The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-06
Politics In the Army.

From the ". y. EcraLd
1t appears that General Grant has requested
to be excused from all Cabinet meetings except
where military affairs are to be discussed.
Under this simple request we see much that
means good to the country, and lesson to
the crazy politicians, who, in their race for
power, forget all the principles of statesman
ship, and bequeath, as an inheritance to the
future, the elements of a dozen military despo-
tisms and countless internal wars. Since the
close of the Rebellion we have virtually set up
a political school for the education of our army
officers. Before the Rebellion, and even during
the war, politics in the army we're ignored by
all true soldiers, and especially was this the
case with the regular army. The officer who
tarnished his epaulettes by descending from
the lofty position of a soldier of the republic
to the petty chickering's jealousies, and re-
venges of party feeling, lost caste with his
fellows. The subject was degrading, and
while the republic went purely on the officer
was a true soldier and pure. Now all is
changed. Our first soldier is Cabinet officer
and forced partisan in hot political contest
between the Executive and Congressional
power of the nation. Five of our principal
Generals are placed in political control of five
pro-cOnsulships, with the right to use the
military power OF the nation TO support them
in their civil rule. These Generals and all
their subordinate officers, with the task i'm
posed upon them by Congress, are made ad-
ministrators of civil law through military
power, and are readily learning the force Of
the combination placed in their hands.
We are marching to the system Of the Roman
republic whore every soldier was politician,
where all government had Its b rth in the
military element, and where the military,
finally learning that II had acquired all power,
aI tba h1ia aud acf az ahliahad Aha
empire upon its ruins. We advance more
rapidly even than the French republic to the
moment when the military politician must
become the man OF the hour, and where poll
tics, tngrafted upon the army, beoome pow
eriul weapon for any military man who has
the brain and will 10 handle the forces thus
unwittingly placed in his control. The French
Revolution, in its progress, forced the army to
become a political machine, and nothing but
the empire restored II to a status where 1t no
longer became a weapon in the hands OF mill
tary political commanders. The English sol
der TO day is entirely aloof from political
contact which gives him any power to shape
the destinies OF England; and his feeling in
that direction goes no further than transient
interest IN change OF ministry. The whole
of Spanish America may be held up as a warn
ing of the effect of making politicians Of SOL
diers; for there every officer is the exporent
of some political principle or faction, and the
soldier is virtually the government.
We commenced our reconstruction on bad
basis. Civil governors should have been APP
pointed over each of the five districts Of the
South, with power TO call for aid upon the
United States troops whenever aid might be
required to enforce the civil law. No officer
in the army should have been appointed to
even the most inferior civil Office. In fact, the
army should be held in its position and sub
ject to the purposes for which II was organ
ized-an armed unit Of power 70 enforce civil
law where the ordinary process fails after trial.
Had this method been pursued, there would
have been no necessity on the part Of General
Siclzles to make the people in his district feel
| the sting of military dictatorship, when he
ordered the American flag to be saluted by
those who failed to pay it homage; no neoes-
sity for General Sohofeld TO suppress news
paper publications which were not exactly In
| harmony with the radical sentiment Of the
country; no necessity for smotherng an ex-
| preston Of opinion ON the part OF any man
| who felt that he was living in a country whioh
] professed to give him free speech; no necessity