The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-02
i ARMY REFORMATION.

ARMY REFORMATION.
Frsnu the NJ Y. S,sr
The approaching reduction of the army,
and the certainty that many valuable officers
now unassigned must necessarily be mus
tered out of service unless vacancies are made
for them, has lent an unusual stimulus to the
Bureau of Military Justice. Offenses that a
year ago were entirely overlooked, or the
perpetrators of which were, after conviction
and dismissal by military tribunals restored
to the army by the Executive, now meet
with punishment so prompt as to have a per-
ceptible and healthy effect on the tone of
the army at large. General courts-martial
for the trial of officers have been recently or
are now sitting in nearly every department.
and the vigor with which offenders are
brought to grief is in pleasing contrast to the
laxity observable in this respect few months
ago. The danger of a great injustice hap
pening to good men through the customary
but undue lenity to the bad sharpens the eye
of Justice. Influence or antecedents, wounds
or campaigns, avail nothing to save the
erriBg. Neither age and long service, nor
youth and inexperience, can now stay the
heavy hand so long withheld. graduate of
West Point, thirty years in the army, disap-
pears from its rolls simultaINe ously with
second lieutenant at the foot of the list: aud
for once, from general to subaltern, all stand
equal before the law.
A file of general court martial orders issued
by the War Department is now before us. 1t
shows that every section of the country has
its representative in the catalogue of crime.
The characters of the offenses, too are as
varied as the climes to which the offenders
owe their nativity. Lieutenant Martin L.
Brandt, late 7th Infantry, born in Maryland,
and promoted from the ranks, convicted of
defrauding bis creditors by worthless pay ac-
counts, is dismissed the service. Captain
Charles G. Cox, 10th Cavalry, born in Maine,
appointed from Colorado, for getting drunk,
breaking his arrest, swearing at and beating
his men, and selling zone sorrel horse, the
property of the United States, is cashiered
and sentenced to the penitentiary for three
years. The President RENTS the peuiten-
tialy, but Cox leaves the service.
Captain George w. Graham, 10th Cavalry,
from New York, amused himself by publicly
driving in buggy with an abandoned
woman, then attempted to sell roam horse
the property of the United States, succeeded
in wroDgfully selling bay horse aud wound
up his exploits by free fight in a disgrace
ful den. He was cashiered, and also SEN
fenced to the penitentiary. The President
RENTED his confinement, but Captain Gra-
ham made desirable vacancy.
Lieutenant Emiius de Meulen, I'd Artil-
leIy, native of sunny Italy, and quartered
in Alaska, got drunk, broke his arrest five
times, and was tried for those offenses and
for attempting to murder the assistant sur
geon. Of this last charge he was found not
guilty, the doctor having fortunately escaped
being shot. De Meulen was, however,
Sashiered, and left Alaska and the army at the
same time.
Lieutenant Erwin Seeley, 18th Artillery,
born in Pennsylvania and appointed from the
army, became SO hopelessly involved finan-
cially while acting as commissary and quar-
termaster at Fort Washington, Maryland, that
his affairs could only be Strengthened out by
trying him for making false returns and
statements, cashiering him, and publishing
bis crime in the newspapers of Ohio and the
District of Columbia
These are few samples, taken at random,
but they prove the earnestness with which
the authorities are at work purifying the
army. The public must not hastily and ad-
versely Judge of the servi9e that has so long
held these men unpunished, but rather rest
assured that those who are left are worthy of
confidence; nor is the time now far distant
when the uniform of the officer will be, as of
old, the unnlistakable proof that its wearer is
gentleman.