Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-03-28
ABOUT SOLDIERS.

Ben. Hill, of Georgia, deprccates
the fact that so many military men
ave'obtained Office North and South
since the war. He says that there are
enough generals, colonies, captains
and majors in Congress to form a re-
spectacle army but not enough States
men to make a good committee. We
find this paragraph running through
the press of the country everywhere,
but what is in it to justify its wide
spread, publication and the implied
endorsement thus received? SO far
as we are concerned we confess to an
ever lessening degree of respect for the
Albert Sydney Johnston, Robt.E.Lee,
Stonewall Jackson, and scores of
others that we might name, ennobled
and glorified the military profession
and we're not ennobled or glOrified
by it. We would not object to see
ing the West Point school abolished,
and the army of the United States
disbandcd tomorrow. The true de-
fence of this Republic ought to be
found in a navy. At any time a mil
lion of men, all of whom from their
youth up had been familiar with the
use of arms and skilled in horseman-
ship, could be called together to resist
foreign invasion. For all home pur-
poses a national police force, upon a
war footing would be sufficient We
have said this much in order to make
it plain that we care nothing for the
tinsel, tho pomp, and the circumstance
of military life, aud that we are not
the willing followers of military men
as such. But why seek to ostracise
all those who have shared the priya-
tons of the camp and the.dangers of
the field2
At whom does Ben. Hill strike in
the paragraph that heads this article
Not at the professional and pensioned
soldier, but at the men of the land
who were soldiers only when their
country needed soldiers, aud who in
peace are quiet, self sustaining oiti-
zens. Look at the generals and other
officers of the North and South allud-
ed to by Mr.. Hill, and examine their
history. They went to the war from
the fields, the workshops, the count
ing-rooms ana the law-offices, of the
land. Their patience, fortitude and
good fortune at the end of four years
of strife and hardship made them
prominent. Privates stepped over
the PROSTATE forms of their dead cap
tains to take their places and so on
through the roster, and thus it hap
pened that men who before the war
had never set n squadron in the field,
who never thought or cared any thing
for military life or promotion, at last
reached places of distinction in the
armies North and South. The war
over these men went back to their old
vocations, and to-day are busy with
their plows and anvils, their ledgers
and their law-books. They have made
good citizens, have been liberal and
forgiving, and they at least have the
right to claim common justice at the |
hands of those in whose behalf they !
periled their lives. They do not ask |
to be rewarded simply because
they did their duty, but they do
ask that they be not outlaw
ed and branded because they were
brave or fortunate. The same vim,
energy, courage and endurance that
carried them to the front in war,
brings them to the front i'll other
walks of life. The great majority of
the young men of the South were in
the field from '6l to '65. The great !
majority of these men are now in the
very prime of life, their ages ranging
from 80 to 40 and as a matter of
course many of them have influence in
the communities where they live. In
proportion to their numerical strength,
however, no class IN Tennessee, or in
any State, North or South, has less
representation in Congress, in the
State legislatures or in the minor
offices. They certainly do not arrogate
to themselves any claims founded
upon mere soldiership, and will
be perfectly satisfied if that soldier
ship is not used as an argument why
they should not be permitted to hold
Office As to the sharp antithesis in
Mr.. Hills criticism as to the capaci-
ty of those soldiers who have been !
elected to office, we care only to say
that the class represented by Schurz
and Butler, by Gordon and Grassland |
so far as mere ability is concerned,
can at least compare favorably with
any other in Congress.