The National tribune., 1901-06-20
ADMIT NONE OTHER.
The Grand Army Should Die With the Las,
Veteran. Saws q Pennsylvania Yeteran

EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: In the Issue Of
June we find two articles In relation
10 the perpetuation Of the g. A. r. by ad-
mission of Sons OF Veterans and discharged
soldiers of our wars later than the civil war.
L would be pleased TO have the individual
opinion of G. a. X. comrades on this ques-
tinn Of amalgamatiOn. For my part ] can
not how any honest soldier of any war
would be benefited. As Order the Sons
of Veterans are established, and the dis
charged soldiers of the Cuban war and the
war in the Philippines have their associations.
We are told that the g. A. X. has no patent
on the patriotism Of the country; that we are
no braver than the men who at Ell
Caney or with Dewey or Sampson; that we
are mOrbidIy selfish. If such Is the case,
what benefit will these men derive from as
ISOLATION with us? What benefit will we de-
rive from associating with them?
Soldiers Of the Federal Army In the civil
war have patent on the name Grand Army
in the Patent Office In Washington, but
ownership without contest for more than a
third Of a century should be sufficient patent
We have no patent on the name Veteran, yet
every g. A. X. member as well as every dis
charged soldier Of our later wars is called
veteran. We understood that to be veteran
one should have served one or more terms of
enlistment and have record showing a rein
listmeut unless discharged for wounds or
injury received in line of duty; but now the
woods as well the streets are almost full
Of veterans that never saw hostile enemy.
What does that man who enlisted in April
81, reinisted in September, 81, for three
years. reinlisted again in Fall OF Winter Of
1863 for three years. or during the war, and
staying in service until discharged because
hOstilites had ceased, think of US who came
struggling In In February, "a, October, a.
or in March, 80, but now permit ourselves to
parade as veterans?
But it will be said that We cannot now
draw a line; that rob many good and
honorable soldiers of that title Of honor IL
we go back to the former acceptatiOn of the
term. Well, I'll admit would thin the ranks
Of veterans (9 very considerably. But there
are hundreds OF we old fellows that never
took any share in the "wayirg Of the bloody
shirt" for the 80 years that IT was practlced
for vote getting, and we don't think we will
slop over to the other side and help with the
mawkish blue and gray business When we
quit at AppOmattoX we thought the JOhnnies
were whipped, and we let 1t go at that We
did not realize the help to a candidate was the
story on the stump Of how we Suffered and
died that the country might live" Now these
same rhnting wavers of the CORY garment
when they find the old soldier of the civil war
| Is becoming scarce, want to do the harmony
| trick; have reunions OF the blue and gray;
decorate the graves OF the fallen foe" shake
| hands over the "blOOdy chaSm," and ask we
| that are members OF an Order that considers
| treason OdiOus-so odious that we are willing
| to say emphatically that "the penalty Of
| treason Is death'- TO have an amalgamatiun
| with another where We may meet on an
! equal footing man wearing an emblem
| commemorative of that treason which we
thought we had crushed. Don't your Cuban
war soldier from the South and your Philip
| pine soldier from the South If he Is an ex-
| rebel or the son of one think his little STARS
and bars glorious a banner as your larger
| Stars and Stripes? We are told that they are
| reconstructed and just chatting to show their
loyalty and love for cur flag; that they have
| sworn to support the Constitution OF the
United States and oppose every one Of its
enemies, etc, etc Well, SO did Jeff Davis
and Robert L. Lee, and hundreds of other
fellows, who perjured themselves on account
| of their "honah, subj"
No man did better or harder fighting Mt any
time OF place than did the man of the South
during the civil war. We must admit.
whether we are pleased TO do so or not that
We could not meet harder set OF men TO
whip. But they must admit, whether the
admission Is pleasant or not, that they were
whipped and that they have no right to 90
any further In the extolatlon of the partici-