Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-08-27
EARNEST APPEAL
Union Veterans Urged to Rally
Around Mckinley.
THE DANGERS OF THIS CRISIS.

Combinations Which Now Threaten the
Integrity of the Country-A Nation
Help-Thcy Have Lost None of Their
Love of Country or Devotion to the
Old Flag-A Call of Honor.
The Union Veterans Patriotic league,
of which Major General Daniel E.
Sickles is president. and Major General
William B. Franklin and Major Cen
eral Horace Porter are vice presidents,
has issued an address to the surviving
soldiers and sailors who served in the
Union army and navy during the war
of the rebellion. The address follows
"CoMRADEs-Your country is again
in peril In the present presidential
campaign dangerous combinations again
threaten the integrity of the govern.
ment Misguided men conspire to bring
reputation, dishonor and financial ruin
upon the nation once saved by your
valor.
THE men who once answered the
call to put down rebellion and save the
Union have lost none of their love for
the country and their devotion to the
flag they fought to uphold, and they
see in the present situation an attempt
to tarnish the good name of the republic
and break down it's mos. cherished in
stltutions.
"The stars ard stripes symbolic to
those who offered their lives in its de-
fense country united and powerful,
respected at home, honored the world
over for its power, its justice, and still
more for it's integrity, honesty and fair
dealing.
Comrades, you believe in liberty un-
der law, in public order, in the mainte-
nance of our courts of justice, and in
national honor and good faith. You are
unalterably opposed to the red flag of
anarchy and mob rule. We believe that
you resent with earnestness all attacks
upon the executive and judicial depart
ments of our government, and COM
mend all measures which vindicate the
supremacy of the law and restore pub
lie order whenever endangered
MANY of our great leaders have been
mustered out. Grant, Sherman, Sheri-
dan, Mcclellan, Thomas, Hancock,
Burnside, Garfield, Logan, Dix, and
many others have gone to their reward.
Were they living, they would be united
with us in this crisis as they were in the
days of the war. 1t remains for us,
their comrades, who followed where
they led, to guard the good work they
upheld while living and to preserve all
they helped us to gain for our country.
What Would Be Lost.
" Should this dangerous and revolu-
tionary political conspiracy against the
financial honor and integrity of the
government succeed every pensioner,
every depositor in savings bank and
every policy holder in an insurance
company, cooperative bank and build
ing and loan association and assessment
insurance society would lose one half Of
what is due him by being paid in 90
cent silver dollars. The price Of every
thing the workingman buys would be
doubled but he would have to struggle
and wait long before he secured any
substantial increase of his wages.
Feeling assured that in this
crisis you, the Union veterans of the
late war, are almost unanimously
united in favor of an honest govern
ment and q faithful adherence to the
principles for which we contended, we
appeal to you to lay aside all partisan
OAStot w DI SlcI COuHbly w parry
now as in the dark days of the civil
gallant comrade, Major Mckinley, the
first private soldier who has ever been
nominated for the high Office of presi-
dent of the United States, who stood
shoulder to shoulder with you in many
memorable battles, and for two long
years carried his musket and shared the
toll and danger which fell to the lot of
the men in the ranks who defended the
Union, and who today stands for the
maintenance of the good name and
honor Of the country
Major Mckinley is comrade tried
and trusted. He is pledged to the prin-
ciples for which you so freely exposed
your lives and for which so many thou
sands of your comrades died ON battle
fields, in fever-infected camps and in
prison pens.
"We feel that the country is again in
the presence of Il great danger, and that
it is the duty of the men who saved it
before to rally to it's defense now.
Therefore we urge you to form your
selves into an association to be known
as "The Union Veterans Patriotic
League" and do all in your power as
individuals and members of the league
to secure the triumph Of the right.
Plans of organization will be furnished
from this office.
Call to Action.
1--WE ask you to unite without refer
ence to your past party affiliations and
come together in non partisan associa-
tons as you did in those other days.
"The sons of the fathers who followed
the flag from 1861 to $50 should defend
the blessings secured to them by the
services, the sufferings and the valor of
their sires. Therefore we invite all sons
of veteran sires to unite with us in this
campaign against national dishonor.
I'VE urge every veteran and son of
veteran to send his address to our secre.
tary, Colonel l.. Edwin Dudley, at
East Ninth street, New York city.
| yours in bonds of comradeship."
This call bears the signatures of more
than hundred prominent ex-soldiers
of the civil war, Republicans and Dem
ocrats, Sickles, Porter, Sigel, Howard,
Franklin, Woodford, McCook, Proctor
and others.