Duty and reward of loyalty

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The Duty and Reward

OF

LOYALTY

By LIKUT. ALLEN R. KOOTE.

Read at Takoma Park, District of Columbia, y^dy 4, i8gi.

Published by order of the
NATIONAL BOARD OF FOUNDERS

OF THE

SOCIETY OF LOYAL VOLUNTEERS,
Washington, D. C.

DEDICATED TO THE

LOYAL VOLUNTEERS OF 1861
July 4TH, 1891.

THE DOTY AID REWARD OF LOYALTY.

By Lieut. ALLEN R. FOOTE,

I was mustered into the United States service as a private soldier
in Co. B, 3d Michigan Infantry, June 10, 1861. I received a gun-
shot wound in my right lung at the battle of Fair Oaks, May 22,
1862, and was discharged for disability, December 23, 1862. I re-
enlisted as a private soldier in the 21st Michigan Infantry, January
2, 1864 ; was promoted to Second Lieutenant, January 26, 1864, and
was honorably mustered out of service at the close of the war, June
8, 1865.

On account of my wound I am now receiving a disability pen-
sion of ten dollars per month. My method of earning a living is by
intellectual employment. My wound does not cause the slightest
disability for such occupation. My army experience has been the
means of increasing, not diminishing, my earning capacity. I am
now receiving full pay from my employment.

In view of facts such as these, I believe the pension laws should
be so changed that I, and all others similarly circumstanced, shall
receive no pension payments and that the money so saved may be
used to increase the pensions of our less fortunate Comrades.

I furnish this record to show that I am of the royal order of
American Nobility, the loyal volunteer soldiers of 1861, and as
such, have the right to speak for myself and to voice the sentiments
of my Comrades.

1. " To thine own self be true " is a command into which are
condensed all laws of the universe. This is the law of the duty of
loyalty.

2. Man is infinitely and wonderfully related. Co-existent with
his relationship is his duty of loyalty. Beginning with self, his
relationship runs through family, companionships of childhood,
associations in society, business, politics and religion ; citizenship
in town, county. State, and nation ; from the nation to the brother-
hood of man ; from humanity to God; from God, the over-soul, to
God incarnate in the soul of man. Viewed full-circled, man's re-
lationship and his duty of loyalty run through the entire circle
froiji self to self. No link can be omitted without breaking the
circuit.

3. Man is sovereign to all things. Only that commands his alle-
giance which yields allegiance to him. Reciprocity of fealty ren-
ders the demand for fidelity just. Reciprocity limits duty. "^ When
a government not rightly planned or administered fails or ceases
to be a benefaction to the governed, it has no right to require ad-
herence from those it wrongs. The wronged can not be loyal to
their oppressor and at the same time be true to themselves.

4. The obligation of duty can not be satisfied except by a volun-
tary act. An act done under coercion is the act of a culprit com-
pelled to obey authority. An act done for pay only is the act of a
mercenary. Such acts are not the acts of a free man willingly
doing his duty because he believes it to be right. In the truest
sense the loyal soldier is never a conscript nor a mercenary. He
is always a volunteer.

5. Arbitrary governments are defended by conscripts ; popular
governments by volunteers. The armies of an empire are mobil-
ized by a draft ; of a republic, by a call.

6. When all men intelligently recognize their duty of loyalty
through the entire circle of their relationship, there will be no
crime, no war.

7. The people of the South were loyal according to their under-
standing of their duty. They broke the circle of relationship by
omitting from it, without just cause, the nation and humanity.
The God of justice to whom they appealed required them to repair
the breach. In exact relation to their progress in doing this, peace
and prosperity have come to them ; a peace and prosperity un-
clouded by any impending crisis, because founded on loyalty to the
nation, loyalty to humanity, and loyalty to themselves.

8. When growth is unobstructed, progress is made by evolution.
Then the duties of loyalty are to life as light and heat to the sun-
beam. When growth is obstructed, progress is made by revolu-
tion. Then the duties of loyalty are to life as the fire and power
of lightning.

9. Most minds are deficient in capacity for sentiment. They ap-
plaud the hero who proves himself loyal in supreme trial for a sin-
gle hour. They fail to recognize the grandeur of him who is faith-
ful through all the years of his life. Heroes of war are by them
more ho'^ored than heroes of peace. When men are wise enough
they will cease to honor those who destroy. They will honor those
who create. Faithfulness to the duties of civil life will then be
recognized as the highest duty of loyalty to the nation. When
men acquire sufficient capacity for sentiment, histories of peace will
stir their minds to lofty thoughts and high endeavor. They will
then be liberated from narrow lives in which small disturbances
excite undue sensation. They will live in that larger realm where
sensation is born of noble admiration ; where suns and worlds swing
free in space, and together with the stars, chant the rhythm of the
universe. Between such people there can be no wars. To unwrit-
ten laws they will yield loyal obedience, as the sun-kissed mist
blushes the beauty of the rainbow.

