Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-12-22
TWO TIMELY SPEECHES
BY Hon. Seth L. MiIiiken on the Pension Cues.
tion.

delivered upon the spur OF the moment,
and without previous preparation in the
course of heated debates. They are,
nevertheless, gems, and contain truths
which it is high time for the people of
this country to fully appreciate. We pre-
sent them in full. as taken from the Con-
gressional Record.
Mr. Milliken. l move to strike out the
last two words 1 do not disagree with
the proposition which my friend from
Mississippi Mr.. Stockdale) lays down. l
do not propose to criticise him for the re-
marks which he has made The truth is
that he lays down proposition which
everybody agrees to who is friend OF
the soldier, and which the soldiers them
selves agree to. L do not think anybody
wants to pension ''camp followers and
coffee coolers but the difficulty with gen
tlemen upon my friends side of the House
| is that when this pension bill comes up
| for discussion, or Others like it have here
tofore come before Congress, the great
burden of argument upon the other side
has been to show that there were camp
| followers and coffee coolers" and good
many of them and an assault has been
made upon the soldiery upon the ground
| as you would think from their speeches
that the great purpose to be accomplished
was not to adjudicate pensions and to
| grant them to those that are deserving,
| but to discover, if possible, where the
camp followers and coffee coolers we're,
and also to enormously eXaggerat the
number of them.
Now, protest against the assumption
| by gentlemen on the other side of the
House that the Republican party or any
| considerable number of people in the Re-
publican party have displayed here or any
where else any disposition to see pensions
| granted to soldiers who were not deserving
of them. That has been assumed; and be-
| cause we have stood up here voicihg the
patriotic sentiment of the people of the
| country, not only of those who were sold
| iers, but those who We're not, and, if l
am to believe my friend from Massachu
setts-and l do not doubt him-voicing
the views and patriotic feeling of even the
boys of the country whom he heard ap-
plauding in the peanut gallery of the
| theater; because we have stood up here
and demanded that soldiers have what is
Justly due them, it is assumed that we
desire to pension men who do not deserve
it.
1t is not true; do not believe there is
a man on this side of the House who is
not as honest in his desire that pensions
shall be granted to those only who deserve
them as anybody on the other side. But
it is very easy to learn from the character
of mems speeches, by reading between the
lines, what they mean; and when my
friend spoke moment ago about the
soldiers voting for the Republican party,
let me say to him that even a dog knows
who is his friend and who is not. The
soldiers are not less intelligent than other
classes of our people, and they make no
mistake as to whom they can rely upon
| for a just recognition of their services to
the country whose life they saved, and
of its obligations to them today
They know who have been their friends
in the past. They know who have at
tackled them in this House, and who have
called them the vilest names in the Eng
lish Language; and they know that their
villifers were not Republicans. They
know who have stood up here for them
in every contest in the last twelve years at
least, championing their cause, pleading
and voting for liberal pensions. They
| know, too, who combated them. Never
once has it been Republican, but always
someone on the Democratic side of the
House. And in doing what we have done
we have but spoken the thought and ex-
pressed the will of the people of this eoun-
| try. 1t is something more and even high
er than patriotism that causes the hearts
of the people to go out in sympathy and
affection for the old veterans of the Union
armies.
The soul of every good man and
woman is stirred and electrified by the
memory of the achievements and sacrifices
of those who have bravely battled in a
| just and righteous cause And Ameri
cans of this generation are not less warm
and earnest in their yeneration for their
countrymen who fought for the Unions
| integrity, nor less solicitols for the com
fort of those who are left of them, than the
most patriotic nations have been for their
gallant defenders.
The old veterans are to be cared for and
honored, and no ISLANDERS, no attacks upon
! them, either covert or open, will dethrone
them in the hearts of the people.
Here the hammer fell.)
! Mr.. Grout. / yield to the gentleman
| from Maine (Mr. Milliken) five minutes
The chairman. The gentleman has six
minutes remaining.
Mr.. Milliken. Mr. Chairman, do not
rise for the purpose of making any as
sault or any criticism upon the pension
Office That has been done in the past |
think it has been very much overdone, and
think on many occasions it has been
very unjustly done. 1t was done when
General Dudley was commissioner of pen
sions and l recollcct how bitterly he was
assailed from the other side of the House
| 1t was done to some extent when General
Black was commissioner, and, as / believed
at the time, unjustly. 1t was done in
the case of General Raum, and have no
doubt that when he was doing his very
best to administer his office in the interest
of honesty, in the interest of the public,
and for the benefit of the soldiers, he was
assailed in way that was entirely I'M
warranted. And it would be very strange,
considering the immense number of peo-
| pie whom the administration of that office
affects, if the present commissioner of
pensions should not sometimes he criti-
cised when acting conscientiously and do
ing what he considered to be his duty faith
! fully and earnestly.
1 Rut what 7 xuicb r., nrof1 or auaipct l..