ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 225 



vised by the Supreme Court, later on by acts of Congress 

 — usually by special acts — until substantially all of 

 them were put upon the rolls. 



The War of 1812, the Indian wars that followed, and 

 the Mexican War have also resulted in the same system ; 

 and instead of keeping a great standing army ready for 

 any war that might arise, we have relied upon the peo- 

 ple — the great mass of the people — to come forward ; 

 and in order to do that we have adopted the pension 

 system which is now so severely criticised. Instead 

 of keeping an army always ready, we have found the 

 volunteer system has worked well. The South sent her 

 volunteers to the Mexican War. They are upon the pen- 

 sion roll. The South will send her volunteers to the next 

 war, whenever that may be, and everyone fighting under 

 the Stars and Stripes in any war, if they become disabled, 

 ought to have pensions. That has been the policy of 

 government. It is true that the roll is a large one, but 

 you must not lose sight of the fact that the war was also 

 a great war. 



Criticism has been indulged in as to one feature of the 

 law — that a rich man may draw a pension. Very well ; 

 he can not draw a pension unless he is disabled. The old 

 soldiers of this country, when the question came up as 

 to whether a discrimination should be made against those 

 who had means and that pensions should be only to the 

 poor, came forward almost as a man and said they did 

 not want any ' ' pauper legislation. ' ' They did not want 

 legislation requiring them to go before the commissioner 

 of pensions and ask for a pension on the ground that they 

 were paupers, so that a certificate of pension would be 

 simply an equivalent to an admission to the poorhouse. 

 They resented anything of that kind, and it was in defer- 

 ence to that honorable, upright, and noble sentiment that 



