Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1898-10-03
MONDAY EVENING, OCT. ,, 1898.

listed only Ior Tue Wsr WIN SP
has no right to open his mouth on any
political subject, except, perhaps 10
sing the praises OF the President. But
as he won't do this, he is to be muz-
zled. He must not utter word. Mr..
MCKINLEY is commanderin-chief OF the
army and navy. He may speak as ne
plesses. truth or falsebood, sense or
nonsense: and it is all right. But DO
colonel and still more no private sol.
der may open his mouth, even to COM
plain of unjust hardships or suffering
imposed on him by incompetent and
cruel officials wearing the government
shoulder straps. Yet the war is over.
The volunteer army was enlisted solely
for war with Spain, and it was ex
pressly provided in the act that when
the war was over their services were to
cease. Nothing was said in the law
creating the volunteer army about gar
rison or police duty in Cuba after the
termination of hostilities in order to
keep down recalcitrant, rebellious Gu
bans or Philippine insurgents. Moth
ipp was said in the Presidents call for
troops for such an indefinite and illegal
use of the volunteer army. Still less
was it intimated in the statute author
ling the volunteer army or in the
Presidents calls for troops about put
ting paddock on the lips OF those brave
men after Spain should be conquered
and protocol or treaty OF peace agreed
on by the two governments. All this
business is an after thought-a cunning
piece OF political strategy devised to
save the flank of the administration
from attack by the citizens of
country alleged to be free.
The country would not be free if such a
system could be suffered TO prevail with
out protest. The same principle which
assumes to suppress the free speech Of
over two hundred thousand men for
the sake of an administration, sensitive
to public criticism and yet too welded
to the methods of corruption to defy it,
is capable of ready and indefinite extern
sion to the press and other methods
OF public discussion. But is it the law
and the practice ofthe government that
officers and soldiers of the army are
estopped from discussing public mat
tiers? Were the volunteers of the Mexi-
can and the latter war thus silenced =?
Did not Gen. Frank Blair and other
officers holding federal army commits
sions during the war between the
States enter the halls OF Con.
gress with Lincoln's consent and par
ticipate in public debate? Such is our
recollection certainly. When General
Taylor long ago became the wing can
didate for President did he at once re-
rign his commission as Major General
of the army? Did he not write letters
on public affairs? So, too, of that great
and accomplished soldier, General
Scott. Our recollection is that he
wrote political letters and did not re-
sign. There is, of course, no difference
in principle between a letter and
speech on subjects. Again, when Gen.
Grant became the candidate OF the re.
publican party for President he held on
to his commission as general of the
army. All these acts mean the highest
form of political activity, But there is
another case. Officers on the active
list of the army and those on the retired
list are each and all officers of the
army. Yet during the Presi-
Dental campaign of 1896 General
Howard and General Sickles and We
think other army officers went around
the country in public car, making
political speeches in order to defeat
Mr.. Bryan. 1t is reported that the ex
penses of this hippodrome business were
betrayed by General Alger, now Secre-
tary of War, and that Mr.. Mckinley
gave him this very place in order to re-
ward him for planning such notable
political expedient. Will Secretary AL.
ger or his underlings pretend to say that
Mr.. Bryan as volunteer officer is bound
by q stricter rule than Howard or
Sickles, or that he is less worthy to be
listened to by the people than man
who encouraged his officers of the
Freedman's Bureau to speculate in cot
ton farms while. controlling all the ne
groes by army methods and acting as
judges in contracts of labor. The tricks
and subterfuges of the administration
will not avail except to expose its
weakness and desperation. The ad-
ministration may suborn its army hire
lings of high degree to apologize for and
praise its misdeeds before the white
washing commission; it may claim the
credit due exclusively to the valor of
Dewey and Schley and the brave SOL
diers and sailors of the war, while in
the same breath it impudently attempts
to cast all the odium of army misman-
agement upon the inferior army off,
GERS: it may seek to suppress demo