Tanner
therefore had to go, and with him his system of reratings.
A pension bill for dependents, such as Cleveland had vetoed, now
went triumphantly through Congress.* It granted pensions of from
six to twelve dollars a month to all persons who had served for
ninety days in the Civil War and had thereby been incapacitated
for manual labor to such a degree as to be unable to support
themselves. Pensions were also granted to widows, minor children,
and dependent parents. This law brought in an enormous flood of
claims in passing, upon which it was the policy of the Pension
Bureau to practice great indulgence. In one instance, a pension
was granted to a claimant who had enlisted but never really
served in the army as he had deserted soon after entering the
camp. He thereupon had been sentenced to hard labor for one year
and made to forfeit all pay and allowances. After the war, he had
been convicted of horse stealing and sent to the state
penitentiary in Wisconsin. While serving his term, he presented a
pension claim supported by forged testimony to the effect that he
had been wounded in the battle of Franklin. The fraud was
discovered by a special examiner of the pension office, and the
claimant and some of his witnesses were tried for perjury,
convicted, and sent to the state penitentiary at Joliet,
Illinois. After serving his time there, he posed as a neglected
old soldier and succeeded in obtaining letters from sympathetic
Congressmen commending his case to the attention of the pension
office, but without avail until the Act of 1890 was passed.
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