Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-10
BRYAN AS A SOLDIER.

OMAHA. oct. Z. 19oS-To the Editor of
The Bee: VIII you kindly inform me
through your columns II William Jennings
Bryan, as colonel of his regiment during
the Spanish-American war, resigned before
peace had been declared and. II so, the
date peace was declared. What were the
reasons Mr.. Bryan gave for rendering his
resignation? Yours very truly,
A SUBSCRIBER.
Colonel Bryan mailed his resignation
as colonel Of the Third regiment of
Nebraska volunteer infantry on the
18th day of December, 1898. The
war had not yet beer oficially declared
at an end, but an armistice had been
agreed upon some weeks prior and the
Treaty of Paris, which was finally rat
flied, was pending in the United States
senate. Very little likelihood Of any
further fighting existed at the time Mr..
Bryan resigned his command. His
record as a soldier consists, then, Of
his spectacular enlistment in a COM
pany formed at Lincoln to be a part of
the Third Nebraska, and his failure to
take the oath as an enlisted man when
the members of that company declined
to elect him captain; the parading be-
fore a moving picture machine some
days prior to the actual filling out of
his commission as colonel of that regi-
ment; the acceptance of the commits
sion and about six months nominal
service, during which period the late
General Vifquain was in actual COM
mand OF the regiment as its lieutenant
colonel.
Colonel Bryan's real reason for re-
signing was probably that which he
expressed some time prior to the actual
event, when he declined to give a news
paper interview because, as he ex-
pressed it, he was suffering from mill
tary lockjaw." AS colonel of a regi-
ment In the field he could not indulge
in his voluminous expressions critics.
ling the course of the president and his
advisers in the conduct of the war. A
few days after he had mailed his
resignation as colonel he gave to the
public a letter setting forth his posi-
ton as regards the Treaty of Paris,
under which the United States retained
the Philippines and Porto Rico and
maintained an oversight Of Cuban
affairs.
The democrats in the United States
senate were opposing the ratification
of the treaty for the apparent purpose
of hampering Mr.. Mckinley and his
associates. Colonel Bryan, on being
relieved, fastened to Washington,
where he entered the secret councils
of his party and urged the ratification
of the treaty, thereby assuming a re-
sponsibility which he has ever since
undertaken to avoid. Mr.. Bryan's
military career is negative for the
reason that he could not talk. His
responsibility for the ratification OF
the Treaty of Paris is shown in this
excerpt from his letter to the public,
explaining his resignation:
Some people think that the fight should
be made against ratification Of the treaty,
but 1 would prefer another plan. II the
treaty is rejected negotiations must be re-
newed, and instead OF settling the question
Laccording to our ideas, we must settle Il
by diplomacy, with the possibility OF inter-
national complications. 1t will be easier,
think, to end the war at once by ratifying
the treaty and then deal with the subject
In our own way.
Mr.. Bryan may declaim against Inn
perialism, the retention Of the Philip
pines and other aspects Of the policy
pursued by the government since the
close of the Spanish-American war, but
his own words convict him of insin-
certify.