The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-02-26
In the House of Representatives
on February Is, 1897.
Pension Abuses Being Carried too Far
Willing to Pension the True
Soldier But Not Army Nurses.
Whole on the Private Calendar, Hav-
ing Under Consideration the PEN
sion of Eunice T.. Bigelow.
Mr.. Cox said:

Mr.. Cox said:
Mr.. Chairman: In service of six
years on this floor I have never said
a word about this pension business.
| have felt that, having stood on the
other side in the great civil contest,
| ought not TO say much about the
pensiOntng of the soldiers who
fought for the Union, and | have
not spoken on the subject. l must
say now, however, that you are
carrying these pensions beyond the
bounds Of reason. No man in this
House feels more kindly toward the
soldiers who fought against him
than [ do. No man is more willing
or more anxious to see just and
reasonable pensions granted to the
Federal soldiers who served honor
ably in the Union Army during the
war.
But, repeat, you are running this
pension business to an extreme, so
that before long no honorable sol
dier can feel respect for the pension
roll. There are men on the floor of
this House who fought on one side
and on the other who are now warm
friends, and no man appreciates
more highly the friendship of gem
tlemen to whom | was opposed in
that contest than | do; but | want
to call attention to the fact that we
are approaching a point where to
have your name upon the pension
yKril tn "a #
merit. rejoice to see reasonable
and just pensions granted to the
men who faced me on the battle
field, but is it not time that pensions
should be confined to those men?
Is it not time for you to make a
clear distinction in this pension
legislation between the men who
stood up and barred their breasts to
the enemy's bullets and the army
nurses, the teamsters, and the camp
followers?
Mr.. Steele: Will the gentleman
permit me to take the name of the
soldier whose case he is discussing?
Laughter
Mr.. Cox: / am talking about
them all. There are ten or fifteen
members on this floor who We're on
opposite sides and tried their best to
kill each other during the war, and
| am sure [ have no better friends
than the gentlemen who fought
against me, nor have they any
warmer friends than men who were
on my side in that struggle; 50 that
what | say on this subject can not, l.
am sure, be misunderstood or at
tributed to any feeling ofhostility to
the Union soldiers. But | repeat
again, gentlemen, you are losing
sight of the valor and the honor of
the real soldier in this iadiscrimi-
nate pension legislation. What may
be your motives | do not undertake
to say, nor do presume to criticise
them. AS ! have already remarked ,
| have never said a word on this
subject before, and never will say
a word about it again, and what |
say now | say in the interest OF the
gallant soldiers OF the Union who
bore the brunt of the battle, and |
warn you that you are not keeping
sufficiently in mind the distinction
between them and the teamSters,
the army nurses, the camp followers
people who never heard the
whistle of bullet on the battle
field.
Now, | do not want to say word
about it, but do you not think, gentle
men that it is time to stop? Do you
not think we ought to call a halt?
Do you not think there is some place
where we had better put our mark
down? If a teamster is permitted to
receive a pension, when he had the
option to resign his place and leave
the army whenever he chose so, ii
he is to be placed on the pension
roll and on a footing with the gal
liant soldier who stood in the front
line of battle, have you not some
what lowered the character of the
soldier? Where will you stop?
Your army nurses, your teamsters,
your surgeons, your camp followers,
that never heard bullet whistle
is it not time we should stop? |
want to be understood frankly and
candidly, for l was on the other side
/ of the question, and did my best to
make pensioners of all of you.
see my friend across the way there,
and | am sure he and l had many a
good fight, but we are friends.
What 1 want to do is simply this,
and / will, as far as my vote goes
With the gallant soldier that | met
on the field of battle will be liberal ;
1 will be generous to him. will go
/ further than that will be exceed
ingly liberal to him. But l know
where we ought to call halt. Take
your nurses. your physicians, your
hospital stewards. l know more
than that. know there was a class
in your army, as there was in ours,
that never smelt the scent of gun
powder. Give me the old, honest
soldier that fought against me,
and no man on that side OF
| the House will go further
than 1 in his behalf. But when you
undertake to extend your bounty
over to a class that used the army
for the purpose of making a profit,
that is a class that 1 despise, that is
a class that | would under no cir
| -.,,,,4oroas ha willing To SuDnOrt