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THE NATIONAL TKIBUNE: -WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUABY 11, 1882,
4
Phe Hatioml Tribune
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.
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' T"E VALIDITY OF ThE FUBL1C DEET OF THE UNITED STATES,
AUTHORIZED BV LAV, INCLUDING DEBTS INCURRED FOR PAfMENT OF
pensions A.ND eoL-vnes FOR SERVICES IN SUPPRESSING INSURREC
TION OR RCfcELUCS, ft-LL NOT EE QUESTIONED." SEC. 4, ART.
Xv Constitution of the United States.
rntrrcd t tht 'WMhjEgiim City Poft-OSet is lecoad-clj ranter.
WASHINGTON, B. C, FEBRUARY 11, 1882.
Is the new motto of the Republic to be "mil
lions for bonds, but not one cent for pensions."
The Shorter Catechism, as revised by Beck :
" What is the chief aim of man ? Ans To glo
rify Beck and obey him forever."
The time seems to be fast approaching when
no one will dare to admit that he fought to pre
serve the Union but he shall be accused of being
a swindler: that is to say, an applicant for a
pension!
The Government can save money by repealing
the Arrears of Pension Act, but then perhaps it
would have been still cheaper to have let the
Confederate States seceded without a protest!
Our "erring sister States" were perfectly willing
to retire in peace and set up for themselves.
These are hard, times. The Government can
only afford to pay off the bondholders at the rate
of about 813,000,000 per month, and these pen
sion acts take at least $3,000,000 per month from
the Treasury. Why not repeal all the pension
acts, appropriate the money to star routes', and
make Senator Beck happy ?
The spectacle of the American soldier going
from door to door to beg his bread would, doubt
less, fill Senator Beck with delight, but we do
not believe it would gratify a single man who
fought in the Confederate army. Mr. Beck seems
to think that it is gratitude which is the basest
of crimes.
. .
"What was the war all about?" asked an
innocent child of the long-haired editor. "Oh,
you couldn't understand, if I told you," replied
the great man, as he culled another brilliant
editorial from the encyclopedia, "but I daresay
it was one of those jobs of the pension claim
agents ! " And a pretty good j ob it was, too !
General Custer's widow is reported to be
living in straightened circumstances. She ap
plied the insurance on her husband's life to the
payment of claims against the estate, and is now
dependent upon the pension of a Lieutenant
Colonel's widow. It is likely that Congress will
be asked to grant her the pension of a General's
widow. But what of the thousands of soldiers'
widows?
,
It is now understood that the Senate and
House Pensions Committees will recommend an
increase of force in the Pension Office, to be
immediately available, in order to settle, as
speedily as possible, the rapidly -accumulating
claims on the flies of the Office. There is more
occasion for this increase now than ever, since
Secretary Kirkwood has notified Commissioner
Dudley that he must not employ any more
clerks until the appropriation is made.
There was a spicy debate in the Senate on
Thursdaj of last week apropos of the rule in force
at the Boston and Cincinnati post-offices requir
ing applicants for office to be under thirty years
of age. The effect of this regulation is, of course,
to bar out all soldiers of the late war, whether
that is its intent or not. As Senator Yoorhees
suggested, as well might the sign "no soldier
need apply " be placed over the door! And yet
we have a notion that if our veterans knocked
hard enough they would be admitted. If the
postmasters refuse to let them in, perhaps the
President may be induced to turn the post
masters out Things surely have not yet come
to such a pass that the mere fact of having fought
to preserve the Government is a disqualification
Jbr serving it in a civil capacity.
(7"t Off' j
Justice, not Charity.
Elsewhere in these eolumns will be found the
full text of Senator Voorhees' eloquent speech in
defense of the Arrears of Pensions Act. Its pub
lication has been unavoidably delayed, but it is
one of those masterly appeals to human reason
which do not lose their power when the occasion
that calls them forth passes away. Every line
of this remarkable speech breathes forth the most
exalted patriotism, but it derives its greatest
force from the fact that it is a ringing call to the
country to render not pity, not charity, not
alms but simple, naked justice to its pensioners.
