Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-11-29
THE OBJECTS OF THE G. A. h.
They Are Political.
CALDWELL, q. Nov.

published, endea voring to prove what
/ then believed, and now all men know
to be the fact, that the Grand Army oi
the Republic, to which belong, and
of which I was one of the founders, is 9
political organization of the Republi.
can party, to which also belong, and
of which was one of the mighty few
founders now living. It was bold
claim, and SO considered at the time.
The article was copied and commented
on with severity by hundreds of pa
pers, and friendly Indians marked the
papers containing these comments, and
sent them to me with letters more OF
less spicy and vicious. was called q
liar by some, traitor to the order oil
the G. A. r. by others, while some OF
the playful paragraphers, who were
not born when / and a few friends were
laying the foundations of the Repub1i-
can party and of the G.. A. r., spiteful-
~ called me crank ard other pet
names, and by people who had reason
and no facts on their side, and are force
ed to substitute epithets for logic, and
gall for brains.
More fully informed by the logic OF
events, write now simply to the pa
per which first gave publicity to my
views on the subj ct, to reiterate and
repeat, over and over, and ten times
oua. xp;tb oil poos,E1a ap,nbaSic o,,6
earnestnt IS, every letter and syllable
of my former article on this subject,
which beg you to republish as mat
ter Of ofjustice to me and to truth. / con-
fess that am as human as anybody,
and that I felt keenly the scandalous
abuse showered upon me at the time
you published my former article, by
persons wholly ignorant of the subject
of their animadversions, or willing to
prevaricate about it to deceive the pub
lie! am no liar, whatever ! am.
have not yet got my eye on the men,
or set of men, that [ feared. / believe
in candor and truth. despise treach-
ery and hypocrisy. .
I love truth aud plain speaking.
Hence, denounce as a silly, useless,
i.ypocritical lie the statement that the
Grand Army of the Republic is not a
political body, organized and intended
and always employed to aid and COM
fort the Republican party. This is.not
its only object. 1t is a grand system Of
charity and fraternity and loyalty
among its mem bers. It is all that; it Is
more; it is the Republican party, all
there is of the Republican party, its
heart, is head, its brains and soul, its
guide. philosopher and friend, it's ally,
its all and in all! Oh, yes, We have a
few Demecrats-good, easy, quiet souls
lin our order, but SO few aud feeble
that they don't count; for they have no
offices, therefore 40 poWer!
It is not any part of the written laws
of our order that we must be Republi-
law of the order, as unalterably fixed
there as any Median or Persian law
ever was fixed in Bible times. No mau
can stand well in our order unless he is
a Republican. 1t never honored any
man yet who was not Republican.
BY its unwritten law it never can. Our
officers are almost invariably Demo-
Gratis! No, not much. They are near
ly all and nearly always Republicans,
from commander-in-chiefd down. How
many votes would Sigel or Fitz John
Porter get in our order for any office?
When dare a Democratic President
show himself in our presence? They
would have been hissed to scorn at st.
Louis and Columbus, for the simple
reason that we are nearly all Republi-
cans, and not only Republicans, but Of
the EXTREMIST sect!
Nonsense! Away with the hypocrit-
ical claim that We have no political OBJ
ject, and have nothing to do with poll
tics. We control the politics eff this
nation, always did and always will.
We cast 100000 votes for Benjamin
we and our sons. in 1883, and
will cast 1900, ,OGO for him in 1892. We
own this country. We are its sovereigns.
We are its lords. We know our rights,
and knowing dare maintain them, and
that is to rule this country as we
please.
The politicians prate and prate about
tariff. Tariff, nonsense. The soldiers
did at. the soldiers did it all. They
will have 10 reduction of the surplus.
Let the politicians dare to reduce it be-
fore they pay Us all they promised, and
there will he music in 1892. We can
create and we can destroy!
We've alone - elected Benjam min
and Republican Congress solely and
alone, not that they may tinker with
tariffs or make words with their
mouths, but that they may pay us
what has so long been promised to us,
and which we now demand and must
have and " i'll have without speeches
or monkeying with the surplus.
Let the 5000, coo, 900 cash stand there.
Our claims are well known, long reeog-
nized, long promised. Let them be
paid as faithfully as the bonds. These
pledges are as sacred and inviolabIe as
gov eminent bonds. We are as good as
the bondholders. Their bonds must be
paid. There is plenty ofsurpius for the
Our bounties must be