Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-07-17
JULY IL, 1886.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, July IL, 1886.

few days over the Presidents vetoed
pension bills. He has now welded
his pen against one hundred soldier
claimants, aud still the reckless work
goes on. Senator Plumb remarked
to the Senate few days since that
il the President would read the bills
he vetoes instead of depending upon
that Circumlocution Shop, the Pen
sion Office, for his basis of action,
he would not be SO silly.
But Cleveland's course in this mat
ter has not failed to draw volleys of
criticism from the Republicans in
both Houses Of Congress. Gen.
Grosvenor of Ohio, made a notable
speech upon his veto of a bill grant
ing pension to the widow of a Ger.
tain veteran, during the delivery of
which there were few dry eyes upon
the Republican side of the Hall. He
began by saying he desired to stand
upon better and stronger ground
than an assault upon the motives of
the Executive in this veto. He
thought the President labored under
a total misrepresentation of his rela-
ton to the administration of the
government of this country. He
had read with a great deal of care
all the voices that had emanated
from this prolific source, and he
thought that the trouble lay in the
fact that the present President of
the United States understands it to
be his duty to examine every act of
Congress. If he himself, as a mem
Der of Congress, would not vote for
bill, he gives no sort of weight, or
consideration to the fact that both
branches of the Legislative Depart
ment of the Government have acted
affirmatively on the measure.
He mentioned that we hear much
about consolidation of power and
Capitalization of government, but he
knew of no such exhibition, hereto.
fore, OF tendency towards CONSOLE
dation, as the spectacle of the Presi-
dent refusing to permit Congress to
pension the starving soldiers of the
Union. LII other words, Mr.. Cleve-
land adopts and carries into force
the idea that in this country of ours,
the Executive has the right and
duty to decide absolutely upon every
question of legislation.
The next feature noticed by Gen.
Grosvenor was an assumption which
seems to have lodged in the mind of
the President that no private pen
sion bill ought to be approved by
him unless the applicant is entitled
by law to pension. He mentioned
that there was no prior law author
izing the granting of a pension of
$1,000 year to Mrs. Grant; yet the
Executive saw fit to approve the bill.
There was no law authorizing pen
sion of $4,000 year to the widow
of Gen. Hancock; yet the President
approved the bill.
Lack of space forbids me to give
the pathetic side of the Ohioan's re-
marks, but he said, among other
things, that there could be no gener-
al law which would cover the case
of the widow for whom he was plead
ing. She had husband and four
sons who entered the army In 1861.
Two of the sons were shot dead !:
another came home with an arm
shot off, and the fourth with an eye
shot out, while the father received a
wound at the battle of Nashville
from which he suffered more or less
through the remainder of his life,
which terminated in 1882.
The penniless widow, now past
the age of seventy, comes to Con-
gress and asks that she receive the
pittance of widows pension. The
President gets behind his big desks,
and, calling to his assistance the
pension department of the Govern
ment, rejects the claim for want of
strict legal authority to give her a
pension, under the general law
"On the same day that he vetoed
this BILL" said Mr.. Grosvenor,
"wlth the same pen, he approved
bill which put Fitz-John Porter on
the pension list of the Government
at nearly $500 a year, while Sarah
B. Bradley, the mother of those four
gallant patriotic soldiers, goes to the
poor-house. And this is the govern
ment," continued he, =" which says it
is generous and liberal to it's sold
iers.n
Representative Boutelle, of Maine,
while arraigning the President for
his crusade against the veterans,
said something about the way in
which the Muse of History was look
ing at him, and the expression of
ineffable disgust which passed over
the features of the Goddess of Lib.
erty at the picture of the Chief Mag
iStrafa sitting in hiS shirt cloox-ac