The National tribune., 1893-12-14
AN OPEN LETTER.
To the Commissioner of
Pensions.

|
we have been urging upon you. 1t is not
unnatural that you should. It involves a
tangential departure from the ideas with
which you entered Office and radical vari-
alton from the policy advocated by large
portion of the press and the political lead
ers with which and whom you are in politi-
cal sympathy.
But while this consideration has weight,
it is far from being any real obstacle to a
man who has new convictions forced upon
| him. History is full of instances of men
who have earned glorious immortality of
fame by a sudden-coming clearness of vision,
which has shown the duties lying before
them in an entirely new light. Throwing
off their past like garment, they have
boldly entered upon the new path which
better knowledge revealed to them and
won the lasting praise of all men by so
doing. We cannot refer you to more i'm
pressive instance of this than is related in
Acts, tx, 130.
Paul, who had been breathing out threat
eniugs and aughter against the disciples OF
the Lord" went down to Damascus as a
Special Examiner from the interior Depart
ment at Jerusalem, with written instructions
that if he found any of this way, whether
they were men or women, he might bring
them, bound, unto Jerusalem" The SINH
larity of his commission TO those issued from
a Department of this Government will
strike you. He was at once Judge and exc
cutioDer. He settled in his own mind who
were guilty and just how guilty they were,
and then applied the penalty that he thought
would fit the crime. He tried and sentenced
them without their knowledge, and then
called upon them to prove their innocence
if they could. In the course of few months
he suspended a very large number in
this summary way. But in the very midst
of these special examinations Paul saw
wonderful light, and the result was that he
turned his back on the Southern Brigadiers
and Christian-haters of Judea, and became
the greatest of all the Apostles.
We introduce this incident, not because it
bears a strong likeness to anything at pres
ent occurring, but merely to show that radi-
cal alterations of policy, resulting from
better acquaintance with the subject, are
time-honored, and have a scriptural warrant. |
Such departure in your ease would not |
be as radical as it may at first appear to |
you. The unstinted vituperation of old |
soldiers. the malignant opposition to all |
forms of pensions-all ways of JUSTICES |
really confined to a relatively small portion
of the people. Like The coyotes of the far |
Western prairies, each one bowls until he |
produces the impression that he is 90, even |
30 times as numerous as he is. The great |
mass of the American people are very proud /
Of their citizen soldiers, and very anxious
that justice shall be done Nor do they
want this justice strained. They want it
with strong leaning toward
to those who in the days OF
the Nations extremity we're extravaganily
generous of their blood and their lives in
rescuing it. Many people have been tempo
rarily carried away by the clamor that the
Nations gratitude has been abused, but they
have not gone so far but they can be quick y
recalled by an authoritative statement of the
facts.
THIS makes your position clear and your
duty plain. You cannot any longer be in
doubt that not only have the great mass of
pensions-with singuIarly few exceptions
been honestly allowed and most Justly
deserved by those who have received and
are receiving them, but you must he equally
that there are hundreds of thou
sands of the most deserving veterans, and
their widows, who are wrongfully, fraud
1lently kept out of their rights by
The unconseionabIe delays in settling
their cases. If you wished you could
,tartle and shock the country by pub
fishing the evidence in your possession
Of the mountainous volume of misery and
suffering caused to the worthiest of men
aud women by this cruel procrasination.
Every mail that reaches the Pension Bureau
must be laden with tear-compelling appeals
for action on cases that have been hanging
in it for weary years, and which represent
all that stands between the cold mercies of
the poorhouse and the nen who years ago
gave the Government the priceless donation
Of their young manhood's strength and
Comrade Lochren, the great, generous
heart OF the American people has never
been appealed to in vain. The call of justice.
mercy, and honor has never failed TO stir il
to the uttermost. 1t is now ready for such
a call from you. For nine long months the
country has been anxiously watching you
for some decisive word on the much-yexed
pension question. Now is the time TO give