St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-08-22
THE GRAND ARMY IN POLfTICs.

This country cannot be honestly
accused of indifference to thetsurviv-
ing soldiers and sailors in the civil
war. They have been amply pen
stoned and they are preferred by law
in public employments. The debt
which is thus generously and effec-
lively acknowledged is also constant
ly and eloquently commemorated,
and it is justly cited as characteris-
tic triumph of republican institutions
that the great multitude of citizens
who came forward to offer their lives
for the common welfare, when the
occasion had passed were quietly
and Immediately absorbed into the
the country, which had been saved
by arms, was yet able at once to dis
pense with a great military estab-
lishment. 1t was natural, however,
that while such citizens ceased to be
soldiers they should still seek to
cherish the feeling of old comradeship
and the memories of common
cause and a common peril. AS the
officers of the revolutionary army
with the same feeling organized the
Society of the Cincinnati. so the body
of surviving Union soldiers formed a
society called the Grand Army of the
Republic, for the purpose of preserv-
ing freshly the military associations
of the contest and of relieving the
needy and unfortunate.
This was the worthy and legiti-
mate object of the Grand Army of the
Republic With this purpose every
honorable citizen heartily sympa tn
lied. But nothing could be more I'M
worthy and illegitimate than to con-
vert such an association into politi-
cal society, and to make the special
interests of a class instead of the
common welfare the object of its
action. In the army during the war,
and as a result of the large bounties
offered for enlistment, there were adj
venturers, "bummerS, and vaga-
bonds of every kind and degree be-
sides the great mass of devoted and
patriotic citizens This is the class
which, when the war ended, would
be sure to trade to the utmost Spon
their connection with the army, and
if possible to convert the Grand
Army, into a machine to eXtort adj
yantages of every kind for themselves
and their kind by promising their
continual political support or threat
ening their opposition. Gradually
this tendency seems to have prevail
ed. The leadership has apparently
passed in large part from the true
representatives of the patriotic and
charitable impulse from which the
Grand Army sprang to those who
basely mean to use it as a machine
to secure money from the public
treasury.
This is a course which necessarily
and alienates the sympathy of patri-
otto and intelligent citizens every
where. 1t disgraces the name of
Union soldier, and it is a gross out
rage upon the brave and honest men
who served honorably in the war.
1t is a degradation of patriotic SER
vice, fully and gladly recognized and
rewarded, to regard it as a claim for
living at the public expense. But
that the Grand Army has been large
ly forced into this false and shameful
position, and is becoming a sturdy
and menacing beggar, is shown by
the fact of the appointment of Tan
ner to the head of the pension Office,
and by his reckless conduct of that
Office, as if he recognized no citizens
but former soldiers, and no duty but
that of grabbing for them as much
public money as possible, and under
every plausible pretense. Commits
sioner Tanner was the most notori-
Gus representative in the country of
this mercenary tendency in the Grand
Army, and the fact that the admin
istratiOn, although fully informed of
the facts, felt constrained to appoint
him, shows how strong and menac-
ing the power which he represents
has become. His official conduct is
one of the great scandals of the adj
ministration, which in it's fifth
month has been compelled to order
an investigation of his course His
considerations, re-ratingS, and in
crease of pensions, his declarations
in regard to ''liberality" and service
pensions, echoed by the republican
convention in Ohio, indicate the ten
dency of the movement which he
typifies toward profuse extrava-
gance which will become as intolera-
blef for the country as it is unjust and
In his first pension veto,
as the Springfield Republican recalls,
President Cleveland said what is well
worth bordering by every intelligent
and patriotic mani
Every relaxation of principle in the