VETERANS PLEDGE THEIR VOTES TO MR. BRYAN
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Clay County's Skirmish Line.
Fairfield, Neb., Oct. 16--To the Editor of the World-Herald: The old soldiers whose names appear below are opposed to all such insults to the defenders of the old flag as that appearing in the National Tribune. The original copy has been forwarded to the Tribune. You can ruly upon this as genuine. All signers are from Fairfield and vicinity.
Fairfield, Neb., Oct. 12--To the Editor of the National Tribune--Comrades: It is with much patience and chagrin we, the defenders of the old flag, have borne the infamous attacks eminating from your slanderous pen. We have borne the malicious attacks on our honor and patriotism believing them to be only errors of the head and not the heart. But your continued efforts to add insult to injury and falsehood, to abuse, constrains us to defend our honor, as every free American citizen has right.
Your editorial, "The Old Fight Over Again," in which you attack the old soldiers who do not trail in your wake has never been equaled in the abuse and falsehood, north or south, since the war ended. The scars of the battlefield have long since healed, but the indignant thrusts of your vile slander have made wounds in thousands of loyal hears that will never heal. Your bitter words to [illegible] comrades have outdone the rebel forces [?] in making deeper and more lasting wounds [?]. White-haired veterans, so long beloved [?] by their country and esteemed by every loyal citizen, must henceforth be known to the world as "anarchists," "repudiators," and "rebels," because they dare to avail themselves of their constitutional rights.
Sir, you charge yourself with a responsibility we give to no man when you assume to dictate our free and lawful actions. We bear the scars that helped to free four million slaves and do not mean to submit to slavery ourselves. Indeed, the "Bus of contest in 1860 to 1865 is reproduced in startling exactness" by that of the present, inasmuch as you are acting the part of those secessionists who heaped unstinted abuse upon that noble champion of the great common people, Abraham Lincoln. The reproduction is startling when we consider how all factions of the people are united upon that grand and noble champion of the common people, William J. Bryan, as they were united on Lincoln in 1860. Your likeness in this reproduction is to those who truckled to the slave power as you do now to the money power. Like unto those who would extend the curse of slavery and fasten it upon us forever the curse of an English gold standard.
We here part company, as we presume "anarchists" and "repudiators" would not be acceptable to your majesty's master. Even as Lincoln criticized the supreme court and became an "anarchist," "repudiator," so must our noble Bryan bear the odioius epithets. You have wandered too far from camp, comrade, and view us from the side of the enemy. We demand that you never again send us a single copy of your vile sheet. There is a name in the annuals of history odious to loyal Americans which we would blot from memory, and which your paper is a constant reminder.
It is your privilege to take the position you have chosen; we will choose our own platform. We subscribe our names to this letter expressing our sentiments and the compliments you deserve:
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William Mock, company I, 91st Pennsylvania Infantry