The National tribune., 1891-08-13

one calvary corps served pretty constantly
in the neighborhood of Washington, which
includes all the country from the James to
the Susquehanna Rivers, and six other corps
had intervals of service in the same section.
These corps were the strongest in numbers
of any, and kept so constantly. The sur
vivors OF this immense army are anxious to
revisit with their wives and children the
scenes where, with musket and sword, they
wrote history in large letters more than q
quarter of century ago.
If there are 100000 soldiers alive, then
there are fully 100000 who saw more or less
service around Washington. For25 years now
they have been telling their wives and childen,
their brothers and sisters, aud their nephews
and nieces of what they did and took part
in from Bull Run to Gettysburg, and from
Gettysburg TO AppOmattOx. They have
been describing TO interested auditors the
fields the hills and ravines, the walls, fences,
roads, creeks and rivers of this wonderful
region, each one OF which has glorious or
melancholy interest to them. All who have
been listening TO the veteran are anxious to
revisit these places with him, and have him
point out just where his regiment stood
when it received the whitening volley which
laid so many Of his comrades and neighbors
rult
the rebels, where it captured the battery,
where lie received the wound from which
he still suffers, where his brother was killed,
his cousin crippled, and so on. They want
to do it soon, for life is pretty uncertain now
with the old veterans, and if they miss the
opportunity next year it may be lost for
ever. 1t is this which viii make the next
Encampment by far the largest one ever
held, for it is pretty certain that between
two and three millions of the classes we
have named are anxious to visit Washing
ton, and out Of these hundreds of thousands
will actually come. Then, too, there is
great army of men who served remote from
Washington, but desire to see the city of
which they have heard so much and the
fields upon which their comrades fought.
They will also want TO bring their wives and
children. Altogether this will make the
largest gathering ever seen in Washington.
What has prevented the Encampment
being held here before this has been the
strong inducements offered by other cities
and the Indifference OF Washington. Now
Washington is aroused, and offers the COM
rades hearty welcome. This fair treatment
is all that they desire. They ask nothing
but kindly reception and reasonable rates
at the hotels and railroads.
All this has been assured them. The
citizens have subscribed $4,000 to pay the
necessary expenses Of the Encampment, the
hotels and boarding houses have agreed to
a reasonable schedule Of rates, and the rail-
roads will put down 70 low figure the
tickets to and from tie EHcampment, and
give cheap excursion rates to the various
battlefelds.
a great deal has been said about the rebel
element in Washington, and there is linger-
ing feeling in the minds of the comrades,
born of wartime experience, that the domin-
antelementin Washington sympathized with
the Southern Confederacy. One of the failures
Of the Citizens Committee sent on to Detroit
was to make it thoroughly understood that
the magnificent city of 100000 population of
today is very different place from the poky
little Southern town in which Abraham
Lincoln was inaugurated. The great
accretion of population since then has
! been almost wholly of Northern origin,
with Northern ways and ideas The South
ern element went definitely into the minor
ity when Lincoln was inaugurated, its num-
bers and influence were depleted and weak
ened by those who went South, and ever since
/ Northern meu and ideas have been gaining
/ greater ascendancy. Out OF every five men
one meets now on Pennsylvania Avenue four
are pretty certain TO have been born north
Of the Potomac, and the fifth is likely to
have undergone new birth, which separ-
ates him completely from any sympathy
with the Lost Cause. There are fully 5000
Union veterans permanent residents here,
without counting a great number who still
claim to belong to their former homes.
Talk about rebel influence adverse to
the Encampment is simply nonsense. Were
it 100 times as strong as it really is, it should
not deter the comrades for an instant, be-
cause Washington is the veterans own
city--their National home. In common with
the rest of the citizens OF the United States,
they own town its streets, its parks and
public buildings, and have the right
TO enter upon and occupy their
property. But really at least four-ffths of
the people are Ms strongly Union as can be
found anywhere in the country. The Dis
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