The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-08-23

tected Nv all. And this whole system,
with all its attendantoutrages, was based
upon the one sentiment, Anything
to beat Grant"
The horrors of Fort Pillow and its
butcheries, when summed up in sin
ole pbrase, read: Anything to beat
Grant, And so of Plymouth, and so
of the murderings of colored soldiers
elsewhere under that standard of Ie
bellion, the stars and bars.
The starvation at Andersonvllle, the
marking out of the dead line" there,
and the shooting OF those who crawled
across it for a cup OF pure water, or Of
those who stepped over it deliberately
To end their miseries-this whole un.
utterable story of woe is fully expressed
in this revived motto of the Democ-
racy, "Anything TO beat Grant"
The same motto controlled at Sails.
bury: With plenty of material for shade
and shelter, the Union prisoners were
left TO burrow In the ground like ami.
mails; and lest sun, and rain, and frost
and loathsome food should not Kill them
fast enough, materials were ground in
with the musty corn they were fed up
on. Inside that CHASTITY prison pen,
honeycombed with burrows, but one
terrible rule was law: Anything to
beat Grant" Outside, along these
heightened trenches, where the corpses
when received were skeletons, the only
burial service uttered was " Anything
70 beat Grant" And this service, and
this alone, was said over trench after
trench till eighteen, each nearly hun
dred yards in length, were filled with
uncoffined soldiers, murdered ito beat
Grant
As at Andersonville, and Salisbury,
and the other noted prisons, so the cow
ardly and inhum cry sounded aoovs
the roar of the rapids about Belle Isle.
There, in full sight of the residences Of
Lee and Davis, in full view of the reb.
ell Cabinet and the rebel Congress, was
the low, fat tongue of the island, where
thousands of the "boys in blue" sank
under starvation and cold-starved to
beat Grant"
Those unfortunates found by the
Union armyon entering Wimington,w who
were bereft of reason through exposure
and want of food, who could not tell
their names, their regiments, or their
homes, and who died with the bread too
long delayed in their hands, were vic.
Tins to the one handspring of rebel &C
ton there" Anything TO beat Grant.
IN substance it was the one excusing
cry for all the minor sins which -four
ished under the crime of treason. Any.
thing to destroy the Union anything
to weaken the Union forces /; anything
TO exterminate Union soldiers or Union
men ANYTHING to beat Union Generals
anything to crush the Republican par.
ty anything 10 beat Grant. Each and
all signifed the same, and in their
names every outrage that disgraced the
page of rebel warfare was perpetrated.
From the firing on Sumter TO the final
surrender, either in essence, or in exact
language, the one motto, cited to cover
all forms ofatrocity, was the watchword
of to-day" Anything to beat Grant"
Violate all rules of civilized war, i'll
treat prisoners, starve them, disable
them. if need be murder them. Any.
thing TO beat Grant. Plan TO burn
Northern cities, plan to poison them,
plan to infect them with contagious
diseases. Anything to beat Grant.
When the war closed the cry did not
cease. Booth acted upon its spirit
when, with this accemplices, he muir.
dered the President, and attempted
the lives of the Cabinet officers. With
him it was a" Anything to beat the Re
publican party"
Andrew Johnson followed him, and
tried by political treachery to restore
what the rebels in arms had lost. And
with him the problem of defeating re-
construction was at last a question Of
beating Grant.
The Seymour campaign, fought out
upon the principles Of the Broadhead
letter, was but call for rebel rally to
beat Grant.
Later the Ku-Klux banner has sport
ed the motto. BY its enforced author
ity Northern men have been driven
out of the South, their property de-
stroyed, and their lives often taken
Union men have lived in one long
reign of terror. Colcred citizens have
been prosecuted beyond the limits
which the old slave code tolerated,
broad as those limits were. By whip.
ping, by murders, by burnings, by ter.
rorisms of all kinds, by every means.
WHICH u WISH ingenuity cOulu ueVlse,
this organization has worked indus
triously. Each masked marauder shout.
ing to his fellow: Anything to beat
Grant"
1t is true that the motto, as used
through the war, had but little person.
al reference to Grant, but always to the
cause, or the principles which he and
the other Union leaders represented.
And the old cry which is ringing out
again so fiercely now, does not apply to
Gen. Grant as person, but TO the select
ed standard bearer of the Republican
party. There are many who would not
have chosen him for the position, but
now that he holds it must work, and
will work heartily to secure victory, not
for him, but for the Union party which
he represents.
In this contest, for many, Gen. Grant
as person receives only secondary con.
sideration, but for all Republicans Gen.
Grant as the candidate of their party
stands as the representative of all that
was gained by the war, and the good
that has come to the country in the
years which have succeeded it.
AS in the years of the war the loval