The National tribune., 1900-02-15
THE COMMANDER In CHIEFS SPEECH.
Vigorous and Telling Denunciation of the
Pension Commissioner.
A. the Ebbi House. Washington, D. c.
Monday Evening 5,

COMMANDER. COMRADES, AND GEN-
TLEMEN: l am proud OF the privilege OF
being present here tonight as Commander
in-Chef of the Grand Army of the Republic
and the successor of the many distinguish
ed comrades who have preceded me since
our Order was founded in 1866. The ever
beloved Logan, always chivalrlc. as the
idol of the veteran of the Union, stands at
the head of the list He was indeed the
Union soldiers friend, as he was the faith
full and devoted defender of the Republic.
1t was my good fortune several months
ago to attend a Reunion of comrades at
Olney, in Illinois, near the old home OF
Logan. and there had an opportunity OF
looking into the faces and shaking hands
with many of his early and Steadfast COM
rades of the COS. 1t was an occasion OF
inspiring memories for all were touch
ingly true to the memory OF Black Jack
Logan, soldier, comrade, and statesman.
recall not without emotion the fact that
in 1861 / marched through this city as
private soldier to our camp on Meridian
Hill, and that while camping there the guns
of the first Bull Run suddenly doomed
upon our ears, and later, that the strag-
glers and wounded, returning from that
bloody battlefield, We're our first object
lessons of the horrid and brutal sacrifices
of war. ] remember well, two days after
the battle, seeing President Lincoln, stand
ing near Pennsylvania Avenue, close to the
Treasury Department, sadly looking to-
wounded soldiers slowly made their way
along this great street. ! can never forget
the pathetic sadness of his rugged features
and from that hour to this have felt that
he was under God, the more than Moses OF
HIS time sent to lead the Nation to
larger and nobler destiny through the new
birth OF full freedom and full fellowship OF
the highest and nobleSt Christian citizen
ship as Americans-one in a common
love OF a common inheritance of liberty
Under the Stars and Stripes OF the formative
epoch of Washington"
The Grand Army of the Republic, COM
posed of veterans who volunteered to serve
and save the Nation. Is their friend. and
who stacked arms in peace and JOY when the
Judgment of the sword decided the terrible
conflict in the surrender at AppomattoX.
Our Order is "a years old; of full age,
and glorious in its girth and grain, of lofty
patriotism and heroic valor, equal to the
priceless issues of liberty its members de-
Tended and so far guarded, and immortal in
the redeemed life of our matchless Republic,
dedicated anew by them to full freedom
forever.
A RIGHTEOUS PENSION POLICY.
feel it my duty to speak of the righteous
pension policy of our Government, which
grateful people from the first from Revo-
1utionary times-has nobly sustained.
The heroes of our wars-volunteers for
common defense-deserve the consderate
gratitude and pensions as their first re-
wards of merit as SaviorS of the Nation.
The volunteer armies and naVIeS OF the
United States from Washington to Me-
Kinley, from Paul Jones and Perry to
Farragut and Porter and Dewey and Samp-
son and Schley, have proved equal to every
duty, and have added new luster to Fame''s
immortal dead-roll. Patriotism as senti-
ment is the most glorious attribute OF
citizenship; but patriotism alone leaves
Tho OinO uofpran nap6v their old
age and poverty. twill not take the place
of food and raiment, and the man who
aimed the gun in fighting the battles of his
country should not be allowed to suffer for
the ordinary comforts OF life in his Old
age in the Nation his sacrifices saved to
unprecedented riches and National glory.
And so / say here and now, almost under
The shadow of the splendid Capitol of our
great country, that the generous pension
policy of the people should be its greatest
Joy and pride, and that it should be so
administered that no needy and worthy
applicant should feel that his just claims
were not promptly and fully adjudicated.
/ know well that large number of names
ore already on the pension roll, but / also
understand that the roll is long because the
list of volunteers required to save the Nation
was unprecedented in the past life-and-
death struggle of Government. In view
of the wide dissatisfaction over the manner
In which the Pension Office is at present
administered,-and l speak OF it simply
as the Unknown current opinion among
veterans,-in this connection my admins
tration is doing its best to bring about
happier sentiment among veterans. and to
compose, if possible, through wise methods
of adjudication, the pathetic appeals now
coming to it in thousands Of cases for justice
under existing laws. Acting upon the very
able report the Committee of Pensions pre-
scented to the Philadelphia Encampment,
and which received the unanimous in
dorsement of that representative body of
veterans, your Commander-in-Chief and
the reappointed and reinforced Pension
Committee have not been idle in bringing
to the notice of the President, Comrade
Mckinley, and the Congress the important
explanatory amendments brought out IN
the report in question. The comrades of
the Nation are well advised of the present
situation as regards the action taken by
the President in his last annual message
concerning the recommendations of the
Pension Committee and the amendments to
the act of June 27, 1890, SO as to make
clear beyond any doubling what the people
meant in passing the law, as represented
by the Congress, and which are now pend
ing. We have been assured that the
amendments will become law, and if SO.
/ am satisfied that a measure OF relief will
be thus secured Of the most happy and
desirable sort.
A PENSION COURT OF APPEALS.
But this is not all in the line Of Justice
and right that your Administration has
felt called upon to earnestly press upon the
Congress in behalf of veterans. A bill is
now almost ready for submitting to the Ma
tional lawmakers for the creation Of a
Pension Court of Appeals, to be composed
of jurists appointed for life, selected by the
President from both Of the great political
parties, and from different sections Of our
country, so that the rejected applications
FOR pensions can be finally reviewed and
passed upon bya competent and impartial
court of appeals, free from partisan or
personal influences of any kind. / have
consulted some Of our most competent
without dissenting voice they have most
cordially favored the plan. In company
with the Pension Committee / presented
this plan to the President, and he assured us
that it seemed to him to have great merit
We found the President earnest in his
expressed desire to see justice done the
saviors Of the Nation so far as laid in his
power, and he gave us assurances that
he was most anxious that such action
might be taken as would satisfy the honest
and worthy claims every defender of the
Union had upon the gratitude and aid OF
the Government.
i am frank in saying that i believe a
grave injustice is being done to great
number OF worthy applicants whose APP
peals from a eSected pension claim are lying
and some of them have long been pigeon
holed-among the 130, GOO cases now in the
present Board of Appeals in the Secre-
tary's office.
Such a state of things is unworthy of a
great Nations policy, saved to posterity
by the deed of thousands whose aDpltca-