The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-08

THE attention Of the House was taken up
on Tuesday with the consideration of the
Presidents veto of the bill pensioning the
widow of G. w. Teller whom the President
point of fact he died in Andersonyille prison,
one of the thousands who suffered the horrors
of the infamies practiced there upon such
Union soldiers as had the misfortune to fall
into the hands of the miscreants placed in
charge. This only goes to sustain the posi-
ton of the Journal, that the President was
not in position to get at the merits OF these
pension claims as are the committees appointed
by Congress for that purpose In this in
stance, relying on the representations of the
official upon whom he calls for information"
he brutally assailed the memory of one of the
Nations heroic veterans because he had been
informed that he had deserted. Were the
President half so anxious to honor the de-
tenders of the Republic as he is to make
record, he would not make such mistakes,
and there would be no occasion for him to
coarsely insult the memories of men who have
done SO much for their country at time
when the President was in the enjoyment Of
all the comforts and conveniences of civil life.
It would seem to take man who has had
soldiers of the Republic to be as brutal in
dealing with pensions as has been Mr.. Cleve-
land. He has lost no opportunity to slur their
memory, and to insult those who would have
been in the enjoyment of all the blessings of
this life were it not that their defenders and
protectors gave their lives that their country
might live. There is nothing but shame in
the Presidents attitude of hostility toward the
Union veterans and those dependent upon
them. That he causes their claims to
be investigated" is but forlnality
by which he seeks to apologize for
his brutality in vetoing their just
dues. He cannot help knowing that he can
not come at the facts as can those who have
greater facilities, and who give their attention
to the claims of each for whom bill is
passed. He does not care to do this. and the
case of the widow of the soldier who died in
Andersonville prison, and whose memory he
sought to blacken, is only one of many of the
same kind that the President has grown
facetious over. There may be those who
think this kind of policy will increase his
popularity, and that the result will be that his
party will have to renomnate him, but for the
credit of the country it is to be hoped they
are very few in number. No country can af
ford to be ungrateful to its defenders, and
this is particularly true of the United States,
one of the most populous and most powerful
in the wolf. If it has come to that point
that the crippled veterans of the Republic are
to be made the sport of brutal and unpatri-
otie official who knew nothing Of war and its
vicissitudes, then is the country unworthy of
having brave soldiers and patriotic women.
Better that one OF two men in a thousand get
a little more than their dues than that one
like this victim Of Andersonvile prison have
his memory dragged in the mire by men who
are not fit to be named in the same sentence
with him. 1t is true that things have greatly
changed in this government since the last adj
ministration went out of power, but it is
hardly possible that the American people have
got so low and so niggardly that such
policy will make man popular. Ingratitude
is the basest of crimes and it is not possible
that the people of this rich and powerful Re-
public have so far forgotten the deeds of its
brave men as to wish their sacrifices to be
made the jest and by-word of bar-room DULLES
and pot politicians.