The Republican journal., 1888-03-15
Senator Ingalls, in Behalf of the Soldier.

|
public life. He drew upon all the resources of
his vigorous and rasping vocabulary in deliver
ing the extraordinary philippe which was
heard in the Senate to-day The Senate Cham
Der and galleries were filed to their utmost
capacity. We give the press report of the
speech as follows:
MIR. ingalls, (the presiding officer, having
/ called MIR. Platt 10 the chair, proceeded to ad-
dress the Senate, the galleries being crowded
to their full capacity. He said that considera-
tions of decorum and propriety, perhaps ex-
cessive and overstrained, had deferred him
from participation thus far in the debates Of
the Senate. He had therefore been surprised
one day last week, on returning to the chamber
after brief absence. to learn that the Senator
from Missouri (Mr. Nest had referred to him
in terms not com 'limentary in a debate in
which he had taken no part, intimatng that
the people of the District of Columbia were in
capable of disinterestcd patriotism, and that
the veterans of the republic We're mob of
sordid plunderers. As to himself, he would
say that the nomination and election of Grover
Cleveland had made the nomination of any
American citizen to the Presidency respcc-
| table. There was no man SO ignorant Or mean
that he might not aspire to a nomination to the
Prcsidency-by the Democratic party. Laugh
! ter and applause. He regretted that the Sena-
| tor from Missouri was not in his seat to-day.
The Senator from Kentucky (Blackburn) had
also referred snceringl Y to the super loyalty of
the soldiers of the Union. lie did not chal-
| lenge the honor or courage of these Senators
| IN their devotion to the South and to the South
ern Confederacy. They could not be suspected
of nsincerty. They had gone into the Con-
fedcracy because they wanted to go; because
they believed that slavery was better than
freedom and secession better than union. 1t
was curious that Confederates from Union
states were a little more pronounced and a
la
in their denunciatons of the North than Con-
federates from States that had Seeded. He
did not know where the Senator from Missouri
had got the figures from which he stated. that
but 5000 of Lees army had surrendered at
| AppomattoX. If that Senator had plu:ked a
few of the plumes from the dazzling tail of
his imagination and had stuck them into the
wings of his judgment he would have flown a
more accurate flight. Instead of 5000 men with
muskets, who We're in the final crash and col
lision of the war. there had been 1871 men.
The senator's mathematics were certaln! gid
DIV. But one parallel was to be found TO the
extraordinary inaccuracy of that statement.
and that was the same Senator's statement that
of the 2.300.000 soldiers of tine Union army
more than one-haf had applied for pensions.
Such speeches those of the Senators from
Missouri and Kentucky We're intended to catch
the Confederate vote. and they would catch it.
They were ''centrc Shots striking the bulls
eye every time and bringing the bell" He
wanted the Senators on the Democratic side of
| the chamber to understand that their disguise
for opposing pension bills was exceedingly
thin that nobody was deceived by it. 1t was
not question of cost. The South did not love
the Union army. Neither did the Democratic
party.
In 1856 there was in Atlanta great hStori-
cal occasion, when statue to the memory of
an honored Senator was to be unveiled. a man
whom he Ingas) honored and respected, and
on that occasion the eX-President of the Con-
federary was invited to be present. Men
f1ocked to that city as they 20 to a ban4uet-ss
waves come when uavies are stranded. and the
city was decorated with the Confederate EN-
blems to make Confederate holiday. Mr..
ingalls, quoted from the speech of Mr.. Grady
at the unveiling of the Hill statue at Atlanta.
| in which Jefferson Davis was spoken of as one
whose gray hairs We're crowned with death
less love-" and as one who. though an out
| cast from the privileges of this great Govern
ment. is the uncrowned king of our people,"
| He did not propose to rehearse the reply of
Mr.. Davis except to quote one sentence in
which he referred to Senator Hill as having
mashed the injurious Yankee (meaning. he
| supposed, their friend now in Florence.) lie
spoke of the same orator, Mr.. Grady. having
gone to New York and New England soon after
ward. and made speeches there, pouring out his
''treace, cold cream and honey and maple syrup
all over the North" When, he asked, was that
orator sincere: When did he speak the Sent-
ments, the feelings and the conscience of the
Southern people: Was it when he delivered
that Grafton in Atlanta on the l>t of May. 1856.
