Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-10-05
:NERcENARY PATRIOTS.
Undeserved Praise bestowed Upon Fraudu-
lent Skulkers.


Undeserved Praise BESTOWED Upon Fraudu-
lent Skulkers.
"Whatever else we may forget" said
Maj. Mckinley to the Society of he
Army of the Tennessee; whatever else
we may blot from our history we can
never forget the brave men who entered
the service of their country without
hope of reward and without any in
centive of fame or popular praise, but
who, taking their lives into their own
hands, gave the best they had. and all
they had-their lifes blood-to the
saving of the freest and best govern
ment under the sun"
To the volunteer who answers that
description every fair-minded man may
heartily say amen. So far as the PEN
sion roll has grown out of the war, and
the benefciaries ere 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 may 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, as every man
knows who was part or parcel IF that
struggle. that there were volunteers
who did not fill the description made
by Mai Mckinley in his after-dinner
speech.
There is 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 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 filing up quotas. and
they had merely to give consent to en-
ter the service accredited to a particu-
lar congressional district or su bdivisiOn
thereof to receive 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
The mercenary spirit came in strong
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-
listments. In addition to their boun-
ties-paid not by the government of the
United States, but by districts seeking
to avoid draft-they were clothed and
fed and cared for. and many thousands
of them never heard the report of a
hostile cannon. They did not appear
upon the scene of war. Their pat was
one of entire safety to themselves. If
there is glory in war, .neirs was an in
glorious seryicc. They were safely in
camps az The north or ventured no fur
ther south than mere depots of sup
plies. Such volunteers certainly do not
deserve the high eulogium bestowed in
discriminatory by Maj. Mckinley upon
all volunteers. But it is the latter
mercenary class, the men who have no
record of actual peril of war, who were
never for a moment in personal danger,
who gave nothing of their life's blood
or of any material service to the gov
eminent of the United States who are
now loudest in clamoring for wholesale
pensions. They wish to hang on to the
coattails of real OBSERVERS, men who did
participate in battles, men who actu-
ally received scars.
It is against undeservers like these
that the country cries out. and soldiers
of merit, among whom Maj. Mckinley
is enrolled, are not true to men who did
fight and who did bleed and who did
make sacrifices when they are willing
to cover with their shield of eu1ogy
masses of mere mercenaries and skulk-
ers-Chicago Times.