, 1874-05-24
ARMY HEADQUARTERS.

james Palace and the Sutherland House.
ARMY HEADQUARTERS.
The City Of st. Louis has boon praying and
| begging the gods these many years to send it
something which might servo to distinguish it j;
something to attract people to it; to cause peo-
pie to talk Of t-something in fine. which it
might be proud OF. Failing to convince the peo-
pie that it is the Future Great City Of the World,
and to get the National Capital there, tsoothesits
disappointed pride with the prospect of securing
Gen. Sherman and his headquarters. 1e Deuns
are being sung in that city of cathedral stiffness
over the early ndyent OF the General OF the
Army. We congratulate st. Louis that it is on
this point Of Increasing its population; and
also, that it is to hayo at least
one thing its citizens may boast Of
when they 50 to other places; and
point Of interest to show to strangers when
they visit their quiet town. OF course the St.
Louis journals will admit OF no reason for Gen.
Sherman's choice Of st. Louis as q residence
but that in the eternal fitness Of things heshoud
be there. st. Louis, the General Of the
Army, and his headquarters we're made for
one another. Hence the St. Louis Demo-
crdt puts little confidence in the rumor
that the removal Of the army headquarters to st.
Louis is proposed because Of any unpleasant-
ness between Gen. Sherman and the Secretary Of
War, or because of any plot to make Sherman
President or keep him from being President.
These may not bo the roasons for the change !;
but, il they are not, neither are the reasons sur
missed by the Democrat conclusive why St. Louis
should be chosen for army headquarters. The
Democrat 1easous thus:
The removal Of headquarters from Washington is
demanded by common sense. Our armies aro no
longer stationed along the Atlantic the Canada
border, az they were In olden time. They are no
longer asesed In Southern States between tho Mis-
sissppi and the Atlantic, they WeEe during the Var
years arrer its cloee. They employed
almost wholly In the Far West, hundreds Of miles be-
yoad the Mississippi. Army headquarters would be
almost conveniently located at San francisco as at
Washington The cost Of communicating With the
many distant points is very much greater than
would be with headquarters here the cost and delay
Of reaching them for inspections is much greater and
the inevitable tendency is to transform the army into
dependency upon the petty political squabbles
at Washington It ought to be Kept far possible
freq from such Influences organized, disciplined and
maintained to enforce the authority Of the United
Etstes, no mattor by what individual purity that
authority may from time to time be rghtfuy welded
We presume that considerations Of ha character hayo
led Cen Sherman who Is enfnently distinguished for
his practical common sense to ask the transfer Of
headquarters, and that the considerations hare
led the President to authorize 1t.
Granting that common sense demands the re-
moval Of the headquarters OF the army from
Washington-which VIC equite ready to grant
it does not follow that common sense demands
their removal to St. Louis. We do not say that
there are not good reasons for Gen. Sherman's
removal from Washington. We suppose there
nre. since he has made tho change, but wo can
imagine very good reasons why the army head-
quarters should continue at Washington, as long
at least as it ronains the Capital Of tho United
States.
There ia not perhaps, single instance in tbs
civilized or unciyiizei world whoro the seat Of
government is ut one place and the army head
quarters at another It the argument OF tho
Democrat proves anything, it proves that Gen.
Sherman's headquarters should be situated in
the "Far West, hundreds OF miles from the Mis-
sissirpi," say ut Denver City. Nor is there any
reason why tho army headquartors should be
whero the army happens at any time to be
massed. The army may be massed to-day in the
Far West; but how long it will be there no one
Gun tell. It may be necessary to mass it to-nor-
row in Louisiana. or Arkansas, or New York, or
Maine.
We do not think that tho Democrat accounts
satisfactorily for the change. We mono tho less
cheerfully congratulate St. Louis on it's acqujsi-
tion. It is going to have something noteworthy
at last. St. Louis owes its good fortune In
getting the headquarters possibly to the fact
that Chicago has Lieut.-Gen. Sheridan already.
and it would be hardly fair 1t should ask for
Gen. Sherman. Chicago is too nngnanimous to
demand both.