Today marks a sad occasion. Exactly 136 years ago, a veteran who was injured serving his country during the Civil War was humiliated by a president… a man who had hired a substitute.
The Civil War veteran was Alfred Denny. During his time of service, he was thrown forward on his horse and injured his side against the saddle. It was a debilitating injury and he asked for a pension. President Grover Cleveland interceded on June 22, 1886 to personally deny him the pension, and in addition to publicly mock him for claiming that a person could be injured by their saddle. As a result, Denny became the butt of jokes — much like someone bullied in social media today.
You may notice that when I told Denny’s story for Salon, I praised the quality of Cleveland’s writing and ignored the inhumanity of his cruel joke. I did this because, as I penned those sentences, I cared more about the literary quality of Cleveland’s put-down than about the evil reality of what he was going.
I was wrong for doing that. If you’re out there, Alfred Denny, and you can read this: I’m sorry.
For what it’s worth, here is what I originally wrote:
As works of literature, Cleveland’s pension vetoes are an undiscovered treasure (hence my decision to devote an entire dissertation to studying them). With spartan prose, a scathingly moralizing tone and the occasional flare of crackling wit, Cleveland dressed down ordinary citizens whom he perceived as robbing the taxpayers and disrespecting the memories of actual Civil War veterans. (Cleveland himself, for what it’s worth, had paid a substitute to fight in his place.) He is at his best when he indulges in Chris Christie-level snark, as when he rejected a claim from a man named Alfred Denny on June 22, 1886. After noting that Denny said he had been injured while riding his saddle, Cleveland wrote:
“The number of instances in which those of our soldiers who rode horses during the war were injured by being thrown forward upon their saddles indicate that those saddles were very dangerous contrivances.”
Denny deserved better than to be mocked on June 22, 1886. He deserved better than to have someone praise his bully on March 18, 2018. The least I can do is say — on June 22, 1886 — that I was wrong, and I am sorry.