It will be observed that under Republican auspices the classes of pensioners were made to embrace all now provided for by law, and the rates of pensions were liberalized to a scale largely in excess of that ever before adopted by any government, and they were made to conform to the degrees of disability actually existing, viewed in relation to the incapacity of the pensioner for earning a livelihood, and the classes benefited by increased rates are numbered by tens of thousands; while under Democratic control the provisions of law enacted benefited but a few, and their pensions had already been increased to the higher grades.

In the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States will be found these words:

SEO. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned..

When the Senate, on the 8th of June, 1866, passed the Fourteenth Amendment with this practical declaration of gratitude to the Union soldier for suppressing the Rebellion and maintaining inviolate not only the platform declarations of the Republican party, but its pension and bounties bills as already enacted and those thereafter to be placed on the statute-book, the vote by which it passed was 33 yeas to 11 nays- 5 not voting as

follows:

In the House of Representatives, June 13, 1866, the Amendment passed by 138 yeas to 36 nays, all the yeas being Republicans and all the nays Democrats. There were 6 Republicans and 4 Democrats who did not vote.

The Amendment was ratified by the State Legislatures with the party lines dawn just as strictly-Republicans for, Democrats against.

Equalization of Bounties Bill in 43d and 44th Congresses-Democratic Opposition.

The 43d Congress (Republican) passed a bill for the equalization of bounties, which failed to become a law, owing to the fact that it passed too late to receive the President's signature.

Such representative Democrats in the House as Clarkson N. Potter, Thomas Swan, Eppa Hunton, et al., voted against it, and in the Senate only one Democrat voted for it.

The 44th Congress (the House being Democratic) revived the measure passed in the 43d. The Democrats made a movement in its favor-not because they wished it to become a law, but because they knew that to equalize the bounties under it would cost at least $100,000,000, and, there being no money in the Treasury available for the purpose, the national debt would have to be increased that amount in order to meet ita measure which they knew would meet with wide-spread denunciation. The Rebel brigadiers, however, such as Blackburn, Buckner, Forney, Goode, Hooker, Hereford, Hunton, Mills, Reagan, Schleicher, Throckmorton, et al., violently opposed it, while only two Republicans voted against it. was originally a Republican measure, and passed both Houses when they were Republican, and would have passed again in 1876 if the Senate could have reached it in time and there had been money in the Treasury to meet the expense without increasing the national debt.

What the Record thus far shows.

It

Hence it is plain to the most ordinary comprehension that, instead of doing 66 more for the soldiers than the Republicans have," the Democrats fought the most material Republican measures in favor of the soldiers, and would have defeated such measures had they the power; that the Republicans, not satisfied with legislating for the soldier by their votes in a Republican Congress and in Republican Legislatures, implanted in the Constitution of the country itself, beyond danger of removal or abrogation, the sacred acknowledgment of the nation's gratitud to the Union soldier-the declaration that “the validity of debts incurred for rayment of bounties and pensions for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be questioned;" while the copperhead Democrats in Congress, with Hendricks at their

It will be observed that under Republican auspices the classes of pensioners were made to embrace all now provided for by law, and the rates of pensions were liberalized to a scale largely in excess of that ever before adopted by any government, and they were made to conform to the degrees of disability actually existing, viewed in relation to the incapacity of the pensioner for earning a livelihood, and the classes benefited by increased rates are numbered by tens of thousands; while under Democratic control the provisions of law enacted benefited but a few, and their pensions had already been increased to the higher grades.

When the Senate, on the 8th of June, 1866, passed the Fourteenth Amendment with this practical declaration of gratitude to the Union soldier for suppressing the Rebellion and maintaining inviolate not only the platform declarations of the Republican party, but its pension and bounties bills as already enacted and those thereafter to be placed on the statute-book, the vote by which it passed was 33 yeas to 11 nays-5 not voting as follows:

-

YEAS-Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, Clark, Conness, Cragin, Cresswell, Edmunds, Fessenden, Foster, Grimes, Harris, Henderson, Howard, Howe, Kirkwood, Lane of Kansas, Lane of Indiana, Morgan, Morrill, Nye, Poland, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, Sumner, Trumbull, Wade, Willey, NAYS-Messrs. Cowan, Davis, Doolittle, Guthrie, Hendricks, Johnson, McDougall, Norton, Riddle, Saulsbury, and Van Winkle

Williams, Wilson, and Yates-33.

1

11.

The Senate, as will be seen, at that time, owing to a vacancy, comprised 39 Republicans and 9 Democrats. Of the 39 Republicans, 4 voted against and 33 voted for the Amendment; while of the 9 Democrats 7 voted against the Amendment which contains

In the House of Representatives, June 13, 1866, the Amendment passed by 138 yeas to 36 nays, all the yeas being Republicans and all the nays Democrats. There were 6 Republicans and 4 Democrats who did not vote.

The Amendment was ratified by the State Legislatures with the party lines dawn just as strictly-Republicans for, Democrats against.

Equalization of Bounties Bill in 43d and

44th Congresses- Democratic Opposition.

The 43d Congress (Republican) passed a bill for the equalization of bounties, which failed to become a law, owing to the fact that it passed too late to receive the President's signature.

Such representative Democrats in the House as Clarkson N. Potter, Thomas Swan, Eppa Hunton, et al., voted against it, and in the Senate only one Democrat voted for it.

