The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-01-15
A SERVICE PENSION Is NATIONAL DEBT.

the Government was obliged to take of
them in the matter of their pay. The
question of pay was of little consequence
to most of the young men who flocked to
the defense of the Flag. They would
have gone all the same had there not been
a dollar paid them, and when they were
once in the army they would have fought
on to the end, though the greenbacks i'll
which they were paid became as worth
less as the Confederate money.
They went out to save the Government,
and the sacrifice in the way of pay was
the smallest of the MANY that they made
in the performance of their duty. But
when the country was saved-when the
bitter contest was over and peace and
prosperity returned to the land-they
were not n little disturbed to see that the
men who merely lent money to the Ma
ton were repaid to the uttermost farthing
of the face value of their bonds. while no
mention was made of the injustice that
had been done them by paying them in
money worth frequently only one-third of
that which was agreed upon when they
enlisted.
The 81 SIG men who responded to Pres
ident Lincoln's first call received S11 a
month in gold or its equivalent. Congress
then raised the pay to S13 month. Of
course, there was no other thought than
this would be gold and silver, in which
the Government had always paid its OBJ
legations Under the second call 0,6S0
enlisted for three years, and 1907 for
three months. Under the third call, 421,-
465 men enlisted for three years. Under
the fourth call, S7.5SS men enlisted for
nine months. Under the fifth call, 16361
men enlisted for six months. Under the
sixth call, 369.3SO men enlisted for three
years. Under the seventh call, 800, 1913
men enlisted for three years. All these
men received $13 a month, but imme-
der the second call the Government began
to pay them in paper, which Gen. Scott
assured them was us good as gold and
presumably would remain so, but which
at once began to decline in value, until
by the middle of 1864, the greenback dol
lar was worth only 35 cents in gold. Thus.
while every other kind of labor and serv-
ice at home was bringing immensely en-
HANGED rewards, the pay of the soldier
had lost two-thirds of the value originally
promised. The men who fought the PEN
insular Campaign: who took Fort Donel-
son and went through the awful wrestle
of blood at Shiloh; who fought at Perry
vile, and stood with Rosecrans in the
evil hour at Stone River; who went
through the fearful fighting Of the second
Bull Run; and that sanguinary 18th of
September at Antietam: who struggled
through the maiarious swamps of the
Mississippi and captured Vicksburg to al
low 'the Father of Waters to flow I'M
vexed to the sea-" who won the crowning
victory of Gettysburg, and stood with
Thomas on Chickamauga's River of Death:
who hurled Bragg back from the frown-
ing nights of Lookout Mountain and
Mission Ridge; who starved with Burn
side in East Tennessee; received for all
this but $13 a month in greenbacks, the
value of which averaged but little over
20 cents. In other words. the men who
were performing these momentous serv-
ices. suffering all these intense strains and
hardships, Drawing every day the most
mortal dangers. received somewhere be-
nd
les at home were getting So or 81 day
and higher. and laborers in other harvest
fields than those of death received like
amounts.
The glazing injustice of this was so ap-
parent that May. 1864. Congress raised
the pay of the private soldier to SIG a
month. but in the meanwhile the depre-
citation of the greenback had gone on still
more rapidly, until. in July, 1864, II took
s2.S5 in greenbacks to buy 81 In gold.
Practically, 81 in gold was worth So In
greenbacks. On this pay the men fought
the frightful struggle of the Wilderness,
the siege of Petersburg. destroyed Early's
army In the Shenandoah, fought for 100
days from Chattanooga to Atlanta. and
made the March to the Sea and through
the Carolinas, and utterly wrecked Hoods
army before Nashville. They accepted
this besgarly pay with patriotic willing
ness, because the Government was in sore
straits for money. and. differing from any
soldiers in history. they cared only for the
reward of victory and to rescue our in
situations from destruction. But when
they came home and resumed their civil
employments, began paying taxes and pro-
viding the revenue for the Government,
they found that the men who had simpIy
been lending money to the Government
at extortionate rates of interest: who had
driven the hardest and most usurious bar
gains, were demanding in gold the last
hard earned penny of the face of their
bonds. Where they had lent 500 in de-
preciated greenbacks to the Government
sreenbacks worth anywhere from 35 cents
upward, and had received an interest in
gold of from II to Is per cent.-they were
now demanding 100 cents in gold on every
dollar they loaned. The most unheard of
and drastic measures were resorted TO in
order to pay them this, and for years they
received $15O.OO0.000 a year In gold, more
than the pensions are costing today. To
meet this the young veterans who had
come home and were industriously labor
ing to build up war wrecked country.
paid taxes on everything. from the