The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1907-01-17
WE ARE NO "REBELS."
Senate Substitutes "Civii War" for
"War Of Rebellion" in Pension
Act After Listening to Bacon.

Act After Listening to Bacon.
A Washington dispatch says: After
two hours debate the senate Friday
passed Senator McCumbers service
pension bill without division, after
amending it at Senator Carmack's
instance 80 as to make it apply to
survivors of the Mexican war as well
as those of the civil war and so as
to prohibit pension attorneys from re-
ceiying fees for securing pensions un-
der the bill
The words in the bill war of the
rebellion" were changed to civil
war;" after some discussion as to what
the war Of 1851 to 1865 really was.
Messrs. Money, Bacon and Patter-
son ccntended that it was war be-
tween the states" while Mr.. Teller
said it was either civil war or
rebellion and he saw no opprobrlum In
the word ''rebel."
The bill grants pension of s12 to
survivors of the civil and Mexican
wars who have reached the age oI
62: SIS to those who are 20 years
of age and $40 to those who are 7o
or over.
Senator McCumber estimates that
if the bill becomes a law it will in
crease the pension expenditures of the
country to about s6,000,ooO Annually,
while the commissioner Of pensions
thinks that the increase will be be-
tween $4,000 and $4,000 a year.
In his remarks Senator Bacon rose
and entered an earnest objection to
the use Of the term war Of the re-
bellion," and insisted that the proper
designation should be ''the civil war"
and that this title should 81 used
whenever that struggle was referred
to in official paperS.
In defense of his contention, Sena-
tor Bacon, having the undivided at
tention of the senate, proceeded with
a legal explanation OF the reasons
for his stand, and a careful state
ment of the legal and constitutional
phases of the question. He declared:
81 say that the term rebellion is
not a proper designation. A rebellion
is resistance to an acknowledged au-
thority. It was a much greater war
than a war of rebellion 1t was a
great war between the people Of the
foremost nation now and among the
foremost nations then of the earth
on a great question about which they
had been divided for nearly a hundred
years, in which there was no resist
ance to a recognized authority, but
in which there was an insisteat and a
greet struggle over the question as
to what was the intention of the gov.
ernment from its foundation.
1T was a war in support OF a claim
of legal right, claimed Oh the one
side and disputed on the other. 1t
was a war, not q rebellious faction,
but one between two great peoples
who were made one indivisible by
the result Of that war. The senator
from Colorado says that every one
who was confederate soldier should
acquiesce in it, and be wiling 10 abide
by the designation Of the war of r.
belion,' and of himself as. rebel.
was a very humble soldicr in that war,
confederate soldier, and I object
to it, because it is not correct, and,
not being correct, it is more or less
offensive" concluded Senator Racon.
In reply to the senator from Colo
rado, Mr.. Teller. who called attention
to the use of the word rebellion,
in the fourteenth amendment to the
constitution, Senator Bacon said:
eft proves nothing, except that III
the heat and tempest and flame OF
i'll feeling, 1 started to say hate, which
was imediately consequent upon the
war. terms were used both north and
south. which were designed to be OF,
fensive and odious. The term rebel
lion is odious, and what is odious,
must be in a degree offensive"
r.