The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1865-07-08
SATURDAY, JULY 8, 1865. :
A word for Our Soldiers.

Tlmld people nave Deen very Hucn eACiei0Sf~
about the evil effect which, they imagined, the
return of the soldiers would have on society,"
The re-absorption Of this large military element
into our home population with all the dissolute
habits incident to camp life, they thought would
make sort of pandemoninm of society. They
expected to hear of midnight assassination, muir
der, robbery, riot, drunkenness and beggary, on
every hand Thus far they have been agreeably
disappointed. We learn from our exchanges
that the police and criminal records are remark
ably clear of returned soldiers. We hear OF few
outrages little idleness, theft or drunkenness,
committed by them. They seem to resume the
peaceful avocations Of domestic life, as. readily
as they laid them aside, four years ago. with
all their stern training, now that the war is
over, it comes as natural TO our citizen soldiers
to WELD the hammer as the sabre, TO guide the
plov as TO direct armies. The same talent and
energy that marked their campaigns OF war,
seems TO mark their opening campaign OF peace
FIJI Industry. The farmer has returned to his
plough, the mechanic to his bench, the profess
sional man TO his desk, as though he had been
on business visit or an excursion of pleasure
And why should it not be so 2 We are not OF
those who consider the military service necessa-
rily demoralizng. The temptations to certain
forms of vice are greater in the army than amid
the social restraints of home But man that's
a man at home is a man in the army-or any
where else. man is thrown more upon his
own responsibility in the army Real merit is
perhaps. more apt to be rewarded there than, in
civil life, and this is constant stimulus for the
preservation of good character. ou a Y +
1t must not be forgotten that our soldiery IS
citizen soldiery We didn't fight because we
liked it or because ii was our business, but be-
cause it was our duty. Our national honor was
assaiIed Our patriotism was put to the test
+ To comprehend the great principles involved
and TO form the resolution braycly to maintain
Them was Of itself dignifying and gennobling
act Many man has been "made" by the war,
Instead of debasing, it has elevated the mass OF
society. Who has not heard of trifing, worth
less idlers, having their sluggish nature aroused
hy the cry Of national danger, entering the ar
: my, and coming back wiser, steadier, and better
men 2 tlge3 0a a-#3titftiA d@9 T
y We are naturally an energetic industrious
people We are given to enterprise and money
making. 1t is not possible that four years of
war should change our disposition, or weaken
our natural pride. The rewards of industry are
great. The obligation of maintaining high
natural character is great. Our returned SOL
diers know and feel this, and hence they make
such good citizens on their return.
Macaulay, in that part of his history relating
to the State Of society at the close of the great
revolution, touches on a subject curiously paraal-
let to our own times. Speaking ofthe fears that
were then entertained as to the result ofdisband-
ing Cromwell's army and throwing its unruly
elements back into society, he says" a-t1h1
"The troops were now to be diSbanded. Fifty
thousand men accustomed to the profession OF
arms were at once thrown on the world and ex-
! perience seemed to warrant the belief that this
change would produce much misery and crime
that the discharged veterans would be seen beg
cling in every street or would be driven by hum
ger to pillage. But no such result followed. In
few months there remained not q trace indica-
ting that the most formidable army in the world
had Just been absorbed into the mass of the COM
munity The royalists themselves confessed
that in every department of honest industry, the
discarded warriors prospered beyond other men ;
that none was charged with any theft or robbery
that none was heard to ask an aims and that if
baker, mason or wagner attracted notice by
his diligence and sobriety, he was in all proba-
bilitv one of CrOmWell'S old soldiers"