The National tribune., 1888-03-08

even have the excuse that his State went out
for his sympathy with the other SIDE and he
now tells US that we have paid out 1888, 900, 600
for pensions-a vast sum of money, it must be
admitted, but does the Senator mean to say
that we have paid more than Justice and right
required us to pay? Does he mean to say that
the arrears of-pension act was anything more
than the compliance with the contract we en-
tered into with the soldiers when they entered
the army9 Who made il necessary that this
great amount of money should be taken from
the people of tho United States2 Who is COM
planning now? Nobody but the gentlemen on
the other side of the chamber. There is no
complaint among the great States of the North
that carried on the war We have paid out
more money wrung out Of the people by this
causeless rebellion than $500, ZOO, 900. The
Senator should remember that we were bur-
dened with a great debt when the war closed
"a debt created, we have a right to say, be-
cause of the misconduct of the people in one
section of the country. For whatever may
originally have been the question of right or
the question of wrong that was settled when
Lee surrendered. Eight hundred and eighty
million dollars is mere bagatelle to what it
has cost the people of the United States. In
1879 the Treasury Department made up state
ment of the actual cost growing out of the re-
bellion. Discarding the ordinary expenses of
the Government, taking out the little debt that
pensions of the men who were in the
Mexican and other wars, it appeared that
we had paid out up to the Both of June,
1879, on account of the war of the rebellion,
&c. $780, 100000 Since that time we have paid
out for interest, for pensions, and for payment
on the public debt nearly $4,000, 100000 that
is to be directly traced to the war. So there
stands upon the books charged to the rebellion
about 50, 200, 0000 900 of money paid by the peo-
pie of the United States. They have paid it
cheerfully, willingly; but they will not will
lingly listen when an ex-Con federate stands in
this chamber and declares that $500, 900, 900,
paid to their soldiers disabled in the war, is an
extravagant and unholy expenditure of money.
Can anyone realize how much 100000, 900 is?
1t would duplicate every mile of railroad in
the United States; it would duplicate every
station now built; twould put on the railroads
all the equipment that is on any road now; it
would build a schoolhouse that should cost
$1,000 for every so children in the United
States it would build the Nicaragua Canal,
the Hennepin Canal, the canal across the
Florida Peninsula, and then not have expended
one-half of the money that the rebellion cost.
The Senator did not propose to be castigated
from the other side of the chamber for his vote
on the pension bill pending or any other, and
so far as his vote could control it, the men who
saved the country should have not simply
mercy, not simply charity, but justice.
Senator Plumb said he listened to Senator
Vest with a great deal of pleasure, but when
he came to look over the list Of pensions grant
ed by the Pension Office last year, he found
that there were 1916 claims of citizens of Mis-
souri, for pensions passed upon favoraby by the
Office, and only 351 claims Of citizens of
Kansas thus passed upon. The Senator had
spoken of the military proves of the Confed-
ates, and told how far their spears and their
bullets reached, but they did not reach as far
as the spears and bullets Of the Mexican war
veterans did. There are more soldiers of the
Mexican war in proportion to the entire num-
Der enlisted upon the pension rolls to-day than
there are in the Union army in proportion to
the number enlisted in that army, so the Sena-
tors commentator Of the great proves and
skill Of the Confederate army would have to be
increased very much in order to meet the case
of the soldiers of the Mexican war.
Senator Wilson Md wished to state calmly
and in no spirit Of party or Of sectionalism his
objections While he did not believe any Sena-
tors or any considerable portion of the people
grudged an appropriation sufficient to pay pen
sions which shall be awarded to soldiers who
incurred disabilities, yet the enormity of the
sums now paid must compel pause. There
is paid out for pensions 0ne-third of the whole
expenditure of the Government, and nearly
as much as it costs the German Empire to sup
port its vast army almost double the aggregate
of the military pension lists of all Europe west
of Russia, and far exceeding in liberality all
other pension systems the world ever saw or
dreamed Of
He knew that if the Union soldiers chose to
band themselves together as political body,
disregarding all the great principles which
divided parties, and upon which they
| themselves are divided they could throw
| their votes against any legislator who is
bold enough TO do what he thinks
right, and make him feel their displeas-
| IRE. The Senator proceeded to denOunce the
bill disguised as it may be, as in reality service
| pension, to which he was utterly opposed. He
! then went on to diiate upon the great discrep-
/ ancy on the estimated cost of any proposed pen
| sion legislation and the real cost He cited the
! old chestnuts about the estimate for the pen
sioners of the war of the Revelation and war OF
! 1912, showing how enormously greater was the
number that actually applied for pensions than
was estimated before the bill was passed. He
! did not believe that men are purer and nobleI
/ now than they were in the early days of the
! Republic The annals Of crime were never fill
ed with more startling evidences of the deca-
| dence of public morals i'm business matters than
| now. He meant no disrespect to the soldiers
| of the late war as a class, but he would not be
| leve that they were better than the men Of the
| Revolution and it was notorious how these had
| given away their property and resorted to al
| manner OF devices to secure the pension ther
granted. The $14,500,000 which it is est
mated that this bill would cost would be
mere trife to what it would eventually cost
! He believed that the dependent parent CLAUSE
was intended to promote mendicancy. Tht
clause relating to minor children was a grea
temptation to a child to be an idler in place o
a wage Garner This appetite for pensions grew
with what it fed upon, and gave rise to all sort
of absurd propositions, such as giving so mucl
day to every soldier who served in the army
and pension TO men who were confined il
| Confederate prisons.
At the conclusion of Senator Wilson's speecl
the Senate went into executive session.