Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1888-10-12
lBLAINE'S DETROIT SPEECH.
The Man From Maine Arraigns Cleve-
land for His Pension vetoes.
MIR. Gn.nther's Address.

/
the rink in the afternoon aud thousands
were turned away. MIR. Blainc's speech
which occupied less than 20 minutes, was
| as follows:
I Mr.. Chairman and Fellow Citizens:-
| For despite Hon. Don Dickinson. the men
of New England will still venture to cai i
the men of Michigan their fellow citizens.
1t was said at the beginning of our govern
ment that the veto power WV an
anomaly in republic. In assuring
the preservation OF constitutional
liberty in that great document, our
ancestors largely,copied from British pre-
l'cedents which their ancestor had brought
with them when they came TO America.
And in England there had not been veto
by the crown OF any act OF parliament since
the re olution of 1858, 200 years ago this
year. So IL struck the mass OF people in
1.-THE colonies, accustomed as they were TO
British law, that 10 give the president the
right to veto any act Of congress and to re-
quire the votes Of two thirds OF the senate
and two thirds of the house TO over ride
that veto was 10 confer upon the president
most extraordinary power. 1t gave him
power in the senate and the house equiva-
lent to one sixth of the whole legislative
power of the government. The difference
between majority of one and veto Of
two thirds amounted so one sixth of the
whole power of congress, so that the presi-
dent of to-day wields the legislative power
Of l3senators and 81 representatives when
in his executive power he vetoes a bill.
a power so extraordinary was naturally
used with great captior by our earlier
presidents. Gen. Washington in eight
years used ii twice. The first Adams never
used it az all. Jefferson considered very
enormously, but still considered by the
modern democracy as their great proto-
type, in eight years never used it all.
Madison in eight years used it three times,
and Monroe used it once; John Quincy
Adams never. So that in the first 40 years
of the national government, measuring
from Washington TO Jackson, from 1889 TO
lS29, the veto power has been used six
times. Then came in the great leader OF
the present democrat party, as il has been
organized for the last 90 years, Gen. An
drew Jackson. He was man worthy OF
your cheers, because his contemporaries,
or those who have succeeded him, differed
from him on certain great questions. They
remembered that the first efforts of the
disunionists were strangled in the cradle
by that grand old hero.
In the next 40 years the veto was used GO
times, and OF these 60 over 30 OF them were
by democrat presidents, so that the party
which processes TO be so intensely demo
cratic has been uniformly the one which
has resorted TO the one-man power to
thwart the popular will. Up to March 4,
1885. when the present president of the
United States was inaugurated, the veto
power OF the government has been used in
all about seventy five times, from 1889 TO
1885, 100 years lacking four. And now Mr..
Cleveland III three years and half used
the veto over 300 times, or had when ] left
New York day before yesterday. How
many times he has used IL since | don't
know, And of these yetOes by Presi
dent Cleveland 206 have been TO
prevent pitiful pension of s. month, a few
believe of sl2 month to worn down and
starving soldiers of the United States. And
he is the first president Of the United States
soldier who had offered his body to the can
non, shell and shot of the enemies of his
country. | wish ] had those vetoes here
and had the time 10 dwell upon them. They
have all been issued in pamphlet form, and
they furnish a succinct expression of the
difference between the republican and dem
Ocratic parties as 10 the manner of treating
the soldiers of the republic I commend ii
as one of the best political documents in
print.
Now, mark you, Mr. Chairman, there was
not in any one Of these vetoes a charge that
the man TO whom the pension was 10 be Civ
en- had not been a soldier Of the United
States. There was not "a single question
that the men who were TO be relieved by the
pensions sought were in sore and pressing
need Of bread. There was not in any single
case the slightest question involved OF the
constitutional power Of congress TO grant
the pension. And every one Of Cleveland's
vetoes reads precisely as if it was the de
cision of the commissioner Of pensions on
an application for a pension under the exist
ing laws. Well, now, we all know that from
the foundation of the government, the gen.
eral pension law provides for the general
class of cases, We do olr best by general
law to reach all CASES; but in generalizing
there viii always be found exceptions; and
every one of these 206 that met a veto from
the President came outside the general
law, but not outside the personal merit of
the man who applied for relief. Every case
had been before the committee OF republi-
can senate. Every case had been before
the committee of democratic house, and
every case had passed through republican
senate and a democratic house. 1t
Will be hard To imagine more inn
partial legislation than that should
produce: and yet they met every time with
the absolute veto of the President. Some
Of them, even out Of their grimness, and
out of their cruelty, had L think spice Of
humor in them. / recall one-1 wish had
il here TO read now-in which the man had
fallen victim to neuralgia of the most acute
type, to allay which he was in the habit of
taking opium or opiates. He was found
dead in his bed and the question was wheth-
er he incurred his disability in the line OF
duty, whether he died Of the pain or OF an
overdose OF the Opldte, ana ii OF an OVERDOSE
OF the opiate, whether il was done innocent
ly or with the intention OF suicide. And
Mr.. Clevelant in his veto message said IL
would be very bad precedent TO grant the
widow and the children of that man a pen
sion because of course, you know, a case
of that kind might be so often repeated.
With all due respect to the President ii
carried my mind back TO youthful days,
when | used TO attend the theatre oftener
than ] do now, and heard the old play OF
paul Pry." And you may remember that
professional philanthropist in the play who
refused TO subscribe anything 10 a subscrip
ton paper for the relief of the widow of a
man, a bricklayer, who had fallen from the
| top Of high house where he was working
''because," said this philanthrop.st, who
think was in some respects the prototype OF
the author Of that veto, Because, said he
"if you relieve that widow and that child OF
that bricklayer, you will have all sorts OF
people falling from all sorts of honses anC
leaving all sorts of widows and orphans be
hind them"
Now, Mr.. Chairman, / am not going u
dwell on the subject Of PENSIONS an only
introduced il ROW to place 1t wis a Wis will
another. And that other is the great surplus
in the treasury of the United States, part
of which, think, might have gone u tina
poor man without endangering the ST. bilit,
of the government But that surplus which