Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-09-12
SHERIDAN AND PENSIONS.

1C IS not SurprlSlng to learn, as we OO in Washington special to New York paper, that General Sheridan was bitter ly opposed during the later years of his life to the turn pension legislation and pension rulings had taken. Like all brave men who fought the battles of the Union, and who had no political ends to serve by the blatant arts of the dema- gogue, General Sheridan objected to making it possible for claim agents and pension sharks to trade off the suffer- ings and the wounds of the men who stood in the gap when the clouds hung low over the safety and the perpetuity of the nation.
 It is not a surprise, therefore, that the gallant general should hold that a radi- cal readjustment of the monetary re- wards meted out to the veterans of the war should take place and that, had he lived, his powerful influence would have been exerted before this coming con- gress in favor of re-examination of all pensioners and a redistribution of the money paid out by the government to it's defenders. His idea was that tho most deserving men were often hopeless ly shut out from the reward to which they were justly entitled. The whole matter of pensions, as he viewed it, had fallen too much into the hands of and under the influence of the pension agents whose prime object was fees. Had General Sheridan lived to see the va garies of Corporal Tanner in the pen sion bureau and the carnival of gain opened up and carried through by the pension sharks who masquerade under the name of claim agents, it is needless to say that he would have been disgust ed beyond measure with the cheap heroism and blatherskite demagogism that prevail. It is needless also to say that at this distance from the surrender at Appomattox and the close of the war General Sheridan opposed and would continue to oppose the omnibus pension bill which proposed to carry all classes and pile up numbers, which has been for years the favorite scheme of the pension cormarants who make their living from the wounds and sufferings of the old soldiers. Men who have dared death on hundred battlefields, who have looked into the yawning mouth of the belching cannon, who have wrestled with disso- lution in the flowing blood of gaping wounds, have no sympathy with grasp ing money seekers who shirk honest labor now as they shirked honorable service in the days of the war. Such men will not consent that the taxpayers of the country be bled for mill ions of dollars every year that never find their way to the men who fought and bled, but are directed into the bulging coffers of pension attorneys, sharks and claim agents. Brave man that he was, Gene ral Sheriden knew that the soldiers best interests were not in heaping burdens on the taxpayers and pushing pension legislation to extremes that could have no warrant either in justice or common decency. General Sheriden's man. hood, his integrity and honor, which he valued above everything else that was his, would not permit him to countenance or endorse the pen sion system as it has been set up and ex- ecuted by Corporal Tanner.
 To those who knew the blunt honesty and uncompromising integrity of Phil Sheridan it will be no surprise to learn that he endorsed the main features ot Grover Cleveland's pension policy and that he found therein the most hopeful system for the veterans and the most equitable method for the country. But we think the gallant Phil missed the best opportunity of his declining years when he failed to give public expression to his private endorsement. It would have been a rebuke by anticipation of the demagogue Tanner whose results would have shown themselves for continuing good for the interests of the soldiers and the country.
 "Undera a Cloud or Clearing Himself is our latest serial. Look for it Satur.