eulogists
of their foemen's valor and devotion. No
one knows SO well what it cost to carry the
Stars and Stripes up the bloody slopes Of
Marye's Nights as the men who carried the
Stars and Bars through the death-teHlpest
that swept the front of Cemetery Ridge.
No one knows better than you, gentlemen,
how directly the present disabilities of these
broken-down veterans are due to the awful
strains and shocks of their service. No one
knows better than you how unlikely it is
that any man who carried his musket or
carbine through even one of those four long
years, came out of the service without last
ing impairment of his health and strength.
You, who all carry in your bodies painful
reminders of the shatter, jar, and wreck of
camp, march and battle, UNDERSTANDINGS
none but soldiers can-why these men are
prematurely old, why their bodies are bent
with more than the weight of years, why
their sight is dim, their hands tremble, and
their limbs halt Weknow you understand
this; we believe you sympathize with the
men who have given the Nation so much
that they had little left for themselves.
These men were TO you the most generous
of foemen. They treated You always with
magnanimity unexampled in the civil
wars of the world. The moment you yield
ed they became your best friends Remem-
Der the terms given at Vicksburg, at Apo
mattox, and at Durham's Cross roads
Where in all history is there parallel to
that generosity? Nor was this the act of
the Commanding Generals alone. The en-
tire army applauded it.
Now we ask you, in the day of your
power, to deal with them in the same large
humanity that they dealt with you in the
day of their power. We ask for them from
you display of that same soldierly spirit
which led them TO share their last cracker
with you at Vicksburg and Appomattox.