The National tribune., 1883-05-03
Our Scattered Veterans.

ing back the tide of Irish immigration.
Our Scattered Veterans.
Next to their exploits in the field, there is
nothing that is more significant of the in
herent manhood of the men who composed our
armies than the CELEBRITY and determination
with which, at the close of the rebellion,
they resumed their ordinary avocations.
Other nations, on emerging from long and
costly wars, have found themselves saddled
with enormous standing armies, but such
was fortunately not the case with us. Peace
simply released to us body of bread-win-
ners, the most enterprising and industrious
in the world, and SO quickly and so COM
pletely were they reabsorbed into the ordi-
nary channels of trade and business that it
could be ikened only TO the dissolving of
tue SHOWS of winter under tropical sum-
1t was attended by neither industrial nor
social disturbance, and thus In the disper-
sion of our veterans was repeated once
more the famous example of Cincinnatus
returning to his plough.
War is commonly supposed to unfit its
devotees for the pursuits of peace, but the
influence which the soldiers of the Republic
exercised upon the fortunes of their country
on their return from the front was of the
mnct piyc1iz;,s, obaror{a- AI}J,o,0J, 4I,av
found it impossible in many cases to recover
the positions which they had held before the
livelihood were forced to seek new fields of
labor, they accepted the situation without a
murmur They displayed in the struggle
for existence the same dauntless courage
and unyielding fortitude that had won their
victories in the field, and they triumphed
over obstacles quite as formidable, if not so
deadly, as those they had encountered there
There are some, we know, who are fond
of debating that cur ex-soldiers are chronic
beggars, and disposed to make the Govern
ment support them, instead of relying upon
the fruits of their own labor, but it is suffi-
Gent answer to that malignant charge to
cite the fact, that no class of our citizens
have done more to develop and open up our
| far Western territory than the veterans of
the late war. And how widely scattered
they arei Take almost any issue of THE
TRIBUNE and you viii find letters from
members of Eastern regiments who now re-
side in Kansas, or Nebraska, or Dakota, or
Washington Territory, or even distant Ore
gon-stu1dy farmers and business men, who,
crowded out from old centers of industry,
have penetrated the wilderness and reared
a new and vigorous civilization. And they
have carried with them-these men of
iron-not simply the energy and enterprise
of the race, but the principles for which
they fought, and wherever they have set their
weary feet, there viii be found rooted deep
that love of liberty and country which is,
after all, the chief balwark of the Republic
Could we but trace their individual history
since the war, we should doubtless find in
their persistent struggle with poverty exam
pies of heroism far more striking than any
that the history of the war affords, for great
as is the fortifude which war requires of the
soldier, the weary struggle for existence
requires still greater, and of those who but
left one field Of battle, at the close of the
rebellion, to enter upon another, how many
thousands have persisted in the unequal
contest!
Our veterans deserve well of their country
! for the service which they rendered during
the dark days of the civil war, but it may
be truthfully said, in view of what they have
done since then to bind up its wounds and
develop its resources, that the years of peace
which have elapsed have greatly increased
that debt of gratitude If in 1865, at a time
when the effect which the triumph of their
arms was destined to have upon the fortunes
Of the republic was but dinlly foreseen, the
Nation was eager to show its appreciation OF
| its returning soldiers, how much more solic-
itous ought it to be for their welfare now.
when all the splendid results of their PROV
ess are plain before its eyes!
Almost Beneath Contempt.
II is now suggested, in view of the increase of the
pension list that any who shook hands with
a soldier who fought in the civil war, or has read
the history of either the Mexican or Florida war.