The daily gazette., 1878-09-19
How to Reduce the Armv.
The Department of the Soutb

The Department of the South.
10 THE EDITOR OF THE SUN--Sj,. .
When we come to the Department of the
south we come to the most Objectionable
features OF all our army management.
The Department of the East is nothing
worse than venerable and expensive
] fossil, and the Department of West Point
is dear to the girls, who resort thitber in
search of bell buttons; but neither is
positive nuisance and source of political
bitterness, such as exist in the Depart
ment OF the South. In the Department
of the East regular soldiers are seldom
seen or heard of except in the annual tax
list, and all that we have to urge in favor
OF their removal is that they are useless
and expensive idlers, preying on the sub
stance of the laboring population. In the
Department OF the South the case is diff
ferent. Here the regular soldier is not
regarded as in the North, simply as
shiftless and rather contemplate creature
too lazy to work-a sort of uniformed
pauper, in fact. On the contrary, the
hard experience of thirteen years of bayo-
net rule has turned them into objects of
mingled hatred and fear. The very To-
cation of headquarters has a sinister air.
"Brig- q. q. Augur, Headquarters
Newport Barracks, Kentucky" runs the
official title of the commander of this
congeries of police posts. The curious
reader naturally asks what they want of
troops or headquarters in Kentucky in
time of profound peace, and in place
where no enemy could possibly come
The Department of the East, fossilized
as it is, and fish like as is its smell,
at least has the grace to put its headquar-
ters in fort in the harbor of the princi-
pal seaport of America. But Newport,
| KY, is remote from any possible danger.
Nevertheless there are the headquarters,
and there sits Augur, surrounded by
stall of portentious size, with barrack
full of recruits going and coming at his
orders.
What do they find to do these recruits?
What are the duties of the troops at the
Department of the South? Why are
eight companies of the Eleventh Infan-
try at MCPHERSON Barracks, Atlanta, Ga,
under that redoubtable dispenser of leg
islatures, Col. Thomas IL. Ruger, U. S.
A? What is the Thirteenth Infantry
dong around Mt. Vernon Barracks,
Alabama, and cruising through Louisi-
ana, from post to post? Why is the
Fifth Artillery kept out of the forts OF
the Southern coast, with the sole excep,,
ton of Fort Barrancas, Florida, and
quartered in the towns? Why is Fort
johnson, North Carolina, the only
Southern fort occupied ON the whole
stretch of the Atlantic sea coast, by q
single company of the Second Artillery,
while the rest of the regiment Is scatter
ed through Maryland, around Washing
ton and Baltimore, or dong dress parade
for the Commandent of tho Artillery
School at Fort Monroe?
The answer given by facts Is rather
humiliating to the pride of the citizens
of what we call free country. These
soldiers are concentrated at different
railway centres, so that they may be- dis
patched quickly from place to place at
election times to help the Adm nistra-
ton, by moral or physical force, to de-
eide contest in its favor. Ii by any
chance the menace fails to effect
change IN the voting, then the soldiers
are used to seat the Government candi-
| dates by force, and to scare away the op-
position members from the places to
which they Were elected. Col Ruger of
| the Eighteenth Infantry developed au
especial genius for this sort of thing dur
=, ing his famous tour of duty in South
Carolina, and is now resting on his laur-
| els waiting a fresh opportunity to win
glory of the same sort. This is the Office
who invented system of pass tickets for
the members of the Soath Carolina l. e.
islature, and established a corporal for
doorkeeper, to whom the members were
obliged to exhibit their passes before
| they were allowed to make laws for their
State. Up to the present time Col. Ru-
ger has the exclusive patent right to this
| idea, and he hopes TO retain it till the
election of $780,
Besides these pleasant duties, however,
the United States troops have others of
| a sterner charac er The Southern
mountains are full of class of men
called "Moonsbiners" who having been
in the habit of distilling viii key in
former times without paying taxes there
on, continue the practice even row,
when law has been passed forbidding
them. Besides these, there are various
people who make speeches against the
Government party and lead away simple
negroes to vote the Democratic ticket.
| To check these abuses by catching
"Moonshiners" and Democratic cspeakers
is the hardest work performed bv the
| army i'll the Department of the South,
! though of late years this has not been so
| frequent. AT present the regulars in the
Department of The Solith may be said to
be waiting for something to turn up in
the way of a revolution in politics which
will enable them to go at their favorite
work dispensing Legislatures.
In sad and sober earnest, that is the
only reason that can be given to-day for
the fact that two regiments of infantry
and one of artillery are concentrated in
the Department of the South at railroad
centres. They are kept in readiness to
move on the diff rent Southern State
capitals whenever Mr.. Evarts shall have
a
for that change Of policy which he
darkly shadows forth in recent Inter
view. There is no possible way in which
he can change the state of affairs now
| existing in the Southern States except
by ordering in more troops and effecting
a military revolution in the style which
! Grant made so familiar and so Infamous.
All the Federal patronage and political
coercion that Evarts, Hayes, and their
brother frauds can bring to bear ON the
South will not change single vote, and
Hayes knows 1t. The only possible way