The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-11-24
The ARMY Bill.
UNDINE.


The army bill has been passed after
a great deal of unnecessary fuss and
the ranks are to be recruited to TWEEN
ty-five thousand men. This is a
moderate number, more than which
would he burthcnsome if not danger
Gus, and less than which would be
insufficient for the proper mainte-
nance of the dignity and safety ofthe
country.
There has been a great deal of
superfluous nonsense spent over this
measure, and we confess that we feel
somewhat ashamed that American
representatives could be induced to
parade their demagogueism or idiot
cy over a matter so plain as this.
We want and must have an army
strong enough to be of some service.
We may get into war with Mexico
at any moment, and it would be a
humiliating thing to have our soil
invaded by such contemplate pow
er and We utterly helpless for weeks
or months before it. We have seen
brave Custer die, he and his gallant
band held in the wilderness like
lambs led to the slaughter and every
man of them butchered by sayages,
because this great, rich and powerful
nation had only handful of men to
carry on an Indian war. We have
seen troops of American soldiers for
months lodging about a tribe of poor
savages, actually not daring to attack
them, because of insufficiency of
numbers. Last summer we saw riot,
incendiaryism, plumber and blood
shed run rampant over the country,
and only few companies could be
used to quell the outbreak and restore
order.
And yet there were blockheads in
Congress who pretended to be afraid
to trust the President with an army
of twenty-five thousand men. Poor,
timid little fellows, afraid of that ter
rible fellow in the White House, who
signalized his advent into office by
withdrawing troops from the South
and thus educating the country into
the knowledge that the day Of wan
ton and illegal military invasion of
States had posed forever. If Hayes
ever harbored the ambition to be-
come military dictator he foolishly
defeated that ambition by calling the
troops from New Orleans and Column
bia. While they remained where
Grant had put them, such use ofthem
was tolerated by large body of the
American people. But when he de-
MED the necessity of such military
occupation, confessed the illegality of
it and recognized the integrity of the
States, he opened the popular eye to
facts which preclude him forever
from doing even what his predeces-
sor had frequently done. 3..
Others were afraid of expense and
rung the changes on the economical
lay, as ifthe American people were
willing to sacrifice honor and dignity
and national respect for the sake of
saving few paltry dollars. They
seemed to imagine that it would be
virtuous in them even to save "the
peoples money" at she expense of
the peoples honor, Others could
trust nobody with the handling of
this army and, we suppose, would
abolish the government altogether
for fear that government might be
abused.
And still others were guilty of the
pitiful "cheap John" pettlfoggery of
pretending to fear that this immense
army might be called out against the
"workingmen." After cozening the
"workingmen," by asserting that
they did none of the disgraceful
things perpetrated last July, and that
the mob was composed entirely of
rowdies and ruffians, they slandered
the wOrkingmen by pretending that
the army WAS to be recruited to shoot
them down. Mobs of rOMdies and
ruffians ought to be shot down, and
the army should be strong enough to
meet any emergency whether Great
ed by foreign invaders or internal
outbreaks. The man who talked
thus had very poor opinion of the
intelligence of the workingmen if he
imagined that workingnen could
not see that he was hypocrite to