The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-24
Rebel Anxiety and Patriot Fidelity.

From the ", y Commercial advertiser.
We cannot too highly commend the anxiety
of Rebel officers and soldiers to save the
country. To be sure, only seven years ago
hundreds of them abandoned their allegiance
to the Union, violated their military oaths,
forsook the Government which had fostered
them, and bore arms against it. There is
physiological theory, that every seven years
the entire human structure changes and is
made over. Ii this be so, the men who broke
faith in 1861, are not the men who now make
these frantic appeals. They bear the same
names and look as erst they did, barring the
ravages of time, but there is no particle of flesh
or bone, or blood in them, which was there in
1861. Perhaps they hope, by this metamor-
phOsis, to excuse themselves, and to claim
non-identity with the past.
One of these "Union savers Is General
Buckner, who was induced to ''git up and git''
from Fort Donelson when Grant appeared
there one fine day in 1862, and now this fugi
tive, coming North, finds Grant again arrayed
against him. So he goes into the Democratic
Convention, and declares that he is in har-
mony with every brave soldier in the effort
to rescue the Constitution from indignity or
violation" And the members of the Conven-
ton, who have never forgiven Grant for
chasing Buckner from his standpoint of hos
tiity to the Constitution, applauded the lat
ters speech, aud welcomed him back to the
ranks from which he had been temporarily
separated.
The Dem ocrats, however, are not the only
persons who have 'their say" in this matter.
There are returned Union soldiers who demand
hearing, and they long since set their seal
of conde mnation, not only upon Rebels in the
field, but upon the Pendletons and SeymOurs,
and all their kith and kin, who remained in
the rear, and who either firmly opposed the
war for the Union or insidiously endeavored to
sap the strength OF the forces arrayed in be-
half of the Government.
Once Upon time, during the war, the
Indiana so diers made an address in which they
express ed their sentiments upon the situation.
Among other things, they sad:-
We Xpect to come h me soms day We will
either come home triumphautly rejUiciog over
the ace ompllshmsnt OF ne object Tor winch We
have all eady endured so mucn, or we Will come
humi lated and dishearteued AT our defeat, and
the consequent desolatiOn of our country and
our homes. 1u either event, wewIll remember
and honor those VINO have alded and encour-
aged as by their influence AT home, and Will
visit those who have sought to defeat us with
q ret ibution proporj ipnate To the extent OF
the evil taey have brought upon US and our
country.
This is the sentiment which actuates nine
tentbs of all the "boys in blue" and they will
keep their word. Tney have good memories,
and they will mete out to those in front or
rear, "who sought to defeat them," the retri-
button that is appropriate to such a monstrous
crime.
Let the Democracy summon the Rebel chief
tains to their platforms to sustain the cause of
Seymour and Blair; let them name for the
highest positions in their confidence the men
who looked listlessy on while rebellion staked
over the land, or who gave aid and comfort to
secession, and the "boys in blue" will be on
hand to meet them and to overwhelm them at
the polls.