Before its fervent periods all the sophistries, the
calumnies, and willful falsehoods which the ene
mies of the Pension acts have brought forward
melt away like the mists of morning before the
rising sun, and the truth, fixed and eternal,
stands out like the North star in the heavens
on some clear and frosty night.
We shall attempt no analysis of on this
memorable address, but there are two points, at
least, which cannot be too earnestly pressed upon
the attention of the public. In the first place, is
the American soldier to be treated as the almoner
or the creditor of the Nation, and in the second,
if he is a creditor, is his claim equally good with
that of the bondholder? Upon these hang all
the law and the prophets. An affirmative
answer carries with it the justification of the
Arrears of Pensions Act and a negative answer
The
its rnndemnation. What are the facts?
Government, at a time when it had sore need of
men to fight its battles, entered into a contract
to care for those who were disabled in its service,
and support the families of those who were killed.
At the same time, having need also of the means
to defray the expenses of the war, it entered into
a contract to pay a certain interest on such loans
of money as might be made to it. This last
contract was expressed in the form of a bond,
the value of which depended absolutely upon
the result of the war. Had the Government
from any cause its inability to raise an army
or the refusal of that army to do its duty failed
to put down the rebellion, its bonds would have
been worthless, so that it is to the valor and
patriotism of the American soldier that the
bondholder is indebted for the recovery of his
money. If the Government's obligation, then, to
carry out its contract with the bondholder was
sacred, how much more sacred was its obligation
to the soldier who made that possible ! He, not
the bondholder, by every principle of equity
and justice was the preferred creditor ; aud yet,
when the time for the fulfillment of the Gov
ernment's obligations came around, the soldier
was forced to accept part pay, while the bond
holder was paid in full. That is to say, Con
gress, in all the pension laws that it passed
down to 1879, set a limit as to the time for
which pensions should begin, so that, unless a
claim was filed within a certain period, the claim
ant would be debarred from drawing a pension
from the date at which his service ended and his
part of the contract was discharged. The bond
holder, on the contrary, was permitted to present
his claim at any time. It was to atone for this
rank injustice that the Arrears of Pensions bill
was passed, and its effect was neither more nor
less than to place the men who gave their lives
to the country on an equal footing with those
who merely lent their money.
It has been charged that this measure was a
gigantic swindle, and at this very moment the
newspapers are urging its repeal. If it was a
swindle, in what did the swindle consist? The
Government evidently was not swindled, for the
act simply compelled it to discharge a debt of its
own creation, and to creditors the legality of
wThose claims it had itself prescribed the manner
of proving, and the bill made no claim valid
that was not so before. Who then was swindled?
It has been said that it opened the door to the
payment of fraudulent claims. How, wider than
before, without a change in the laws as to the
character of proof required to establish the va
lidity of a claim ? But the payment of the ar
rears, it is further said, involves the Government
in greater expense than its revenues warrant.
Supposing, for the sake of argument, that such
was the case, in what way would that diminish
the obligation of the Government to pay its debts
or affect the principle involved in paying them?
But, as Senator Voorhees points out, the facts as
well as the arguments are all the other way.
The total amount paid for pensions up to July
1st, 1881, was but $51G,583,396, while on that
date $1,987,567,801 had been paid for interest
alone on 2,049,975,700 of Government bonds,
which really cost the holders but $1,371.424,238,
since they paid for them in a depreciated currency
and sold them for gold, thedifference amounting to
a clear bonus of $678,551 ,4G2, or $162,008,066 more
than the entire cost of pensions. But the insin
cerity of this cry of economy becomes still more
apparent when we come to consider the fact that at
this very moment the Government is paying off
the public debt out of its surplus revenues at the
rate of $13,000,000 (the amount paid in January )
a month, or $150,000,000 a year, while, according
to the estimate of Commissioner Dudley, trans
mitted to the House of Representatives last
week, even were the survivors of the Mexican
war pensioned, the total annual expense would
be ouly $60,000,000 per year at the start, and
would diminish steadily thereafter until, twenty
five years hence, it would be but $23,000,000,
the receipts from taxes meanwhile as steadily
increasing. No wonder that the advocates of
the repeal of the Pension Arrears Act are so
anxious to reduce internal revenue taxation!
