The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-17

very MIDST or peace neEOtlattOnS, upon
which the nations are looking with jealousy,
fear and hatred. the American people
should rebuke the administration in charge
or those peace negotiations and place a
God forbid When a people show such in
consistency, such childish fickleness as that,
tnelr carer as power among nations Is
memory.
NO CHANGE OF,LEADERS.
But if possible war turks in the future,
what then? Shall we forsake our leaders
at the close of a campaign of glory and on
the eve of new campaigns for which it has
prepared? Yet, that is what the success of
the opposition to the government means.
What is that old saying about the idiocy of
him VINO changed horses while crossing
stream? 1t would be like discharging
workman because he was efficient and true.
1t would be like court-martialing Grant and
dismissing his heroes in dishonor because
they took Vcksburg
All! The heroes of Vicksburg and Peach
Tree Creek, Atlanta Mission Ridge the
Wilderness and all those fields of glory of
suffering and of death. Soldiers of 81! A
generation has passed and you have reared
a race of heroes worthy of your blood
heroes of Ell Caney. San Juan and Cavite of
Santiago and Manila! Aye, and two hundred
thousand more as brave as they who waited
in their camps with agony of impatience
the call to battle, ready to count the hell
ish hardship of the trenches-the very
the flag For every tented field was full of
Hobsons, Roosevelts, Wheelers and their
men; full of the kind OF soldiers that In
regiments of rags starving, with bare feet
in the SHOWS of winter, made valley Forge
immortal; full of the same kind or boys
that endured the hideous hardships OF the
civil war, drank from filthy roadside pools
as they marched through swdmpS or death,
ate food alive with weevils, and even corn
picked from the horses camps, slept IN Ine
blankets of the blast with sheets or Sleet
for covering, breakfasted with danger ana
dined with death and came back-tnose
who did come back-with laugh ana
shout and a song of joy, true American sol
diers, pride of their country and envy OF the
world. For that is the kind of boys the sol
diers of 1898 are. Notwithstanding the SIAN
ders of politicians and the infamy OF
leprous press which try to make the world
believe that our soldiers are sucking babes
and womanish weaklings, and our govern
ment in war a corrupt machine, fattenlng
off the suffering of our armies. In the name
of patriotism ] arraign these maligners or
the soldierhood of our Nation. l call to the
witness stand that Bayard of our armies.
General Joe Wheeler call that Hotspur OF
the South, F1tZhugh Lee. l call the 2OO.0U0
men, themselves, who went to war for the
business of war And put all these against
the vandals of politics wh9 are blackenlng
their fame as soldiers and as men, l call
history to the witness stand. In the Next
can war the loss from every cause was %
per cent, and this is on incomplete re-
turns; in the present war the loss from
every cause is only per cent. In the Next
with only blankets over them, ana were
buried with only blanket around them:
Of the volunteer force 5,423 were discharged
for disability and 1929 died from disease.
When Scott marched to Mexico only SO men
were left out of one regiment of 1000. The
average of a Mississippi company was re-
duced from 80 to 30 men, From Vera Cruz
to Mexico trail of sick and dying marked
his line of march. General Taylor publicly
declared that in his army five men died
from sickness for every man killed in bat
tie The three months men lost nearly per
cent: the six months men lost IA per cent,
the twelve months men, % per cent; the
81 .914 soldiers enlisted for the war and 11,914
of these were lost, of whom 1859 are I'M
accounted for. In the war for the Union
no, there is no need OF hgureS mere. 60
to the fields of Gettysburg and ask. Go ask
that old veteran how fever's fetid breath
breathed on them and disease rotted their
blood But in the present war, thank God,
the loss and suffering is less than in any
war in all the history of the world.
And if any needless suffering there has
been, any deaths from criminal neglect, any
hard condition not a usual incident OF sud
Den war by peaceful people has been per
mitted William Mckinley will see that the
our loss was less than the world ever knew
before, although the condition of our troops
tory, Mckinley. the just, has appointed
from both parties a commission of the most
eminent men in the Nation to lay the facts
before him. Let the investigation go. on;
and when the report is made the people of
America will know how black as midnight
is the sin of those who, for purposes OF
politics, have shamed the hardihood of the
American soldiers before the world, demOr-
allied our army in the face of the enemy,
and libeled the, government at washington
to delighted and envious nations. And think
of what was donei Two hundred and fifty
thousand men suddenly called to arms; men
unused to the life of camps; men freSh from
the soft comforts of the best homes of the
richest nation on earth. Those men
equipped, transported to camps convenient
for instant Gail to battle; waiting there the
command which any moment mlgnt nave
brought: supplies purchased in every quar-
ter Of the land and carried hundreds, even
thousands, of miles; uniforms procured,
arms purchased ammunition bought, cltl-
zens drilled into the finest soidiery on the
globe; a war fought in the deadlest eli
rays means madness and in Spanish sur
roundings, fostering with fever-and yet the
known in all the chronicles of war. What
would have been the result If those who
would have plunged us into war before we
could have prepared at all could nave mad
their way? What would have happened If
those warriors of peace who denounced the
President as traitor when he would not
send the flower of our youth against Ha-
vana, with its steaming swamps of fever,
its splendid outworks and its 10000 des-
pened if they could have had their way?
The mind shrinks and Sickens at the
thought. Those regiments which we greet
ed the other day with our cheers OF pride
would not have marched back again. All
over this weeping land the tender song
I'VE shall meet but we shall miss him, there
will be one vacant chair" would have risen
once again from desolated homes. And the
men who would have done this are the men
who are assailing the government at Wash
ington to-day and disappearing the reputa-
ton of the American soldier. But the wrath
of the people will pursue them. The scor-
pion whips of the furies will be as a caress
to the deep damnation of those who seek
a political issue in defaming the manhood
of the Republic. God bless the soldiers of
9S children of the heroes of 81. descendants
tory they will stand side by side with those
sons of glory, and the opposition to the gov
eminent at Washington shall not deny
them.
NONE SHALL BE ROBBED.
Mo- they shall not be robbed of the honor
due them nor shall the Republic be robbed
of what they won for their country. For
William Mckinley is continuing the policy
that jefferson began, Monroe continued.
Seward advanced, Grant promoted, Har-
rison championed, and the growth of the
Republic has demanded. Hawaii is ours;
Porto Rico is to be ours; at the prayer
of its people Cuba will finally be ours; in
the islands of the east, even to the gates
of Asia, coaling stations are to be ours; at
the very least the flag of a liberal govern
ment is to float over the Philippines and
II will be the stars and stripes of glory.
And the burning question of this campaign
is whether the American people will accept
the gifts of events: whether they will rise
as lifts their soaring destiny; whether they
will proceed upon the lines of national de-
veloument surveyed by the statesmen of our
past or whether, for the first time, the
fa4o h. "a -