Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1888-03-08
DEFENDS THE G. A. R.
SENATOR INGALLS, REPLY TOVEST'S
ATTACK ON THE PENSION BILL.

A Fierce and Sarcastic Attack on the
Democratic party for Their Opposition
to the NIeasure---A Sharp Reply from
Senator Blackburn.
WASHINGTON, March SIN the senate
the principal event was Senator Ingalls,
speech upon the pension bill. The at
attendance in the senate was not slight
compliment to Mr.. ingalls,. 1t has been
expected FOR a week that he would
speak, and the galleries were not only
packed but the corridors leading to them
were densely crowded. Mr.. ingalls,
scored Senator Vest, of Missouri, for his
recent attack on the Grand Army men,
when he had denominated them mob
of sordid plundereSs. Regarding the
presidents position, he said that since
the Democrats had put such man
as Cleveland in the presidential chair
there was no man in this country whose
ignorance was so profound, whose OBJ
scurity was SO impenetrable, whose ante
cedent so degraded that he had not
the right to aspire to the presidential
nomination by the Democratic party
Mr.. Morgan reminded Mr.. Ingalls, that
the Democratic party had nominated
and sustained federal officer, Gen. Han
cock, for the presidency. Mr.. Ingalls, re-
Piled:
Yes, it did support Gen. Hancock,
and it also supported Horace Greeley
attempting to fool the North. It
also nominated and supported that other
ally of the Confederacy, George B.
Mcclellan. Such pretentions are alto
gether too diaphanous. They require to
have the drapery removed for inspection.
Why was it that when an associate JUS
tice of the supreme court of the United
States, who by one of the strange ca
prices of history, now sat in Judgment
upon those great constitutional amend
ments which were adopted against his
protests and effOrts-Why was it that
when he arose in the senate and said that
imputation upon the honor or the integ-
rity or the patriotism of Jefferson Davis,
when he said he had no doubt that
Jefferson Davis would occupy a niche in
history by the side of George Washing
ton, why was it that no senator
on the Democratic side-North or
South-arose to repudiate and dis
avow it? And yet the moment any
honorable senator on the Republican
side, or any editor of any North
ern paper, or any organ of tho
Grand Army talked about the Union
armies, the grandeur of their ach ieve-
ments, the obligations of the nation,
they were taunted with waving the
ensanguined undergarment- -raking up
the ashes Of social strife. appeal
ing to partisan hatred and NAL
ice. 1t was time that the twenty
four Confederates on the other side Of
the chamber were informed that the
Northern people were not ill advised
about this matter. The South should be
thankful that it did not have to foot
the entire pension bill as France did
after the Franco-Prussian war. And yet
here we have the jailers and murderers of
Andersonville, Belle Isle and Libby
prison, sitting under the flag which
they attempted to pull down, legislating
for the country which they endeavoTed to
destroy and trying to pinch and belittle
and minimize the amounts to be paid to
the mutilated and disabled survivors of
the army of the Union. Vest had asked,
in burst of indignant impatience,
where all this was going to end.
II will tell him. said Mr.. ingalls,,
"and every senator on that side of
this chamber, whether he likes it!or not,
what we intend to do. l will tell the
senator from Missouri and the rest of his
associates just where this thing is going
to stop. 1t is going to stop when the
arrears of pensions are paid; when the
limitation is removed and every
soldier on the rolls, or who gets on
the rolls, is paid from the day of his dis
ability; and when every surviving soldier
of the Union army is put upon the rolls
for service only. That is where it is
going to stop. And if you do not like it
make the most of it."