Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1893-06-23
WASHINGTON LETTER.

rnment employees who ought to
De absolutely secure in the posi-
ions they hold, no matter how |
,ften or how radical the change
IN the administration and heads
If departments, surely the Union
veterans should be that class, par
tlcularly the crippled ones. This
is not matter into which politics
should enter at ell.
Long ago Congress enacted a
law stating in the most explicit
language that these men should
be given preference in all
branches of the civil service, but
| am sorry to say that this admin
istration has violated that law
right along whenever some posi-
ton, outside of the classified SER
vice, which was held by q veteran
was wanted by a democrat, and
not satisfied with that, Assistant
Secretary Simms, took advantage
of -he lack of appropriations by
the last Congress. which made
the dismissal of sixty-eight clerks
from the General Land Office
necessary, to dismiss number of
crippled veterans among them. 1t
was a needless act of cruelty, and
it doubtless seemed all the harder
to the Union veteran who had
left leg or an arm on some battle
field to know that he has been
discharged from the service of
the United States, for which he
fought, by an ex-confederate, who
at the same time was fighting
against it.
Two of these crippled veterans,
with only two legs between them,
who were dismissed, called upon
Assistant Secretary Simms, who
himself lost a leg on the confeder-
ate side, and who was once Gov
ernor of Mississippi, to ask for
reinstatement, and if the CONVEX
sation which was reported to me
as having taken place between
them really did occur, and / be-
lieve it did, the veterans certainly
had insult added to the injury
that had previously been done to
them. When they pleaded for re-
in-statement because of their
crippled condition preventing
them earning livings for their
families outside of the govern
ment service, AIr. Simms told
them that there were many Grip
pied ex-confederates who had to
earn their living without employ.
ment from the government and
without being helped out by pen
sions from the United States,
Your correspondent does not be-
lieye in reviving or keeping alive
the prejudices of the war, but he
does think that the treatment
meeted out of these Union veter-
ans Is an everlasting disgrace tc
this administration. The son OF
a confederate officer said of the
discharges of Union veterans
"These men gave four of the best
years of their lives to the preserv-
alton of this government, and if
had nv way, it should be high
treason to dismiss one of them.
Although the officials at the
State department still maintain 6
silly air of mystery about the res
iguation of Minister Paramount
Blount, the man who achieved
more notoriety in one minute, by
lowering the American flag in Ha.
waii, than he had been able te
get in all his previous life, there
is little doubt that he has resign.
ed and that his successor has
been selected. He never would
have been made minister at all
except to attempt to legalize the
illegal acts he performed while
acting as my personal representa-.
tive," a position unknown to the
constitution or laws of the Uniied
States. There are reasons for be-
lieving that his resignation was
not voluntary, but was requested
by the administration for several
reasons, chief of which is its anx-
| iety to crawl out of the awkward
position in which Blount's acts,
while acting under its carefully
prepared instructions, have placed
it.