Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-10-07
INSULTING PATRIOTS.
PRESIDENT CLEVEIAND'S PENSION
VETOES.


tsunting and insulting messages on the disa-
bIlities of crippled soldiers, may well rouse
the indignation of every patriotic citizen In
speech in one of these casss, that of Jacob
Romiser, Hon Byron NJ Cutcheon, of Michi-
gan, called his fellow congressmen's attention
to the following points:
"Lincoln vetoed one bill In four years;
Cleveland has vetoed one hundred bills within
three months. But that is a matter of taste,
and it measures the distance between the two
men in their Judgment of their relations to
the law-making power Of the government
"By those presidents who lived in the era
of tbs formation of the constitution, and who
may be presumed to be most familiar with
its spirit, the veto power was very sparingly
used The whole number of vetoes from the
foundation of our government to the present
administration was l09, an average of one
and one-seventh per year.
at has been the practice for several con-
crosses past to pass hundreds of private PEN
sion bills for the very reason that the claim
ants have not been able to make the required
proof at the pension office that their disabili-
ties were incurred in the line of military
duty.
"The last congress passed more than five
was vetoed by President Arthur, because he
looked upon congress as the high court of
chancery Of the nation, ito adjudge the equity
of each particular case.
II therefore utterly and absolutely deny
the truth of the presidents premises that a
man is not pensionable unless he can prove
that he was disabled in the military service
and in the line of duty. 1t Is not true. 1t
never was true But suppose that wers not
so, and that up to this time there were no
law, general or special, allowing pensions ex-
cept for disability traced directly to mill
tary service in the line of duty.
"In the name Of humanity and national
honor shall we be precluded as the supreme
law-making power from making law that
shall meet the exigency of individual cases
that appeal to our sense Of right and equity?
Because forsooth, q surgeon is dead, or a
fellow prisoner at Andersonville has an
swered the last tattoo, or record is lost, or
comrades have been swept away, are our
hands bound from doing such meager jus
tice as we maya Shall we be compelled to
stand by in nbecility and helplessness, and
see our old veterans in their age and feeble
ness and poverty. go to the poorhouse, and
this great congress of the peoples representa-
tive forbidden by the iron grip of the veto
ing hand to steady their faltering steps and
smooth their pathway to the gravel God
Forbid 1t is not so. 1t cannot be so. If we
be true men, true to our country, to our man
hood and to humanity, it shall not be sol
Our appeal is to the people, who make and
unmake presidentsl
"The incumbent of the presidency has very
much to learn about soldiers.
"And lastly, unless 1 greatly err, he has
has much to learn of the feeling Of loyalty
and the spirit of patriotism which inspired
our soldiery, and which is worth more TO this
nation than all its millions of gold and silver
piled in the vaults of the treasury.
"Take the case of that old man, Nathaniel
Beezeley, the old farrier, whose widows bill
is among these vetoes At the age of sixty
years he heard the call of his country. He
wanted to have some share in the grand and
patriotic work of upholding its flag and saw
ing the union of the states to posterity. So,
while the young and strong and the prosper
Gus hesitated, the old man said to his wife:
Louisa, 1 believe must go. I've got good
deal of strength left yet, and If the old flag
must go down want to go down with it. If
anything should happen to me, this govern
ment will see that you don't come to want
So he shouldered his musket and marched in
x
endure the hardship, and for year he stood
at the post of duty like man, as best he
could. But he accumulated good deal Of
disability and at the end of year he was
mustered out, as tho report of Col Matson,
the chairman of the committee, says, a
wreck of his former SELF
"The old man died at length, and now his
aged widow, past seventy, dependent upon
charity, recommended by the governor of her
state and ex-senator Joseph E. Mcdonald,
comes with her trembling hands and totter-
ias steps-comes here to ask of the great
rich government to which her husband gave
the remnant of health and life to assist her in
eking out her few remaining days with a
paltry pension of $l2 per month, and the pres
ident of that country says to congress, l for
bid"
II would to God that some younger and
stronger men had possessed that same spirit
of patriotism which the old man Beezeley
had, and which led him to the perilous edge
of battle. Such patriotism is not so super
abundant in these days that we can afford to
sneer at it or refuse to recognize it or reward
its loyal sacrifices. 1t was not so we prom
ised these brave men when they went out to
battle. 1t was not so we promised them
when they turned their backs upon home and
wife and child whom they might never see
again; turned away from all the brightness
and sweetness and hope of life, to do, to suf-
fer, and, if need be, to die in untold and un-
speakable anguish for the flag of their al
legiance and the country of their love. We
told them then to go without fear and with
out faltering for those they left behind. We
promised them that the nation would be hus-
band to the widow end father to their orphan
children; that the nation would raise their
helpless ones in its great, strong arms and
bear them ever in its heart of hearts
"Under that promise they went out Under
that promise they trod the red and slippery
fields of carnage down to the blood be-
spl.inkled doors of death
Their work is done; their duty is fulfilled
But the wrecked and manned, the widows
and orphans are with US still and claim our
helping hand Our promise remains
"May God help US to be true to the prom
ises we pledged when patriotism was more than
gold, when loyal sacrifice was more than
place or power, and manhood was worth
all that a nation had TO give"
A vote for the Democratic ticket this fall
is a vote of endorsement of Cleveland's treat
ment of the soldiers.