The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1868-07-23
Boys in Blue.

The following stirring address has been
issused by the Soldiers Republican or
ganization of this State, which has already
commenced its labors, and will be heard
from in due time:
HEADQUARTERS SOLDIERS & SAILORS STATE
CENTRAL Committee, los CHUsTNUT STREET,
PHILADELPHIA, July 6, 1868.
COMRADES When the rebel armies
were overthrown and the rebel leaders
forgiven by our magnanimous Chief, the
whole world wondered at the generosity
which pardoned men guilty of so great a
crime. The least We expected was that
the Government for which We had fought,
and for which SO many had given up their
lives, was secured against the possibility
of another conspiracy. But, warned by
history aud taught by our own expert
cucc among the misguided people Of the
South, VIC maintained our organizations,
and now, in the forefront Of another peril,
congratulate ourselves upon the wisdom
of that decision. So thoroughly have our
military brothers reunited themselves,
that only a few who wore the Union blue
can be induced to join the ranks of the
rebel Democracy. Our camps extend
east and west, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific and there is not veteran who
does not realize that the public danger
may once more call him to the field
The alarming spectacle of formal com
bination between the two great columns Of
trcason-the rebel army of the South and
the rebel sympathizers of the North-is
the living proof of great impending Ca
lamitics. These desperate mcn-thc one
side still yaunting their treason against
the country, and the other still boasting
of the aid and comfort extended to them
profess to be confident Of success in the
approaching election. The animosity
they bore to our beloved Commandcr-in-
Chief-now the candidate of the great
Republican party-suryiveS the hollow
gratitude with which they hailed his lib
cral terms of peace and now, remember
ing only that he struck them in the field
and coldly forgetting how he forgavc
their great offence, they arc toiling with
superhuman cucrgy to defeat him for the
Presidency, and place in that high Office
a fit successor of its present guilty occup-
ant. Their hatred of Grant extends to
all our heroic leaders, with one or two ex-
ceptions. The only offence of these &C,
complishcd soldiers is their fidelity to the
country for which they fonght. Gen.
George H. Thomas in Tennessee, Gen.
Irwin Mcdowell in Mississippi, Gen.
George G.. Meade in Georgia, Gen. Can
by in South Carolina, and General Rcy-
nolds in Texas, with their predecessors,
Sheridan, Sicklos, Pope, Swayuc and
Mower, and prescribed aud slandered like
common felons, which every Union man
in the South, black and white, is sub
jectcd to uncomfortable cruelty and op;
preston. This Wholesale malcvolcncc,
looking directly to the restoration, of the
rebel government, teaches US not only
the wisdom and justice of our organiza-
tion, but invokes US to renewed ctforts In
favcr of Grant ank Collax, the standard
bearers of the Republican party, and for
our gallant comrades, uartranft and
Campbell, our standard bearers in the
| State contcs.
The fundamental ideas of this rcbel
combination arc that nothing has been
gained by the success of our arms, but
that everything has been lost. To for
get the sanctificd dead, to ignore aud out
rage the gallant living. and to remember
aud reward those only whose crime in
any other nation would have been punish
ed by death OF conliscation, Is the inspiring
motive of our adversarics, What Amer
lean soldier does not feel the insult p
| What Americrn citizen docs not burn t
resent it.? Instead Of cordially submit
ting to the laws passed by overwhelming
Congressional majoritics, and carried IN
to effect for the grand purpose OF reor
ganizing the South upon the basis Q
equal justice aud equal rights, our recen
adyersarics openly threaten new lcsor
to arms.
] At no period in the leLclhon Lave the,