Our plethoric Treasury gives the lie to their
assertions touching the poverty of the Govern
ment and Commissioner Dudley's figures effectu
ally dispose of the rest of their argument.
A Sacred Duty.
The bill now on the House Calendar, author
izing the Government to accept title to the
Marine Hospital building at Erie, Pa., and to
establish there a home for indigent soldiers and
sailors, has opened up an important question
touching the duty of the General Government
towards such of its late defenders as are no
longer able to earn a living by their own labor.
The bill in question has been twice reported
favorably from the House Committee on Military
Affairs once in the last Congress but was
never before reached on the calendar. The
building which the State of Pennsylvania pro
poses to donate to the General Government was
originally erected at a cost of $110,000, and is
said to be large enough to accommodate two
thousand inmates. It is beautifully located
in
the midst of a park of 102 acres and
commands a fine view of Lake Erie. In
deed, from the description given by the spon
sor of the bill Mr. Bayne, of Pennsylvania
it must be admirably adapted for the purpose to
which it is proposed to devote it. One might
suppose that no objection would be offered to
tue reception of such a valuable gift, but when
the bill came up for consideration in Committee
of the Whole on the 31st ultimo it provoked one
of the most vigorous debates of the session,
during which the whole history of pension legis
lation came under review. The Democratic
members, by whom the measure was most
actively antagonized, took "economy," of course,
for their text. They declared that if the General
Government accepted this building and estab
lished a soldiers' home in Pennsylvania it was in
duty bound to do as much for every other loyal
State, and that it would, moreover, be com
mitted to the general policy of supporting indi
gent soldiers and sailors of the late war with
out regard to whether or not they received
bodily injury in the service a policy which
they took pains to announce would put the
Government to enormous expense. It was
also intimated that this was simply a device to
relieve the State of Pennsylvania from the cost of
supporting its own paupers, but this point was
abandoned when it was explained by Mr. Bayne
that soldiers from other States would be eligible
for admission. The enemies of the bill contended
further that the States themselves should estab
lish and maintain the necessary soldiers' homes,
and they cited the action of New York and Mas
sachusetts as worthy of imitation, although, as
Mr. Bayne took occasion to remind the House, it
is difficult to see how that can relieve the Na
tional Government of the duty to take care of its
soldiers.
The debate, indeed, finally developed the fact
that the hostility to the bill was not founded in
any desire on the part of the Democratic Mem
bers to compel the States to care for the veterans
of the war, but to prevent any further recogni
tion of the General Government's obligation to
provide for them. The true spirit of the opposi
tion was manifested when Mr. Reagan, of Texas,
formerly postmaster-general of the confederacy,
denounced the Arrears of Pensions Act as a
" monstrosity."
The issue, as raised by this discussion, cannot
be better defined than in the words of Mr.
Browne, of Indiana, who said in the course of an
eloquent speech in support of the measure :
"This is only a question as to whether the
States, the communities, shall maintain these
paupers, or whether the men who were engaged
in the common defense shall become the recipi
ents of the whole bounty, the common bounty,
of the whole people, who appreciate their circum
stances. They have to be maintained under the
provisions of this bill. The people of the States,
the communities, maintain them now, and this
proposes that the people of the whole country
shall assist in maintaining them. It makes but
little difference, Mr. Chairman, which way you
pay the expense. It takes so much money to do
it; and I want to see the men, now paupers in
the poor-houses in this country, placed in sol
diers' homes, in asylums, where they will not feel
hourly, day by day, the reproach of the people
who placed them in these common lazar-houses
in all parts of the country."
It is of course impossible to foretell the ulti
mate fate of this particular bill, but there can be
no dispute as to the preponderance of public sen
timent touching the justice of the policy which
it enunciates. It is greatly to be desired, of
course, that the several States should make
proper provision by the establishment of soldiers'
homes for the care of our impoverished veterans,
but they cannot be coerced into doing so. They
are not under the same obligation as the General
Government te support them, except as common
paupers, and we do not believe that "economy"
yet requires that they should be abandoned to
the squalor, filth, sickening food, and general
wretchedness of a county alms-house. The
country is too prosperous, and its citizens too
patriotic to sanction such a heartless neglect of
the brave men who risked their lives for the
preservation of the Union. Their very misfor
fortunes should endear them to us, and we should
esteem it a blessed privilege to make happy their
declining years.
