The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-03
Il VETERANS VIEWS.
Reasons Why EX-SOldiers Should Not
Vote the Democratic Ticket.
the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:

To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
The Indianapolis Sentinel, in an editorial
under date of Oct. 26, claims that the Demo-
cratic party, while in control of the gov
eminent, was responsible for all, or nearly
all, of the pension legislation that has been
enacted for the benefit of the veterans, and
that 'the old soldiers have found their
truest friends in the Democratic party" If
that claim be true, then why are the Demo-
Gratis of this State (headed by their official
aspirants) making such frantic efforts to
disfranchise the old soldiers in the home
thus depriving them of the right of citizen
ship at the polls? Truly, if the old soldiers
know and had always known to a certainty
that the Democratic party Gas whole had
always been true to them and loyal to their
interests, in Congress and out of it (and
that the Republicans had no), they (the
old soldiers) would always, in the majority
nave been loyal to the Democracy instead
OF to the Republican party (would they not?)
The editor of the Sentinel says that Hon.
A. n. Martin, of Bluffton, was the author
OF the bill making pensions a vested right,
and that 1t was through his efforts that it
became law. Granted that the above is
true, it is, nevertheless, a fact that a Demo-
cratic commissioner of pensions, under
Democratic secretary of the interior, and
each by authority of a Democratic admin
istration, dropped thousands of deserving
Old soldiers from the pension rolls without
que notce before hand, demanding of them
by what right they were drawing pension
from the government they fought and suf-
fered for, to sustain when the medical
boards had settled that. l personally know
of several highly deserving and decrepit old
veterans of the civil war who by living
economically could barely manage to get
hPi 1VU0 nncN +l,os~
allowance OF perhaps So or $40 per month.
but even this small pittance was denied
tilelH Ny Tins same DeiHocrdIlc aQmlnlStra-
ton, as the Sentinel terms it, 1.-THE soldiers
friend"
But worse than all, right in the towns and
communities where these unfortunate vet
Grams lived, there resided other soldiers who
were less unfortunate physically; some of
these were the fortunate possessors of
sions, from the lowest to the highest limit
OF the law, yet they were not disturbed:
only the decrepit ones were by this friendly
Democratic administration, tho soldiers
friend. Yes, / believe the Democrats did
pass the Mexican war bill, giving all the
participants in that war $12 per month. But
south Of the Ohio river, and had subse-
quently been in the Confederate army /
through the civil war Veteranized and
while home on furlough in the winter of
63 and ga, ! heard some of these same
Democratic friends of the old soldiers of
to-day say that they hoped that every
id man that went down there to fight
those SouthernerS would be killed and their
carcasses left to rot unburied. Yes and the
boys in blue made some of them wish they
had not been quite SO handy with their
mouths before they left them / consider
that every old soldier who votes a Demo-
cratic ticket simply repudiates the princi-
pies he fought for in that war. This party
that did everything in it's power Gas in the
present war; to diScredit and defame the
administration of notwithstanding the
war to be failure and demanding peace
on any terms-iS a delightful friend for an
old Union veteran to tie to-
The Sentinel, believe, was the organ of
the peace" element in war times Ito put it
in its mlldest terml of this great party
the Soldiers friend the party that for
political effect, is now doing (as it did in
Lincoln's time) all it possibly can to damn
and bring into general disfavor at home
and abroad the noble and patriotic purposes
OF the administration of William Mckinley.
The Union Veterans--in the majority
stand by the Republican party for the rea-
son that it's the party of progress and it
has placed upon the statutes of our country
financial and industrial laWs'' that have
made it the mightiest nation on earth.
Also it is the party that took the initiative
in suppressing the rebellion and restoring
the unity of the Nation, which has made
the above-named conditions possible.
S. WALLACE.
National Soldiers Home. Marion, Ind,
Nov l.