The National tribune., 1888-09-27


Grover Cleveland as President of the United
States solely because we are convinced that
such reelection would be very preiudicial
TO the best interests of the veterans of the
Union. It is because veterans have been
harshly and unjustly treated by him since
his induction into Office, and because we
firmly believe that his reelection would be
accepted by him as a public Endorsement Of
his course toward them, and an encourage
ment to still greater harshness and injustice.
There is no politics in this. It is simply
following the dictates of Natures first great
MISREPRESENTATION. There is no politics
in pensions-in paying the honest debts of
the Nation to The men who saved it. There
was no politics in the duty and necessity of
defending the country. There was no poll
tics in the blue uniforms the defenders wore,
in the muskets they carried. Republicans
Democrats, Wings, Prohibitionists, Labor
Reformers and Greenbackers alike wore the
one and carried the other. There was no
politics in The sufferings they endured, the
wounds they received, the deeds they per-
formed. All shared alike in these, without
reference to the ticket they voted when at
home. No one inquired into the politics of
the man who was the first over the enemy's
works. There is now no politics in the
question Of giving him and his dependent
ones what the Nation promised him and
them when he went to her rescue, what he
richly earned by his service and what Ma
tional honor and good faith demand that he
should have.
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE has not regard
ed politics in It's Communications of the pub
lie men who have favored justice to the
soldier, nor in the denunciations of those
who were opposed. Every reader of our
paper knows that Republican Senators,
Representatives, Commissioners of Pensions,
etc, who have been hostile to veterans have
been as freely and earnestly denounced as
those of any other political bias, and that
Democratic Senators, Representatives, Com
missioners Of Pensions, etc, who have been
true TO the veterans have been commended
with equal iberality and zeal. The only
test applied to any public man was his dis
position toward the unrequited sayiors of
the Nation.
When subjected to this test Mr.. Cleveland
is found deserving of the opposition Of every
veteran in the country. He has turned out
of Office thousands of ex-soldiers to give
their places-not to other ex-soldiers of
his politics, to which no objection would
have been made-but TO political heelers and
strikers; to men who fought them on the
field Of battle, or who struck at them from
the rear. Among these were thousands who
had been wounded OF otherwise disabled,
and who were thus incapacitated for the
ordinary pursuits Of life, while yet entirely
competent to perform the duties of the places
they held. This was done in violation of
the statutes which gave them preference
over all others for public employment.
In matters relating to pensions Mr.. Cleve-
lands hostility to veterans produced vastly
greater hardships and injustice than his
turning thousands of disabled soldiers out
Of Office. No man who ever held that high
Office approached him in active and persist
ent hostility to men who had fought for the
Nation.
Though the demand for general pension
legislation which would remedy the defects
and iDjustiees of the laws as existing at
! present was almost universal, no general
bin Of that nature was allowed to reach him
until he had been in Office two years. Then
there was presented to him a bill which had
been carefully considered by the Pension
Committees Of both Houses Of Congress, and
by the Houses themselves. The authorized
representatives of the Grand Army of the
Republic heartily approved of the bill. The
House Of Representatives passed it by q
vote of $50 70 76 nays. OF the yeas, 66 were
/ Democrats. The Senate passed it without
a division.
1t went to the President, and he returned
it without his approval, assigning reasons
for SO doing which were most degrading t.
the manhood of veterans as class. He as
serted that there existed among them q:
widespread disregard Of truth and goot
faith +" that the race after pensions offerec
r by this bill would not only stimulate weak
ness and pretended incapacity for labor bu
e put further premium on dishonesty AM
7 mendacity"; that immense numbers ar
e willing to be objects of simple charity, an
! to gain a place On the pension roll throug
e alleged dependence" etc.
e These allegations and Others were so out
$ rageous as to stir even the cold blood Of Co
a c. c. Matson, the Chairman of the Hous