The 44th Congress (the House being Democratic) revived the measure passed in the 43d. The Democrats made a movement in its favor-not because they wished it to become a law, but because they knew that to equalize the bounties under it would cost at least $100,000,000, and, there being no money in the Treasury available for the purpose, the national debt would have to be increased that amount in order to meet ita measure which they knew would meet with wide-spread denunciation. The Rebel brigadiers, however, such as Blackburn, Buckner, Forney, Goode, Hooker, Hereford, Hunton, Mills, Reagan, Schleicher, Throckmorton, et al., violently opposed it, while only two Republicans voted against it. It was originally a Republican measure, and passed both Houses when they were Republican, and would have passed again in 1876 if the Senate could have reached it in time and there had been money in the Treasury to meet the expense without increasing the national debt.

What the Record thus far shows. Hence it is plain to the most ordinary comprehension that, instead of doing more for the soldiers than the Republicans have," the Democrats fought the most material Republican measures in favor of the soldiers, and would have defeated such measures had they the power; that the Republicans, not satisfied with legislating for the soldier by their votes in a Republican Congress and in Republican Legislatures, implanted in the Constitution of the country itself, beyond danger of removal or abrogation, the sacred acknowledgment of the nation's gratitud to the Union soldier- the declaration that "the validity of debts incurred for rayment of bounties and pensions for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be questioned; "while the copperhead Democrats in Congress, with Hendricks at their

to defeat the adoption of that acknowledgment in the Constitution, to say nothing of their attempts to defeat various measures of legislation enacted by Republican Congresses for the benefit of the Union soldier, to which reference will hereafter be made. Thus the declaration in the National Republican Platform of 1864, touching Union soldiers, that "the Nation owes to them some permanent recognition of their patriotism and their valor, and ample and permanent provision for those of their survivors who have received disabling and honorable wounds in the service of their country," has been put by the Republican Party into imperishable acts; while the canting and hypocritical promise in the National Democratic Platform of 1864, that "in the event of its [the Democratic Party's] attaining power, they [the Union soldiers and sailors will receive all the care, protection, and regard that the brave soldiers and sailors of the Republic so nobly earned," was within two years (in 1866) ruthlessly and shamelessly violated.

PART III.

The So-called Democratic Record, and What it Amounts to-Re-enactment by Democrats of a few old Republican

Measures.

The acts upon which the Democracy base their claim to the title of the "soldiers' friend" are the following:

On May 24, 1878, the House passed a bill to increase the pensions of pensioned soldiers and sailors who had lost either both hands or both feet, or the sight of both eyes, in the service of the country. It provided that the pensions of such soldiers and sailors should be increased to $72 per month.

This bill, which became an act June 17, 1878, and its supplement of March 3, 1879, affected only those who were previously entitled to $50 per month under the act of June 18, 1874, and probably embraced less than 200 pensioners.

already entitled to $24 per month, and the law was intended to benefit only those who had suffered amputation just at the elbow or knee, or so near as to destroy its use. As a matter of fact it was not rejected by the Senate, but was referred to its Committee on Pensions, which failed to report it to the Senate.

The only provision which passed the House under Democratic control, except the Republican Arrears Act, that would have affected any very large number of soldiers, was the bill to increase the pensions of those who had lost one limb. The increase proposed was twelve dollars per month, and it would have benefited about 4,000 pensioners.

The only additional Democratic measure was that of Feb. 28, 1877, “to allow a pension of $36 a month to soldiers who have lost both an arm and a leg." This benefited a number not exceeding two hundred pensioners.

Another measure for which the Democracy claim credit was a bill reported in June, 1876, to regulate the issue of artificial limbs.

The first section provided that every person who in the line of his duty in the military or naval service of the United States shall have lost a limb, or sustained bodily injuries depriving him of the use of any of his limbs, shall receive once every five years an artificial limb or appliance, under such regulations as the surgeon-general of the army may prescribe; and the period of five years shall be held to commence with the filing of the application after the 17th day of January, in the year 1870.

Now, the facts are that the practice of granting artificial limbs to soldiers and sailors who lost their natural limbs in the service has existed since the passage of the act of July 16, 1862; and on July 28, 1866, Congress passed an act "to authorize the Secretary of War to furnish transportation to discharged soldiers to whom artificial limbs are furnished by the Government."

This bill, which became an act March 3, 1879, increased less than twenty pensions, and they were before in receipt of $24 per

month.

On May 23, 1878, Mr. Riddle of Tennessee reported a bill to amend the pension act of 1874 so as to extend its provisions to all persons who had lost an arm below the elbow, or so near the elbow, or a leg below the knee, or so near the knee, as to destroy the use of the elbow or knee-joint, and rated such persons in the second class and to receive a pension of $24 per month.

This bill, had it become a law, would have affected but few, probably not more than one hundred. Those who lost the arm above

the expiration of every five years thereafter another. Or if the soldier so elected he could receive money commutation therefor of from fifty to seventy-five dollars; and the act of June 30, 1870, extended the provision to all classes, including transportation. Under these laws advantageous arrangements were made with manufacturers through whom limbs were procured at rates largely reduced from market prices.

The act of Aug. 15, 1876, was simply a re-enactment, with slight and unimportant changes, of previous enactments.

Democratic "6 aversion to pension bills.Democrats admit it.

That the Democratic Party in Congress has