The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-27
THE SOLDIER VOTE.

When Cleveland was mayor of Buffalo
he vetoed resolution of the common
council appropriating $500 for the proper
observance of Memorial day. When he
was governor of New York he vetoed a
bill TO authorize the supervisors of Chau-
tauqua county to appropriate money for
soldiers monument. In 1883, as governor,
he vetoed bill for the relief of three vet
Grams disabled in the service of the
state. He refused to approve bill
providing certificates for the veterans of
the state, which was copied from the
Massachusetts, law and is in force in all
the New England states. In 1888 he We
toed a bill making it misdemeanor for
anybody not an honorably discharged
veteran to wear Grand Army badge, the
same bill that was passed afterwards
by the Oregon legislature. Cleveland
vetoed this bill because it provided that
the fines collected for violations of this act
should go TO the Grand Army posts. A
bill appropriating $4,000 for the Gettys-
burg Battlefield Monument Association,
TO be expended in the erection of suitable
and permanent monuments to mark the
positions occupied by New York troops in
the battle of Gettysburg was promptly We
toed by Governor Cleveland.
AS governor Cleveland vetoed bill for
the relief of Mexican war volunteers, but
as president signed the same bill when the
South asked it. This was rascally bill
fed or VII taI
sound principle of public policy, viz,
that man, who had fought against the
flag, fairly and justly ought to forfeit any
pension that he was entitled to for previ-
Gus services when he fought for the flag.
The sentimental indignation at Cleve-
lands order to return the captured Con-
federate flags naturally was not of long
duration, but the most danger
GUS and tenacious memory of
that blunder was Cleveland's confession
that while he was lawyer he did not
have common sense enough to know that
he could not, without the authority of
congress. give away the property of the
government; that he did not have the
ordinary caution of lawyer to inquire
whether he was acting within the execu-
tive rights and powers in the premises.
Asked to attend the Memorial day exer-
az go a-fshing;" and he could not find
time in 1883 to attend the Gettysburg re-
union, although Abraham Lincoln found
time to attend the dedication of Gettys-
burg cemetery November 10. 1868, when
he was carrying the load of
as weighty responsibilities as those
under which the Democratic elephant was
staggering five years ago. Cleve-
land found time to turn thousands of
crippled soldiers out of office; found time
to veto bills passed for the relief of Union
soldiers; found time to try and return the
Confederate flags but he had no time dur
ing the civil war to fight, speak or vote for
the Union; he grouped Calhoun, Sidney
Johnston, Lee, Sedgwick and Garfield to-
gether as all equally worthy and patriotic
men," he described Gettysburg in his let
Ter of declination as San interesting occa-
sion" which suggested to him that
bravery is next of kin to magnanim-
ity," a lesson of valor and soldier
ship merely, not an indication of
the principles of human freedom. The
field of our civil war was filed with
martyrs, but he was not found on either
he saw it must be under one of the flags
TO the great fight, but he was not in battle
with either Grant or Lee; he was battling
with loaded trenchers and foaming fiagons;
his picket post was the whist table in Buff
falo.
things was so keen that when he sent the
American flag abroad to the courts of
Europe he alwaye placed it either in the
charge OF Confederate, who had basely
tried TO shoot it down, or in the affection
ate hands of a Copperhead, who had
Kissed his cowardly hate and contempt at
the flag that sheltered him from the
bullets of both sides. The Union veterans
are a substantial unit in their resentful
memory of the fact that Cleveland
when president omitted no opportunity 10
tickle the pride Of the sorrowing bourbons
causes as equally worthy of honor and re-
spectful treatment He lost no opportun-
ity 10 show that he felt not a spark of
sympathy for those memories of great
events which make the emblems of Union
valor and sacrifice still dear to the hearts
of veterans. On all occasions Cleveland
in speech or written word indicated that in
his judgment the only right of the Union
armies was their might; the only wrong
of the Confederate cause was its lack of
final victory.
This is why Cleveland does not stand
for the respect and love of the veterans, as
did Lincoln, Grant, Hayes. Garfield, Ar
thur and Harrison. To al these men the
Confederate cause was radically. eternallv
wrong from its bottom facts and logic,
while 10 Cleveland it was entirely up
right; i, lacked nothing Of nobility; it
lacked only good fortune.
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THE ANTI-oPTION BILL.