Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-07-03
Can the Veterans Take Care of Them
selves.

General Logan in his address at Port
land, administered "A well-deserved rebuke
to those who, assuming that the Grand
Army organization was made up of men
incapable of taking propY care of them
selves, had demanded that extraordinary
police measures be adopted, and above all
that the stringent prohibitory regulations
of Portland should be made still more
stringent for the occasion of the National
Encampment. He said:
There is abroad in this land an idea that
wherever soldiers assemble people must he
careful fOr fear That they, being Of rough mat
terlal, IT'S is sometimes sand, may cross the lines
of good conduct that are drawn for the best
citileuS. But, sir, the soldiers are made up OF
us good blood, bone ana muscle as God ever
made w man with, aud not only that, they
are trained. 'iUcd ana disciplined gentlemen
ltrcmr ndOuS applauscl, ana show it wherever
they 90 and the cl lzenS need not be alarmed.
| am willing to take 10000 soldiers and put
them nNwherc in the United States and let
them pass week, and take 10000 citizens who
have not been soldiers and let them pass Il
wecE-and see.
The Boston Trdrcllcr, commenting on
the same subject, well says
The men who have gathered from every
section of the country ut Portland are of
those who, during the darkest hour OF the
force are of those in whose hands the
honor and destiuies of the, nation were
willingly trusted in the supremest nation
al crisis, and the assumption that from
5000 TO 10000 of the veterans of the
Grand Army of the Republic, heroes of Il
score OF battle fields, disciplined by years
of htrGsLlp ana prlvat.on, cannot safely
meet in one Of New England's cities,
without the police force of the city being
strengthened, without extreme precau-
lions being taken to prevent violence, il
simply an insult to the manhood and pa
rOt.sm OF the saNiours of the republic.
This is, however To be said, that no insult
was intended. The meGdiesome ollicious
ness which assumed that Portland was to
be invaded by IA drunken mob was well
meant, and is, after all, but an utgrowth
of the sentiment that has widely prevail
ed that our veteran soldiers are some
thing other than their fellow citizens, that
service in the armies of their country has
rendered them incapable of caring Ton
themselves as other men care for them
selves. The veteran soldier does, indeed
| stand in some respects on n plane higher
| than that of his fellow-citiZens. For his
patriotism and heroism proved on bloody
battle-felds and in Southern prisons, fOl
his sacrifices and devotion to his country
| he is entitled to lasting honor and undy
ing gratitude. If disabled nothing SHOULD
be more cheerfully granted him than al
adequate support he should certainly he
preferred in his country's civil service
other things being equal, to ex-rebels anC
traitors or to loyal citizens who have no
done or dared as he but he is not to b,
treated rs an incapable or an outlaw, no.
to be degraded in his citizenship by pref
erences and favors bestowed which de
StrOy his self-reSpect, nor is his manhOo,
to be insulted by reading the riot act I,
him when he meets with his comrades I,
revive memories of the days of his hero
ism and his suffering, 1t is to be remem
bered that he is self-respecting man II
well as the honored veteran. 1t is tim
that this sentiment of which we speal
was checked, and the rebuke admins
tered to it by General Logan last evenin
is most timely one, and it has wide
application than to Portland's police regu
lations for the current week one that III
country will do well to heed.