The Republican journal., 1896-06-25

tectors, so he who honors not the old
soldiers, and cares not to see them COM
Portable in their old age, is not lover
of his country and good American.
Believing this it has been my purpose
and effort to secure to the Union veterans
such recognition upon the pension rolls
and elsewhere as grateful country, ap-
preciating the incalculable value of their
great services, should not hesitate to give
them. OF course every endeavor in this
direction has met with some opposition
The most righteous cause will inevitably
find some opposers.
There was a Copperhead party in
Greece $50 years before Christ, led by
Eschines, when the Greeks were fighting
to maintain their liberties against Philip
of Macedonia; and in Demosthenes' char
acterization OF Eschines and his followers
there is to be found a better description
of the OLD copperheads who opposed our
soldiers and encouraged the rebels during
our late war, than in anything that has
been said or written since. 1t would
make mighty wholesome reading for some
of the Mugwumps who spend so much
time in slandering and OBTAINING the old
soldiers now, 1t was a copperhead party
led by Hanno in Carthage which con-
tinually INSTRUCTED Hannibal while he
was fighting the Romans and finally pre-
vented that matchless warrior from crush
ing finally and forever his countrys great
! enemy
And it is only temperance of this
deplorable and reprehensible side of
human nature, this spirit OF treachery
which still turks in the hearts of small,
but no less repulsive and offensive, part of
mankind, that crops out i'll misrepresenta-
| ton and abuse of those brave men whose
| heroism saved the very shield of liberty
and good government which protects
them.
In the recent session of Congress we
could not legislate for the Union vet
Grams as some of us wished to do. With
a Republican House, a Dolly Warden Sen
ate for which nobody could be held re-
sponsible, and a Democratic President, it
was impossible to enact laws to which
any party objected
But we did succeed in enacting legis-
lation to improve the administration of
the pension law as it now exists. One
important provision of the new law seeks
to facilitate the adjustment of claims, SO
that the old veterans may not forever and
a day hang suspended upon the ragged
edge of longing and painful expectation
and die of hopes object deferred. An
other provision is calculated to confirm
the soldier in his pension after it has once
| been allowed, that he may not be con-
tinually haunted by the apparition of the
pension inspector, appearing to him like
some malignant spirit or the ghost of
some dead rebel, prying into his personal
and domestic affairs and trying to warp
and twist testimony so as to deprive him
of what he already has and justly deserves.
SO you can see that while We have not
done all that we wished we have yet ac-
eomplished something of no small import
ance in the right direction.
1t is source of great qualification to
see many of you comfortably situated
in this sheltering home. OF course not
every thing is just as you would have it.
In no condition of life can man command
full and entire happiness. Its right that
he should not. For if he could he would
then be contented, he would struggle no
| more, and would be of no further good to
| mankind.
But the government has shown its So
licitude for you, in providing the conven-
fences which you have here, and all that
you see around you is proof that you are
neither forgotten nor neglected by the
nation. This cannot but be a source of
pleasure to you, as it is to all who believe
in the cause for which you fought, and
who glory in your great victory over your
country enemies.
You have reason to be thankful for
what you and your countrymen have to
remember and what you have to antici-
pate. The importance OF your great tli-
umph, its far reaching results. are almost
beyond comprehension. You changed the
tide of honored history, when its current
was veerng in the direction of oppression,
into the channel Of freedom and beneti-
cence to the human race
| All nations have felt the thrill of YOUR
victory, which appears to have breathed
into them the spirit of liberty and human
ily, as God breathed into man living
soul. And all around the globe the down
trodden are looking up and beginning to
get on their feet, and nations that were
smouldering like smother.d fires under
The REFRESHING power OF despotism are
breaking out and blazing up into inteli-
gent action, inspired by the energy which
your achievements and successful battle
for the right have kindled in their souls.
\ never ending recognition of all this by
your countlymeG and mankind, down
through the ages to come, you have to an
tiCipate.
am sure that the wealth of the world
which you have won, much less the con-
seriousness that you faithfully and bravely
fought the good fight and brought home
from the field of war, when the great bat
ties had ended, the banners of your coun-
| try with victory inscribed upon them
Gentlemen, you can look back with Just
pride upon your past glorious achieve
ments. May your remaining years, even
if they be not filled with the thrilling ex-
element of strife and the exultant tones
of victory's shout, be sweetened with the
satisfaction that you are living on to the
end in a way that is worthy of your past
achievements.
Let not your day, which has been beau
tiful with the sunlight of great and honor
able deeds, close in the darkness of a dis
creditable ending, but as the summer
sun, dropping behind the horizon, gilds
the clouds and the sky with splendor in
describable, SO may your parting moments
be frightened with the reflected lustre of