Troops were hurriedly despatched from all posts to the worst
points and the inefficient state militia in several states relegated to
its proper sphere--that of holding prize drills and barbecues.
Owing to the fact that the army cannot be used until a state executive
acknowledges his inability to preserve law and order, and owing also to
the fact that the executives in one or two of the states were pandering
to the socialistic element, saying they could enforce the laws without
the assistance of the army, this strike had spread until the entire
country except the extreme east and southeast was in its strong grasp,
and the work cut out for the army was doled out to it in great big
chunks. Men seemed to lose all their senses and the emissaries of the
union succeeded in getting many converts, each one of which paid the sum
of one dollar to the so-called head of the union. Snap for the aforesaid
"head," wasn't it? It was positively refreshing to the army at this time
to have at its head a man who did not know what it was to pander to the
socialists, and one who would enforce his solemn oath, "To enforce the
laws of the United States," at all hazards.
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