CONGRESS. (GENEBAL GKANT.) 



225 



mous consent to call up the Senate bill for con- 

 sideration in the House, but on both occasions 

 objection was made and the measure failed. 



General Grant. Among the recommendations 

 in the President's message was one in favor of 

 pensioning General Grant, and Dec. 4, 1884, 

 Mr. Mitchell, of Pennsylvania, introduced in 

 the Senate a bill for that purpose, which was 

 referred to the Committee on Pensions. Dec. 

 8, 1884, the same gentleman asked and ob- 

 tained leave to withdraw the measure. This 

 course he took in consequence of a letter from 

 General Grant in which he said : "I learn 

 through the press that you have introduced a 

 bill in the Senate placing me on the pension 

 list of the nation. I understand the motive 

 which has prompted this action on your part 

 and appreciate it very highly. But I beg 

 you to withdraw the bill. Under no circum- 

 stances could I accept a pension, even if the 

 bill should pass both houses and receive the 

 approval of the President." 



During the first session of the Forty-eighth 

 Congress a bill for the retirement of General 

 Grant as General of the Army was reported 

 by Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, and passed the 

 Senate as follows: 



Be it enacted, etc. , That in recognition of the emi- 

 nent public services of Ulysses S. Grant, late General 

 of the Array, the President be and he hereby is au- 

 thorized to nominate and, by and with the advice and 

 consent of the Senate, to appoint him a general on 

 the retired-list of the army, with the rank and full 

 pay of General of the Army. 



The form of this bill would bring it within 

 the scope of the objections to the bill restor- 

 ing Fitz-John Porter to his rank in the army 

 which the President vetoed as trenching upon 

 the constitutional prerogatives of the Execu- 

 tive; consequently, as early as Jan. 13, 1885, 

 Mr. Edmunds, from the Committee on Military 

 Affairs, introduced the following measure in 

 the Senate, designed to satisfy the popular de- 

 mand for the retirement of General Grant, 

 and avoid forcing upon the President the dis- 

 agreeable alternative of seeming to oppose 

 that demand or of discrediting his own official 

 action : 



Be it enacted, etc., That the President of the United 

 States be and he hereby is authorized, by and with 

 the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint on 

 the retired list of the Army of the United States, 

 from among those who have been generals command- 

 ing the armies of the United States, or generals-in- 

 chief of said army, one person, and the total num- 

 ber now allowed by law to compose said retired list 

 shall be, on such appointment, increased accordingly. 



January 14, the bill was amended by insert- 

 ing after the word person the words " with 

 the rank and full pay of such general or gen- 

 eral-in-chief as the case may be." In opposi- 

 tion to the measure, Mr. Cockrell, of Missouri, 

 said: "I desire to record my vote against the 

 bill, not knowing whether the yeas and nays 

 will be called upon its passage or not. I think 

 there is neither justice nor propriety in it. 

 The retired list of the army was created ex- 

 YOL. xxv. 15 A 



pressly for officers of the army in the service 

 who, by reason of age or disabilities incident 

 to the service, have become unfit for that serv- 

 ice, and must either be discharged from the 

 army or must continue in the army, an in- 

 cubus and burden to it, and drawing their full 

 pay, or be in some other manner provided for. 

 We have provided the retired list for those 

 persons, and with my consent no one occupy- 

 ing a civil position, no matter what military 

 position he may have heretofore occupied, 

 shall ever be placed upon that retired list. It 

 is not the place for persons who are not in the 

 army and serving in the line of duty, and I 

 think there is no reason for this proposed ac- 

 tion." 



Mr. Edmunds, in reply, said : 



"I agree with the policy that my distin- 

 guished friend from Missouri has stated, that 

 it is not good policy as a rule to place private 

 citizens on the retired list of the army, or to 

 give them pensions, or to do anything for them 

 that we do not do for all private citizens. I 

 am a democrat of democrats on that point; 

 and yet as one citizen of the United States 

 and one Senator of the Senate of the United 

 States I am glad to have the opportunity to 

 urge the passage of this bill. General Grant 

 was educated at West Point. He served his 

 country faithfully and gallantly in the Mexican 

 War while a young lieutenant; I believe that 

 was his rank at that time. He became General 

 of the armies of the United States on an oc- 

 casion of very considerable importance and 

 interest. I state it mildly in order not to ex- 

 cite the temperament of anybody on either 

 side of the Chamber. He was removed from 

 the office of General of the armies of the 

 United States from which he would have been 

 retired when he reached the proper age and 

 put on this very list, to assume again command 

 of the armies of the United States as Com- 

 mander-in-Chief under its Constitution. He 

 did not seek it ; he obeyed the call of duty. 

 That removed him from the technical place 

 that he held in the army as an officer of it 

 to a higher place, as the constitutional com- 

 mander of it instead of the commander of it 

 under the law. When his term expired he 

 became, it is true, a private citizen. In that 

 state of the case, with the circumstances that 

 we know and with the honor and the respect 

 and the gratitude and the duty that we owe to 

 him as primus inter illustres in the history of 

 this country, I should be glad to have a unani- 

 mous vote in favor of the passage of this bill. 

 I hope I shall get very nearly it." 



The bill passed the Senate by the following 

 vote: 



YEAS Aldrich, Allison, Blair, Brown, Camden, 

 Cameron of Wisconsin, Cokrnit, Conger, Cullom, 



na, Lapham, McMillan, McPherson. Manderson, Max- 

 ey, Miller of California, Mitchell, Morgan, Morrill, 

 Palmer, Platt, Pugh, Riddleberger, Satin, Sawyer, 



