Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1888-03-01
nenendent Pensions.

amendment Of producing the burst of patriot
ic feryid elCquence which the Senate had
lust listened TO- They had heard 3 good
deal about almshouses and veteran soldiers.
In the etate Ct Missouri there were no FEEDER.
al soldiers in slmshouses, and he was proud
TO esq that there we're no confederate cold
/ srs in almehouses, either. When Gen, Lee
surrendered at Appomato1 there were but
5000 muskets LETT of that splendid army
which had faced the world in arms and
which had been battered and beaten back by
overwhelming numbeIs. Out Of companies
which had gone into that terrible struggle
from 125 to $50 men strong only ten had gone
back to their kindred and their homes. The
south to dsy was covered with MANNED and
crippled soldiers, who had been shot and
sbelled and saber struck for their honest
convictions, aud they asked no pension and
would not take it God be b!essedl. They
were not 10 alnshouses, and none OF them
had ever been seen begging for bread.
Whence, then, came the tslk of federal sold
iers ia almshouset? They were not there.
He was tired and sick Of transformations oil
robbery, and preteDse. and hypocrisy in the
name of the tue and galiantsoldlers or Inc
Union. He had personal friends among taem
and las ne had said before) he would give 20
every disabled or dependent solder OF the
federal army, and the widows and orphaps
Of these who had lost their lives 10 the ser
vice. the last acre Of land and the last DOL
lar. He would have done the same Tor the con-
Tolerate soldiers 'if God had blessed our
cause"
Why the talk that Congress has not done
enough for Union solders when the country
has paid out since 1865 sSSS, 100000 for pen
lei cd
tore eft world i? The Senae had been
told to day that the country owed tne sol
diers debt of eternal gratitude because they
had not with mailed hand seized the govern
meDt.
A great military and political organiza.
ton Grand Army Of the Republic,
had thrown lis lance into the debates OF
Congress and had sent bills to their accred-
tied senators for the purpose Of heiug enact
ed. When the President of the United States
had honestly and bravely discharged his ex-
ecutive duties, end vetoed an enactn ent
which be considered improper, he had been
threatened by the officers of that organiza-
ton with personal insutif he dared TO make
his presence known in the city where 1t
held its annual meeting. There was limit
to human endurance. He had voted for
pension bills, coerced by bis position. be.
cause he had been confederate and be-
cause he was honestly anxious for the hon
or and glory of the country. He had voted
for them because he wanted to evidence to
the world that the men with whom he had
acted in the unfortunate strife, respected the
fair and gallant soldiers of the Union and
were willing to give them even more than
thew demanded. But he repeated
with strong emphasis, ''there is lim'
il, end have reached it. will be driven
no farther by claim agents aud plunderers
in the garb of soldiers. For the honest and
brave and real soldiers of the Union L am
willing to vote any amount OF pensions. In
this city is O corps of men engaged liz In
venting legislation to take more money out
Of the federal treasury The report oil the
commissioner of pensions shows that when
the arrears of pensions act was passed there
were some 600 applications Tor pensions
pending. The very next year the number
of applications jumped to 10000. The
claim agents invented that law and put
limitation on it, and the number OF applica-
tions for pensions jumped, 10 ono year,
from 10000 to eco and the amount
of disbursement from Sc, oQ0, 900 to S57 ,OOO,-
OO0.n
Mr.. Veat vent on to say that OF the $780,
600 men enrolled as soldiers during the four
yenrs of var, there were applications from
l 200 600 for penQons on account Of dieabili.
ty. Such military execution, he said. bad
neyc7 been known in the history of the
whole world The confederates mad
thought that they had poor powder and
ordnance etores, and yet, making due allow
auco for the effect of climate in producing
disability, it would appear that one confed
crate soldier, half clothed and half fed, had
disabled three of his adversaries. There had
been no such destruction in military annals
since the children of Israel marched through
the wilderness destroying whole natlone
in single day. The Workmanship OF the
Persian prince ia the "Arabian Rlehte,"
whose arrows crossed mountains aud rivers
and despised space in their flight had been
nothing to that of the confederate soldier.
His bullet must have hit two or more at the
same time, and struck %nere it was not
aimed Fifty per cent Of ell tfe host OF the
Union armies were applicants for peneions
on account of disability. Who The askedl
believed that they were honest applicants
Who believed that theee tension bills dad
not degenerated into Q Political abuse
which cried aloud, IN the faces of
all honest men, for redress? He had
great TeRhTu lot lHHuy VI LIS Oii soS
opposite side of the chamber, and In the
words which he had spoken he had wished
10 give an opportunity to some of them who
had lurked back in the contest over the bill
to throw his shining lance among the CON
federate brigadiers," and try to carry off the
republican nomination for the presidency.
recent dispatch from Paris had caused
political candidates to become az thick
s.ss leaves in Vallambrosa Before that
dispatch had come under the yeasty waves
of the ocean the republican party had been
10 the condition of the man who, having
gone home some hours before bis usual
time 10 the morning, and having been asked
why he had gone home so coon, replied that
every other place in town was shut up. The
doors of the republican party were now op
en-, and Presidential candidates were CON-
ing to he front without limit as to quantity
or locality. The Senate had been engaged
for some days mast in a political auction for