Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-02
SAYS TAFT ISLANDERS
MEMORY OF GRANT
LIFELONG REPUBLICAN WRITES
CRITICISM
Veteran Soldiers Take Exceptions to
What ls. Considered Gratuitous
Insult to the Former
President

Col. H. L. Gordon of Hollywood takes
serious exception to Taft's utterances
during his memorial day speech.
Col. Gordon is the author of poem
entitled Gettysburg Charge of the
First Minnesota" He was a member
of that famous regiment and went into
the HELL with his comrades. They
went in 262 strong and held Long
streets entire corps thirty minutes un-
til Gen. Hancock could rally support
to save Little Roundtop. Only forty
seven men of the old First (some of
them wounded) were able to rally to
the colors at the end of the fight. The
remainder lay on the field killed or
severely wounded. Every officer of
that regiment but one, Lieutenant
Martin Maginnis, now of Helena,
Mont, who rallied the remnants of
the regiment to the colors, lay dead or
wounded in that Hell" on the second
day of July, 1868.
Col. Gordon has sent The Herald the
following protest against Taft's ut
terances:
ST am a Republican. 1 think am
entitled to call myself a Republican
dyed in the WOOL" l helped to or
ganize the Republican party in the
state of New York in 1S54-5-6. L was
in the convention that nominated FIRE.
mont, the first Republican candidate
for the presidency, in 1856.
I'm the campaign that fall although
not yet of age, managed (under my
uncle, the Hon. Sam Gordon of DelhD
the republican campaign in Delaware
county, N. Y, and stumped Delaware
and adjoining counties for Fremont.
fI.sc 4 1,ox In,
variably voted for Republican candi-
dates whenever and wherever Repub-
lican principles or the good of the party
were involved.
st am an admirer of Gen. U. S..
Grant. 1 knew him personally (after
the war; and have studied his politi-
cal and private life with much interest
and care. None knew him but to love
him.
Insult to Every Old Soldier
81 have read with pain in the AS
ISOLATED Press dispatches the Decora-
ton day speech of Secretary Taft at
Grants tomb, May 80, 1908. I quote
these words from that speech, as sent
broadcast over the whole world by the
reliable Associated Press:
"'But in 1854 he (Grant) resigned
from the army because he had to. He
had yielded to the weakness or taste
for strong drink and rather than be
courtmartialed he left the army
"That statement made my old blood
boil, and it is boiling yet. That state
ment from Secretary Taft, the leading
Republican candidate for the presi-
dency-made on Decoration day In a
public address at the tomb of Gen.
Grant to be flashed and published all
over the civilized world! Am 1 do
tard, or is Secretary Taft an ass, lack
ing the first principle of a gentleman I?
HAD he forgotten the old Roman
maxim, DE Mortuis nil nisi bonum' :?
(Of the dead speak nothing unless it
is good) If his statement were true
he has shown himself devoid of dis
cretion and even decency and unfit to
soil the chair that Grant honored.
Worse-the statement is false.
Grant, Greeley Campaign in 1872
I'm the Grant-Greeley campaign of
1872 similar statement was made in
notoriously disreputable Democratic
paper To the credit of Democratic
editors generally they refused to in
dorse or circulate the statement. Many
condemned it severely.
Il was on the stump for Grant in