The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-04-25


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UNION VETERANS IN THE SOUTH.
Our advocacy of the policy of selecting
Union veterans settled in and identified with
the South for the Government offices there
has received favorable comment all over
that section, and we are in receipt of hun
dreds of letters commencing our position.
A comrade writing from Cotton Plant, Ark,
and who has lived there u years, says:
Your article in THE NATIONAL Tribune of
March 81, entitled Union Veterans in the South
hits the nail squarely the head. Who if not the
Union veteran has better right to fill the Federal
offices in the South? In fact the Southern Bour-
bons prefer to these Union veterans fill these
offices. : In the event of change in Fed
eral patronage, they express themselves as being
in favor Of the veterans, Republican of North
ern birth; who is & Republican from principle
and not one who becomes a Republican for Office.
Your views of the Southern policy are the correct
views beyond doubt and hope and pray that
they may, to great extent, be embodied in Presi-
dent Harrison's Southern Policy.
Comrade o. Beerstecker, seth n. Y. and
28th Pa, who was wounded twice at Mission
Ridge, and who has resided at Searcy, Ark,
for the past 10 years, says that when be first
went South it was a stumbling-block in the
way of mans success to have it known
thatheserved in the Union army; but things
have improved greatly in this respect on
account of immigration from the North, and
the result of the election was especially
favorable to the comrades residing in the
South. 1t showed that the men who fought
the war through were arrayed against the
Solid South, and this set the Bourbons to
thinking The result is that Union soldiers
in Dixie receive greater consideration.
This is substantially the tenor Of all the
letters. The veterans who went South after
the war, and made their homes there, have
conquered the respect of their neighbors
| They have been as a rule the best of citi-
zens according to the Southern standard,
and they have been more. They have been
Missionaries aching by precept and ex-
ample, enterprise, and improved methods in
everything They have leayened their
neighborhoods = whole sections - States,
even-with the leaven of progress. All the
best that has come to the South in the past
% years has come through them.
1
An illustration of this class that we have
in mind is Col. Fl. C. Parsons, of Natural
Bridge, Va, who fought CALAMITY in the 1st
VT Cav, until disabled by wounds, and at
the close Of the war went into the Shenan-
doah Valley and settled. Terribly wounded
as he was, he showed an activity and bust
ness ability that was marvellous to the sleepy
old Virginians Everything that he laid
his hand to-and he has laid his hand
to many things-became success He
built railroads, and they were very good
He erected fine hotel, with all the
modern Improvements, and it was such
a hotel as the whole of Virginia would
not have developt in century. In
erything looking to the material develop
ment of the country he was a shrewd and
jealous worker, and altogether this man
who quarter of century ago was leading
a company of Yankee cavalry up the Shen
andoah Valley, has been instrumental il
securing the investment of over forty nal
lions dollars Of Northern capital to develoI
the resources of that region. He has thus
been worth more to Virginia than entire
generations of her so-called leading men
politicians, statesmen etc. All Thu
time he has been an uncompromisingly Ioya
man,-as true as the truest to the principle
for which he fought, but he has never &C
copied an Office or any political favors.
There are other comrades in the Soutl
who have done nearly if not quite as vel
as Col. Parsons. There are thousands o
others whose splendid work in building u
| the New South only differs from his in mag
/ nitude, not in kind. They have kept out @
f politics. except to firmly uphold their prin
ciples, and have devoted themselves strictl
to business.
1t is among this class-whether they ar
e cultivating oranges in Florida managin
iron factories in Georgia or Alabama, run
ming railroads in Virginia, or carrying o
: stores or farms all over the South,-tha
c President Harrison should seek his appoint
u ees for Federal offices in Dixie. He vii
find there the best material in the SoutI
and their appointment will not only b
"good politics" but it will be right in th
!, highest degree
THE work of Civil-Service Reform in th
interest of the veterans goes brayelv :;
The Committee on Publ, Service of Masse
chusetts los reported bill providing tina
9 In all cases of certifcation for appointmen