Regular subscribers who receive extra copies
of The National Tribune will please distrib
ute them among their soldier friends.
WHAT CONGRESS IS DOING.
The Senate has at last passed the Sherman
funding bill and it now goes to the House, where
it may possibly be tinkered to death. When the
vote was reached on the 3d inst. thirty-eight
Senators recorded themselves in its favor and but
eighteen acainst it. It provides for the issue of
3 uer cent, bonds to an amount not exceeding
S200.000.000 interest to be payable quarterly or
semi-annually, and the proceeds to be applied
solely to the retirement of the 3 per cents. They
are not to be called in and paid so long as any
bonds bearing a higher rate of interest are out
standing and uncalled.
On the previous day (February 2d) Mr. Ferry
reported back the resolution introduced by Mr.
Yoorhees last October directing the Committee
on Post-Offices and Post-Roads to inquire by
what laws or authority the Postmaster-General
had approved a rule of the Cincinnati post-office
(in operation also at Boston) that applicants for
position must be over twenty and under thirty
years old, thus excluding all Union soldiers of
the late war. The report was to the effect that
the rule was first approved by Postmaster-General
Key, on the ground that by virtue of their
financial responsibility postmasters should be
allowed to prescribe such qualifications as they
pleased for their subordinates, and that the in
tent was not to exclude Union soldiers. "But it
does do it," interjected Mr. Yoorhees, "and the
only way to correct this evil is to quit doing it
and have an order emanate to these men (the
Cincinnati and Boston postmasters) to abrogate
this rule, or else take their heads and put them
in the waste basket where they belong." Not
withstanding this home thrust from the Demo
cratic side of the Senate, the report was ac
cepted and the committee discharged.
The Pensions Committee has reported back a
bill granting life pensions of $5,000 each to the
widows of Presidents Garfield, Polk, and Tyler,
in lieu of any other pension. There will probably
be no opposition to its passage.
The House bill admitting free of duty goods
in bond contributed for the relief of colored emi
grants in Kansas was taken up on the 3d instant
and passed.
Mr. Hoar has reported an electoral-count bill
from the Privileges and Elections Committee. It
provides that the electors of each State shall
meet and give their votes on the second Monday
in January next following their appointment at
such places as the legislatures of the States may
direct; that each State, before the time fixed for
the meeting of the electoral colleges, may deter
mine, by a tribunal of its own creation, all con
troversies concerning the appointment of its
electors; that the Governor's lists of the electors
shall be made in accordance with such determi
nation ; that no electoral vote from any State
from which one return has been receiyed shall
be rejected except by the affirmative votes of
both houses of Congress, and that in case two or
more returns are received from any one State
those votes and those only shall be counted
which both Houses of Congress acting separate
ly shall concurrently decide are supported by
the State tribunal. The bill also provides that
if the counting of the votes shall not have been
completed before the 5th calendar day next after
the first meeting of the two Houses no recess
shall afterward be taken by either House until
after the counting shall have been finished.
In the Senate, on Tuesday, the bill for the de
livery of 150 pieces of condemned bronze cannon
to the Society of the Army of the Cumberland
for a Garfield statue in Washington was amended,
by substituting a provision for the payment of
$7,500 out of the proceeds of condemned ordnance,
and passed. Among the bills reported favorably
was one to retire Gen. Meigs, with the rank and
pay of a major-general.
Among the items of business transacted by
the Senate on Monday was the passage of a bill
providing for the purehase for the Government
of the Freedman's Bank property in Washington
for a sum not to exceed $250,000, and the adop
tion of a resolution offered by Mr. Morgan for a
reciprocity treaty between United States and
Mexico. The rest of the session was taken up
with the debate on Mr. Ingalls' resolution declar
ing that the pensions arrears laws ought not to
be repealed, during which Messrs. Ingalls and
Hawley spoke in support of the resolution.
On Wednesday bills were introduced : By Mr.
Mahone directing the Secretary of the Treasury
to examine and settle the accounts of certain
States and the city of Baltimore, arising out the
war of 1812. By Mr. Blair Joint resolution
proposing an amendment to the Constitution
orohibitine: the manufacture, sale, importation,
and exportation of alcoholic liquors and other
poisonous beverages from and after 1900.
