The National tribune., 1884-02-28
The Soldiers Year-Let Us Have Soldier
Candidates!

iabors.
The Soldiers Year-Let Us Have a Soldier
Candidate.
This is the soldiers year. Slandered,
abused, neglected. despised though he be at
all other times and seasons, this year the sol
der cannot be ignored For it is the year Of a
presidential election, and it is the soldier
who holds the balance of power-one million
honest, unimpeachable votes, upon the cast
ing of which the issue of the election viii
hang Think of it, soldiers! In spite of
the insults which press and politician have
heaped upon You, in spite of the trickery and
deceit Of which you have been the victims,
in spite of your own subserviency to party
and lack of independence, this magnificent
opportunity is still within your grasp.
Prove yourselves equal TO the occasion
Within the next four months both political
parties viii hold their nominating conven-
tons at Chicago. 1t rests with you to say
who shall be the delegates TO these conven-
tons and what their choice shall be. You
can accomplish little by the passage of reso-
lutions; to make your influence practically
felt you must exercise it at the township
and ward primaries and at the county and
State conventions. You must enter person
ally into the canvass, and make sure that
every soldiers vote and the vote of every
friend of the soldier is polled for a soldiers
candidate 1t is well enough to talk of the
wonders you are going TO accomplish at the
polls next November; it is none the less
/ true that it is at the primaries that the real
battle viii be fought out, and it is there
that you mnst marshal your forces. You
cannot afford to leave anything to chance,
and to make assurance doubly sure you must
see TO it that your delegates 60 pledged TO
vote first, last and all the time for sol
der! 1t matters not whether in national pol
itics you are Republicans or Democrats; as
soldiers, it is your duty to exert your infiu-
ence within party lines for the nomination
/ of a soldier It win be time enough for you
10 decide whether you viii sacrifice your po-
ltical preferences to your regard for the gen
eral welfare of the soldier, when the conyen-
tions shall have made their nominations and
the issue shall have been defined. Until
then the thing of vital concern is to secure
such asoldier representation in these con-
ventions that the politicians viii not dare to
override your wishes
All, soldiers, the time has come at last
when we no longer can afford to trust tc
empty promises We must work out oul
own salvation. We have seen how yea
after year these promises turn to dust III
our hands, and the makers laugh at ouI
gullibility They have come to believe
that they can play Us false with impunity
and they scott at the idea that we hav,
pluck enough to enforce orr rights at th.
polls. Entreaties, demands, threats, all ar,
dtArC GoC4Scc i-I1C u lS1t Dui
action, and TO action united, resolute and
fearless-we must now address ourselves
We are not so helpless or friendless as they
would believe. There is not community
in the whole North and West where W.
cannot make our influence felt if we bu
show our colors and sound the advance
Every patriotic citizen in the land viii rail.
to our standard, and the politicians VIII
now affect to believe that the soldier i
played out win be only too glad to fall Il
at the tail Of the procession.
Fall in, then, soldiers. and let US all tax
hand in the campaign. We shall not lac
for leaders when the time GENES, and tn
day that witnesses the assertion of the sol
diers influence at Chicago win assure to u
the full recognition OF our rights by Congres
and Executive.