The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-02-20

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arose no small stir about that way"
Another "Trogan Horse''-The Dan
gers Of Army Reorganization.
A plan for the reorganization Of the
Army has been pinned on to the Army
Appropriation Bill and rushed through
the House of Representatives, with in
decent haste. The majority of the MEM
bers had barely time to read carefully
the details of the scheme. They GER
jtainly had not familiariyed themselves
with the consequences of the changes
that are proposed. The House was bad
gered into swallowing the proposition as
a whole, and in So doing, unless saved
by the Senate, the Democracy have COM
mitted the most serious blunder of the
session. blunder that rises to the pro-
portions of q crime!
Therei. was no need.of break-neck
speed. In point of organization the
Army never was in better condition. 1t
is quite possible that some changes in
the military system are advisable, and
there are, perhaps, meritorious feat
ures in the plan adopted by the House.
The House, however, left itself at the
mercy OF the trainers of the reorganiza-
tion scheme, taking the responsibility
for its passage without knowing its de-
tails and possible effect. Necessarily the
machinery of the Army is intricate, re-
quiring the incest adjustment if it be in
tended towork smoothly. Congress puts
itself in the position of thrusting beam
into the midst Of a complex engine, with
out knowing whether the effect will be to
destroy it, to stop it, or to reverse its mo-
ton.
The Senate is not as rash a body as
the House, and there is hope that it will
strike out the reorganization clause of
the Army Appropriation bill. For this
course there are special and general rea-
sons. The House gave way to the sense.
less clamor against the Staff. 1t is the
Staff, with the line officers ofhigh rank,
who preserve the morale of the Army,
and prevent it from. becoming perma-
nently an ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The
Staff and few commanding officers Of
regiments, the officers who grew up and
saw service before shot was fred at
Sumter, have better understanding of
limitations of military authority, in
Republic, than is possessed by the young
er officers who are the creatures
of, or won their epaulettes under Grant,
Sherman and Sheridan. Consolidate
the staff, and, by so doing and by retir-
ing the older line officers, put on the
shelf the veterans who preserve the ira
ditions OF, the days Of Scott, Lee, John
ston and Mcclellan, fill their places with
the products of the postwar period who
know no law save military order, and
the country is at the mercy of whoever
in authority chooses to call for "the
Corporal Of the Guard" We tell the
Democracy, too, that they cannot afford
to 60 before the people with hope or
confidence, when it is known that they
have stripped the uniform from the back
of soldiers who have grown gray in the
service, and have no profession but that
of arms. That civilians should do this
is barely comprehensive; that soldiers,
especially Confederate soldiers, should
consent to it is, to US, monstrous and in
explicable.
The Democracy must remember that
for more than fifteen years the Repub-
lican party have been putting the Army
in shape to suit themselves. During the
war, as since the war, the officers who
rose most rapidly, and were kept in IA
vor, were those who had no inconyenient
sense of the rights of the citizen. Off
GERS of this stamp were selected to do the
nefarious work of the Republican party
during the Reconstruction era, and du-
ring the elections of 1876. They are
still in the Army; and at the head ofthe
Army is Sherman, and second in rank is
Sheridan Ponder this,- Democratic
Senators No matter how carefully you
arrange the details of the Reorganiza-
tion scheme, you leave the execution of
it in the hands of Gen. Sherman, and
enable him, with Grant looming up in
the distance, TO place the sword in the
hands of those who will point it at tho
throat of the Republic, and the purse in
the hands of those who will make any
expenditures, for any purpose, that tho
General in command of the Army shall di-
rect. The temper of the present move
ment is sufficiently shown by one illus
tration. Gen. Sherman is laboring to
place his son-in-law, Gen. Nelson A.
Miles, at the head of the Adjutant Cen
erals Department, or at the head of the
Adjutanu Gems. and Inspector Gems. De-
partment, as consolidated under the name
ofthe General Staff. Nacas this Gen. Nile,
,cho placed Jefferson Davis in irons at
Fortress Monroe, and tortured him NTH q
refinement Of cruelty almost inconceivabte.
Day by day, after the accounts of the
su6erings of Mr.. Davis reached his fam
lily, his little children prayed: "That the
Lord would give "father something
which he could eat, and keep him
strong and bring him back to as Nth hi,
good senses, to his little children, for
Christ's sake I" Can Democrats, can
Southern Democrats, support measure
which carries with it the subjcction of
the Army to Gen. Grant, through Gen.
Sherman, and gives to Jailor Miles the
distribution of the officers and men, of
cavalry, infantry and artillery, during
the Presidential canvass, and until the
Inauguration of the next President? We
cannot, and will not believe it.
The Senate can properly refuse to
adopt in haste measure that will be re-
pented of at leisure. 1t is the duty of
the Democracy to postpone the reorgan-
ization of the Army until that reorgan-
ization can be effected under a Demo-
cratic Administration. To adopt the
suicidal proposition Of the House is to
place the Army, bound hand and foot,
in possession of the Republican party
and their most unscrupulous military in
strumcnts. That done, the election of a
Democratic President in 1880, and Ills
instaltction, will be rather difficult to ac-
complish. The concentration of troops