The daily gazette., 1878-07-08
From the Baltimore Gazette.
Our Naughty Chieftain.

Those officers of the United States
army who desire that the army shall CON
tlnue in existence, would do well to get
General w. t. Sherman declared a luna.
TIC and placed under charge. A few
more such speeches AZ that aged warrior
made concerning Mr.. Banning, and the
American people may take seriously nm.
der consideration the question whether
or not 1t is well to maintain military
aristocracy to insult the people. Repre-
sentative Banning, who was elected to
Congress on retrenchment platform,
anu who was the chairman of the Mill.
tary Committee, and therefore acting in
the line of his especial duty in cutting
down the extravagances of military ex,
penditures, has incurred the displeasure
oi General Sherman who by way of be-
ing as scornful and contemptuous as pos
sible calls him "that fellow Banning who
hasn't got brains enough to be dry
goods clerk" Doubtless General Sher-
man considers dry-goods clerk con-
temptible creature, fit for nothing better
than to work hard and pay the taxes
which support the magnificent swells in
the army, who draw big pay, ride the tall
horses, and do the tall talk; but 1T would
be well for him to keep such opinions to
himself. The dry-goods clerks may not
wear the gold braid and buttons, but they
are among the people who pay III bill and
who vote the supplies. In other words
they are General Sherman's masters.
Sherman's handsome uniform is his livery:
they pay him his wages; and can stop pay
ing 1t when ever they choose; and they
may come to think that keeping 80 inso-
lent a servant as General Sherman is an
expensive luxury which they can dis
pense with.
Who is General w. T Sherman that he
should use dry-goods clerk as a syno-
nym fer contempt? He is a man who
was educated at the expense of the peo-
pie at West Point. People who work
with their hands at plow and anvil, as
well as people in the dry-goods trade,
pay the expenses Of that Institution. II
turned out in old times some noble men,
and may do so still. But when the Gen
eral-in-Chief OF the Army sets such an
example as this, it is hardly fair to expect
much from the subalterns. The authors
of the Bill of Rights, the signers of the
Declaration of Independence, the franz
ers of the Constitution, all left on record
their aversion to standing armies in time
of peace. They saw that the habit of
absolute command begets in military men
an lmpatlence and contempt of civil pro-
cedure by law; that military men tend
naturally toward an aristocratic con-
tempt for labor and trade that soldiers
make virtue of obeying orders rather
than obeying Lao. SO when the revolu-
ton was over Washington resigned his
commission: the army disbanded. The
soldiers went back to the plough, the an
vii and the dry-goods business. This is
not General Sherman's plan at all. He
draws his big pay and seems to consider
that he holds this country up by the tail,
and that if he were to let go the whole
thing would go to smash. He said at a
banquet not long ago, "Disband the army
and this government Is mob" He de-
served to be court-marshaled and cashier
cd for saying 80. 1t is true that he de-
MED afterward that he said 80; but q
number of people heard it, and it is quite
characteristic of him in every way. He
thinks that the country cannot exist
without the army and that the army can
not do without him. He may some day
be rudely awakened from these illusions.