New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1866-11-16
THE SCARE MILITARY.


Five military gentlemen, named Curtis, Hinton,
Bennett Morse and Dudley, have issued proclama
ton inviting an army to assemble in Washington on
the LIST proxmo by its presence ito honor and assure
protection to the loyal majority IN the XXXlXth
Congress"-' TO show how stern loyalty can rebuke
treason" ito prove that the threats Of reacherous
Executive against the legislative branch of the Gov
eminent cannot ntmidate free people," and this
call, which can hardly be very important whatever
may be the response to it, has thrown The National
Inttigencer into such state OF mind that We DO not
believe, if put to the familiar test that 1t could pro-
nounce its own name without suffering. II IS
"paned" it is also shocked" IL finds in this call,
the project Of an establishment perinaHenos OF an
organized force to DO subject to the orders OF Con-
gress." II fears that disastrous calamites inn
pending over our beloved country" although takes
the prccaution to add that Heaven only knows"
what they are. "Butler Wade and Forney" are the
Danton, Robespierre and Marat of the enterprise,
and each Of them ia to carry in his red night hand
"sword smoking with the bloody execution" And all
this because five members of the Soldiers and Sailors
Union have called Convention to be held in Wash
ington on the ist Of December
Lot us be calm Let u.s. in such tremendous
emergency leave Mysteries to the naturally hysterical
sex Let remember, in the first place, the ohMae-
ter Of the men to whom this appeal is addressed.
Admitting il 10 be sinister in ts purposes, although
nothing like this has been proved against It, what IS
there in the character Of the American volunteer, as
exhibited through several years Of bloody civil war;
which authorizes The National IHieiiigeHeer or any
other newspaper, to publish these suspicious or to
presuppose that it this Committee design mischief,
the veterans Of the Republic will be made Us blind
aDd uDquestoning tools THAT troops wh have
fought aud bled for the law. its support and its
supremacy, will be among the first to discard it,
that the champions OF order will be ready UPON the
least invitation to inaugurate anarchy that the
upholders of the Government through the dreay days
of doubt and disaster will plot for the return Of con-
fusion, and become themselves rebels against the
Constitution PrimG faeie the very suspicion is
itself an insult. No matter what may be the motives
or the designs of ID. s. Curtis aud the Others although
we do not suppose that they mean any harm, what
reason is there for apprehending that any con-
siderable number of our retired soldiers viii be
betrayed into acts Of folly and Of crime THAT
the ferocious" Forney, the still more fero,ous"
Wade and the ineIpressibly ferocous" Butler have
only to command an attack upon the White House,
the Inflammation Of the President, the confsntion
and immediate consumption Of His EIcellencys small
stores-have only to speak, however fooishly wick
eddy, to be obeyedl Forney may have nightly per-
suasive way of his own Wade's talents may be of a
peculiarly seductive character, and Butler perfect
Napoleon in magnetzing divisions and regiments but
that either of them all three together the
late army any part of it, in forwarding destructive
and disorganizng projects, do not believe, they do
not believe and nobody in the possession of his senses
believes. Whatever strength they may have, is in
their fidelity to law; and the least attempt to employ
the military power Of the land for their selfish
ambitious purposes, would leave them without he
power OF corporal the laughing stocks of gods above
and of men below. Congress itself would disdan to
be assisted by such auxiliaries, by such defenders;
and the simple and gnomnious end Of the speculation
would be, that Mr.. Forney and his two friends would
be marched to the round house in the custody Of he
very troops upon whose creduty they had so impm
IDENTIFY relied.
OF course, there is barely possible mischief in tie
suggestions themselves of The Inteiligeneer. Cu.
science il is said, makes towards; and the President
and his advisers know best what violent designs, po
vocatve Of violence in return and in sefdefenie.
t1ey may nave eDtcIlhlueu ana uOurlbneu. Wntt-
ever appreheDsons may be well founded, arise soldy
from Mr.. Johnson's ilconsidered after-dinner At
tacks upon Congress. They spring naturally fran
the idea, which he has done nothing to discourage,
that Congress is in an illegally hostile attitude, that
it is claiming powers which, by tho provisions of the
Constitution do not belong to it, and that In some
way, by the strong arm Of Presidential authority tie
representatives of the people must be- and ought to be
checkmated in their determination to pass laws Of
which Mr.. johnson did not approve. Hence those
rumors which have filed the minds of the people
with indefinite fears--hencs those rapid deductions
from the Presidents svAshy speeches which have put
the Republic earnestly upon its guard-hence the
growing conviction Of the community that there Is
nothing too absurd, nothing too dangerous, nothing
too unprecedented, TO be included in what is called
the Presidents policy" That officer now plessss
TO assume the part Of injured innocence Let him
possess his soul In peace. His life is not in the
smallest danger, and Congress will take care that all
the laws are obeyed. After the pain and "shock"
of the late elections His EIceency ought not to DO
frightened by such a simple matter as Mr. r. J.
Hnton's military convention.
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I'll, HorH saVk.