New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-07-21
WASHINGTON LETTER.


! in Congress during the past few days
over the Presidents vetoed pension
bills. He has now welded his pen a.
oainst one hundred soldier claimants,
and still the reckless work goes on.
Senator Plumb remarked to the Senate
few days since that if the President
would read the bills he vetoes instead OF
depending upon that Circumlocutlon
Shop, the Pension Office, for his basis
of action, he would not be so silly.
But Cleyeland's course in this matter
has not failed to draw volleys Of criti-
cism from the Republicans in both Hou-
ses of Congress. Gen. Grosvenor, OF
Ohio, made :: notable speech upon his
veto of a bill granting a pension to the
widow of a certain veteran during the
delivery of which there were few dry
eyes upon the Republican, side OF the
Hall. He began by saying he desired
tostand upon better and stronger ground
than an assault upon the motives
of the Executive in this veto. He
thought the President. labored under q
total misrepresentation of his relation to
the administration of the government OF
this country. He had read with great
deal Of care all the vetoes that had e.
manated from this prolific source, and
he thought that the trouble lay III 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, rs q member of Congress,
would not vote for q bill, he gives no
sort of weight or consideration to the
fact that both branches Of the Legisla-
tive Department of the Government
have acted af4irmatively on the meas.
ure.
He mentioned that we hear much a
bout consolidation of power and cen
trali2ation of government, but he knew
OIL no SuCll eAulOlLlOu, u0ACGo1OAC, VI -
tendency toward consolidation, as the
spectacle of the President refusing to
permit Congress to pension the starving
soldiers of the Union. In other words,
Mr.. Cleveland 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 b. General
GrosveDor was an assumption which
seems to have lodged in the mind of
he President that no ,priyate pension
bill ought to be approved by him unless
the applicant is entitled by law to Il
pension. He mentioned that there was
no prior law authorizing the granting
of q pension Of $4,000 year to Mrs.
Grant; yet the Executive saw fit to APP
prove the bill. There was no law au-
thorjzing q pension Of $4,000 a year to
the widow Of Gen. Hancock; yet the
President approved the bill.
Lack Of space forbids me to give the
pathetic siue Of the Ohioan's remarks,
but he said, among other things, that
there could be no general law which
would cover the case OF tue widow for
whom he was pleading. She had u
husband and four sons who entered the
army III 1851. Two Of the sons were
SHOT dead, another carne home with an
arm shot Oft, and the fourth with an eye
snot 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 termi-
mated in 1882,
The penniless widow, now past the
age of seventy, comes to the Congress
and asks that she receive the pittance
OF a widows pension. The President
gets behind his big desks, and, calling
to his assistance the pension department
OF the Government, rejects the claim
for want OF strict legal authority to give
her pension, under the general law.
''On the same day that he vetoed this
bill, = said Mr.. Grosvenor, .'with 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
government, continued he, (which
says it is generous and liberal to its sol
diers."
RepresentativeBoutelle, ofMaine, while
arraigning the President for his crusade
against the veterans, said something
about the way in which the Muse OF
History was looking at him, and the
expression of ineffahle diso,,s+ urh;oh