The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-03-01
It Greatly AgitateS the U. s.
Senators.
VESTS GREAT SPEECH ON IT.
A Sarcastic and Scathing Effort-He
Considers 1t Bid for the Presl-
DENTAL Nomination.
SENATE.

man, from the committee on foreign
relations, reported a bill to amend the
acts relating to Chinese immigration,
and said he would, as soon as practic-
able, ask the Senate to take action on
at. Calendar.
Call offered q resolution (Which was
laid over} iusTructing the committee on
public lands to report bill declaring
all patents for public lands issued by
the Secretary of the Interior without
authority of law, to be absolutely void,
and requiring the Attorney-General to
bring suits to vacate and set them
aside.
The bill providing for a National Art
Commission to pass upon works OF art
10 be purchased by government, was
taken up and passed.
The bill for compulsory education OF
Indian children was then taken up and
after considerable debate passed.
Sherman, from the committee on
foreign relations, reported resolution,
as an amendment to one offered by
Stewart, requesting the President, In
view of tho difficulties and embarrass-
ment which have attended the lmml-
grafton of Chinese laborers under the
VI lICdJlCo WILL ShAAeS1 ~
negotiate q treaty with the Emperor OF
China, containing the provision that
no chinese laborers shall enter the
United States. Laid over.
Mitchell offered a resolution which
was agreed to, Instructing the commit
tee on public lands to inquire into the
propriety and ACCESSIBILITY OF having
seven or eight townships of the public
domain, surrounding and including
Mount Hood, Oregon, set apart as a
national park.
A bill to provide for the compulsory
education of Indian children,
as amended by Vest, was passed. 1t
makes it the duty of the Secretary OF
the Interior to establish an industrial
boarding sch 1ol on every Indian reser-
walton, upon which there may be
located any Indian tribe, numbering
500 or more adult Indians. Pupils are
to be taught in the branches OF useful
labor in addition to the usual studies
in primary schools. Nothing in the
bill is to prevent the education of
Indian children in schools outside OF
reservations, without consent OF their
parents or guardians; and no pro-
visions of the act are TO apply to the
FIVE civilized tribes, nor to the Usage
ZuuldIlS VI IL1O 4hOldA 4OAAASOAGs
The Senate then resumed considera-
ton of the bill granting pensions to ex-
soldiers and sailors incapacitated for
the performance of manual labor, and
providing for pensions for dependent
relations of deceased soldiers and
sailors.
Allison of Iowa, moved an amend
ment to insert the words from infirmi-
ties of age" so as to pension all ex-
soldiers suffering from 'infirmlties of
age or from mental or ply steal disa-
bility."
In the debate which took place,
Plumb delivered an eloquent eulogy on
the army.
Vest said they had heard a good deal
about the almshouse and veteran SOL
diers. In the State of Missouri, there were
no federal soldiers in the almshouse,
and he was proud to say there were
no ConfederateS either. The south to-
day was covered with manned and
crippled soldiers, who had been shot
and shelled for their honest convictions,
and they asked no pension and would
not take it. God be blessed, if they
were not in almshouses, and none of
them ever have been seen begging for
bread. Whence then came the talk of
Federal soldiers in almshouses. They
were not there. he was tired and sick of
insinuations OF robbery and pretense
and hypocrisy in the name of true and
would give every disabled or dependent |
soldier of the Federal army,
and widows and orphans of those |
who have lost their lives in |
service the last acre of land and the last
dollar. He would have done the same |
for Confederate soldiers "if God had |
blessed our cause" Why, this talk that |
Congress has not done enough for SOL |
diers, when the country had paid out, |
since 1865, $3.50, 600 600 for pensions, q
unparalleled in the history of |
the world. The great military and poll
teal organization, the Grand Army of |
the Republic, had thrown its lance into |
the debates of Congress, and sent the |
bills TO their accredited Senators for the |
purpose of being enacted. When the |
President of the United States had |
honestly and bravely discharged his |
executive duty, and vetoed an enact
ment which he considered improper, he |
had been threatened by officers of that
with personal insult if he
dared to make his presence known in the
city where it held its annual
m66LlUS. 4ASIC WIS q Hull IO uundu
He, Vest, had voted for the
pension bills, coerced by his position
because he had been Confederate, and
because he was honestly anxious for
fhe honor and glory of the country. He
lad voted for them because he wanted
to evidence to the world that the men
with whom he had acted in the unfor-
innate strife respected soldiers of the
Union, and were willing to give them
syen mora than they demanded. "But
there is a limit, and have reached it.
/ will be driven no further by claim
agents and plunderers in the garb of
soldiers. For honest and real soldiers,
[ am willing to vote ally amount of
pension"
Vest went on to say that of 100000
men enrolled as soldiers during the
our wears of the " ar, there were applica-
ions from 200 600 for pensions, on &C
count of disability. Such a military
execution had never been known in the
history of the world. Who believed y