Mr. McKEE. Mr. Speaker, I am very loath to say anything on this question. But entertaining the opinions I do in regard to it, I feel inclined since this discussion has come up to make a few remarks. I regret very much that I am compelled to differ with the gentleman who has charge of this bill, [Mr. DEMING] and with those who have advocated its passage. I would not detract from in the least, na, I would go further, if possible, and add to tie honor and esteem which the people of our country entertain for this champion of our Army. There is no man in this country who holds him in higher regard than I do. But I must here enter my protest and raise my voice against what I conceive to be this following too much the precedents which have been set, not by Governments constituted like our own, but by Governments whose forms our forefathers threw off when thgy established our own. O r one, I do not desire at this day that my country should turn back and imitate ancient Greece or Rome in conferring these great honors upon her heroes. I would not that my own country should imitate despotic France in her adoration for her successful chieftains. I would not that my country should imitate the example of monarchical England in conferring vast emoluments upon those who have led her armies to battle., I regard this bill as antagonistic to the spirit of our institutions, as antirepublican, as contrary to the genius which our forefathers in stilled into our Government when they founded it. I have seen enough in my short experience of life of what I may fitly douominate the aris tocratic element of our Army. I have seen that spirit in the men who held positions in our Army at the beginning of the rebellion through which we have just passed. I have seen it in the great struggle which our people have waged against those who endeavored by force to destroy the institution of our land and the country will bear witness to the truth of my statement when I say that it is not to that element which the nation has fostered and nourished that we to da are indebted for the fact that we have crused out the most might rebellion the world has. ever seen. It is to t a people that we owe it; to those who have not coneducated in arms; to those who have not received the fostering care of the Republic, who have not been supported and feasted upon the public Treasury, at who in their might, at the call of their country, by their patriotism and valor succeeded in crushing out this cat rebellion against the institutions of 4 our fathers. To them we owe it, and We owe to the leaders who led them a debt of grati tude which the nation is not slow to acknowl edge, and which the people are ready and willing and anxious to pay. But we owe them nothing by way of emoluments; we owe them nothing by way of rewards. If we desire to reward the men who have saved our country, let us begin with the maimed and wounded and suffering, who have periled their all in its defense, and who at the end of l the war have no honorbut their broken and dissevered limbs to carry to their graves. I know this bill is but a small matter in the way of expenditure. It takes but about some 20,000 dollars from the Treasury of the U.S and confers it upon the leader of our armies; it is but a small affair. But the idea which weighs upon my mind isthat this is contrary to the genius of our institutionsaping, if I may use the term, those old Governments of europe whose whole theory is antirepublican, and )whose example God forbid that m countrymen with my sanction should ever fo low. I am willing to reward our heroes. They have their reward in the ratitude which fills the heart of the nation. Vhen the hero of this war travels, as the gentleman said, from one end of our country to the other, he is wel comed everywhere with the plaudits of a grateful people. They regard him as a man do serving great honor, and they give it to him. But I see no reason why we should establish this rank. It is not needed for the Army. It is not needed for the honor of the nation. The brave soldiers who followed their leaders through the war will not consider themselves flattered if this rank should be conferred. They do not ask that this new rank shall be created. The hero for whom this honor is proposed, though he would doubtless feel flattered by it, is, I am quite sure, too modest a man to desire this at the hands of his country. I am sorry. sir, that I have felt comclled to say thus much. What I desire and may as well make the declaration here is that this Government shall extend its fostering care and protection to those brave men who eriled their all for their country, who have no onors to wear, and for whom We as a great Government should provide by pouring out our treas ure liberally to them. I, for one, shall be ready to vote any amount within reason, either by way of bonnties or pensions, to those brave men who have fought iiir our nation during the great strugole through which we have asse d. But, sir, ldo desire that my country, t rough her national Legislature, shall act to the world no example which would imply that a republican Government wishes to worship men as heroes.