The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-03-15

ano TWO men leadInS the poreob away, VIII Tue
| deadly Enfield rife in the hands of the dis
mounted men, and the assault that was made
| upon the hill south of that town, will not un'
dertake to talk about birds and flowers and
| Springtime.
WHAT DID WE Dor
| The authorities in the North ordered these 100
day men, differed by the very flower of our
army, who had served their time out-men
| who had served in the ranks and become Cap
tains and Majors and Colonels-those To-day
men were sent under the command of such
men to guard these stockades and TO open up
and protect our line of communication. And
| the old troops were gathered together-were
massed in the army of Sherman and hurled
upon the Gate City of Georgia, and ultimately
made the triumphant march to Atlanta and the
sea, while their brethren of the To-day regl-
ments stood in the rear and made it possible
that our lines of communication should be kept
open. [Applause,l
Gen. Gr0svenor dwelt at length upon the sus-
pension of pensioners in Ohio in 1893, and
showed out of 1000 suspensions, ], 300 were re-
instated without examination in order to affect
the vote in that State. He referred also to
Deputy Commissioner Murphy's visit to the
Soldiers Home in Dayton on the eve of election
ona
POLITICAL MISSION,
and quoted some remarkable circulars sent out
old soldiers. In these documents the SOL
diers who had been suspended were told that
the suspension was due to some Republican
sneak in your neghborhood," while whenever
a pensioner was granted an increase that fact
was made known to him first by the State Com
mittee with the hint that he should vote for
the party that had increased his pension.
These actions Gen. Grosvenor characterized as
crimes which in any other than a poiti-
cal bureau would have raised a storm of pro-
test and indignation throughout the country.
Gen. Grosvenor concluded: The system
of the Pension Office is an unauthorized
and illegal system, and ] put in very few
words my claim in regard to this branch
of the subject / say that in Govern
ment which guarantees to every man that he
shall not be convicted of crime without trial
by jury; that he shall be confronted with the
witnesses against him; that he shall have COM
pulsory process to procure witnesses in his
favor; that he shall be defended by himself
or counsel at his election-in a Government
whose fundamental law gives these guarantees
to every citizen, it is "a
CRIME AGAINST PUBLIC JUSTICE
to take from the soldier the pension which has
been awarded to him at the end of litigation,
at the end Of trial in court, if you please,
where he has met an adverse board that has
guired from him the proof of the legality of his
claim and has finally rendered judgment in his
favOr-I say to take away from him that pen
sion, or to suspend it. or to brand him by i'm
plication with dishonor and dishonesty is
violation of the common principles of law and
justice, and plain outrage upon the rights of
the soldiers of this country.
MIR. COombs IN. Y, ID. in the course of his
remarks, made this statement: Much is be-
ing made in the arguments on the other
side out of the fact that pensions have
been suspended. Now, that was done in
response to the universal cry that went up
throughout the country that the pension-roll
was being soied by placing names upon it
which should not be there. That cry came
from no political party. 1t came much from
the old soldiers and soldiers organizations as
from any other source"
Mr.. Blair IN. H., r. said that the cry that
the pension-roll was roll OF dishonor, tainted
with fraud, had long been heard in the land.
AS far back as 1881, in order to get at the
fraudulent pensioners, the entire roll was pub
lished. 1t was examined in every community,
and, as far as he knew, not one single, solitary
case of fraud was developed He spoke Of the
Mexican service pension BILL which was passed,
giving allowances to men who. in great ma
jority, were engaged in an armed struggle for
the destruction Of the Government The Of
fcers who led the armies of the Confederacy
had learned war at West Point and in Mexico,
under the National flag and at the National
expense. There was great sentiment against
this bill. 1t was very difficult to enact the
Mexican service pension law; il was in fact
impossible, unless some provision should be
made at the same time to satisfy to reason
able extent the demand for a service pension
for those who had served in the war Of the
rebellion.
With distinct understanding on my part,
said Mr.. Blair, and, l think, generally on the
part of those who were friends of the soldier
element in the North, that a separate provision
would be made for them in separate act, sub
stantially in the nature of that which / had
proposed, we gave way and allowed the passage
of the Mexican pension bill, and it became
law. Finally, after hard fight, and alter
nearly everything we in tho Senate had con-
tended for was gone, we passed the measure with
limited and comparatively unimportant pro-
vision for the soldiers of the Union-which
was all we received for generously yielding to
the urgent need of the soldiers of the Mexican
war-and
EVEN THIS WAS VETOED
by the President He then went on to discuss
the act of June 81, 1890.
Mr.. Talbert Is. C., d. The gentleman seems
to be dissatisfied with the present law, the law
which was enacted June q, 1890
Mr.. Blair. Not much dissatisfied with the
law as with its administration.
Mr.. Talbert. | wish to ask the gentleman this
question: When that law was under discussion in
II.
Yoder (Ohio d. }, then member of the House,
move to recommit the bill, with an amendment
providing that service pension bill should be
incorporated with it, and is it not the fact that
the members of the Republican party all voted
against the motion to recommit, in order that
the service pension bill might be enacted in its
placer Is it not fact that the gentleman from
Ohio Mr.. Grosvenorl, who has so eoauently
spoken against this bill, also recorded his vote
against that recommittal2
Mr.. Blair presume the gentleman is right.
/ would have expected something of that kind.
An amendment of that sort would have been
the surest way to
KILL THE BILL.
Mr.. Talbert Would not Mr.. Yoder's motion
TO recommt the bill, with instructions to re.
port that provision ! have offered, accomplish
what the entleman favOrs now?
Mr. Blair. | take it this is the gentleman's
first experience In Congress- Perhaps he will
discover after awhile that the enemies of a
measure are very often likely to move amend
ments apparently in the same direction, for the
express purpose of accomplishing the defeat of
that TO which they are opposed. The attach
ment to that bill at that time of an amendment
providing for service pension would have put
ii in condition where it would have been ut
| terly impossible to pass it through the House Of
Representatives.
On the 1st day of July, 1893. continued Mr.
Blair there were ON the pension-roll 966 Ol2
names, and six months later Dee 81, 1893
$685. 142 an increase of but 100 names, and origi-
nal applications had fallen off materially says