The National tribune., 1896-07-16
THE SONS OF VETERANS.

the largest and most influential OTQer III
the country. Every day brings some
thing to impress them with the eminent
need of such an Order-of an organiza-
ton which will draw into its ranks the
best and strongest men of the country,
and which will have for its cardinal prln-
ciple stern insistence that patriotism Is a
sacred duty, that, first, last and all the
time, this Government must be honored,
its Flag respected, its laws implicitly
obeyed, and its institutions jealousy
guarded.
The Grand Army of the Republic
feels this more strongly every month.
The comrades bear on their bodies and
hearts inefiaceable scars telling of the
terrible penalty of the neglect of incul-
eating such a principle.
Forty years ago it was nobody's bust
ness to teach patriotism. Nobody charged
himself with The duty Of insisting that
the citizen owed his country duty sec
ond only to that he owed to God. Pat
riotism was not held to be prime
requisite of true manhood, but rather a
matter of cheap and fatulent bunkum,
something connected with fire-crackers,
and brass bands, and Fourth of July
rhetoric, which serious-minded men look
ed upon good humoredly as among the
vanities.
Artful, wicked men, to the chief of
| whom a monument was begun recently
at Richmond, Va, took advantage of
this decayed National spirit to poison the
minds Of great portion of our people
against the Government to which they
owed allegiance, and to incite hostility
where there should have been perfect
concord. And it took two million men
four years, it cost 100000 lives and a
million more wrecked bodies, and nearly
$7,000,000,000 of treasure to suppress
the wickedest, the most causeless, the
most excuseless rebellion in the history
of the world.
We are complacently told that this
thing cannot occur again; that slavery
and States Rights caused the war, and
that they are dead beyond the hope of
resurrection. 1t Is true that that precise
thing cannot happen again. Things
never happen twice alike. But that
sort of thing can happen any year, just
as easily as it happened in 1861. There
are possible JEFF Davises in every State,
only waiting for a favorable opportunity
to develop. Everywhere there are art
full demagogs like him, thirsting and
furnishing for notoriety. They are look
ing eagerly for some pretext upon which
to infame the popular mind and give
them prominence and followers.
Forty years ago war seemed as remote
as it does to-day. For aught we know,
it may be nearer us now than it was
then.
The best possible safeguard against
such a calamity is to build up the Sons
of Veterans into an organization of COM
handing power and influence. Next to
the men who fought the war through, the
sons of those men know best what the
preservation of the National existence
cost they know best what led to that
war, what dangers now threaten the
Government, and how to best meet them.
This has been so instilled into them by
heredity and precept that it passes knowl-
edge and becomes the higher form of
wisdom. That man is son of vet
eran is n guaranty that he is a patriot at
heart, and can be relied on for whatever
is necessary to preserve the Nations in
tegrity and carry it forward to still higher
planes of development.
If, as the veterans of the Grand Army
pass away, they could see million Of our
sons arrayed in an organization devoted
TO preserving and continuing their work,
and in readiness to meet any exigcncy
that might arise, they could take their
departure cheered by the serene hope
that the future of our beloved country
was entirely secure.
And why may we not soon see the
Sons of Veterans one million strong?