Morning journal and courier., 1888-02-25
Fiftieth Congress--First Session,
WASHINGTON, Feb. "a.


SEnATE.-After unimportant preliminary
business, on motion of Mr.. Edmunds, the
Senate bill to incorporate the Maritime Ca
nal company of Nicaragua was taken from
the calendar and discussed until 2 O'Clock
when it went over without action.
The dependent pension bill then came up
for discussion. Mr.. Mandersen addressed
the Senate in advocacy of the bill. He gave
the history of the bill that passed in the Last
Congress and was vetoed by the President.
It had passed the House, he said, by vote
of 1874 to rs and in the Senate not voice
had been raised nor single vote recorded
against it. It had failed to pass the House
by the necessary twe-thirds over the Presi-
dents veto, the vote 175 to 125.
he believed that they showed a
state of facts without precedent
in the history of the republic that were not
likely to occur again. He spoke of the veto
az destroying veto" and as being "couehed
in words of condemnation and much verbos-
tutional right involved in the vetoed bill;
it had involved simply the question of wis
dom and expediency. Quoting the words IN
the veto message that the bill put further
premium on dishonesty and mendacity and
that there was e widespread disregard of
truth and good faith in the matter of procur-
ing pensions, he said: "on behalf of the ex-
it. The charge is baseless, cruel
~ Hbellous, and is SO gross
in its conception that it does
not need refutation on the part of the Ameri-
can people" The pending bill he said was
not a service pension bill. but it might prop
erly be called disability pension bill. It
had been prepared by the pension committee
of the Grand Army of the Republic, and
while he would himself be in favor of its pro-
visions. he thought it better to support the
bill as it came from that committee. He
quoted Mr.. Cleveland's endorsement in 1884
of petition for pension of SO month to
all honorably discharged soldiers and init
mated that at that time there was an election
pending. In this connection he remark ed
that:
"When the devil was sick the devil saint would
When the devil was well the devil saint was he -
It had been claimed by mugwump papers
he said that the President was better than
his party, but he thought that so far as ap-
probation of the services of those who fought
for the Union was concerned the party was
much better than its president. Perhaps
the President would have had a better ap-
probation of the sacrifices of the soldiers if
he had fought on the one side or the other.
It was impossible he said to calculate the
cost of the pending bill, but it was mat
ter what it cost provided the measure was
just and right. He believed that it would
pass both houses of Congress without change
and that in the present exigency it would
not receive the vote of the chief executive
IF the President should feel an inclination to
falter in the performance of his plain duty
in this matter he would commend to him
the words of the great martyr of liberty,
the man who knew the soldiers
sacrifices and approved the result of their
1aboys, ''With malice toward none, with
charity for all, with frmness in the right, "
believing that in reading them he would find
strength given him to do the like.
Mr.. Turpie made an eloquent appeal in ia
vor of the bill as measure calculated to put
the INDECENT ex-soldiers in a position to en-
ioy the calm which had followed the storm
and the peace which had succeeded the war.
Without coming to a vote on the bill the
Senate proceeded to executive session and at
800 adjourned.