St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1861-08-22

how long . pair Of cas,inet or coarse
cloth pants will wear. We were around
amongst the men before they left.3 The
81. Cloud boys were in our Office, We took
good notice Of the clothing which had
been furnished them, and Mr.. crofut, Ill
tho men iu Washington could not make
US believe that any man in tho Regiment,
with ordinary care, was in any such oondi-
ton as you describe. Some Of them may
have been lousy, as their friend, the ANas,
says; but these must have been some who
got more than their share of whisky; they
may have burned Or thrown away their
clothes because they were too lazy to clean
them, and the officers may be very much
to blame for not appointing men to carry
them to the Potomac and scrub them, but
all this did not make it wise for Colonel
Aldrich to use his great influence to pau
perize our soldiers. Would it not have
been better if he had employed that inau-
ence to induce the proper authorities to
furnish them what was their just due p
Surely our Minnesota Congressional Dele.
cation could have had sufficient influence
with the Secretary of War, to have him
attend to the wants Of our Regiment
Gen. Sauborn had it all fixed when he
went, aud We have heard of no statement
Of his benevolenee which will be enthu-
siastically endorsed" by everybody in
general and all the rest In particular.-
Are We to infer that our soldiers are more
grateful for little charity than for hon
estly-earned wages?
Remember that stores for the sick and
wounded, and general contributions to the
Mimi. Regiment, for special purposes,
are very different from paupers pantaloons
furnished by individual charity to indi-
vidual need-that the one is the christian
courtesy Of life, elevating alike to giyer and
receiver, while the other is always Of
doubtful utility.
Then, Mr.. Crof1t's statement that Mr..
Aldrich's room has been head quarters for
the Regiment, coupled with the reports
rife last winter about that room and the
fact that there did arise discomfort and in
subordination amongst the men during
their stay in Washing ton-that intelligent
men charge Col. Aldrich with aiding Rice
to create that discontentmcnt in order to
send out reports which shall overthrow
our State Administration to pave the way
for the election or reelection Of ono OF
them to Senate. The fact that Col. AL
drich's organ persistently makes serious
charges against the officers of the Regi-
ment, known to be friends of the Admin
istratlon, charges calculated to destroy all
confidence between men and officers, looks
as if Col. Aldrich had not been Influenced
by pure motives in his mistaken kindness.
AS for the Regiment, We lost sight Of it
utterly from the time the boats passed the
confluence Of the Mississippi and Mime
sofa Rivers until it turned up at Bull
Run. Those croaking, whining ragamuf.
fms described in the Atlas and by special
friends of Aldrich were not the men who
left Smelling. We thought they had
been changed, like the old woman on her
way to market, and was anxious they
should come home to find out if their dogs
knew them but at Bull Run they turned
up all right. Since that they have disap-
peared again; and if We do not hear from
them soon we shall advertise for them in.
the Washington papers under the head of
"Mysterious Disappearance" for we sho'd
like to keep the run of our Minnesota
boys.
Let the "Franks" pass for the present !;
but when any one wants our opinion on
them it shall be forthcoming.