The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-10
THE GRAND ARMY AND THE DEMOCRACY.

THE GRAND ARMY AND THE DEMOCRACY.
The Grand Army of the Republic appears
to be sort of assistant Congress. 1t discusses
pension bills, declares itself on the Mormon
question, and looks after great matters in gen.
eral Should the United States Senate be
abolished next year, its place can be filed,
and perhaps for the better, by the representa-
tives of the Grand Army.-Louisville Courier
Journal.
The G.. A. r. is a red rag to the Democratic
bull on every occasion it makes any demon
stration. The farmers may meet and present
their wishes to the country, and Democracy
has nothing to say. The Knights of Labor
may meet and pass resolutions demanding
certain legislation, and there is nothing to be
said against that But let the men who
fought for their country dare to say what
thew would like to have done, and there is not
Democratic paper from Maine to Texas but
thinks it impudence that deserves rebuke.
It is hard to conceive of a gather
ing of men who have better
right to say what they would like to
have done than these same members of the
Grand Army of the Republic. They are not
forward with their claims upon the govern
ment, and do not ask anything in any but a
legal and proper manner. They have been
insulted and bullyragged by the very men
who were too cowardly or too hostile to the
Union to go with them to the defense of the
same, and have had their claims for pensions
vetoed by man who never was heard of in
the war, and did nothing in all the years of
the war to save him from the suspicion of be-
ing in sympathy with his country's enemies.
This they have submitted to with rare pa
tence, recognizing periodically that they
must bow to the will of the majority that has
come into power through the looseness of pub
lie opinion on this very important point. To
say the very least that can be said, it is
in exceeding bad taste for any one to
rebuke these men for daring to say
what they would like to see done in
this country. 1t may be all right for the
President to refuse to allow them to be pen
stoned, except in cases where pensions cannot
be denied by the meanest hair-splitter in the
land; and it may be perfectly proper for him
to rebuke them for asking pensions when they
cannot establish their claims to the satisfac
ton of man who took no interest in the war,
and hardly knows what it all meant or where
it was fought. But it is in shocking bad
taste for the newspapers of the country to
take their cue from this kind of man, and join
with him in the attempt to prove that the
men who fought to save this country are be-
come designing rascals, intent on plunderiug
the government and who have to be watched
lest they take something that does not belong
to them. 1t is contemptibly low es-
innate to be placed on the soldiers
of this Republic, that they are mean enough to
try to steal SEA month from the government.
It is not usually the case that the man brave
enough to risk his life to save his country is
contemplate enough and dishonest enough to
steal the petty sum that Congress, in the
power vested in it, has seen fit to give him,
only to have it snatched away by veto of the
| President. The members Of the G. A. r. are
honorable men, or they could not hold their
membership in that organization. They are
not thieves and schemers. They are every
particle as fit to serve in high places as the
men who now dare to insult them because they
presume to exercise the rights Of citizenship
1t will be a sad day for this Republic its
naturalized aliens are permitted to do, with
out mourning the displeasure of men in sup
port of the administration, which is itself Sc
cretly hostile to their interests.