or was it when he spilled oil and wine over all
the American people in the North:
Coming back to the opposition of southern
Senators to pension bills. he said he did not
blame them for it. He often wondered how
he would have acted if the relations had been
reversed. and if the Federal Government had
been ovcrtlrown. He did not believe he would
have felt comforted in voting pensions to Con-
feupratp soldiers To believed hp ShOulI have
been A conspirator against the Confederacy to
the end of his days. But he should have re-
garded as the climax of etfrontery, as the very
apex and summit Of hardihood and audacity
(he would not say of pusillanimity and dis
honor. if, after he had accepted pardon and
had had his disabilities removed. and had taken
the oath of allegiance to the successful South
ern Confederacy. he had denounced (day after
day. the efforts which those Confederates made
to reward their own soldiers, and if he haggled
about the price which the cOnquering country
should have seen fit to bestow on the men by
whose arms it had conquered. He did rot
think that the North was at all deluded by the
pretensions of Senators on the other side. 1t
was little singular that, in all the Years which
had elapsed since the war, there never has
come from one of the States that had been in
rebellion $50 far as he knew Union soldier
as representative i'll either branch of Congress
elected by Democratic votes. The Democratic
party III those states never had Numbered at
scHulHS 10 congress OF cIectlnT As Governor Il
man who had not served in the Confederate
army In some capacity. That had been the
supreme test. When he looked over the rolls
of the Senate and of the House and reflected
how few of those who have served in the Union
army were found in the councils of the nation
he was not surprised at witnessing such demon
STATIONS as were witnessed when pension bills
were up for action. Criticising the statement of
Mr.. Vest, that. of the 1888 600 900 paid out for
pensions, $3.50, 100000 had been contributed by
The South, he declared that such a statement was
''glittering generality." He doubted whether
the South had actually contributed $3.50 900 in
stead of 1890, 900 900. But even if the South had
paid $2W 1T was very lucky that it did not
have to pay the whole of the pensions. Instead
OF grumbling and complaining that it had paid
S2W, OOO.OO0, it ought to be thankful that it did
not have to foot the entire bill, as France bad
to do after the Franco-Prussian war. And yet
here, said he. We have the jailcrs and murderers
of AndersonvIe. Belle Isle and Libby Prison,
sitting under the flag which they attempted to
pull down, legslating for the country which
they cndeavored to destroy, and trying to
pinch and belittle aud minimize the amounts to
be paid to the mutilated and disabled survivors
OF the Army of the Union.
The Senator from Missouri has asked. in
burst of indignant impatience, where all this
voting of pensions was going to end. He had
gone thus far, he said, but he should 90 no
farther. will tell the Senator, said Mr.. In
gals, and every Senator on that side of the
chamber whether they like it or not), what
we intend to do. l will tell the Senator from
Missouri and the rest of his associates lust
where this thing is going to stop. 1t is going
| to stop when the arrears of pensions are paid;
when the limitation is removed and every sol
der on the rolls, or who gets on the rolls. is
paid from the day of his disability. or lin case
OF SURVIVOR from the date of the soldiers
death; and when every surviving soldier of the
Union army is put upon the rolls for service On
". That is when it is going to stop. Applause
in the galleries.. And if you do not like it make
the most of it.
Mr.. ingalls, repudiated and denied the asser-
ton OF Mr. Vest that the National Encampmcnt
of the &. A. Il. at ST. Louis last September had
made threats of violence againt President
Cleveland. The President could have gone
there with entire safety. The Grand Army,
which had been stigmatized on the floor of tile
Senate as gang of sordid plunderers, organic
ed for plumber, were organized for charity
They had expended i'm charity during the year
1867 1854. relieving 26 900 persons. 1t was
to supplement this charity that that organiza-
ton had asked from Congress that this bill
should pass. And We propose. Mr.. President,
he said, in conclusion, to pass it. / hope that
it will pasD the other House of Congress, and if
it does, let the President Of the United States
veto it at his peril. Very general applause
on the floor and In the galleries..