Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1893-10-14
MeRcENARY PATRIOTS.
tndeserved Praise Bestowed Upon Fraudu
tent Skulkers.

lent Skulkers.
whatever else we may forget" sal,
Maj Mckinley to the Society of h
Army of the Tennessee; whatever els,
we may blot from our history we ear
never forget the brave meu who entere,
the service of their country without
hope of reward and without any in
e%entive Of fame or popular praise, hu
tho, taking their lives into their owl
hands, gave the best they had, and al
they had-their life's blood-to tn,
saving of the freest and best govern
mcnt under the SUM-"
To the volunteer who answers thai
description every fairminded man may
heartily say lei So far MS the pen.
sion roll has grown out of the war, and
the beneticiaries are such men %surviv-
ing with wounds or enervated by dis,
ease contracted in the line of service,
this country may cheerfully pay the
amounts, and the benefits NAV with
applause be extended to the widow
and minor children of such volunteers
if those widows were actually war.
made.
But Maj Mckinley had large obser-
walton of the war and of the condition
of the north, and of the plans of en-
listment which came when the struggle
had settled down to one of dead earn
estness and it was found by enthusi-
astS that the battlefield was not A hol-
iday; and he knows, rs every man
knows who was part or parcel Of that
struggle, that there were volunteers
who did not fill the description made
by Maj, Mckinley in his after-dinner
speech.
There is a neither side to this story of
patriotism. AS the war went on re-
sort to draft was necessary. and those
who as volunteers entered the mill
tary service came to be of a class that
were not without hope of reward.
They were paid large bounties, they
were purchased as substitutes, they
were enlisted by local committees for
the purpose of filling up quotas, and
they had merely to give consent to en-.
ter the service accredited to a particu.
!ar congressional district OF subdivision
thereof to receive Il sum of money.
sometimes thousands of dollars larger
than they ever had before and than they
have ever had since, even under the
arrears of pension act.
Tho mnrpapurr cp;rit ,o,,,n =, .Iz.-
ly toward the close of the war. Men
would not bulge as volunteers unless
they were paid handsomely, and most
OF such persons sought short.time en-
listmcnts. In addition to their boun-
ties-paid not by the government of the
United States, but by districts seeking
avoid d%raft-thev were clothed and
ted and cared for, and many thousands
OF them never heard the report of a
cannon. They did not appear
upon the scene of a Their part was
one OF entire safety to themselves. If
is glory in war, theirs was an in
service. They were safely in
camps at the north or ventured no fur
her south than mere depots of sup
plies. Such volunteers certainly do not
the high eulogium bestowed in
discriminatory by Maj. Mckinley upon
VII volunteers. But it is the latter
nercenary class, the men who have no
'ecord OF actual peril of war, who were
for a moment in personal danger,
Who gave nothing of their life's blood
OF any material service to the gov.
rnnent of the United States who are
low loudest in clamoring for wholesale
tensions. They wish to hang on to the
o~attails of real OBSERVERS, men who did
anticipate in battles, men who actu-
lily received scars.
1t is against undeservers like these
hat the country cries out, and soldiers
I merit, among whom Maj. Mckinley
enrolled, are not true to men who did
ght and who did bleed and who did
lake sacrifices when they are willing
} cover with their shield of eulogy
lasses OF mere ~mercenaries and skulk-
rs. -Chicago Times.