The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-10-21


bill for some soldier or some soldiers widow.
valid Pensions. They send to the Pension
Office for all the papers and evidence, and they
examine It with great care. and IL they think IL
worthy they report IL back tn the House with
report stating the facts ana aSking that IL be
passed. Now the reason for the passage of that
class of bills Is this; Alter tho lapse of twenty
years Il IL no easy matter for widows left alone
by death to ind the evidence tind proofs noces-
sary I'd get a pension. IL is no easy matter for
soldiers after the lapse OF years when they md
disease carrying them down and disabling them
for work. TO get from their scattering comrades
the proof, showing that they are entitled 10
pension. Congress has the absolute right TO
look up this class and pass special bill grant
ing pensions to deserving men and women. We
have been in the habit OF doing this on Friday
night. On that night the House is never full.
You have got TO have n quorum, 1853 members,
present in order to pass bills. None can pass IL
quorum is demanded. IL has been under
stood for years that NO one would raise obJec-
tions.
The bills were inve stigated and discussed. and
n majority OF those present should determine
whether they should pass or not. Everything
running along in this recognized way whom
suddenly received "A shock in the House
message came from the White House saying
that l55 pension bills had been allowed To be.
come law without the approving signature OF
the President He did not veto them, which he
said he ought to do He spoke worry sharply TO
the House Of Representatives, and he gave us
n very sharp lecture From that moment Il
new state of things came into the House, and
from that moment when the sharp satire OF the
White House began to be directed against these
poor cripples and invalids and widows, an evil
influence developed in the House OF Represen-
tatives, and we found difficulties that we had
not before experienced. About this time a
message came from the President, vetoing and
killing quite number Of pension claims, and
at the same time some one was found upon the
Democratic side OF the House calling mo
quorum" and ever since the House has been
blocked for passage of that class OF bills and
when / took Il Washington newspaper on
the evening when the first veto mes
sage came, saw il then announced
when he had executed that act and killed
those bills. depriving these poor fellows Of
eight dollars n month, that he and a number OF
genial spirits got into IA steam yacht, the Cor
sair, and went down the Potomac on u jolly
junket and il wns a strange combination Of
history. As l read that item that night, and
wondered how he could 90 and walk off and en-
Joy him elf after sending desolation and pain
into the homes OF the poor thought how that
man had not been where those people had been.
II he had been, those vetoes would never have
been written.
Let me tell you an illustration received a
petition from Hackhawk County asking me to
put through private bill for David L. Elderkin.
1t signed by many of the best citizens OF
Waterloo, of Cedar Rapids, and of Einchford.
The facts were WRITTEN to me. drew up bill.
introduced it and it was referred to the Com
mittee on Invalid Pensions, and every member
of that committee said that man should have a
pension. The bill was reported back To the
House with a full report on the facts. When the
case stated every member of the House OF
Representatives present that night said that
is right" and voted for the passage of the bill
Not dissenting voice neither on the left nor on
the right.
Let me tell you briefly the facts Of the case,
and you know something Of them, too: David
T. Elderkin entered the army from Waterloo,
and ut the battle Of Murfreesboro where II shell
| took of the head of Il friend OF his, and whose
blood was spattered over him, and ut the same
| time he was wounded in the neck, which de-
stroyed his hearing-it destroyed more than
that, il struck blow that dethroned the in
| telligenco OF David Il. Elderkln. He was taken
prisoner, and lay long in Libby prison. The
proofs which went to the House OF Representa-
| tives showed that the Commissioners of In
| sanity OF the county, composed OF DR. w. ID.
| Grouse, +. Il. CorwiI, and the Clerk of Black
| hawk County-and no citizen OF Blackhawk
| County will question the ability or the charac-
| ter of these gentlemen-that Board of Insanity
| examined him and brought in verdict of in
| sane, and the proof showed that from the mo-
ment that deadly she'll struck him his mind
began to fail, and when the citizens of this
| county petitioned me to get relief, and that
| no was living near the town of Finch
| ford and had a wife and seven children and
| very little means, struggling with his disease
! and poverty and his shattered mind, the burden
| OF the whole family resting upon the widow,
| these petitions and proofs were supplemented
by letter from this poor widow she il worse
| than II widow These letters would wiring tears
| from a heart of steel. That bill went over 10
| the Senate, and the Senate referred il 20 the
Pension Committee. 1t was unanimously re-
ported back to the Senate, and they unanimous
| " voted that he should nave pension. The
| Congress OF the United States under the Consti-
tuition said IS n month was due him by patriot
| ism, by every form of justice to the home of
this poor family in Blackhawk. That bill went
to the White House and the President put his
veto upon it and sent IL back as unworthy Of his
| approval. Let me draw you to another picture
There is poor woman in Ohio by the name OF
! Sally Ann Bradley. She had husband by her
| side when the war broke out and four sons, who
| all went into the army, and she said, go and i
will stay ut home and help to save the country.
| Gentlemen, two of those boys fell dead upon
! the field, one of them had his arm torn of, and
has been at the Soldiers Home ever since,
| helpless and unable to support her. the other
| boy had IA ball tear through his eye, making
him useless, and he lives at the Soldiers Home,
| and IA few years ago her husband died, as was
| shown, from disease contracted in his long
| service. Sally Ann Bradley, with one foot in
| the grave and the other in the poor house, turn
| ing to Congress of the United States with her
| withered hands and snow-covered head. said,
| Il gave my country my all must enter the
| poor house?' Congress said NO, and gave her
| n pension. The President of the United States
| vetoed that bill, too, and on the same day, with
| nying justice 20 this dying saint ho approved
| the Fitz John Porter bill and elevated him 70
| the pay and emOlunents of n Colonel in the
| United States army.
| L want my Democratic friends to know these
| facts and tell me if they approve OF them. He
| vetoed l02 private pension bills, thus giving
YOU some samples of Democratic economy by
| saving Si0,20 year, and his own administra-
| ton asked appropriations for s39,OJO for con-
| servatory and flower house and ornamentation
/ to the White House in which he lived, rent free
| when he vetoed these poor pension bills. These
are facts 1t is all very well for man drawing
| n salary of $4,000 year, but say that voice
Il - ~. l.Is