Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-07-17
Thousands for Political Capital
Not One Cent for the Poor
Old Soldier-Widow

UlQ SOIuler-WlQOW.
The following is one of the many
pension claims vetoed by the P:esi-
dent about which we hear from the
administration friends. If there is
anything in this to glory over, we
fail to see it. Poor unfortunate
women can not be expected to have
any claims that Cleveland is bound
to respect.
Thomas j. Bradley entered the
army in the spring of 1861, as a men,
Der of the oath Ohio volunteers. He
served until the close Of 1861, having
been meanwhile transferred by a
consolidation to the 18th Ohio volun.
teers, and then serving out total
enlistment of nearly four years. He
received at the battle of Nashville, as
| recollecr, a wound which was at the
time dangerous, but not permanently
so. He went home. He suffered more
or less from that wound through the
whole of his life which termina-
ted in the fall of 1882. The physic.
ians say that the end of his life
was to a certain extent (hard to be
defined) attributable fairly to the
wound which he had received nearly
twenty years before. He had receiv-
ed pension for that wound, thus
being put in the position of
having established his claim. His
pension was of trifling amount do
not remember how much. 1t is not
pretended that the injury was per-
manently a serious one; but the
government gave him a pension of,
l think, at first, % a month, and
afterward possibly "a. l cannot
state accurately.
He had four sons-gallant young
men. They all entered the army in
1864. Two of them were shot dead
upon the battlefield another came
home with an arm shot off, and the
fourth with an eye shot out, both OF
these sons being totally disabled
from earning living. They had no
property; and Mrs. Bradley to-day,
having passed the age of 20, and
being without dollar, comes to
Congress and asks that she may be
put upon the pension roll to receive
the pittance of "a widows pension.
And the President of the United
States takes his coat off, gets behind
a big desk, and, calling to his aid
the pension department of the gov
eminent, as | am ready to show by
the records of that office now in my
hands, approves and incorporates
with his message the substance of
veto furnished him by the department
that probably rejected the claim of
Sarah A. Bradley for want of strict
legal authority to give her a pension,
under the general law. On the same
day that he vetoed this bill, with
the very same pen, he approved
bill which put Fitz-John Porter on
the pension list of the government
at nearly $500 year, while Sarah
A. Bradley, the mother of four sons
gallant, patriotic sensitive of
whom died upon the battlefield,
whose souls went up to God from the
smoke of battle, and whose lives
went out in the crash of arms and
the roar OF deadly strife, and two Of
whom are to-day dependent upon the
charity of the country, helplessly
disabled, by the war, goes to the
poorhouse. And this is the govern
ment which undertakes to say that
it is generous and liberal to its SOL
diers. This is the system that we
hear called liberal and generous.
This is the system of justice to the
private soldier. This is the way this
Democratic House discharges its
duty on the one hand toward Fitz-
John Porter, and toward poor starv.
ing Sally Ann Bradley-tbe mother
OF four gallant soldiers, two OF whom
are on the other side, and two are
here crippled-on the other
hand.