, 1877-09-14
THE "CHRIsTIAN SOLDIER"

Two correspondents have sent us
long communications protesting
against what they consider unjust
treatment OF General Howard by the
newspapers. They appear to think
that Gen. Howard has incurred the
especial emnity of writers for the
press by his reputed "piety," and
that he should, therefore, be defend
ed and upheld by all good people.
It is pity that these good people
cannot see the wrong they do by such
an unwarranted assumption. 1t is
they and not the newspapers that
have brought discredit upon the
grandest OF titles, a "Christian sold
ier," by persistently bestowing it
upon any incompetent who might
claim it. Sir Henry Havelock was
in every case a Christian soldier, a
man of deep religious earnestness
and almost ascetic piety; did any
one ever hear sneering word ut
tered against him? Or take Stone
wall Jackson as another example.
Was there ever any disposition to
ridicule when he was spoken of by
his most noble title? We could
multiply examples indefinitely, nam
ing such men as our own General
Meade, or the gallant Bartlett, or a
dozen others who showed their re-
ligion in their lives and whom the
most reckless and most ribald ever
reyerenced as Christian soldiers.
Why then should the term be ap-
piled in redicule to a man like How
ard, whose personal uprightness is
not disputed and whose integrity of
purpose none denies? Simply be-
cause Howard, conspicuously weak
and unsuccessful man, has been
thrust forward by those who only
looked at his good Intentions and not
at his capacity for fulfilling them, un-
til the world has come to regard him
as a man whose "piety" is his whole
stock in trade. We believe that the
world does entirely respect sincere
ly religious man, but one thing that
the world will not tolerate 10 man
who, in the slang Of the period, "goes
it on piety."
And yet the public confidence in
his good intentions has really pro.
tected Howard. But for this his
disgraceful administration of the
Freedmsn's Bureau would have
driven him from the army. AS it
was, he was sent away to q distant
command, where it was expected
that no would have nothing to do
and where he might subside into
merited obsourity. No malice pur-
sued him there, and the country,
has had too much experience
Of the difficulty and danger o.
Indian warfare to dsnounce How
ard because he and the little force at
his disposal lwere unable to cope
with wsrlike Nez Perces. But what
must Howard do but begin straight
way to make himself ridiculous, by
preposterous boasts that he could
not fulfil, proclaiming his ignorance,
his folly and his vanity, and his utter
nnhtness fer any responsible com
mtnd. tits not because Howard has
failed that he is laughedat. Nobody
.anghed At poor Custer, with all his
ilght-headed vanity and his ignor'
eof Indian warfare, because Gus
ter made no pretensss, but simply
1' where he was ordered and died.
And Howard, II he had not been
TOOL, would have commanded the
sympathy OF the y5lole nation, left as
ne waf to do unequal battle with q
strong aud treAcherous 70 But
Howard has done nothing but make
himself laughing stock, and the
newspapers would have been dere.
nct had they failed 10 give erpres
son TO the public demand that this
Feeble braggart should be replaced
DV n anliinr .-hn -,n,lh toow not