Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1893-09-21
THE OUTRAGE ON THE PENSIONERS
Governor Mckinley Condemns the Adj
ministrstion For its Unjust Treatment
L.. nId SnIhinrS

In concluding his mastery address al
Akron on last Tuesday, Governor Nc
Kinley discussed the pension question
in the following complete and unan-
swerable manner. The old soldiers
could not have wished for better OF
more eloquent champion, and cheered
him TO the echo. He said:
THE Administration has been unjust
to the pensioners of the country. The
suspension of a soldier once pensioned
legally without notice or hearing, is un-
precedented as well as unlawful. Such
a course is unworthy a great Govern
ment which was preserved through the
services and sacrifices of its Volunteer
Army. There is no good citizen who
desires that an unworthy person shall
have a place upon this honorable roll OF
the Nation, and while this is true, there
is no good citizen who will not condemn
the striking down upon ex parte testl
mony of any soldier who has been ju-
dicially determined by previous Ad.
ministration worthy of his place there.
Every soldier on the pension roll today
is there after trial and investigation OF
his case. He is there because in the
Judgment of the Commissioner of Pen
sions and the Secretary of the Interior
he has fully met every requirement OF
the law granting pensions to soldiers.
Once there he is entitled to remain
until it is shown by competent testi-
mony, to which he shall have an oppor-
tunity to reply, that he is there by
fraud and has no place among the hon
orably disabled soldiers of the war. Nc
man should be condemned without a
hearing. No soldier should have the
taint of fraud put upon him without an
opportunity to meet his accusers. 1t Is
like opening Judgment once rendered
by a competent court. The burden VI
proof rests upon him who charges fraud
and assails the integrity of the judg-
ment, and he can not set aside that
Judgment upon ex parte testimony
The simplest and the most fundamental
principles of justice require that man
should have an opportunity to confront
his accuser and the witnesses who testi-
fy against him. l understand that in
the cases suspended the suspended pen
sioner has no access to the testimony or
the letters, or the information furnished
by those who complain against the
validity of the pension. All that is de-
MED him. He simply is advised that
his pension is suspended = d he is re-
quired to show why he should be re-
stored to the roll. The Government
should be required in the first instance
to show why his name should be dropped
from the roll, and it should be by clear
and unmistakable and conclusive evil
dence. The pensioner is dropped, and,
without knowing why he is dropped, he
is required to show that he ought not
to have been dropped, and he is required
to show that the judgment heretofore
had in his case by an authority as COM
petent as that now passing upon his
case, was justified.
& do not believe in the system which
permits the Government to thus treat
the defenders of its flag. L condemn,
with all the earnestness of my nature,
a system that puts this stigma upon my
comrades in that great war which pre-
served the Union. More than 1900 of
the old Ohio soldiers paid from the
Pension Office at Columbus have been
thus summarily dropped and disgraced
before the eyes of their fellow-citizens
and the civilized world-an average of
90 to county, and the work of the exc
cutioner still goes on! How long is this
injustice to continue?
'.If an undeserving soldier is on the
pension roll today, and the Administra-
tion at Washington has reason to be-
lieve he is there unlawfully, let the Ad-
ministration confront him with the evil
dence in its hands and permit the old
soldier to meet his accuser, privilege
which is religiously accorded the most
depraved criminal in the land. He is
permitted to meet his accuser in open
court. Shall the veteran have less con-
sideration at the hands of the Govern
ment which he helped to save? Grant
him this plain. legal right, and if, upon
full trial, it is the judgment of the Ad-
ministration that ne has no right to re-
ceive pension and does not fall within
the provisions of the pension law, every
soldier and every other patriotic citizen
will respect the verdict.
Il protest against the presumption of
fraud being put upon the men who pre-
served this country by a member of an
Administration who had no part in the
great work of its preservation. l pro-
test against this cruel stigma being
placed upon them. l protest against
this disgrace being put upon their wives
and their children who have esteemed
the honorable record of their protector
as the dearest heirloom of the genera
t1ons to come These men who were
willing to die for their country must
not be left helpless and defenseless by
their country. The patriotic people Of
the country have no thought of desert
ing them, and will not permit their
honor to be impeached. At the Nation
walls of the Capitol in bold letters, to
be read by the returning army, was this
motto: The only debt this country can
never pay is the debt it owes the brave
men who saved this nation" This noble
sentiment may be temporarily disre-
garded or ignored, but 1T will be only
temporary. When the Republican
party returns to power the promise of
Lincoln and Grant and the people who
upheld them will be again the sacredly
observed law of the land"
The Pittsburg Dispatch reports that
at Steubenville, O., the workingmen,
regardless of politics, recently held
massmeeting and asked the Congress to