After an informal discussion by Messrs. Mor
gan and Allison upon the sufficiency of the re
sponse made by the Secretary of War to Mr.
Morgan's resolution, calling for tbe full report of
the mixed board of ordnance, the matter was
laid aside and the Senate resumed consideration
of the resolution declaring the pension arrears
law ought not to be repealed, and Mr. Blair, in
its favor, made an argument to illustrate the
correctness of the principle upon which arrears
are based.
House.
The Post-Office appropriation bill engaged the
attention of the House in Committee of the
Whole for the greater part of the session of
the 2d instant, but no real progress was made.
The only other matter of interest that was before
it was the conflict of jurisdiction between the
special Committee on Pensions, Bounty, and
Back Pay and the two regular Committees on Mili
tary Affairs and Invalid Pensions, the question
coming up on a report from the first named com
mittee in favor of tabling a resolution discharg
ing it from the consideration of all the bills before
it and thus virtually abolishing it. The report
was finally adopted, and in the debate which pre
ceded, it was clearly shown that there was plenty
of work for all the committees, so that any action
would have delayed the settlement of many pend
ing pension claims and worked a hardship to
needy petitioners.
The session of the 3d inst. was taken up with
the consideration of the bill reported favorably
from the Committee on Ways and Means by Mr.
Kelley, releasing the Reading Railroad Company
from the tax assessed on the certificates issued
by it in lieu of cash during its financial embar
rassments some three years ago, and involving
the sum of $483,700. The law provides for the
levying of a tax of ten per cent, on the notes of
all persons, firms, or associations, other than na
tional banks, and every corporation, State bank
or State banking association used for circulation,
and paid out by them, and the Reading Company
resisted the tax on the ground that its notes were
not intended for circulation, although as a matter
of fact they did circulate, and were received as
cash. The bill was overwhelmingly defeated
109 to 45.
The session of Saturday was devoted princi
pally to the PostO-flice appropriation bill, consid
ered in Committee of the Whole. The resolution
to pay ex-Sergeant-at-Arms Thompson $3,000 for
expenses incurred in connection with the Gar
field obsequies was adopted without opposition.
In the House, on Thursday, the Indian appro
priation bill was reported. The Military Com
mittee reported bills giving condemned cannon
and cannon balls to Soldiers' Monument Associa
tions in Philadelphia, Waterton ( Iowa), Topeka
lE"" r7na "V (Mlipolis (0., BeHaire
Mortou Monument Association. The greater
part of the session was occupied with the con
sideration of the post-office appropriation bill.
The principal event of Monday's session in the
House was the passage, on motion of Mr. Bur
roughs of Michigan, and under a suspension of
IU,e nVes ot tne DlU providing that no person
wnois guilty of bigamy shall be eligible to a
seat in Congress as a delegate from any Territory.
many oi tne members were not paying attention
at the time, and did not vote on the measure,
which is aimed, of course, at the Mormon dele
gate from Utah, Mr. Cannon.
Among the resolutions introduced were two
designed to bring the action of Mr. Blaine with
reference to the South American troubles under
review by the House.
Mr. Belmont introduced a resolution, which
was adopted, calling on the President for the
Shipherd correspondence relating to the Peru
vian guano companies, and Mr. Springer intro
duced one, which was not acted on, calling on
the President for information as to the right or
authority by which the American Republics were
invited to participate in a peace congress at
Washington next November.
Bills were introduced to subsidize an American
steamship line to Great Britain, to complete the
monument to Mary Washington, and for the
relief of the crew of the Cumberland.
An effort to pass the bill for the appointment
of a commission to investigate the aleoholic
liquor traffic failed for want of the two-thirds
majority required under the suspension of the
rules.
