Mr. YATES. I do not want to consume time, but my heart and my soul are in this matter. I do not approve at all of the doctrine of the honorable Senfrom Maine, that when we make mistakes we must wait for our one mies to discover them before we acknowledge them. That is not my doctrine; and especially if we discover that we have made mistakes while we have yet time to correct' them, I think it is our duty to correct them. It is not too late to correct this mistake at this time. I know as a matter of fact that soldiers' li ugucs and soldiers’ conventions are being formed in every part of this country now to denounce the action of Congress because they do not do justice to the soldier. I know that there is a.party, and the President is at the head of that party, which is appealing to the prejudices of the soldiers and saying that we, the great Republican Union party of the country were willing to call out soldiers, were willing to inaugurate this war were willing to expose them to the erils 0 war, but now when the war is over, when they have fought the battles and achieved the victory, we are notthe men to stand up and to pay them. I know it is said that it will be mercenary in the soldier to cippose that he should receive pay for his services beyond his contract with the Government. Allow me to ask if it is mere euiir for us to add $2,000 to our compensation or serving the country in a civil capacity 7 Will we receive that, and then say that it will be mercena in the soldier who had to incur all the her ships and dangers and difficulties of war to receive a smell additional pittance? I wish to say for myself that in the provi dence of God and by the kindness of the people I have by my proclamations called out 2 iindred an 50,000 soldiers to this war. By my attention to them, whether deserved or undeserved, I have in my State the proud title of “the soldiers’ friend.” They went out at the call of their country, they abandoned their business, they sundered their domestic ties, they foughtfor 3 years, they trudged through mud an rain and snow, the scaled the heights, and 1000s and 100s of 1,000s new slee in unmarked graves upon the banks of the ississippi, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee, in Sliloh’s woods, upon the cloud in volved summits of Lookout mountain, in the sands of the ocean shore, and there they will sleep until the day of resurrection; but, sir,there is the living soldier, there is the wounded soldier, there is the man who lost his arm as he scaled the heights of Donelson, or his eye in the thickets of the Wilderness. He 0 peels to this Government to stand by him, an capo cially those soldiers who have borne the brunt and burden of the battle, the 3 years’ men who went 1st without pay for love of country, with no glittering bribes or bounties before them, who took upon themselves this battle, and who saved this codntry, who rescued the life of the nation. I will detain the Senate but amoment longer; I will curtail the remarks I intended to mak but I do wish to say one thing, that when Ivote to increase the pay of members of Congress I (lid it because I believedit was righttoiucrease their pa; when I voted to increase the pay of the cler s with my friendfrom Massachusetts [Mr. SUMNER] I believed it was right; but, sir, it never entered my mind that it was in the conceptions of the present Congress not to equalize the bounties of soldiers. I occupy reciscly the some pesition that my friendfrom Inssacliuscits [Mr. WILSON] does; and I never should have cast my vote for the increase of my own pay, however much I need it and I need it very much without at the same time extending corresponding remuneration to those who lime done so much for us and who deserve so much at our hands.