10. The true rewards of loyalty can not consist in recompense,
gifts, compensations, or remunerations. They are not a requital or
desert. The use of these terms as synonyms for the word reward

misleads thought, raises false issues, and predicates action on a false
basis.

The duty of loyalty is a moral obligation. The true reward of
loyalty must be a moral' satisfaction — HONOR. No nation can dis-
honor its volunteer defenders without undermining its noblest fort-
ress of sure defense. If the defended disregards his duty of grat-
itude, what right has he, man or nation, to enjoy the protection or
the results of the defense ? Ingratitude partakes of the nature and
parallels the crime of treason. The duty of gratitude is a moral
obligation. The true expression of gratitude must be a moral satis-
faction—HONOR.

The Loyal Volunteers.

11. When the call came for volunteers to defend the nation, those
of its citizens who most loved its institutions, who saw in them the
best promise of freedom and prosperity for humanity, in whom
there resided the most manly courage and the most responsive sen-
timents of patriotism, were the first to respond. They asked no
questions about pay. They had no thought about bounties, pen-
sions, or soldiers' homes. To protect their own institutions and
homes, they saw that they must act without stipulation or hesita-
tion.

12. Sometimes the sentiment is expressed that " the old soldiers
are entitled to everything the nation can give them because they
saved the nation." To urge this claim it is triumphantly asked,
" What would have become of the nation if the old soldiers had
not saved it?" A more pernicious or unworthy sentiment has never
been born in the minds of men. The question is much more per-
tinent. What would have become of the old soldiers if they had not
done their duty manfully and had not been successful ? Because a
man rushes to the rescue of his family and property when his house
is on fire, and incidentally saves the lives and property of others,
shall he claim a rew^ard, and insist that he is entitled to all those

others can give him ? He had to save that house, or to see his own
family destroyed and lose his own property. If he had felt no so-
licitude for them and his own interests, would the sight of the flames
have moved him to hazardous action? Those who claim that the
loyal volunteers saved the nation for others, disinherit them. They
went to the rescue of their own country, and saved it for them-
selves. For so doing, honor, not compensation, is their true reward.

13. The loyal volunteer was faithful in the performance of a self-
imposed obligation. He endured privations and hardships, risked
life and limb. He sacrificed the opportunities of civil life, and dis-
severed himself from the comforts and influences of home and so-
ciety, and from opportunities for study, culture, and refinement. He
did this to defend the life and honor of the nation. For this, all
honor is due to him, and a sufficient recompense to make good to
him his material losses.

14. A grateful people have been glad to make good the material
losses sustained by volunteers. Their ready willingness to do this
has led to ill-considered methods of doing it, until the duty of hon-
oring, as well as making restitution for material losses, has been so
lost sight of, that old soldiers have been placed in the position, eco-
nomically considered, of paupers. In my opinion, ex-President
Hayes sounded the keynote of appreciation when, at the banquet
of the Loyal Legion, Cincinnati, May, 1888, speaking to the toast
" Comradeship," he said :

" No soldier can be justly considered the nation's pauper ; he is
rather the nation's ward. Young men were taken from the restraints
of home, of moral surroundings, and were placed by the nation in
its struggle to defend its life at the mercy of temptations condi-
tioned to rouse all unholy passions. Some yielded up their lives,
others their manhood, in defending the cause of national existence
and national unity. Shall we lay flowers on the tomb of one and
refuse a helping hand to his less fortunate comrade ? The soldier
who is a drunken sot is an eloquent witness of the cost of war. We

8

can not count all of that cost in dollars. Who will estimate its cost
in the wrecked characters of those who did not possess the moral
fibre to enable them successfully to resist the temptations of army
life ? In the formation of character, let it be remembered that who
sows act, reaps habit ; who sows habit, reaps character ; who sows
character, reaps destiny."

15. These are noble words, nobly spoken, but they do not present
the entire picture. All men were not degraded by army life. The
majority were made better by it. The inspiration of the cause, the
patient endurance and stern courage required, roused into life all
the latent goodness of their characters and made them better, no-
bler, gentler men than they otherwise would have been. They did
not sacrifice character, they sacrificed the opportunities of civil life.
Opportunity is life.

To appreciate this, mark the course in life of two boys, comrades
in school, about nineteen years of age, apparently equals in every
way. Suddenly the war-cloud bursts. The nation's cry of anguish
is heard : " Help ! help ! ! " From the whole breadth of the land
the answer comes : " We are coming. Father Abraham, 300,000
strong." One boy rushes to the recruiting office and waits impa-
tiently for the doors to open so he can enlist. Pay ! Did he go
there for pay ? No ! Consider the innocent enthusiasm of his
youth, obeying with quick instinct the promptings of his loyal
heart. He neither knows nor cares anything about pay. Of but
one thing does he take account, his opportunity to show his loyalty
and prove himself a man. The terms of service change from three
months to three years, from three years to " during the war." These
changes make no difference to him. He enlisted to save the nation.
He is a true Daniel, one-half back-bone and all the rest pure grit.
If the rebellion had not succumbed he would be hammering at it
now.

