National Republican., 1883-04-24
The Coming Reunion.

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There is something about the city of Wash
ington that carries tho idea of a genuine re-
union to the old soldiers of the army of the
Potomac along with the mention of the name,
and it is gratifying to note the activity of the
regimontal and company organizations in
preparation for the great event of next month,
Wars always stir up the people to sense of
common interest," whatever else they may do,
and now that the time has passed when
anybody treasures up personal feeling; when,
in fact, the great mass Of people in ac-
tive life are those who have como into
the active places everywhere through
circumstances unaffected by tho war and its
consequences it will shock no one to have it
said that some good is coming out of the call
to arms that made so much trouble for a long
time. There is a sprinkling of men who
were in the army all over the country. Sec
tions that did not raise a regiment or even
company are now populous with men who
wcro perhaps for tho first time stirred up to
sense of their countrys extent by their
marches and observations during tho war.
The older men in active business and in
politics know each other as would not have
been possible without the inevitable clash.
Montana did not figure in tho war, but ono
of her most prominent citizens is selected to
make the Grafton here noxt month, and he is
as widely known as any man in Now York
or anywhere else. In a month from now he
will bc known still better by hundreds of
to keep alive memories of the war, but to
refresh the memories of men con-
cerning each other. It is not we'll
to argue that country without
wars grows dull. Perhaps it would be better
to be always dull than to have wars that
sharpen as by swords; but it is true that
there were thousands of families all over the
country at the breaking out of tho war who
had never taken active interest in any man
outside the members of their own kinsfolk
and their own townspeople NIntil stirred
up by the first enlistment of troops. They
had "reminiscences of George Washington
and n few other generals, and had
some knowledge of Webster and Clay, but
their interest in politics was small. They
read of the west and the south as vague and
far-away places, linked with some relative
who had gone away to one or the other sec
tion at some time. They voted for president
if drummed up by some town spirit to do so,
but never felt much interest in the man.
Since that time the leading public officials
have been men known by sight to hun
dreds of thousands of voters and by
his public service to millions. Men
thousands of miles apart are well known to
each other, A few days ago the name of a
man in Mississippi came up in conversation,
to which cabinet officer was party. "0h,"
said he, 81 know him we'll we were together
in the army" And so it is on every hand.
Actual contact did much and the newspapers
the rest. The real daily paper, as it is now
understood, with telegraphic news and every
thing up to the hour, was conceived and de,
veloped in America, and it grew to full feather
during the war. Everybody reached for q
daily paper then, and the habit was never
dropped, Children grew up to read
daily papers, and maps became common
even outside of school Biographies; and all
this stimulus to reading grew out of the war
and the knowledge of the country and the
prominent men in it-now so common-greW
out of the reading. Soldiers are too plenty
to be exclusive, and intimate knowledge o.
each other keeps the Objectionable man down
while it raises up the best in the estimation
Of his fellows, If not to ofiice--so there can b,
nothing claunish. The lines were long agC