The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-12-20
TROUBLE AHEAD.

LII Is uOG d DGu VI 1OSOS w nulCl1 hdI-
rison will go when he takes the oath
of Office and enters the White House
as President of the nation. On the
contrary it is a bed of thorns and
trouble to which he is going. On one
side is the hungry army Of spoilsmen,
the politicians who made him Presi
dent and who will demand their reward
in the form of the Offices which will be
at his disposal. On the other side
stand the ex-soldiers who have been
so long encouraged in it that
they now believe that what
ever there is in the nation be .
longs to them as rec ompense for
services performed by them twenty
five years ago. Then, there are the
laws which hedge even a President.
and deprive him OF the power to act as
he wills. A forecast of what may be
expected is found in letter published
il the December ReUjeoO, the organ Of
the G. A. r. in New York. The letter
is signed by the Grand Army Publish
ing Company, and is manifestly in
tended as warning to the incoming
President, to whom it is addressed 1t
quotes section of the United States
Statutes which became law by the
signature of Abraham Lincoln Just be-
fore his assassination, and which reads
as follows:
Section 1854 Persons hnnorably dis
CHARGED from the military and naval ser
vice by reason of disability resulting from
wounds or sickness incurred in the line of
duty, shall be preferred for appointments
to civil offices, provided they are found to
possess the business capacity necessary for
the proper discharge Of the duties OF such
Offices.
The letter further recites that eleven
years later, in 1876, another measure
was adopted, providing that in the
event of the reduction of the force in
any of the Departments, the preference
of place shall be given to honorably
discharged soldiers, their widows and
orphans. The letter further asserts
that no Republican administration en-
forced these promises, and declares that
if ex-soldiers were appointed or retained
in Office it was for political reasons.
and not because Of their services in the
war. The letter then goes on to direct
the attention CT General Harrison to
the fact that many veterans are hold
ing Office under Cleveland, and in the
name of the Grand Army demands that
they be retained. The language is
this:
To-day several thousand of our veterans
are in public employ; not for politics.
either partisan or factional. The present
executive OF the nation said in July, 1883,
to committee coming from the G. A. r.
national encampment at Portland, Me 81
am in favor of the enforcement of this law,
not alone because of the law, but that it is
in consonance with my own views on this
subject" Is the result of the late election
to change all this? We think not. But
already from one end of this nation to the
other we hear the cry, 40 the victors be-
long the spoils." Who are the victors?
Sections OF the revised statutes answer the
question. Already threats are openly made
ina. comrades of ours, because the present
administration has permitted them to con-
nnue TO earn living in the public employ
OF the government they sustained in war,
are all to be deposed: That others, ap-
pointed within the last three and a halt
years, are to be kicked out. Fraternity
forbid Let the victors have the spells. but
not at the expense of those victors first en-.
comrades in arms.
If this warning means anything, it
means that the Grand Army of the Re
public proposes to "run" President
Harrison as regards offices, and if the |
G. A. R. is to have its way the politi- |
clans cannot have theirs. 1t requires