The other boy finishes his schooling, enjoys the advantages of
home and social life, profits by the unparalleled opportunities of the

times, gains business experience and position, and, at the close of
the war, is in the full enjoyment of all these advantages pertaining
to civil life.

What of the volunteer? Four years of his young life are gone,
the four years most valuable to him for acquiring an education,
social culture, moral bent ; the best years of his life in which to
learn a trade or begin a business career. Handicapped by this loss,
he must commence the real work of life following far behind the
lead of his school companion with whom he was once evenly
matched. This shows the true loss sustained by the volunteer.
What payment can compensate him for the loss of these years ?

1 6. The loyal volunteer sacrificed the hopes and opportunities of
civil life in the flower of his youth. He gave to the civilian oppor-
tunities, and defended him in his enjoyment of them.

The loyal volunteer tempered justice with mercy, as was never
before done. He set an example for all the world ; yes, to heaven
itself, of generosity in the hour of triumph. He made no attempt,
nor has he ever attempted, in any way, to degrade, disgrace, or im-
poverish the vanquished. Without restraint or molestation, the
defeated were allowed to return to their homes and recommence all
vocations of peace. All they ever had was still theirs except that
which was destroyed in the ordinary course of a war of their own
creating. As a result, hate has been overcome with kindness. The
right hand of fellowship has been extended and accepted. We are
one people.

Let the world admire the volunteer's loyalty and courage as much
as it justly may ; incomparably more admirable is the noble gener-
osity with which he presented to the people of the North and the
South the fruits of his victories, content to keep for himself but
his battle-flags and scars.

17. The loyal volunteer has performed his duty of loyalty and
earned his rank of nobility. It remains for the people of the na-
tion to rightly perform their duty of gratitude and earn their rank

10

of nobility. The obligation of the people of the North and of th&
South, though springing from different causes, unites in the same-
issue, a debt of gratitude due from them to the nation's defenders.
Let those who pay this debt make honorable acknowledgment of
the fact that such payment, in the truest sense, is an act of justice
due to their own honor, not a compensation for the loyalty of others.

1 8. To place this subject in a true light, all phrases about recom-
penses for privations, compensations for hardships, remunerations-
for dangers encountered, rewards for loyalty, must be discarded..
With these sophisms cleared away, the true principles involved
appear.

The loyal volunteer did his duty when loyalty required courage-
and sacrifice. He was generous when generosity required a high
sense of honor and self-denial. Ihey show small appreciation of
the true factors in the problem who talk about placing valuation on
these qualities of character as though they could be made market-
able commodities. Do they not know that virtue is forever de-
stroyed when a price is set upon it ? Do they not know that loyalty
paid for, transforms the hero into a mercenary?

One gain that must be made is the teaching of the lesson thai
the duty of loyalty and the duty of gratitude are moral obligations,,
virtues of moral excellence, and for that reason they can not be-
coined into money nor paid for in dollars.

How THE Debt Should Be Paid.

19. The debt to be paid is for impairment of earning capacity, not
for duty done.

No one, more especially an honorable soldier, will claim that a.
few years of military service absolved any one from the duty of sub-
sequently earning his own living by honest work. If any are suf-
ficiently dishonorable to make such a demand, that moral deficiency
of character should not be allowed to disgrace their more honorable
comrades nor to find a cash value.

11

HfThe discharged soldier should be made good to himself, and those-
immediately dependent upon his labor, for any impairment of his
earning capacity that he may have received by reason of his serv-
ice. The fullest possible compensation will, be given him when he-
is provided with a situation, the pay for which is equal to his nor-
mal earning capacity. For this reason, all persons who have an
equitable claim to compensation for impairment of earning capacity
should be given the preference, all other considerations being equal,
for employment in any public or private situation, the duties of
which they are capable to perform. While so employed and in, the
receipt of full pay they should not be allowed to draw pension payments^
Such a preference is an honorable distinction. To any honorable
man an opportunity to perform helpful service and earn full pa}-
is infinitely more acceptable than to receive a small gratuity with-
out employment.

The soldier who is capable of and is earning a resp3ctable living, has
no right to a pension, because he has suffered no impairment of earning
capacity.

20. The soldier who has suffered such an impairment and is
therefore incapable of earning, in any situation that may be found
for him, a respectable living, should be paid enough to support him
in comfort, not pauperized by a stipend too small to satisfy his ne-
cessities.

