Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1877-09-15
COMMUNICATED.
WHAT IT COSTS TO BE SUBJU
GATED.

show effects of the army upon the Re
public, and what it costs to maintain it.
Now, | desire to show further It's per-
nicious tendency 10y a contrast with the
other departments of State again
quote from the last Annual Report OF
the Secretary of the Treasury, viz:
For civil expenses 1892 ,2fS.S3
For foreign intercourse l,4lO,2o2oO
For Indians $500, a)S.l7
For Military establishments 3s,07O, ssS.ol
making a greater sum than the civil,
foreign and Indian Bureaus put togeth-
or, by thirteen miiiioas, four hundred
and sirty one thousand, eight hundred
and twsnty-nins dollars and fourteen
cents. And if we add Pensions, $685.,
PSI, 1860, to the Military sum, we
have S66,32S,2S433. 1t is proper to
consider pensions with the military es-
tablishment as pensions are the results
of military transactions. 1t is true,
however, in this connection to say, that
pensions may grow out of a military
system, in case OF actual war; but this
admission is again modified by the prob
ability that wars would be much less
frequent it regular or standing armies
were abolished. But in the regular ser
vice a soldier who becomes disabled to
comply with the demands of arbitrary
discipline, no matter from what cause,
becomes subject for pension.
Now, | ask candid enquiry OF
thinking, sovereign people, what is the
necessity of this great prodigality in
squaudering the peoples money! Sup
pose these millions of wasted money
should be expended (if it must be drawn
from the people, upon developing the
great resources Of the country, thereby
afording bread TO the industrious poor,
whe are now enslaved by created mo-
nopolies, by scieutitic discovery, and
by the cultivation of the true traterna
relations which should characterize eve
ny Christian people under the sun and
If more can be done-much of the world
is yet to explore; let the Navy with sci
entists and marines plough through eve
ry navigab'e water in search OF light
aud knowledge.
But, as was shown by previous ar
ticle, the army in its very organization
sssd discipline is a combination of supe
riors. and interiors, all demanding strict
obedience to orders, even to fourth
corporal, having one central head, and
that head styled the Commander OF the
Army and Navy of the United States
And the near past has revealed to the
people of the United States how despot
ically the power has been exercised 10y
a President. And how willingly the
Chief Commander obeyed even TO the
subyersion of whole State authority, and
that, too, in the face of the constitu-
tional provision declaring that the mill
tary shall be subordinate to the civil
powers.
We have seen how Judges of the
Courts were dragged from the Bench
by lawless soldiers, during the late Sc
eession OF the Southern States: and since
how courts were inundated by military
shadom. it was always so /; it is the
faint left ia the blood OF man by the fall
to Cypress the helpless and the weak,
and should tie guarded against by re-
moving as far as possible the causes
which lead TO it,
When Milo met Clodius on the Ap,
plan road to Rome, the fiend of power
manifested itself, but when Cicero I'M
dertook the defence Of the tribune be-
fore the Judgment seat, he was terrified
by all armed soldiery, and his client
was condemned to Punishment. How
exactly verified, 10y many of our best
citizens, who were banished from their
homes by the most aggravated cruelties
for mere opinions sake, during the reign
Of military power in the United States.
To prevent the recurrence of like out
RACES upon the people of this Republic,
should be the aim of every patriot in
the land, however humble. AS long as
the dispensation of functional power
under our forms remained with the real
friends OF the Republic, the military
power was entirely subordinate to the
civil power; even in times of war the
two were entirely distinct. But when
the malcontents by accident came to ad- |
minister the conferred powers, there
was at once a blending of the civil and !
military power, aud, as is the case in all
such commingling, the military arm
soon subordinated the civil power to its
so-called necessity. And even yet, the
army equipped to do police duty rush
10 the relief OF railways and canals with
eager zest to put down a mob crying
for bread. Had this Excellency and |
that invoked the civil arm under their
TO examine the rights and
equities of the late strikes, no blood
would have been shed aud no property
DESTROYED, but an honorable adjustment
would have been the result alike credit
able TO each. These are few of the
reasons / have for condemning a regu-
lar army in Republic. Will Congress
assert its prerogative, or will 1t go to
mill with stone in one end of Its sack
and the grist in the other because It's
old fathers across the alter did so in
Tunes past. Oh! for Calhoun, Web
s'ef' Cass, Clay, Benton, a Mason,
!. buchanan, and their co-legislators in
the days of the first Republic. f.
oharlestown, Sept, 10, 1877.