The National tribune., 1883-03-01
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Another Wauton slaudcr.
The most cruel and w.utou slur that has
YET been cast upon the honor of our e&-soI-
dcrs is that in volunteering their services
in defense Of the Union they were prompted
not by motives of patriotism, but by the
thirst for adventure and excitement. No,h-
ing could be farther from the truth. !, is
true that when the war broke out and Prcsi-
dent Lincoln made his first call for yolUn-
tccrs, the men Of the North responded with
aiarriiy and without hisjtation, not stop
. ping to count The cost, and it is true that
many Of them were carried away by the
enthusiasm of the moment, but it was not
the desire for mere military Glory which in
spived them. In giving up home and family
and friends, in abandoning workshop and
counting room and Office, they sacrificed
all that was dear and precious The hus-
band tore himself away from the embrace
of The weeping wife, the father thrust aside
the cIingng hands of his children, the son
I snatched last kiss from his heart broken,
mother, the brother turned deaf ear to the
en,rcaties OF his sister, the lover gave up his
/ sweetheart-cach laid some holy sacrifice
on The altar of his country.
! Adventure and excitement? It was not
for these that sad GareweIls were spoken. 1t
WAS il anticipation of no holiday pleasure
that our veterans hurried 10 the front in the
dark days of 1861. They ioresaw the hard
ship, the suffering, and the danger that
there awaited them, and if,they did not
1altar it was because they were inspired
with the courage that comes of an unselGsh
devotion to country. But if these first yolun-
teers were not actuatcd by unworthy mo-
tives, what shall be said of those who, later
in the war, when its horrors had fully dis
closed themselves, offered their services to
carry on the struggle? 1t was certainly no
passing whim, no momentary craving after
adventure or excitement, which prompted
the Two and three years volunteers to
the hazard dangers of the field. The reality
of war was then too terrible to admit of any
delusions.
Adventure and excitement? They found
both, indeed, but they sought neither. Ad-
venture? They tasted its charms in many
a desperate charge in many wild assault,
on many a field strewn with the bodies of
the dead and dying. Excitement? They
felt its spell ut the mouth Of the cannon, at
the point of the cleaning bayonet, in the
storming of the rifle-pits. Adventure and ex
element? Slight and trivial the compensa-
tion which either offered for long and weary
nights on picket, for weeks of pain and
| anguish i'll the hospital, for months of famine
in Southern prison pens for the years of help
! Icssness and poverty which have followed
Put on the one side all the glory and fame and
reputation which they won in the struggle,
and on the other all the hardship and suf-
| iering and pain which they endured, and see
how paltry and insignificant the cOmpensa-
ton is. The men who, twenty years ago
" for the mere love of adventure and excite
mentn volunteered TO save the Union from
destruction, are still paying the penalty of
| their selfsacriice Shut out from the pur-
suits that were once open to them, they are
earning q scant subsistence by grinding toll,
or eking out miserable existence on the
stipend which the Government allows them.
Their children, deprived of the care and aid
which otherwise might have been theirs,
have been forced to battle single-handed
with adversity as their fathers battled with
| treason in the field, and are still working
out to-day the sacrifice of twenty years ago.
Measure that sacrifice if you can. Pour out
| the wealth Of the Treasury, and see ifit will
recompense the veteran and his family for
their losses. The country has been made
whole, the prosperity of the Nation at large
has not suffered, but, alas, from tbs shoul-
ders of those whose individual valOr and
endurance preserved the Union the burden
has not been rolled away.