Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1888-03-01
Fiftieth Congress--First Session.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20

| ouucal1O0 OF Indian cl1lOTeu WAi
taken from the calendar and discussed. Mr.
Dawes, who had charge of the bill, approved
the substitute for the bill that was offered BY
Mr.. Vest when the bill was last under con
slderat1on and was willing to stake it insteao
| of the original bill with certain amendments
(which Mr.. Vest accepted).
Remarks in favor of the substitute and OF
the subject of the Indian question generally
were made by Senators Stewart, Teller (whc
had introduced the bill originally and Sauls
| bury
Mr.. Call moved to amend the substitute by
| extending its provisions to the Seminole and
| Creek Indians of Florida, who numbered
only between two and three hundred and did
not come within its provisions. After dis
cusslon the amendment was agreed to and
| then the substitute as thus amended was
| passed.
1t makes it the duty of the Secretary of the Int
rior to establish, under such rules and regulations
as he may thihk proper, an Industrial boarding
school on every Indian reservation upon which
five hundred or more adult persons. The Secretary
IS to cause an enumeration of the children Of such
years to be made at least once every years and
to cause cause, such children to be placed in
for period not exceeding five years. These chill
dren are to be Taught in addition to reading writ
males to be instructed in agricultural pursuits
the care OF stock, poultry and farm work. and also
| instructed in household work sewing and other
| employments suitable to their sex.
Mr.. Hale, from the committee on appro-
prlatlons, reported the urgency deficiency
bill and said he would ask the Senate to take
/ it up at very early day.
The Senate then resumed consideration of
the bill granting pensions to ex-soldiers and
sailors who are incapacitated from the per-
! formance of manual labor and providing for
pensions to dependent relatives of deceased
soldiers and sailors. Mr.. Wilson, of Iowa.
| moved an amendment to insert the words
"from the infrmities of age'' so as to pen
| sion all ex-soldiers suffering from the in
hrmities of age or from mental or physical
disability.
In the debate which toek place Mr. Plumb
delivered an eloquent eulogy on the army,
referring particularly to the fact that when
the war closed the army could have placed
one of its leaders at the head of the govern
ment and could have dictated its own terms
/ but had asked nothing except to be permit
ted to disband and return to peaceful aveca-
tions. He did not believe any patriotic man
would ever be willing to oppose the enact
ment of any law whereby any of these men
should be drawn from the ban of poverty
and given at least decent livelihood. The
bill as it came from the committee was per-
haps step in the right direction. 1t was
not what it ought to be and he had sought
to make it better There was to be no in
situation in the Senate or elsewhere that the
Union soldiers were to be benefciaries un-
der the bill in the sense of
being supplicants or unworthy persons.
He did not think that partisanship would go
that far and if it did he believed the American
people would rebuke it. Congress was not
now dealing with slender resources, bat was
dealing with abundance. Less than the
pending bill proposed would not be Just;
more was not asked for.
Mr.. Vest said they had heard good deal
about almshouses and veteran soldiers. In
the State of Missouri there were no Federal
soldiers in almshouses and he was proud to
say there were no Confederate soldiers in
almshouses either. When General Lee sur
rendered at Appomattox there were but
eight thousand muskets left of that splendid
army which had faced the world and which
had been battered and beaten back by over
whelming numbers. Out of companies which
had gone into that terrible struggle from 1876
to 1870 men strong only ten had gone back to
their kindred and their homes. The South
to-day was covered with MANNED and crippled
soldiers who had been shot and shelled and
sabre-struck for their honest convictions, and
they asked no pension and would not take it
God be blessed. They were not in aims
houses and none of them had ever 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 the
insinuations Of robbery and pretencs and
hypocrisy i'll the name of the true and gal
friends among them and so would give to
every disabled or dependent soldier of the
Federal army and the widows and orphans
of those who had lost their lives in the SER
vice the last acre of land and last dollar.
He would have done the same for
the Confederate soldiers eff God had
blessed our cause" Why the talk
that Congress had not done enough for the
Union soldiers when the country paid out
since 1865 1888, 0G0, 900 for pensions-a lib
erality unparalleled in the history OF the
world. The Senate had been told that the
country owed the soldiers a debt of eternal
gratitude because they had not with mailed
hand seized the government A great mill
tary and political organization, the G. A. R.,
had thrown it's lance into the debates of
Congress and had sent the bills to their ac-
credited senators for the purpose of being
enacted. When the President of the United
States had honestly and brave1y discharged
his executive duty and vetoed enactment
which he considered improper he had been
threatened by the officers of that organize
ton with insult if he dared to make his pres
ence known in the city where it held its an
nual meeting. There was limit to human
endurance. He had voted for pension bills.
coerced by his position, because he
had been q Confederate and because
he was honestly anxious for the
honor and glory of the country.
But, he repeated with strong emphasis,
"there is limit and l have reached it. i
will be drawn no farther by claim agents and
plunderers in the garb of soldiers. For the
honest and brave and real soldiers of the
Union I am willing to vote any amount. in
this city is corps of men engaged in invent
ing legislation to take more money out of the
federal treasury. The report of the commits
sioner of pensions shows that when the ar
rears of pensions act of 1879 was passed there
were some thirty thousand applications for
pensions pending. The very next year the
number of applications jumped to one hun-
bred and ten thousand. The claim agents
invented that law and put limitation on it
and the number of applications jumped in
one year from thirty thousand to one huns
dred Thousand and the amount of disburse
of the s,3oO,O 600 enrolled as sol
diers during the four years of war
there were applications from 1000, 600 for
pensions account of disability. Such
military execution had never been known in
the history of the world. The Confederates
had thought they had poor powder and ord
nance store, and yet making due allowance
for the effect of climate-in producing disease
it would appear that one Confederate soldier,
half clothed and half fed, had disabled three
of his adversaries There had been no such
destruction in military annals since the chill
dren of Israel marched through the wilder
ness destroying whole nations in day. The
Workmanship of the Persian prince in the
Arabian Nights, whose arrows crossed noun
tains and rivers, had been nothing to that of
the Confederate soldier. His bullet must
have hit two or more at time and struck
where it was not aimed. Fifty
per cent of all the host of
the Union armies were applicants for
pensions on account of disability
Who believed that they were honest appli-
cantsl Who believed that these pension bills
had not degenerated into political abusea
He had great regard for many of his friend
on the opposite side of the chamber and in
the words which he had spoken he had wish
ed to give an opportunity to some of them
who had 1urked by in the contest over the
bill to throw his shining lance among the Con
federate brigadiers and try to carry off the
Republican nomination for the presidency.
A recent despatch from Paris had caused
political candidates to become as thick as
leaves in Vallanbrosa. Before that despatch
| had come under the yeasty waves of the
| ocean the Republican party had been in the
| condition of the man who having gone home
some hours before his usual time and having
| been asked why he had gone 30 soon
replied that every other place in town
| was shut. The doors of the Republican party
| were now open and presidential candidates
| coming to the front without limit. The Sen
Il j.