Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1887 — The Grand Army’s Trouble. [ARTICLE]

The Grand Army’s Trouble.

Chicago News: It seemsthatthe storm laised by Gem. Fairchild and Tuttle in Grand Army circles is not to be permitted to die out without causing much dissension if not'positive disruption in the organization. Such is the general dissatisfaction of the usually conservativ' members of the Grand Army over the situation that scarcely a i od meeting is held now without resignations or protests assigning for cause the slight put upon the president by the ambitious ho Lbeads. In posts where patriotism rises clear of partisanship nothing is heard but condemnation of the ciurseof certain officials that led the president to forego his intention to be present at the annual encampment. In otners, where republican partisanship runs strong, the protests of the more patriotic minority cannot be stifled At a meeting of Harrow post No. 194, G. A. R., at Mount Yernon Ind., Friday night a series of resolutions regretting that the president had withdrawn his acceptance of the invitation to St. Lou : s because of the threatening language of certain individvals was unanimously adopted. The concluding resolution charges that such individuals, in addition to having broken certain ru.es of the order, were “as guilty of disloyalty and asr prehensible as were those who endeavored to prevent Presidentelect Lincoln from passing through Baltimore on his way to Washington for inauguration in I*6l, and deserve like condemnation.”

Even Gen. Fairchild’s owr post at Madison, Yds.,has been the scene of a must have reminded that fiery author of curses of the adage that tells of their reactionary effect. Last Thursday the editor of a Madiion newspaper, who is a democrat and a veteran, sent in a letter asking for an honorable 1 discharge. This was opposed oi; the ground that in his paper he had crit.cised the attitude of the order to the president too freely. Dur ing’the hot debate that ensued the officer of the day, who is a democrat, unbuckled his sword, removed his badge, and declared that he had become disgusted with the action of the post and wished no further connection with it. Tis ouly added fuel to the raging elements, and the meeting broke up in a political ro.v. Four republican members on the following day said they would never attend a meeting of the post again, and there is a prospect f a general withdrawal of members.

In addition to these outbursts, which indicat} what an unfortunate feeling the marplots have succeeded in stirring up among the detatched posts, the utterance of he Grand Army Record, publLueu at Boston, may be cited as showing what strong ground a representative organ of the order takes against the individuals who have involved it in such an unseemly controversy. In a recent issue, after praisingjthe president’s leter in which he declined to go to St. Louis, it says: “No -romrade of the order, unbiased by selfish'or political motives,will hesitate to condemn the mis chief-makers outside or inside the organization, whose insults Jand obnoxious interference forced upon the president the m- cessity for writing such an epistle. But there >s this about it—the president’s dignified course and manly communication have punctured somebody’s political balloon.’' 'When members of the Grand Army throughoutthe country learn what manner of man the chief mischief-maker, Gen. Tuttle, is, and the circumstances under which he resigned from the army they will be more than ever incline.! to repudiate him aud the wdiole crew of noisy low - and Kansas politicians wdio have plated the order m such an unpatriotic attitude toward the president of the United States.