The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1899-01-07
DON'T WANT PENSIONS.

Carolina, introduced his measure to
provide peusions for Confederate
soldiers it created ripple among cer-
tain classes. and few who had here
tofore gained prominence by waving
the 'b!oody shiru'' prepared to get the
old rag out again in order that they
might thereby regain little political
notoriety. but their hopes are blasted.
The exConfederates don't want any
persons. They know they fought for
lost cause and are not such leeches
that they would become burdens to
the government just because they
smelled powder, or to give some as
piring politician little thunder with
which to fill his guns on election day.
The Atlantic Constitution expressed
the sentiment of hearly all ex-Confed.
crates when it said:
The ATTEMPT on the part of some of
our republican contemporaries to show
that the ex-Confederate veterans are y
class of rabid pension-hunters, is ex-
ceedingly foolish. :.
We have recently had a new recon
strnction, and there ia no longer any
feeling of sectionalism in the South.
nor any prejndices against the
Northern people as such. This fact.
it seems, ia very alarming to those who
have heretofore emploved sectional
preju1ices as a snapper to their
political whips. ]. is probs BILE. indeed,
that they do not feel this prejudice
themselves. but they have employed it
for political purposes. so long and so
freely that they cannot help recurring
to the habit when the opportunity Of
fers.
We remem Der time. not so very
many years ago, when the New York
Tribune discovered nationl peril lin
big black type) in Confederate
claims" The country was informed
that if it elected the democratic candi-
date for, president, the treasury would
he looted to pay Confederate
Claims" Somehow or other, all these
"claims." amounting to millions and
millions, suddenly disappeared from
view when q democratic president was
elected. Some other scarecrow was
elected. Some other scarecrOw was
invented to do duty.
And DOW, when member of con-
gress who is VIGOROUSLY not q repre-
sentative of Southern desires or de.
signs moves that the ex-confederate
veterans be placed on the pension rolls,
those who are in the habit of appeal.
ing to sectional prejudices for political
purposes straighsway take the cue,
and anxiously insist that these veter-
ans are rapidly seeking to secure
places as pensioners.
We assure the anxious brethren that
there Is nothing in it. The Con-
federate veterans are not seeking
federal pensions. They never dreamed
of such thing. The man who made
the proposal in the senate may have
been perfectly sincere in it; but we
take leave to doubt his sincerity. If
he did not introduce his measure for
political purposes-he is very far from
being democratic Is simply case
Of stopping over, Everybody knows
how easy it is to slop over, especially
in moment of enthusiasm.
We beg, therefore, that when our
Northern brethren are engaged in
knocking at the closed door of sectional
ism, they will not leave their readers to
infer that the Confederate veterans are
engaged in any movement 90 absurd ,or
that they harbor any desire to have
their names placed on the pension
rolls of the federal government. AL
ready these rolls have grown to such
scandelous proportions that it ia hardly
an honor for even Union soldier to
to have his name there, sandwiched
between the names of those who were
kicked by mules or disabled while
specufating at the tail end of suffers
wagon.
There are great many things that
those who fought against the Con-
federates can give them credit for.
No Northern man is likely to impugn
the courage with which they fought for
their convictions; nobody is likely to
deny that they had convictions; why
not, therefore, give them. credit for q |
little common sense? BY doing this
the Northern brethren will not only |
ease their own anxieties and calm |
their own fears, but save themselves q
lot of trouble besides.