The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-06-17

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and Fifty Cents for each subsequent insertion
Liberal deductions made to those who advertise by
na-> For announcing q candidate, Five Dollars
The New York Tribune on Secret Political
Organizations.
II is but short time since that we
dwelt at some length on secret political
organizations like the Union Leagues,
the Grand Army of the Republic, and
other similar secret combinations OF
"pass-words and grips" and showed the
danger that their existence threatened
to the Onion and all established ideas of
fepubEcaism. In the views. which we
at this and other times expressed, we inn
agine there is not 8 Democratic or Con-
servative journal in the country but would
). on the whole empbatically agree with US.
But we had hardly expected to have
brought to our notice an article (Which
had escaped our attention. from any Rad
5Dal journal, and especially from the New
York Tribune, as pointed, severe and just
10 its condemnation of these secret pelit
ical societies, and especially of the Grand
Army of the Republic, as any Conserva-
tive or Democratic paper could we'll pro-
dnce. From journals of the latter sort,
we expect defence of American institu-
lions and ideas, relentless opposition to
any rising thought or power that threat
ems to subvert them, and to every combi-
nation, of what sort soeyer, which, like the
Grand Army of the Republic, as the Tn
5uxe asserts is "inimical to the Constitution
and the Union" From Radical journals,
an the other hand, we have no good rea-
son to look for any such defence Of Amer
lean institutions and ideas, any such 80.
icitude for their permanency, and such
hostility to all and everything, every or
SANITATION, secret or open, that nenaces
their existence or threatens to impair
their usefulness or change their character.
In an article not long ago, condemna-
tery of the Grand Array Of the Republic,
bought out by letter from Mr.. Henry
w. Bennett, of Davenport, Iowa, calling
that paper to account for denouncing that
organization, the New York Tribune took
occasion to express itself with delibera-
ton as follows:
aThese men combine for political pur-
poses. They propose to keep alive the
wrath and bitterness of that dreadful
time. They mean to control conventions
and nominate men to oAice-to perpetu-
ate in our civil system the bitterness of
war. We believe the soldier should re-
eeive abundant reward. When soldier
and civilian apply for Office, all things
else being equal, we should prefer the SOL
dier. But we dislike this making priv
ileged class, and especially we dislike this
getting into q corner and having pass
words and grips, and making an exclu-
sive class.
aWashington foresaw this when he
opposed the Society of the Cincinnati.
He saw in the association the first step
toward an aristocracy, and he declined to
ally himself with it. What Washington
said should be remembered now. Here
1 an association more numerous and more
powerful than the Cincinnati, which pur-
poses to ever keep alive q war with
brothers and fellow-countrymen,t to exult
In victories over Americans, to rejoice
over the destruction of men in whose
bl1e veins runs the-blood which courses
In our own, and who, whatever their
crimes or errors, are of our own country.
We say let all the memories Of the past
sink into the hell to which they belong
let us think only of the wounds to be
healed, of harvests to grow again, of seas
once more covered with our commerce,
education for the ignorant, protection to
tho onnressed. Justice to all,
@"We say this, and sacrifice none of the
principles defended by MIR. Bennett He
is, no doubt, earnest in his belief that his
work is worthy. But there are Graf
ty, bold, bad men, who look upon these
societies as so many instruments for
their own advancement. They pro-
pose to ally themselves with this mil
itary government, with no more claim
npon it than Thenardier, in Hugo's nov
Ell, had to be called the Sergeant of Wa
terloo. He followed the army and robbed
the bodies of the slain. The true soldier
sheaths his sword and buries it in his
closet, and it remains an heirloom. He
becomes citizen, and makes no claim for
political honor but that of citizenship.
Above all things he does not carry his
seaulets and ribbons, his wounds and
Bruises, to>a political convention, to be
Knocked down to the highest bidder.
There may be many of these men -unwit-
tingly in the Army of the Republic, who
probably entered with the views of Mr.
Bennett. They will soon see how they
may better occupy their time.
Especially do we entertain these views
when we find in the declarations of these
secret soldier associations so many ex-
pressions 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