Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1887 — Partisanship vs. Patriotism. [ARTICLE]

Partisanship vs. Patriotism.

It is difficult to 'comprehend upon what astringent and shriveling food the members of several of the Grand Army of the Republic posts in lowa have fed during the last few years that they should have suddenly broken out in indecent and unpatriotic abuse of the President of the United States. When the Citizens’ Committee of St. Louis, in the innocence of its half-dozing heart, bethought it to invite President Cleveland to be present during the Grand Army encampment in that city, it had n o intention of bringing the politi- • cians of the lowa posts buzzing about its ears with their ears and tails rampant. But some superserviceable Republican Jiatriots in the Grand Army, pretending to ear that the presence of the President might be construed into an indorsement of his politics in general and his pension vetoes in particular, raise the cry that the Grand Army had nothing in common with Grover Cleveland, and several lowa posts have taken it up with the most bigoted bitterness. The Des Moines post leads off in the vituperative virulence of its repudiation of any respect for the President of the United States. It charges him with having maliciously vetoed 119 pension bills with "“satanic glee,” with having grossly insulted every Union soldier, and, after warning him not to expose himself to the “gaze of those who utterly and unalterably despise him,” concludes with suggesting that he send a substitute, and, “if possible, the person who represented him in the army during the war/’ The John B. Hancox Post, of Belle Plain, lowa, is equally incensed. It professes “no desire to parade in his presence, or in any manner cause him to think we have forgotten his words of levity, of brutal insult to us, to our wives, and children.” Of course these resolutions are but the outbursts of political malignity and not in any way of true, patriotic indignation. It is not in such intemperate and' abusive language that men conscious of genuine grievances speak. They plead earnestly, soberly, respectfully, and firmly for their lights. The common sentiment of the nation has long ago recognized the justice and sustained the reasoning of the President’s action with regard to pensions, both individual and general. Even in the Grand Army of the Republic itself there are noteworthy instances, such as the resolutions recently parsed by U. S. Grant Post, No. 13, of Delaware, indorsing the President’s veto course. As was entirely becoming, the first rebuke of the unpatriotic and unseemly spirit displayed by several lowa politicians who happened to be Grand Army boys, •comes from the pen of Gen. Sherman. He recounts the facts that Grover Cleveland is by a fair election of the people President of the United States, Commander-in-chief of.its army and navy, and entitled to full honors and freedom from insult wherever he may •choose to go within the jurisdiction of this Government. He hopes that Mr. Cleveland will attend the parade of the Grand Army of the Republic at St. Louis on the 28th of September next, and promises, if he should, to stand by his side or march past in the ranks of Ransom Post, as may be ordered by Gen. Fairchild. In regard to the vetoes, Gen. Sherman truly says that “the President can only account for his judgment by his own conception of duty and to his God.” He also calls attention to the fact that this nation cannot be charged with ingratitude to the soldiers of the Union army so long as it pays $60,000,000 a year in pensions to them, “and not‘l cent to the rebels whom we fought in the civil war.” He concludes his letter with the remark that “we old soldiers of the civil war have not yet just cause to make an issue on the question of pensions to our infirm and wounded comrades.” The difference between the resolutions of the lowa posts and Gen. Sherman’s letter is thai the former is inspired by vindictive partisanship, while the latter is the utterance of genuine patriotism. Chicago News.