The National tribune., 1888-03-15
NATIONAL TRIBUNE: WASHINGTON c. THURSDAY MARCH Is

scented for action either in the Senate or House
of Representatives.
The Senator from Missouri in. the course of
the debate last Wednesday, IS an illustration of
of the 1888 100000 of pensions that had been
| paid S2400000 600 had been contributed by the
| South and the Senator from South Carolina
| Mr.. Hamptonl who evidently is more aceu-
rate arithmetician arose and said, not $240-
| 100000 but $3.50 900 600. / wish that Senator,
as he is now present would tell us by what
method of computation he has reached the con-
clusion that out of 1888, 000, 600 paid for pen
sions the South has paid $290.000000
| Mr.. President, that is a glittering generality.
/ doubt if they have actually paid S290,000, in
/ stead OF $500, 100000 / should like if some
! eminent arithmetician would get out his table
of logarithms, which is the usual practice on
these occasions, and tell us how it appears that
| the South has paid $3.50 100000 since the war
| closed out Of the SSS3,000,000 that have been
paid as the sum total evidencing the Nations
| gratitude to its surviving soldiers.
! Even if they have paid $500 100000, have
one single remark to make about that. They
are very fortunate that they did not have to
pay the whole of it, and, instead of grumblng
and complaining that they have paid $500 00O-
| 600, they ought TO be thankful they did not
| have to foot the entire bill, as Germany made
| France foot the expenses of the Franco. Prus-
! sian war and as every other vanquished and
rebellious province has been compelled to sub
| init to exaction and ransom. Yet after the war
! has long since closed we have the jailors and
murderers of Andersonville, Belle Isle and
! Libby Prison sitting here beneath the flag that
! they endeavored to dishonor, legislatipg for
! the country they attempted to destroy, and
trying to pinch belittle and miuimize the
amount that we shall pay to the mutilated and
disabled survivors of
THE HE'LL OF THAT INCARCERATION.
The Senator from Missouri rises in burst of
indignant impatience and wants to know when
all this going to end. He saws he has gone
thus far, but he shall go no further; that he
was c0erced by the necessities of his position
| because he was a Confederate, of which do not
see the logic. He says that he was coerced by
the logic Of his position to VOTE as we are
bound to assume, for dishonest and unjustiia-
BILE pensions because he was Confederate, but
that, God helping him, he is going no further
He is going to resist the claims of these organ
lied robbers and plunderers who have banded
together for the purpose OF depicting the Treas
| ury, and they shall have no single farthing
more. / win tell that Senator and every other
Democratic Senator whether they like it or
not, what we intend to do l will tell the Sena-
tor from Missouri and the rest of his associates
just where it is to stop. 1t is going to stop
when the arrears of pension are paid when
the limitation is removed, and every soldier
upon the rolls, or who hereafter gets on the
rolls, is paid from the day of his disability, or
his survivors from the day of his death. and
when every surviving soldier of the Union
armies is put Oh the rolls for service only. That
is when it is going to stop [sppIause in the gal
leriesl aud if you do not like it, make the most
of it.
When is it going to end And on every oc-
casion last week as this week the old. stale
caumnies about the arrears of pension act are
repeated. Mr.. President, / was chairman of
the Committee on Pensions when that bill was
reported aud passed, 1t was
An ACT OF GREAT NATIONAL JUSTICE.
I consented to the insertion of the compromise
date Of July /, 1880, because I could not get the
princpsS established in any other way, aud
gave notice then and made q pledge, which
l have redeemed at every session of Congress
since, that 1 would never desi5t from MY ef-
forts to remove that Limitation and TO pay
every soldier placed upon that roll from the
date Of disability or discharge, so that this
stigma should be wiped out and the honor OF
the Nation redeemed. And yet the Senator from
Kentucky far5hest from me Mr. Beckl, In his
speech upon the infirnities of the tariff ON a
pension bill, said that We we're told when that
bill passed ia 1879 that it would take about
eighteen or twenty millions, not over thirty at
the oaside 10 make it operative, and that hun
dreds of millions had since been spent. Mr.
President, that statement has been refuted so
| often that Il does net deserve another word in
| reply. 10 such statement was made; no such
! statement could have been made.
The only statement wac that to apply that
principle to those who were already upon the
roll would not require at the outside over $780,
100000 and might not cost more than $18.000,-
000 How could any one say what would be
the expense that wonld be due under the act
thereafter? 1t would depend entirely upon the
number Of applications under it. And yet,
with disiHEeHnou5ness that has no parallel,
upon every occasion that offers the Senators
who oppose this bill affirm thas the Nation was
duped into the adoption fthat measure by false
statements as to tue amount il would cost.
: Are we at last says the Senator from Mis-
souri,, 10 have q service pension bill? Nothing,
he said, viii content the soldiers and their
allies but a service pension bill and are we to
have that? Yes, Mr President, you are to
have that! There is MOI to-day surviving
soldier or the widow or dependent relative oil
any surviving soldier in any Of the antecedent
wars of the Republic who is not on the roll foI
| service pensi0n-not one / voted for the
Mexican service-pension bill, not because / be-
lieved it was wholly justiGable, but for the
purpose of removing the last obstacle in the
pathway Of giving a service pension to every
surviving soldier Of the Union armies.
The Mexican war was waged in the interest
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