Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-07-21


shall receive respectful reply. We had
occasion some days since, while comment
ing upon the meeting of Congress, to speak
our minds of an association known as "The
Grand Army Of the Republic" We spoke
with severity, because We felt the occasion
had arrived for a severe expression Of
opinion. We understand the Grand Army
/ of the Republic to be a secret society, COM
posed of persons calling themselves dis.
| charged soldiers of the army, with the
purpose of taking part in politics. Mr..
/ Bennett rather denies this, but we are not
satisfied with his denial. We scarcely ever
! can take up a certain class of Western
papers without finding that some "Post Of
the G. A. R." has had meeting, and re-
solved that everything is going wrong, and
that nothing will go right until some one
is hanged, and everybody has a confscated
| farm.
In the first place, we call this organiza-
ton unrepublican. Secret associations for
social purposes, to aid in charity or to de-
velope virtue and friendship, are very
we'll. They rarely interfere with anybody.
| II people find amusement in meeting in
guarded rooms, and wearing spangled
dresses, and calling themselves sachems,
and brothers, and comrades, and soldiers
Of Gideon, and sons of Rechab, it is their
own business. We may doubt their taste,
but a mans tastes concern only himself
| Sometimes we have vestiges of the Orange
sentiment in Ireland in Protestant associa~
/ tons, who meet and swear by the immortal
memory of King William, and vow to
walk knee-deep in Catholic blood. Such
| VOWS are harmless figures of speech as long
as the police are about On the other
| hand, we hear of other societies who pro-
pose to re-establish the Catholic Church,
and scatter confusion among the Protest
ants. In America, however, these males
dictions are merely rhetorical. The Catho-
| lie and Protestant churches still live and
| flourish. We had Fenianism and Know
Nothingism. The one is dead, as an active
power the other has long since departed.
In the war there were Sons of Liberty and
Knights of the Golden Circle; but their
glory was for day, and it faded like the
| flowers Of the field. When a secret socie-
ty goes beyond the Offices of charity and
| friendship, it takes no root in America.
The Grand Army of the Republic pro-
poses, according to Mr.. Bennett, to ''renew
associations formed amid the roar of artil-
lery, the lightning of battle, and the thun-
der of victory" We fear Mr. Bennett but
half states his case. The memories of the
recent war are, no doubt, very high and
holy. There is something sacred in the
comradeship which drank from the same
canteen. We can understand with what
lusty grasp the comrades of the mess would
meet in civil life If this were all, we
| should be content; but it is not all. These
men combine for political purposes. They
propose to keep alive the wrath and bitter
ness of that dreadful time. They mean to
control conventions to nominate men for of
fce-to perpetuate in our civil system the
| bitterness of war. We believe the soldier
should receive abundant reward. When a
soldier and civilian apply for Office, all
| things else being equal, we should prefer
| the soldier. But we dislike this making
privileged class, and especially we dislike
this getting into a corner, and having pass
words and grips, and making an exclusive
| class. Washington foresaw this when he
| opposed the Society of the Cincinnati. He
| saw in that association the first step toward
an aristocracy, and he declined to ally
| himself with it. What Washington said
should be remembered now. Here is an
association more numerous and more pow
erful than the Cincinnati, which proposes
| to keep alive a war with brothers and fell
low countrynen, to exult in victory over
Americans, to rejoice over the destruction
of men in whose blue veins run the blood
which courses in our own, and who, what
ever their crimes or errors, are of our own
country. We say, let all the fearful men,
cries Of the past sink into the hell to which
! fha.v halaprr. Lot fbsntr - 4.
to be healed, Of harvests to grow again, of
seas once more covered with our COM
merce, education for the ignorant, protec-
ton to the oppressed, justice to all
We say this, and sacrifice none of the
principles defended by Mr.. Bennett He is
no doubt earnest in his belief that his work
is worthy. But there are crafty, bold, bad
men who look upon these societies as so
many instruments for their own advance
ment. They propose to ally themselves
with this military sentiment, with no more
claim upon it than Thernardier in Hugo's
novel had to be called the Sergeant of Wa
terloo. He followed the army, and robbed
the bodies of the slain. The true soldier
sheathes his sword and buries it in his
closet, and it remains an heirloom. He
becomes a citizen, and makes no claim for
political honor but that of citizenship.
Above all things, he does not carry his ep
aulets and ribbons, his wounds and bruises
to political convention, TO be knocked
down TO the highest bidder. There may
be many of these men unwittingly in this
Army of the Republic, who probably en-
tered it with the views of Mr.. Bennett.
They viii soon see how they can better &c
cupy their time.
Especially do we entertain these views
when we find in the declarations of these
secret soldier associations so many expires
sions of madness. The true soldier is the
most generous of foemen. Take the great
captains who commanded the contending
hosts. Do We find Grant, or Sherman, or
Sheridan, or Thomas or Meade, assembling
together and bowling for more blood, more
strife, more bitterness Do we find Lee,
or Longstreet, or johnson, or Beauregard
insisting that the hates of secession shall
be prolonged? These men fought their
fight and ended. Their anger ceased with
the echo of the last guns fired in anger.
From this Grand Army of the Republic,
now psrading through political conven-
tons in the West, commanded by the cap
tains of the caucus, the lobby, and the bar
rum, We appear 10 the OThnu army OF Inc
Republic which carried our banners over a
hundred fields under the eye of Grant,
Sherman, and Sheridan. We denounce
this new secret association as out of SYM
pathy with the true Republican party, and
as ininical TO the constitution and the
Union. Ii will be a sad day for our party
when soldiers find no better work than to
prowl over the battle-felds OF the past. and
dig up the bodies Of the slain. The country
wants peace, and rest, and harmony, and
justice. These men want a distracted
country, that Offices may be gained. They
would make America a Mexico, peace
would be sent TO sleep with Turks and in
6dels, and, instead of Union, they would
"the wofullest divisions make that ever
fell upon this cursed earth"