On Monday, Mr. Kasson, from the Committee
on Ways and Means, reported the tariff commis
sion bill, and it was referred to the Committee of
the Whole. Under the call of committees, a
number of reports of an unimportant character
were submitted and referred to the Committee
of the Whole, and at the conclusion of the morn
ing hour, the bill authorizing the Postmaster
General to adjust the claims of postmasters for
losses by burglary, fire, or other unavoidable
casualty, was taken up and passed. The consid
eration of the apportionment bill was then re
sumed. On Wednesday the House Committee on the
Judiciary gave a hearing to Mr. Cannon, of Utah,
who is contesting the seat in this Congress which
was given to Mr. Campbell upon the certificate of
the Governor of that Territory Mr. Cannon con
tended that the discrimination against him had
been made merely and solely on account of the
religious tenets of the Mormon Church, and that
such discrimination is directly opposed to the
spirit and letter of the Constitution; that he was
elected to a seat in the Forty-seventh Congress
by an overwhelming majority of the votes cast,
and is legally entitled to represent his con
stituents. CAPITAL TOPICS.
Secretary Hunt has issued an order disapprov
ing of the practice of punishing enlisted seamen
by confinement on bread and water or diminished
rations.
Representatives of the National Distillers and
Spirit Dealers' Association were before the Ways
and Means Committee last week, to advocate the
reduction of the tax on whisky to fifty cents per
gallon.
Public Printer Defrees has tendered his resig
nation, to take effect April 1st.
The Senate Committee on Post-Offices has
killed the proposition to revive the franking
privilege by a unanimous report against the bill.
Lieutenant Giles B. Harber and Master W. H.
Scheutze. of the Navy, have sailed for Europe, by
Secretary Hunt's instructions, to assist in the
search for Lieutenant Chipp and crew of the
Jeannette.
The Senate has passed the bill appropriating
$200,000 for the erection of a fire-proof building
near the War Department, to hold its records.
Major P. H. Conger has been appointed Super
intendent of Yellow Stone Park.
Rear-Admiral Beaumont has been placed on
the retired list. Commodore Febiger has been
promoted to be Rear-Admiral.
The total Yorktown Centennial deficiency
amounts to nearly $50,000.
The splendid Jefferson School Building, in
Washington southwest, which cost $120,000, was
destroyed by fire early last Saturday morning.
The House Committee on Civil Service Reform
has under consideration the question of estab
lishing another department of the Government,
to embrace agriculture, commerce, and manu
factures. About 1,000 cases now appear on the calendar
of the House Invalid Pensions Committee, and
several hundred bills have not yet received at
tention from the clerks. The work of examining
these cases is very arduous and extensive. So
far, the committee has disposed of forty or fifty
cases. There is enough work already before the
committee to employ the time of 100 committee
men from now until spring. The Invalid Pen
sions Committee is the hardest worked committee
in the House. Its chairman, General Browne, of
Indiana, was a gallant soldier, and is a staunch
friend of the pensioners.
The sub -committee of the House Committee
on Territories has decided to report favorably on
the bill to admit Washington Territory into the
Union.
The charters of nearly 400 national banks
expire within the year, and legislation will be
introduced for a renewal of their charters for
twenty years upon application of two-thirds of
the stockholders.
The President has appointed Assistant Quartermaster-General
Rucker to the vacancy created
by the retirement of Quartermaster-General
Meigs, and Major William B. Rochester Paymaster-General,
vice Brown retired. General Meigs
issued a retiring address to his officers, in which
he puts the amount expended for the sustenance
of the Army during the war at nearly pfiOV,
000,000, and says that only twice did ' suiter
for want of supplies-under Genend losecrans
after Chickamauga, and General Sherman at
Savannah.
qerretirv Hunt will not grant the request of
fcecretarj iunt iii tlfLieutenant Danen
the six seamen who witn - that thev i,e
bower and "in splendid condition, tnat tney Be
ii 'if ; ;- Qiheria and help the search
allowed to remain m bD8"' 4"r.
for the missing Jeannette people.
rwrd Terry has directed Colonel Hatch, of
tto sSSdSSoiy, commanding at Fort Custer,
to immediately remove ironi the Crow reserva
tion ill persons cutting timber or ties tor the
Northern Pacific Railroad.
PENSIONS GRANTED.
""During the month of January 4,174 certificates
for Pensions were issued, an increase of 877 over
the preceding month.
Commissioner Dudley is evidently doing his
best to dispose of the vast amount of business in
his Department, and if Congress will but grant
the needed appropriations, it will not be long
before every meritorious case will have been
settled.

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