The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-12-09
NOW FOR THE OLD SOLDIERS.

NOW FOR THE OLD SOLDIERS.
Mr.. Cleveland is supposed to have saved
the country about 100000 year by his
pension vetOes. Even this was only q
| temporary saving, for all of these old sol
diers who survived secured their pen
siOns after Gen. Harrison became pTesi-
! dent. He cannot claim, therefore, that
he saved more than his own salary dur
ing the four years by cutting off the pen
siOns of about four hundred veterans.
| However, man will descend to pretty
small business sometimes for the vindi-
| cation Of his character. Mr.. Cleveland
| proved to the entire satisfaction of his
| Southern friends by those vetOes and the
return of the rebel flags that his heart
| still beats true to the Confederate cause.
The cOpperhead Buffalo Courier has al
ready set up a demand for an investiga-
ton of the pension rolls, and advised Mr.
Cleveland to 60 into the business. 1t in
Inmates that the pension rolls are loaded
with fraud, that the purpose of pension
legislation was to buy votes for the Re-
publican party, and denies that the pen
sion laws are beyond repeal or that the
granting of pensions to the old soldiers
is standing contract with them. This
is a declaration in effect that the pay
ment of pensions may and should be
stopped, and the brave men, now broken
| down with the wounds, exposures and
privations to which they were subjected
in defending the country from dissolu-
ton, be cast again upon their own re-
sources, TO end their days in the aims
houses of their respective towns or cOun-
ties. No other motive can lie behind
such advice but malice-and it is malice
that no patriot can understand. These
old soldiers generally vote the Republi-
can ticket but we think that even the
Courier would sCoTn To refuse TO pay its
honest debts to creditor because he
had voted with another party. The re-
sentiment is too deep to be attributed to
party politics. The Courier made a cop
perhtad record during the war. 1t was
enthusiastic for the success of the Con
federacy. And these old soldiers inter
feTed with the consummation of les
wishes. This accounts for the animosi-
ty of the Courier. But Mr.. Cleveland Oc-
cupies a different position. He has been
President and is President-elect of the
great American Union which these men
preserved. If the Confederapy had been
successful there would have been no
nation for him to be president Of and no
Democratic party in this fragment OF the
old Union. His pension vetOes from 1885
to 1889 were due TO his subserviency to
the South. Let us trust that later expert
ence has taught him something on this
subject, and caused him to feel some of
the promptEgs of that spirit known to
a portion of the citizens of this Repub-
lie as patriotism,
The Buffalo NeWs states that Samuel
NJ. WEIGH, & dyed-in-the-wO Democrat,
set out some time ago for an investiga-
ton Of pension frauds on his own ac-
count, under the impression that there
were myriads of them. He labOred as
siduously for six months, and Democrats
who know him do not believe that any
fraud would escape his eye that could be
found by other men-not even by the
lynx-eyed Mr.. Cleveland. The result
WAS as disappointing as Commissioner
Peck's search for reductions of wages
under the Mckinley bill. He found just
two cases that bore the suspicion of
fraud. Even if Mr.. Cleveland should be
equally successful, should actually find
two cases of fraud during every six
months of his administration or sixteen
in four years, it would hardly BE- called
the most profitable industry with which
the President of the United States could
busy himself The recent session of Con
gress appropriated over half billion
dollars-some SIS, 100000 more than the
preceding Congress in its first session.
As faithful chief magistrate, it is his
duty to put in his work where it will
render the greatest amount of practical
service to the people. Now this pension
business is at the best an intinitesimal
spigot, whereas Democratic Congress
works through about an acre of bung.
The nation is not in danger of loss
from its liherality to the soldiers. What
they receive from the nation does not
amount to as much on the average as the
common pauper, reduced to penury by
his own vices or laZiness receives through
the poOrhOuse which supports him. The
nation has chosen another medium than
the poorhOuse through which to pay the
debt which it owes to these brave men.
Never before were pensions doled out
with grudge from any part of the coun-
try or made the subject of partisan con-
trOversy. The Revolutionary soldiers,
those of the war of 1872 and of the Mex
lea was, were paid cheerfully and with
the unanimous approval of all partsans.
| But this antagOnsm to pension sys-
TEN comes from the party that aided and
abetted the enemies of the country and
exhibits a spirit of malice and vindictiye
ness which suggests that the very men
who have eXhOrted most strenuously to
''let bygones be bygones' are not yet
prepared to make a practical admission
that the war is over. This new outbreak
of hostility is significantly cOincident
with Mr.. Cleveland's election, and has
no other ground than malignant copper
head partisanship, for the country is at
the very tioodtide of prosperity, and the
pension roll is "a mere bagatclle. Why,
the pension payments for the present
year do not amount to the difference be-
tween Democratic promise and perform
ance in the matter of appropriations by
a Congress of its own election. And the
same party that now threatens to take
away the pensions of the soldiers has laid
out such magnificent plans of expendi-
ture that its ablest financial experts adj
nit that no scheme of revenue raising is
| going to meet the requirement which
does not include an income tax.-TrOy
Telegram.
The Hon. John f. Smith of West
minister, Md, Judge of the Circuit Court
! of Carroll County Md saws: II have