The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-12-27
%. MILLION ON THE ROLL

men upon the rolls. This was subiec
of solicitous, hourly thought from th'
Capitol Of the Nation down TO tn,
| humblest home in the land. 1t was til,
matter which presented itself to th'
President and his Cabinet the momen
they awoke in the morning; it haunted
them like a grim specter during every
waking hour, and intruded into THEN
dreams 1t formed part Of nearly every
speech delivered in Congress. No loyal
paper went to press without a stirring
appeal to the best and bravest young
men to 60 to the front, and keep the
ranks there full, in spite Of the awful gaps
being made in them. Ministers preached
and prayed for this, and the devout
laity added their appeals to the God who
moves mems hearts to aid in this, by In
spring the youth to promptly respond to
the call Of the Nations need, and keep
full the mighty host of 100000 men
interposed between the country and de-
struction.
And what splendid responses were
made to these appeals, What swelling
hosts sprang up and swept forward at
each call of the President, toward the
ravening gulf which had already swal-
lowed up such myriads Of their COM
panions, brothers, and friends! One
cannot read the figures to-day without
feeling the heart swell and the pulses
throb at the magnifcence Of American
manhood. The tens, and the hundreds,
and the thousands swell into a grand
pean to the nobility, patriotism, and
self-sacrifce Of the common people Of
the United States. Never had history
seen the Ike Of it. At the first call,
$1,000 men responded. At the next,
100000 men came out. This would
have entirely exhausted all the fighting
men in any ordinary country the size of
ours; but in little while there was an
other call, and nearly 100000 more
were found ready to devote themselves
to their country. These carried on the
war for nearly three years, when there
was en- imperative need of additional
hosts to ill up the ranks shattered by
battle and disease, and call brought
out $4,000 more, to open the sangui-
nary campaigns of 1864. Before they
were well into the field, the need for
still more became urgent, and another
100000 answered the Presidents call.
The terrible fighting for Richmond
and Atlanta licked these up as flame
does stubble, and the Midsummer Of
1864 brought imperative need for still
more, and $4,000 names were added
to those on the muster-rolls. In this
magnificent way the roll was kept
up to the 100000 mark. To keep
it there, fully 100000 mer had
" pledged their lives, fortunes, and sa-
cred honors," and the glorious courage
with which they kept the pledge is
sufficiently evidenced by the fact that
500,000-or one-fourth Of them-were
dead before the contest ceased, and an
other fourth were terribly mutilated or
injured, and every one had suffered more
or less physical injury.
Then 100000 men on the roll
meant the salvation Of the Nation. 1t
guaranteed that the Government of
the people, for the people and by the
people, should not perish from the
earth" 1t meant everything that pa
triots hoped for and good men cherished.
Now, how differently is viewed the
spectacle of 100000 on the roll"
With what different eyes Congress and
the newspapers look upon a roll Of
100000 names Of veterans who were
wrecked in the gigantic struggle, of men
who served against Mexico and the
Indians, and Of the widows Of those who
participated in every war in which the
Republic has been engaged. Congress
men take frequent occasion to remark
that the number is being rapidly reduced;
that this reduction will have an arith-
metical-eyen geometrical-progression
as the years go by, and there is a
scarcely concealed smirk Of congratula-