The National tribune., 1894-09-13
TWO YEARS AGO.

every Copperhead, every young Hedging
fresh from college and full of bumptious
conceit, every blatant Socialist, Anar-
chist and Free Trader, every propagan-
dist of utopian theories and visionary re-
forms, every hater of the established
order of things and that public spirit
which has made the country great, fired
their poisoned arrows.
The veterans were the embodiment OF
all that these men were hostile to. They
were the living opponents of that viriie,
strong, progressive, law-loving, law-abid-
ing Americanism which had labored,
sacrificed, selfdenied and fought to build
the country up into greatness. They knew
too well the terrible cost Of its prosperity
and elevation to look with patience upon
the wild and phantasmal, or the selfish
and hurtful schemes of these men.
They were worse than red rag is to
bull to the Anarchists and Socialists
who have swarmed into the country since
the war to reap the rich results Of the
veterans services and sacrifices. Among
the main tenets of this dangerous class
are that patriotism is even more de-
grading superstition than religion, and
that National banners are infection
breeding, filthy rags Coming hither
to feast on the unexampled prosperity
won by the veterans blood, they ragged
furiously that any part of the Nations
income should be devoted to pensioning
human butchers"
The bumptious young collegiates dis
liked the veterans, because they repre-
sented an older age and more mature
ideas than these callow fedglings were
to startle the world with. The veterans
were cold fogies," has beens," who
"stood in the way of progress"
The free traders hated them, because
as a rule they believe in holding the
good things of this country for those
who live in it and bear its burdens, and
in not giving them away to grasping
foreigners.
1t is unnecessary to explain why the
ex-rebels and Copperheads hated the
veterans.
All these combined their forces in a
campaign of virulence and malignity
that was not surpassed by the most in
famed period of the war. The men
who had fought THE battles of the Union
were denounced as the scum Of the
earth Only enorr nous bounties tempted
them to the field, and then they de-
serted in mass. Bountyjumping was
their favorite purs pit, and Sinking bat
tie their constant Employment. No one
explained how tile gigantic rebellion
was put down, and more than 1 100000
brave fighting men overcome by such
material. American manhood was be-
fouled in the eyes of the world by this
infamous torrent Of SANDER. 1t was
vehemently asserted that the pension
roll represented an aggregation of all
that was worst in those days of strife
and battle.
So determined and vicious was the
assault that these enemies came into
power not because they were in the
majority-an analysis of the vote shows
that the successful party got less than 46
per cent. Of the whole-but because the
majority were weary of the fight, and
hundreds Of thousands Of voters thought
there might be some truth in the cal
umnies, and RETAINED from voting.
While there was a total increase in the
popular vote between 1888 and 1892 of
689.G50, the Democrats only polIed
1854 more votes in 1892 than they did
four years previous.
The men who rode into power on this
wave Of calumny stand vastly worse be-
fore the country to-day than they tried
to make the ex-soldiers appear two years
ago. After expanding hundreds of thou
sands of dollars in determined attempt
to justify their aspersions of the char
acter of the pensioners on the roll, their
failure has been so complete as to excite
general derision. Their accession to
power has proven to be a calamity of