The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-09-08
GEN. BEAVER AND THE SOLDIERS.
HIS HOME RECORD As THE SOLDIER s
FRIEND.


Stalwart State committee that the mem
bers of the Grand Army of the Republic
would vote for General Beaver and the
Stalwart ticket as body, has caused no
little indignation among the members of
that organization. What object Cooper
has in making such an unWarrdnted as
sertion it is difficult to imagine. The
Grand Army of the Republic as re-Or-
ganiZed and as body can have nothing
TO do with politics; its constitution pro-
hibits it. and its members are as free to
vote for men and measures of their in
dividual choice as are the members Of
any other organization within the State
The boast, therefore, of the Stalwart
chairman is not only a gratuitouS insult
but a grievous wrong to an order estab-
lished for a much higher and nobler pur-
pose than to be used as a reserve corps
for political Tingsters, or an instrument
to advance the ambition of aspiring pol
iticians.
Mr.. Cooper must assume that, because
General Beaver was a soldier, and, after
becoming an aspirant for gubernatorial
honOrs was admitted as member of the
Grand Army of the Republic, are suffi-
cient reasons why every soldier would
and will vote for him. But in this he
is most egregioUsly mistaken. The SOL
diers of the State and particularly those
at General Beavers home know that
they are under no obligations to him
either as a soldier or as u member of the
order he now seeks to bedrabble with
politics.
While in command as an officer he
was cruel and domineering as COM
rade since, he has been dictatorial and
overbearing /; and as neighbOr and cit
izen autocratic and unapproachable. No
| kindness. no friendship, no favors has
been shown to any of his men, and not
until he desired their votes would he
treat them as soldiers or greet them as
friends.
Why any Democrat or any Democrat
ic soldier should vote for him is matter
that he and his bOaStful chairman will
have To explain. If he has done any of
them a favor or stepped out of the radi-
cal path, in which he has always travel
ed, to show tEem any kindness, either
/ on account of individual worth, person.
al friendship, or army associations, it is
4 now time for his friends to point it out.
He has 9eUcr cast q ballot for Demo
/ cratic soldier.
{ Since his return from the army the
I Democratic party has had upon its tic
/ ket, general, state and local, soldiers OF
all grades. from a MajoT-General to q
I private, and in NO instance has he ever
/ voted or said kind word politically for
| one of them. On the Presidential ticket
! we have had Mcclellan. Hancock, Blair
and Brown. On the State ticket we
I have had McCandlass, Boyle, Dechert,
! Davis and LintOn-alI good men and
! gallant soldiers-and yet he not only
/ voted against them, but added his mite
/ of abuse and political vindictiveness to
| that heaped upon them by the Radical
/ press and speakers generally.
To General Hancock more than to his
( own merits, is Beaver indebted to what
3 ever distinction his record as d soldier
! gives him. and yet when his old COM
/ mander was a candidate three years ago,
he had no more active or malignant op-
I pOnent in the State than this Beaver,
5 who is now demanding that because he
is a soldier all other soldiers ought to
/ vote for him.
In his own county OF Centre there has
/ scarcely been a year since the close OF
the war that the Democrats have not
/ placed upon their ticket a brave and hon
{ Orable soldier. In every instance they
had as competitors Republican civilians,
| and vet Beaver never voted for a Demo.
I cratic soldier even for q local office. He
stumped this county against d. w
WOodring, a One-armed soldier, who was
elected Sheriff he led the opposition tC
/ 1. w Grenoble, a one-legged soldier
whom the Democrats made Recorder
he was the most bitter and OutspokeI
. opponent that either Col. James Weaver
or Lieutenant S. S. WOlf-ALL or
| WHOM WERE MEMBERS OF HIS own
I REGIMENT-1 4STH-when they were
upon the ticket he not only voted but
stumped the county against D. +. Fort
nev and W, i. Tobias, two other Dem
cratic soldiers who had received The
/ nomination and only last fall when the
Z question of who should be the Republi
can county cOmmissIOner-Mr Camp
bell a soldier who served his time il
Beavers own regiment, or Squire Ran
kin. who was his delegate to HARRISBURG
at the time he was elected delegate K
ChicagO-he openly and industTiOusl,
worked for Mr.. Rankin, thus showing
his preference for an able-bodied civil
ian, ,swhO had served him as a politica
tool, rather than one of his own old sol
diers of the 14Sth regiment.
These facts, plain as they are, eXhib
its Gen. Beavers love for and iEUereS
in the soldiers who served for and unde
him in the army. They show how falls
he has proven to the friendship that h'
and his henchmaG now demand of Dem
ocratic soldiers They show that tn
badge OF honor worn by the veterans o
, the war are nothing to him only whel
they can be used 20 aid his selfish ambi
tion and the schemes of the Tingsters b
serves
These are the facts and it is for tn
soldiers of the State to say whether the
are such as to place them under Obliga
tions TO the extent that CoOper's insolen
boast would intimate they re.-BeEle
TOute Wdtcbmdn.