Year: 1865




the orderly disbandment of three-fourths
Of our great armies and their peaceful
return to civil lie. 1t is all very well
for the world to wonder, and an emotion
Of complacency on our own part is not
amss-but we want something more than
emotions. Ours is a practical nation, and
showed its practical turn by the readiness
with which it took hold of the war. We
look for the same talent to be exhibited
in the return of peace. Society has now
to absorb into its ordinary industrial oc-
cupations some hundreds of thousands Of
men with the same easy readiness with
which it dismissed them from the paths
of peace to the rough ways of war.


The Sanitary Commission has estsb.
lished a bureau Of employment at No. 80
Chambers ST., to which we have lately
referred. But the main purpose OF that
is to provide employment for partially
disabled soldiers. We desire now to di.
rect attention to the claims of qH soldiers
upon the public for employment.


1t is not an appeal to the charitable.
The notion that any soldier is to be re-,
lieved or emplayed from charitable mo-
tives ought to be rejected at once. Upon
Government and People alike, the soldiers
have the first claim. 1t is they who
have saved the Republic--God forbid the
Republic should forget them when there
is no longer need of their heroic virtues
in the field. They come back to us,
whether sound or disabled, with such
claims as no other class of persons can
present. For four years they have re-
nouuced the safety Of peace, the comforts
of home, the profit of business. They
have endured all and dared all for coun-
try, and we should be the meanest of
races to forget now the right of these re-
turning veterans to every vacant post of
remunerative occupations.


Nor ought it to be supposed that these
men come back to us untitled for the
duties of common life. War is stern
disciplnarian and has turned many a
worthless fellow into good citizen. But
the material of our armies is not and
never has been of worthless character.
The standard of personal character
among the soldiers is so high that to have
been in the army is a presumption Of
merit. Thousands from every State en-
tered the ranks, leaving honorable and
lucrative pursuits, and they are no worse,
but better, for the experience they have
undergone. Out of the same number of
men taken at random from other occupa-
tions it might he in vain To search for
the same talent md good qualities that
will be found among tho soldiers who in
these weeks are getting mustered out OF
service, and who are looking about them
for new occupation. We trust every
one-every indiviual, will feel that it is
his personal duty to interest himself in the
welfare of each soldier with whom he
comes in contact, however slightly or
accidently' The obligation we are all
under to these noble defenders of the Re-
public, cannot be discharged except by
individual effort. Last week we had
from Washington the account of resig-
nation by an Office holder in favor of a
soldier wis needed the place. Such an
example onght to be contagious. The
Government will, SO far as it can, dis |
criminate in favor of the soldiers, but
there are few places in proportion to the
number of applicants. and the People
must do what the Government cannot.
Every farmer, every masterrmechanic,
every employer in whatever business,
must not merely answer applications from
soldiers, but should take pains to search
them out. and put into their hands what
ever work he has to be done. A hearty
and general cooperation of this sort will
make it difficult to find discharged sol
dier out of employment. or in any way de-
pendent on charity.-K y Tribune.