River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1888-05-03
GRAND ARMY VETERANS.
Union Men Dependent on Ex-RebeIs 70
Legislative Relief


Legislative Relief.
The history of the world has never
seen such an organization as that
known as the Grand Army of the Re-
public. After four years and half of
the bloodiest war the world ever saw,
the soldiers of the Union army deter
mined to organize themselves for So
cial and charitable purposes.
Ii was, as a matter of course, that in
so grand a war, where $500. 600 men
had been enlisted in the army, that
thousands and hundreds of thousands
of men who escaped with life from the
deadly bullet, or the even more deadly
camp disease, would be left wounded
and diseased. 1t was also certain that
many of these soldiers, disabled by
wounds or disease, would suffer the
pangs of poverty. Having been vic
demonstrating save d the country for
which they fought having unified the
Nation which others were attempting
to destroy. the Nation showed its graf
itude to these soldiers by providing
pensions for such as were disabled or
diseased.
But in making laws for a general
purpose it was utterly impossible that
Congress could reach all cases that
needed relief. Technical objections,
the failure to procure testimony, the
inability of the soldiers to expend the
money necessary for this purpose,
would and did prevent many deserving
men from receiving pensions. The
Grand Army of the Republic steps in
to aid this class and urge upon the
Government the necessity, the propri-
ETY., the honesty of giving to these
men what was their due as defenders
of the Union. In that it was q charita-
BILE organization devoted to the inter-
ests of its members.
1t is we'll known that camp life pro-
duces insidious diseases that do not
appear for years after the time when
the seeds of the disease were planted.
1t is also well known that as age creeps
upon man these diseases and disabili-
ties become more apparent. Twenty
three years have passed away-nearly
the life of man-since the close of
the war, and thousands-yes, tens of
thousands-of men who left the serv-
ice in apparent good health are now
suffering from diseases contracted dur
ing the war.
Here again the Grand Army of the
Republic steps in the front and says to
Congress; "Our comrades, numbers OF
them, are suffering from diseases
brought on by the exposure to which
they were subjected during the war;
we ask for them just what they are en-
titled to, the aid of the Government
which they preserved to Tighten the
pathway Of these old soldiers to the
tomb.
For the first time in the history OF
mankind. when these soldiers come
this banded body of the defenders of
the Union-into the halls of the Legis-
lature asking relief for their brethren.
they find themselves confronted by the
men they conquered making laws fol-
the Government they tried to destroy,
and that the vanquished are now legis-
laling as to the rights of the victors.
Men who were in the rebel army
now hold seats in Congress and de-
nounce the organization of the Grand
Army of the Republic, asking for their
disabled comrades, as being guilty of
robbery, and pretense, and hypoc.
risy." They denounce these applicants
as dishonest They ridicule their
applications for aid.
One of them says: II win not &c
one single step further in this unholy
and wicked prostitution of the graft.
Jude of great people. ="
In short, these ex-rebels, now legis-
lating for the country, say that no
more pensions shall be granted, and
that the Grand Army of the Republic
is a fraud. The spectacle is enough to
make the gods weep. National RepuJ-
J;cna