Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1906-07-12
ENTITLED TO A VOTE
OLD SOLDIERS IN HOMES IN mis-
SOURI,.
5upreme Court of the State So De
cided In an Opinion Written
BY Justice Lamm.

~ ANARo obhASJ
The circuit court decided that soldiers
In state homes could not vote, and the
votes Of those at the st. James fed.
eral soldiers home were thrown out,
and Hale declared elected collector
OF Phelps county.
In his opinion Judge Lamm says In
part:
In this connection 1t will be
seen that the person must be kept at a
poorhouse or other asylum at public ex-
p.ense. Can it be said, broadly and nobly,
tnat old soldiers are kept at public ex-
pense? The determination of this case
does not require an answer to this aues-
ton, but, in leaving it, matters and
memories obtrude themselves of no light
signihcance. In the first place. a consid.'
GRAFTON was paid the state on the part
OF the Woman's Relief corps of the Grand
Army of the Republic under the act maxi
ing the st. James soldiers home a state
institution. In the second place, a CON
sideration was paid the state by an asso.
citation of gentlemen owning or CONTROL.
ing the confederate home at Higginsville
under the act making that home a state
institution. Their lands and properties
We're taken over and accepted by the
state under those contracts. The STATE
or Missouri made the contracts. through
a motive of patriotic duty and along linei
OF sentimental beauty. The state oil
Missouri has shown no disposition to re.
greet the contracts or repudiate them by
the 1.-THE of a hair, and who shall, excepl
under the prick and goad of unuues.
toned constitutional mandate, dam the
current OF its authority or put bounds t
lection? Who shall weigh, as it were
with goldsmith's scales, the widows mite
that passed into the public chest and in
return for which the state of Missouri
nX nlhlln act 0n1nip n1u onrnnI t, ,,s.l
tain its soldiers, broken by misfortune,
In purse and health, inc at the samj
tlfne permit them to vote? If that thing
IS TO pc done, or can be done, 1t must b}
the parties to that contract are present
in court and may be heard, either as lit.
lgants or amici curia, n will not bs
done in Hale VS.. Stimson, contesting a
question of public expense must, further.
more, be viewed in the light that the
privilege of a home in the evening OF
their days, a hearthstone, of a chimney
and paid for with a great price by the
inmates and their comrades in arms
VINO, at this late day, in a piping time
OF peace. will measure that price or care
TO bring 1t within the precision of a lega!
formula? The men and their comrades
In arms, stalwart men, marched and
n r-marched, mined and counter.
mined, dug, starved, froze, planned, dared
war under Lee, johnson and StonewalI
jackson; under Grant. Sherman and Lo,
gan. Some of their comrades persisted
IN battle, on the lone picket, on the Iona
!narch, or wounds, OF prisons, by burn.
ing fever, by sickness of soul, or by dead.
ly miaslna
1t is written: "And as they bound
Hin with thongs, Paul SAID to the cen.
un~condemned? When the centurion
heard that he went and told the chief
captain, saying, Take heed what thou
doest; for this M is a Roman. Then
the chief captain came, and said unto
said, Yes. And the chief ~captai, an
sWered, With a great sum obtained this
freedom. And Paul said, But | was free
born"
Whether freedom for a soldier to vote
was obtained at a great price or was an
incident of being free born, in the case
at bar, matters little. Suffice it to say
that while he elective franchise may be
regulated by the state, yet in this case
it has been regulated by statute, and
that regulation should command obedi-
ence. Nor do we care to split hairs over
the question of which cause the inmates
of these homes fought for. Because 1t
was written in the book of fate that the
civil war had to come. Was the union
Of the states indissoluble, or was it a
contract between independent states to
be severed for cause? Did a citizen owe
primary allegiance to his state, or to the
national government? There We're giants
in those days, and some of them said
yea and some said nay. Between these
statesmen advocating them, a great gull
was fixed. Compromise proved a delu-
sion, Cancellation proved vain. Reason
was at an end. We can talk of it now
kindly. 1t is possible, now, in perspec-
tive, to speak of it with justice. 1t is
not necessary to blame any one. The
people We're not to blame-the %irrecon-
cilable, clashing, ~antagonistic notions
upon policies with the very
1ibers of this government we're alone t.
blame. The wedge that split this nation
in two for a time as forged and ham
mered home by powers beyond control.
norance of each other. There was a
growth of evil seeds planted before We
were born, and the question had to be
settled-not by, argument, not in court,
or his ancestor, had come from Ken
lucky, Illinois or Maryland, from Caro-
lima, Alabama or Georgia, from Tennes-
see or Indiana, from Germany, Ireland
shrine Of Calhoun, Clay, Webster, OF
Breckenridge or Douglas, of Benton o,
Gov. jackson. When the war cloud
broke there were Bates, Rollins, Phelps
Gratz Brown and Gamble, Hall and Hen
derson, Broadhead and Dyer, to tell him
that the union of the states could not
be dissolved and that Missouri was in
the Union, de facto and de jure. There
were Johnson and Vest, Reynolds and
Jackson. Polk and Green, Price and Clark
to tell him his state was Joined by right
and ties of blood TO his brethren of the
south.
the order of his going, but went under
two fiags-both Ways-Went at once. In
the smoke of war you see him riding
and fighting in gray. with Shelby or Mar
Price and Cockrell, with Parsons and
Marmaduke, with Bowen, Little and
Gates; or you see him in blue, marching
and fighting with Blair, Phillips, Critten-
den and osterhaus, with Lyon, Sigel
Guitar, Hale. When he came home from
the war his mighty mother, the state Of
Missouri, with a great heart, claimed
him as her son, proud of his deeds, res
olute to cherish his memory, magnani.
nous to forget his quarrel, tender Of boil
uniforms, and mourning over the dead
or war-worn and desolate confederate
and federal.
In this condition Of things we are told
that the constitutional convention Of 1879
so wrote the fundamental law that If the
state found any of these old soldiers al
the foot of the hill of life, stranded In
health and empty of pocket, 1T could not
give them a home or a nreside except
at one and the same time it took from
them a freeman's precious right to vote,
In a free state, sustained by no over
awning standing army, where Its love
must grow and its protection must resi-
in the hearts of the people, patriotism
should be nourished as a cardinal virtue
of citizenship. The statutes and and con-
stitution of such a state must not be
construed as ungrateful or unpatriotic,
and it would be a pitiable incentive to
their patriotism to hold up before de-
crepid defenders, deserted by fortune, the
picture of being rewarded for their sac
rihces and vaior with the brand Of a pau
per, under the roof Of a poorhouse, where,
In the language of the statutes regulat.
ing such institutions, r. s., section 1902,
the superintendent thereof shall have
power to cause persons kept In suck
p~oorhouse, who are able to do useful la
Dor, to perform the same by reasonable
and humane coercion"
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