The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-26

legally impeached when change OF ad-
ninistration occurs, except for fraud,
upon charges perferred and evidence
adduced in support thereof, rules OF
evidence and schedule OF ratings. un-
favorable to claimants. they must and
should be limited in their operation to
the future work of the office, and not
the past. An erpost facto regulation IS
as repugnant to our sense OF justice as
an ex post facto law, and we protest
against the adoption and enforcement
Of any such regulations in the matter of
pension Claims.
Therefore, The Grand Army of the
Republic, in national encampment as
ssmbled. speaking for that great army of
beloved comrades, many OF them too
poor. too bruised. too broken, to with
stand the strong arm of the government
when administered with an unfriendiv
hand, proud of the good name and fair
fame of the American volunteer soldier,
interested far beyond any other person
or organization that the pension roll
shall in truth be-what it is in theory-a
roll of honor" and ever mindful of its
cardinal principle, ITO preserve honor
and purity in public affairs" scouts and
denies these indiscriminate charges of
universal fraud and resents the mputa-
ton that because some unworthy survi-
vors may be found, that discredit shall
be cast upon the entire roll, and this
great body OF brave and patriotic cti-
zens shall stand disgraced before the
country. We demand that there shall
be no backward step in pension Iegisia-
ton Or administration: that no pensioner
shall be deprived Of his property without
due process of law; that the presumption
shall be in favor of honesty and fair
dealing, that the poor and lowly shall
not be put to unnecessary, expensive or
oppressive process to preserve their
meagre pittances; that the sacred trust
in favor of those who "have borne the
battle" shall be sacredly observed and
sacoedly administered; and we do now
soleinnly and deliberately
Resolve, That the Grand Army of the
Republic looks with solicitude, not to
say alarm, upon the proposition, that
after sufficient tribunals have been
established by law before which ques-
tons have been presented and adjudlcat-
ed upon evidence submitted and ex-
amined, and upon which grateful
nation has accorded pensions in his their
hour of need to those who in its hour of
need stood between it and death, the
officers of that nation, administering a
public trust, have arbitrarily deprived,
without notice or an opportunity to be
heard, our needy and distressed COM
rades of the rights thus solemnly adjudg-
ed and confined 10 them.
We Declare, That every presumption
should be made i'll favor of such records
so made; that no presumption of fraud
shall be INDUCED in against them, and
that no change be made in the pensions
so accorded until after charges have
been made and evidence in support
thereof has been produced, of which
charge each pensiOner has had full
notice and a full and complete opportu-
nifty to be heard in support of the pen
sion so accorded TO him; aud it is fur
Their
Resolved, That as the commissioner
of pensions, by his recent Withdrawals
of the obnoxious rulings which had been
SO generally condemned, has virtually
the incorrectness of such
rulings, we deem it bis further duty to
at once restore 10 the rolls the thousands
of pensioners now standing illegally sus-
pended
A. NJ. WARNER,
/. n. WALKER,
j. w. BURST.
A. X. GREENE,
III. E. TAINToR.
Com.