The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-03
SEATTLE. MONDAY. AUG. 5.
THE QUARTER CENTENNIAL OF
THE G.. A. II.


The Grand Army of the Republic, whose
first post was founded by DR.. B. F. Steph-
enson, April 6, 1866, at Decatur, ILL.,, and
its first national encampment held at In
dianapolis November 20, 1866, meets today
at Detroit, Mich, to celebrate its "silver
anniversary" or quarter centennial. This
gathering of veterans is likely to be ex-
ceptionalIy large in numbers and to in
clude the most conspicuous and infuen-
tial members of the order, which now
numbers over 10000. These veterans of
the G. A. &. stand for the survival of the
armies of the Union that answered the
successive calls Of Lincoln. In January.
1861, before the firing on Sumter, our army
was but 16, 600 strong, but year from that
date it numbered 575,917; in January,
1868, there were 91s, l91 on its rolls;
in January, 1864, $50, 1877; in January,
1865, $50, AGO, and on March 81, 1865, the
army was 0S0,066, or an effective fighting
strength of about $4,000 men. This
war between the sections cost the
country 100000 lives and over ST.
O0o, coo, 600; it destroyed slavery, forced
legislation of far-reaching constitu-
tional consequence for the future, and
was an event in our history that had as
much to do with changing the spirit of
our form of government and the probable
fate and destiny of our people for veal or
woe as the revolution of 1912 had to do
with fixing the form of the English gov
eminent by its radical departure, which
made the House of Commons really ruler
of Great Britain.
The extinction of the right OF secession;
the extirpation of slavery made us a ma
ton, and our country is not likely in
another one hundred years to see civil
or foreign war of the vast and overpower-
ing consequence of this war for the
Union, of which the G. A. r. form prob-
ably the majority of its surviving soldiers.
The war is twenty-six years distant, and
veteran soldiers are not objects of much
political or social consequences to the
generation Of today.
The boy who was but Is when Richmond
fell is Al today, and these figures remind
us what a vast number of our citizens have
no clear, intelligent memory of even the
last campaign of that tremendous struggle
when the North and the South wrestled
for life or death. The literature of the
war enters but little into our school books;
there is no systematic education to patriot
ism in our schools as there is in France
and England. where national songs pre-
dominate among those taught to child
hood, and some of our school books leave
the pupil in doubt whether there
was any right or wrong to our war that
cost us half million of lives and hung a
milestone of debt on our necks that it
would have bent our knees to carry had
we been a less rich and vigorous people.
All the leading actors on either side to
the great contest are gone, both in war and
politics, save Slocum. Sehofeld, Gibbon,
Beauregard, Longstreet, Early and ex-
United States Senator Reagan, of Davis
cabinet. The youngest veteran is nearly
so. and the majority are nearer SIS, an age
when they began to lag upon the stage and
hear themselves laughed at by the "boys"
as so long past the military age that they
are excusable for talking much about the
late war on the ground that they will be Of
no service in the next.
In politics the day of war" senators
and congressman and governors is about
over. South as well as North. Connecticut
has never had war" governor since 1866;
and Massachusetts, never had but one ex-
soldier for governor: Ben Butler, who
surely Was not selected because of his
"war" record. New Hampshire has not
had ''war" governor since 1867, and New
York has never had genuine war" gov
ernor, tor General Dix saw no field ser
vice.
There is strong reaction against mill
tary records. even at the South, where
once they were all powerful in politics.
The day OF sentimental memories Is over;
the day Of selfish, ignorant warfare be-
tween classes has taken its place az the
South. And yet any young man who has
read the history of what the armies Of the
Union did must know and feel that war
that drew into its patriotic flood al
svmpathies and degrees Of intelligence,
all pursuits. could not have been
mere war of "bonds and booty" 3 mere
suffers, or contractors. or peddlers war.
for no transient passion ever carried 8 free
people through the fearful fluctuations Of
. mighty war, which probsd all our
pockets deeply as well IS wrung our souls,
unless that war had been bottomed on the
great heart of the plain people, and our
nation lives today because il preferred to
conquer peace for right with blood and
iron rather than make q cowardly peace
with wrong.
When the shot at Sumter broke the
startled air the men Of distinctive patriot
ism rose 10 their feet by thousands.
reached for their rides, and there was an
end Of al compromise this side OF the
grave of the Confederacy. These men of
instinct could not have constructed a con-
stitutionai argument against secession or
in defense Of coercion, bur they cherished
the dag as tenderly as a loyal lover
does flower that his lady love
has given him as the symbol of
her love. The seeessionists at the
South and the eopperhead lawyers at the
North insansly supposed that the North