The Morning herald., 1877-03-30
WILMINGTON, Msvch 30. 1877:
A STANDING ARMY DANGEROUS
TO LIBERTY.

tend to convince thinking men, that a
standing army is incompatible with free
government. The temptation to use such
a power is apparently beyond human abll'
ity to resist. Grant, from whom the
country barely escaped, used it upon every
pretext, no matter whether forbidden BY
law or custom, or otherwise-the sole idea
Of his, was a government Of force, and he
has left us a sad legacy of such statesman
ship, One of the most difficult things in
life. is not to convince-but to get one who
has fixed political party opinions to ex-
anime the policy Of either his own party
or that of his opponents. We ask that
fair, candid inquiry may be had upon the
question of standing army, one sure to
come squarely up in the next House OF
Representatives.
We boldly affirm that the only reason
which can be advanced for the existence OF
standing army, does not exist in this
country at present, and that the condition
ofnational affairs which operated upon the
minds of the trainers of the Constitution,
to permit such nonstrosity in free gov
errment, no longer exists. Standing ar
mics are necessitated by menacing power
from without; to repel any sudden swoop
ofinyasion into the national domain, by a
powerful and warlike neighbor. Under
no other possible circumstance can its ad-
vocacy be maintained. Such military dy-
nasts as Sherman are always ready ofpoint
out the absolute need of an army to re-
press Indian hostil;ties, and sustain the
National honor:-We answer if our whole,
Indian Bureau we're abolished, every In
dian agent and trader scalped, and our
Indian affairs turned over to such an Or
ganization as that which manages the
Indians of Canada, we wouldsave millions
of dollars annually, and live in quiet rela'
tions with the red sons Of the wild. In SC
far as our domestic affairs are concerned
the army has had to sustain treason, fraud
forgery, and perjury, in the South again
and again. 1t is now vivifying the pup
net governments of Chamberlain ant
Packard, against the overwhelming senti-
ment of the people. Ours is Fedora
system, wherein the State is sovereign
The famous Eight to Seven Commisslo
based all their rulings on the absolut
sovereignty of the State, and in this re
gard, in so far as hard principle unenli
vened by equity is concerned, eight mad
seven "eat sand,' as the Arabs say. Nov
when til enatural sequence Of such rulin'
ought to lead to an immediate permissio
to adominant party ina State to govern;tl
bayonets of standing army gleam b.
tween right, and usurpation, ,and forbid tt
political exercise Of the popular will.
One great stepin advance could be TAX
by the House Of Representatives in t
next session, and ought to be taken-one tn
would find gladstone echoes in every car
tai of Europe, and that would be the leav
in the last decade of the Nineteenth cent
rv, as was the revolution in the last deca
of the Eighteenth, to animate and insp
the people Of the world, to step leadi
to their emancipation from the waste a
wickedness of a standing army whose ex
tance is a menance to both liberty and
dustrv. How it would startle the camps
Europe, asBerliu, Vienna St. Petersburg a