Every patriotic heart responds to a tender consideration for those who,
having served their country long and well, are reduced to destitution
and dependence, not as an incident of their service, but with advancing
age or through sickness or misfortune. We are all tempted by the
contemplation of such a condition to supply relief, and are often
impatient of the limitations of public duty. Yielding to no one in the
desire to indulge this feeling of consideration, I can not rid myself of
the conviction that if these ex-soldiers are to be relieved they and
their cause are entitled to the benefit of an enactment under which
relief may be claimed as a right, and that such relief should be granted
under the sanction of law, not in evasion of it; nor should such worthy
objects of care, all equally entitled, be remitted to the unequal
operation of sympathy or the tender mercies of social and political
influence, with their unjust discriminations.
The discharged soldiers and sailors of the country are our
fellow-citizens, and interested with us in the passage and faithful
execution of wholesome laws. They can not be swerved from their duty of
citizenship by artful appeals to their spirit of brotherhood born of
common peril and suffering, nor will they exact as a test of devotion to
their welfare a willingness to neglect public duty in their behalf.
On the 4th of March, 1885, the current business of the Patent Office
was, on an average, five and a half months in arrears, and in several
divisions more than twelve months behind.
Pages:
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415