Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1887 — THE G.A.R. VINDICATED [ARTICLE]

THE G.A.R. VINDICATED

Addreas of General J. M. Tuttle, Com* mander of the Department of lowa, On the Occasion es a Reception at Des Moines, on the 23d of April. Comrades : I thank you for your kind welcome and hearty congratulations upon mjr being placed again in command of the lowa , battalion*, when it seems to be necessary for the Grand Army of the Republic to defend , itself and resent the foul insinuationa and charges of thoee who luve always been our enemies, both during the war ana sinoe its close. This defense seems to be necessary from the fact that yonng men are coming upon the stage of action who are not acquainted personally, and many older men have apparently forgotten the spirit that actuated the volunteers and their high character as men of veracity, integrity, and patriotism, and who are now our leahing men in all the walks of life. When these men volunteered they knew not what pay they were to receive, they asked no questions about It, they did not care apparently whether they were paid or not. Nothing of a mercenary character entered their minds. The slave-holders had rebelled and they hastened to fill up the ranks to put them down. They aooepted their small compensation without a murmur. They performed their duty like honest men, and deserve the treatment that should be awarded to honeßt men now. After the war had been going on for a year or two we heard that there were men in the North showing a disposition to discourage ub and sympathize with our enemies, called us hirelings and mercenaries, and did everything they could to discourage enlistments to fill up our decimated ranks. They held public meetings, and declared the war a failure, and resolved that the South never could be conquered, and that oar armies should be withdrawn. We paid no attention to this fire in the rear, we did not appreciate their strength nor attach as much importance to their movements as it deserved, as we have found out since. We knew that we were right, that we were fighting in a just cauoe, and pushing our bayonets int j the heart of the monster rebellion, and did not stop to hear or care what was being said at our backs. We fought the enemy with zeal, courage, and integrity. We conquered them after many of us had lost our liveß, and many others had been crippled for life, or lost their health beyond recovery, and when we returned home we received the praises of all. The enemy in arms had surrendered, and their sympathizers deemed it prudent to remain Bilent. None had the temerity then to say anything to our discredit. Years passed and we found many of our comrades worthy, honest men and brave soldiers, whose health had been ruined by hard marches and exposure, both in the field and in the prison pens of the South, totally disabled from earning a living, but who found it impossible to produce the evidenoe, either on account of the death of their officers or comrades who had knowledge of the commencement of their disabilities, to prove to the Pension Department that they had been disabled in the service. The Grand Army of the Republic, knowing their deserts, took up their cause and asked Congress to pass ; a general bill allowing all soldiers now disabled and unable to earn a living, regardless of how or when such disability hod been incurred, that would secure them the money that honestly belonged to them. Congress passed a bill substantially in compliance with our request, with great unanimity, for which those who voted for it have our sincere thanks. The President vetoed the bill, and in giving bis reasons for doing so stated that our army had been well paid, and he thought that enough had been done for them in the way of pensions. And in concluding his reasons for vetoing the bill stated that to allow it to pass “would increase perjury and encourage dishonesty.' In other words, that we are all liars and perjurers, as well as mendicants, and are not to be trusted nor "believed when we would give evidence in favor of our. disabled comrades. His principal organ in the West defended the veto and repeated all the vile names and insinuations against us, calling us names that it would not do to repeat to a polite audience, and said: "The action of the President in veoting this infamous bill would suppress that unmitigated nuisance, the Grand Army of the Republic.* That editor was never more mistaken in his life. The Grand Army of the Republic can no more be suppressed now than when they met the armed rebels in the field. I think if the President and that editor had been at Dubuque this week they would have concluded that our suppression was not yet accomplished. They would have seen thousands of honest, earnest, and intelligent men who had all risked their lives to save their country, and all, regardless of party ties, condemning their actions and words in language not to be misunderstood. They were the representatives of 50,000 voters in the State of Iowa; were old soldiers with good records, determined to vindicate and have justice done to their old comrades, where needing assistance. All w4re indignant at the veto message and the approving article in the Chicago newspaper. There are men in all political parties seeking office and asking the suffrages of their fellow citizens. They have pronounced the soldier question a chestnut, that the old soldiers have had enough, that they ask too much, that it is time for them to take a back seat in the conduct of affairs. We don’t think so. We propose to organize more thoroughly than ever. We intend to recruit as fast as possible all the old soldiers of lowa and ask them to join our organization and stand with us in defense of our honor and integrity, and woe be to the aspiring politician, regardless of party, who can not convinee us that he is the soldiers’true friend. We are told, and It is true, that some soldier Congressmen voted for the bill and afterward voted to sustain the veto. Some soldiers never had their hearts in our cause, and it is not surprising that a.few of them have gotten to Congress. Thank God, none of oar lowa Congressmen made such a record. There never was a good cause hut had its traitors, and our cause is not an exception. Party politics in our organization, as you all are well aware, is strictly prohibited, but I do not regard our rules to prohibit us from defending ourselves when attacked as an organization and our comrades traduoed and vilified and their character for veracity and integrity questioned by ae highest officer in our land. I think this is no more of a political speech than one I made to the lowa boys when standing in line of battle at Shiloh, and the enemy rapidly approaching In their front. Riding along the lines I urged them to “Stand your ground, take good aim, and fire low, and remember the record of lowa soldiers at Wilson’s Creek and Fort Donelson." That was a short speech, aqd might now be considered political, but it had the effect at the time, perhaps, of giving the boys confidence, and may have had something to do with causing them to make their position to be called by the rebels “the hornet’s nest." In Andersonville Prison in August, 1804, were confined 33,000 Union soldiers, suffering all the pangs of torment, sick and starving, anxious to see their homes and their familios, suffering which at this day seems incredible. Bufferings and punishments as great or greater as almost any savage nation on earth would infiiot. Dying at the rate of ten per cent, each month, thousands of them nnable to rise to their feet. In this fearful emergency agents of the rebel government approached them with liberty and plenty to eat if they would take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, and a money bounty if they ■ would enlist in their armies. Out of ail that number they found but seventy men who would thus forswear their cause and desert their flag, and rather than do so they stayed and died at the rate of over a hundred each day—and those whose lives were saved are yet physical wrecks almost to a man, and entirely unable, in oonseS nence of being in a rebel prison, of proving lat they got their disabilities in the service. Were they mercenaries, hirelings, dishonest men, and not to be trusted ? I think not. I would rather trust them on oath than the President, or editor before mentioned. Men possessing the integrity that they showed there are worthy to be trusted anywhere and under all ciroumataaces. Dr. Frisbie speaks of higher powers. I ask no higher Dower than tobe in commaad -of-aH-Ahe-soWiera -ot-lowa. - I_.caxe_. not what regiments they served in; they are all lowa sotdieas now. Our State made a glorious record during the war. The troops of no State in the Union made a better one. They were conspicuous in all the great battles of the West, and we that went from the then young State of lowa are proud of the record that not a poor regiment went from the State. Many of these soldiers have left the State, and* many others come in their places, and we are now all a band of brothers together, and an honor conferred on any man by them is as high as any civil office in the gift of the people, and it is our mission now to show the people that we are not a nuisance, not a set o( dead-beats and eoffeecoolers. . “My dear children,” said Deacon Bacrag, addressing the scholars, “can yon tell me why you come to Sunday-Bchool?” “’Cause our pas would wallop ns if we didn’t, ” promptly responded a small scholar. A man with a wheelbarrow on the side* walk is not very popular, but he generally oarries everything before him.