Gen. Wm. R. Shafter, U. S. A., Major A. W. Wills, Post Master, Nashville, Tenn., Denounce Their Comrades and Defend Commissioner H. Clay Evans. Capt. P. H. Coney Ably Resents the Insult and Shows up Evans' Mismanagement of the Pension Office. Extracts from Articles by Albert D. Shaw, Past Department Commander, New York. Hon. Chas. Curtis, Member of Congress from Kansas.

Original publisher's beige paper wrappers with staple binding. No date, circa 1898. 6" x 9." Twenty-four pages, complete. Pages are very clean and intact except for pencil annotations (appear as highlighting brackets in margins), light age toning (most apparent along edges), a few wrinkles, and a few words are missing on Page 12 (this may be from the original printing process). A Very Good copy. "Reprints from Western Veteran, November, 1898, Topeka, Ks." This is a pamphlet with reprinted correspondence about a controversy involving pensions for members and beneficiaries of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a fraternal organization that was composed of war veterans who served in the Union Army, Union Navy, and Marines during the Civil War. GAR was formed in 1866 and dissolved in 1956 upon the passing of its last member. The pamphlet has a pointed view against Henry Clay Evans (1843-1921), a politician who served as Commissioner of Pensions from 1897-1902. The pamphlet sides with Captain P. H. Coney who supports the prevailing views of GAR and opposes Evans, Major General William R. Shafter (1835-1906) and Major A. W. Wills. Coney portrays Shafter and Wills to be traitorous to their fellow GAR servicemembers and lambastes them for supporting Evans. He also makes a few jabs against Shafter's performance during the Spanish-American War. According to Coney, most of the GAR members are upset with Evans for rejecting pensions to war veterans or widows and children of veterans. Coney vehemently accuses Evans of mismanagement of the Pension Bureau and for disrespecting war veterans. However, correspondence by Shafter and Wills is also included which contains their perspective and counterarguments. In his defense of Evans, Wills states that Evans was seeking to stop pension fraud. According to Wills, there were cases in which unscrupulous pension brokers committed fraud by forging and keeping pension certificates for themselves. Coney counters Wills's claim by arguing that the pension roll is a "roll of honor" and that depictions of pension claimants (and by extension, their representative pension agents) being fraudulent thieves dishonors war veterans. Coney states that such accusers may be envious because they are not benefactors of the pension roll and that Evans's apparent portrayal of widespread pension fraud is false. Coney also criticizes the publication of names on the pension roll and pension resolutions that were passed without the consent of many of the GAR members. GAR, in turn, has plans to forward their own counter-resolutions to combat those supported by Evans. Toward the end of this pamphlet are brief correspondence by Albert D. Shaw (1841-1901), a Union Army veteran, Commander-in-Chief of GAR, and politician, and Charles Curtis (1860-1936), a Congressman who would later become the first Indigenous politician to become Vice President (1929-1933) and Senate Majority Whip (1924-1929). Both Shaw and Curtis express clear support for GAR veterans and beneficiaries and the granting of pensions. Curtis's correspondence reads, "I think Mr. Evans has made some very serious mistakes since he has been in charge of the Pension Bureau. I am glad the soldiers took this matter up at the National Encampment and that they intend to present it to the President [William McKinley]. He is their comrade and friend and I am sure will right the wrongs done to the old soldiers of this country.".…