The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1896-11-28
The Soldier Creditors.

In keeping step with the ranks they
lost step with their generation.
They got behind in the race
are burdened with poverty, more OF
them with disease, and all of them are
in the shadows of approaching age. To
them the nations duty is limited only
By its resources. In the words of
Washington:
1T would be a comfortloss reflection
| to any man that after he had contrlbut-
ed to securing the rights OF his country
at the risk of Ii e and at the ruin Of his
! fortune there would be no provision
made to prevent himself and tami V
from sinking into Indulgence and
wretchedness."
The American people demand that
every one who bore part in the ma
tionaI service be protected from want,
not with the pinched and starved gift
/ Of charity, but in the exact spirit OF
Abraham Lincoln's great promise, to
care for him who had borne the battle
and for his widow and his orphan
/ children.
In my own town I know as gallant a
man as ever fought for his country, who
I for eleven years has sat by the bedside
of an invalid wife by night, and by day
worked in weakness and bodily pain to
support his family, whose claim is held
up because his disease is remotely trace
able to symptoms appearing before his
enlistment. | say that when the Gov
eminent has found a man fit for the
/ business of war, and has used him for a
/ term Of years at the average wages of
20 cents a day, it is in all equity es-
! topped from referring his disability to
/ the diseases of infancy.
The old soldiers stand before the pub
dicants, not even as beneticiaries. They
are the preferred creditors of the ma
/ ton of America. They hold the bonds
of the real national debt. To its pay
ment the public faith is sacredly
pledged. We must not question it. We
can not without infinite penalties re-
| pudiate it. Nor ought we 90 into part
nership with the grave and plead the
precedent that enables US to drive a
4 hard bargain with old age Now Is the
accepted time to complete the act of
I national gratitude Within twenty
years the most of the veterans will be
gone. Already the great commanders,
except one, have joined the innumer-
able company of their comrades on the
/ other shore.
Every year time touches the wasting
ranks with heavier hand. Soon the
last will have departed, and little chill
dren playing upon the streets will hush
| their laughter to look with reverence
upon the bent and white-ha men,
the last of the Grand Army of the Re-
public. / do not know what others
may think, but in that day | want to
feel that the public faith has been kept
i'll the ample measure Of gratitude and
ofjustice. l shut my eyes while the
busy fingers OF calculation compute
cost. 1t makes absolutely no difference
what it costs. The defense of the Union
was an undertaking so vast that no
worldly arithmetic can estimate it's eX-
pense. But the American people, with
eager patriotism, were ready to pay all
that it cost TO the last fartbing. Nay,
more, they were willing to bury their
dead; they were willing to put the signs
of mourning upon nearly every family
altar; they were willing to take back
their loved ones from the hospitals of
disease, from the stockades of mercless
prisons, that the flag Of the great Re
public might live through the storm of
battle.
My Countrymen, it was a costly sacri-
fee; but it was worth all it cost. and in
fnitely more. And today there is not in
all our borders one veteran of the civil
war but We are his personal debtor; not
one woman whose broken heart gave to
the nation husband, or son, or brother,
but we are her personal debtor; not one
old man, stricken by years, the staff of
his support taken away by the service
OF his country, but we are his personal
debtor.
l could not help feeling sentiment
Of Indignation when | heard their ne
cessItics sncercd at on the floor of this
: Congress. ! say to the gentleman from
Missouri, and to You, gentlemen, that
the need which stands in pathetic elo-
/ qHence behind the pressing urgency of
| the demands Of the old soldiers Of the
/ United States is 10 badge of dishonOr.
! 1t is rather a moUrnIul witness, like
I the homeless lot of the WorAiugman of
/ Nazareth, that they who were rich in
/ the eXuitant wealth of youth and
( strength, for our sGkcs have become
/ poor. And so when | hear men talking
/ of the extravaganza of pension apprO-
| priations and read in the newspapers
/ the bahblc that the old soldiers of the
4 country are seeking to loot the Treas
/ ury, | reply that every dollar of the
national wealth, in the Treasury and
/ out of it, is encumbercd first OF all by
\ the inviolabIe lieu Of our duty TO the
men ana women who thought not OF
I their blood and their tears in the hour
! Of the national trial.
Horace Greeley, in the editorial col
umns of the old Tribune Of the common
people, Just after tie war foreseeing
the hard-hips that must follow the re-
turn of the country to a sound currency,
predicted that the popular discomfort
. would be organized bv demagOruas and
used to destroy the public credit lie
was mistaken. For the American peo-
pie stood in the midst Of their shriyeIed
and scattered fortunes for six patient
years, deaf to every whisper of seduc-
ton, and today amongthe money-chan-
ges OF the world the American promise
is better than the shining gold. And
for one l am glad that it is so. l am