The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1863-03-10
1 Friend to Soldiers.

destroyed some days ago by band of
men dressed as soldiers. Mr.. Jones and
friends charge that they belonged to a
company Of the Fifth Indiana Cavalry,
Last year, when there was great
effort being made all over the State
to raise Indiana's quota of troops, under
the several calls of the President, with
out recourse to drafting, the County
Commissioners of various counties made
donations to companies raised in their
respective localities, to be paid when
they were mustered into the service.
Spencer County, not to be behindhand,
sent up petition to the Board of Com
missioners requesting them to appro-
pirate the sum of twenty dollars to each
soldier who was enlisted in that county
The petition was presented at the Sep
TENDER term of the Board, but for some
reason no action was taken upon it.
At the December term the matter came
before the Board again. The Democrat,
in the meantime, had oracularly assert
ed that the appropriation would not be
made; and then for fear that his pre-
diction would not be fulfilled, its editor
drew up remonstraucs against the ap-
preparation, and after a laborious effort
succeeded in obtaining one hundred and
fourteen signatures to it Lieut. Carey
and Sergeant hewitt both wrote commu-
nications for his paper, setting forth rea-
sons why the appropriation ought to be
made, neither Of which ever saw the
light in the columns of the Democrat
With genuine Copperhead consistency,
the editor knew it would never do to
give his readers both sides of the ques-
JUG
for themselves
In spite, however, of the predictions
and labors of the Democrat the Board of
County Commissioners did, at the De-
q :. !. 3 49, --1ss. -sss
1nfent Indiana Volunteers, who had en-
tedin that county. 4-- Cstii
Now, the editor of the Democrat claims
to be the rery particular friend of the
soldier. How did he manifest his friend
shipin this instance? No sooner was
the appropriation ordered, than, . in the
language of our correspondent, "this
good mantle soldiers friend-took an
appeal from the county Board to the
Circuit Court, to still further DELAY the
payment of the small sum of Twenty
Dollars, to Co. D, Goth Regiment Indi-
ana Volunteers"
While this is no justification of the
course pursued by the soldiers, in de-
stroying the Office of the Democrat. it
shows that their act was not without
provocatiOn. Why the editor of that pa
per should so interest himself to prevent
the volunteers from receiving small
bounty from the county, we cannot con-
ceiFe. His share of,the taxes were sure
ly not SO burdensome that he could not
pay his proportion of the bounty. It
may have been the principle of the thing
to which he was opposed. He reminds
us of an indignant quot player, who was
" pitching " for small wager. During
the progress of the game, one of his own
and one of his opponents quoits appear
ed equaily''ciistant from the peg, which
was secured in the ground in slantinr
position. lf-
The uuaided eye being unable to de-
tect which of the quoits was nearest to
the peg, measurement was resorted to.
when it was ascertained that one quot
was the nearer, when measuring from
the top of the peg, and the other, when
nsoe5uring frUm the bottom. A fierce
contention at once arose as to whether the
top or the bottom of the peg was the cor
rect point from which to-apply the rule.
The dispute was on the point of ending
in blows, when one of the contestants
exclaimed, 81 don't care dera for the
amount of the wager or losing the game;
it is the principle of the thing for which
I contend" The idea was so ludi-
erous that the attending crowd burst
into laughter, in which the angry players
couidnot refrain from joining, and good
humor was at once restored
We suppose similar spirit animates
the editor OF the Democrat 1t is not.
the amount of taxes he viii be. compelled
to pay but the principle of paying boun-
hes teyolunteers atal!, towhich he takes
exception. s..
For what we know, the soldiers may
have entertained similar idea in de-
stroying his Office. Probably they
thought but little about the damage that
would result; they only regarded the
principles of the paper they suppressed,
and were unwilling to longer tolerate