Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1886 — Slavery’s Last Relic of Barbarity. [ARTICLE]

Slavery’s Last Relic of Barbarity.

Match this for grinding, brutal injustice if you can, and when yon cannot, remember it is part of the law a Democratic Pension Commissioner deals out to dead soldiers: Mrs. Shaw, an old colored woman of Tennessee, had four sons in the Union army, one of whom was killed in battle. A little while ago she applied for a pension, to which his death entitled her; bnt, although it was shown that she received his bounty of SIOO when he entered the service, Commissioner Black held that as the woman was a slave at the time of her son’s death, she was not dependent upon him for support, and therefore could not claim a pension! The statesmanlike quality which Commissioner Black exhibits in this wonderful decision is his highly generous assumption that Mrs. Shaw was a slave voluntarily, and by her own consent! Not since the Dred Scott decision spread the shadow of slavery over free soil has American law been disgraced by a worse ruling. Let Congress act in this case and see if President Cleveland dare veto!—Philadelphia Press.