If impairment of earning capacity is the only thing paid for, and;
if payment is made only when the beneficiary can not be provided
for with public or private employment that will enable him to earn
an honest and respectable living, the amount required for such pen-
sions will not burden the resources of the country. The payment,
of such pensions will be made with infinite satisfaction by the peo-
ple, and the amount received will maintain in comfort and inde-
pendent self-respect every unfortunate soldier.

21. The initial error w^as made when the principle of payment
was based on duty performed instead of loss sustained. Basing the?

12

claim on duty performed opened the way for claiming compensation
from date of discharge and for the payment of pensions to those
who have suffered no impairment of earning capacity. , Payments
on such a basis have gradually dulled the sense of honor of thou-
sands to whom it would otherwise never have occurred that their
loyalty was a quality of character to be valued and paid for in cash.
Such a basis for payment has stimulated the cupidity and greed of
the dishonorable; and the payments have been received as a gratuity
by the unthinking who look upon what they receive from the Gov-
-ernment as a free gift, that costs no one anything, like a refreshino-
shower in a season of drought.

The influence of payments made on the basis of duty performed,
or as a reward for loyalty, has sapped the foundations of honor in
the minds of thousands until they think it right that the industries
and the wage-workers of the country should be taxed for their sup-
port. It has made them dishonest enough to be willing to receive
that which they have not earned, to take by process of law a portion
of the earnings of others and convert it to their own use. More than
this, it has compelled them to rob their disabled comrades, through
imperfect provision for their needs, leaving them crippled and help-
less, to wage the struggle of life as best they can and perish when
they must.

As a result of such payments, old soldiers who need a full support
only receive a small pittance, totally inadequate to support them, while un-
told millions are paid to those who are perfectly able to support themselves.

To meet payments that satisfy no claim of justice or honor, but
represent bribes sought and bribes paid for votes, the industries of
the country have been burdened with war taxes during a quarter of
a century of peace. This burden is an economic crime.

Beyond all this, the manner in which pensions are procured, and
the implied degradation of the spirit of loyalty involved in the en-
actment of pension laws, have rendered a pension a mark of disgrace
instead of a badge of honor for the Loyal Volunteer.

13
The Remedy.

22. Thirty years ago, responding to the duty of loyalty, volunteers
rescued the nation from destruction by force. To-day, responding^
to the duty of loyalty, volunteers must rescue the nation from de-
struction by dishonesty. All old soldiers who respect themselves-
and honor their comrades, whose sympathetic demand for the unfor-
tunate is that they shall be shielded from all want, whose love for
the old flag makes the prosperity of the nation dear to their hearts,
must muster and demand that the pension laws be revised on the-
basis of payment for impairment of earning capacity, and that such
payment be made only when the beneficiary is incapable of earning a
respectable living or can find no opportunity of so doing.

Further, that a diploma, or medal, showing the service of every
loyal soldier or sailor, be prepared and furnished to those entitled
to the same, and that it be made the rule of employment, public
and private, that preference shall invariably be given to those so
honored.

Let those who are in need be fully cared for. Let those not in need
mjoy an honorable distinction and preference in the opportunities of life.

The True Reward of Loyalty.

23. When the debt for impairment of earning capacity is honor-
ably paid, what is the true reward of loyalty ?

Acts of loyalty are acts of moral rightness. In the sacred court
of the soul where God's justice is done, the reward of a right act is
inseparable from the act. A right act is self-crowned. Its crown
is truth — rightness. Such crown no man can give nor withhold.
In the highest and best sense, this crown is the true reward of
loyalty.

The loyal volunteer, endow him as you may, clothe him as best
you can, decorate him with all the honors you can bestow, and you
I have but given a fitting tribute to your own sense of gratitude.

14

Do not suppose for a moment that you have thereby rewarded his
loyalty.

24. The gains of life are various. Some objects we pursue dis-
appear as we grasp them. We are children chasing with excited
delight -beautiful bubbles floating free in air. We touch them and
they vanish. Some objects are as enduring as the eternal truth of
God. We pursue them with the stern courage of men upborne by
the strength of moral conviction. Though in the hour of trial and
triumph a crown of thorns be pressed upon our brow, the memory
of a right act, courageously and generously done, will enrich the
soul forever. The memory of such actions is the loyal volunteer's
richest endowment and most sacred acquisition. How little all that
can be given must ever be in comparison with that which he has
by right of his own achievement.

Ask him now how he values his memory of that day when, with
his regiment, he first left home for the scenes of war. Can the pic-
ture ever fade ? Streets thronged with the populace and decorated
with the flag he was to defend. Can he ever forget the holy inspira-
tion of the silent cheer from his speechless father, mother, sister, or
lover as he passed them?

Ask him now how he values his memory of the thousand inci-
dents of army life that are never recorded by a single line on the
page of history, but which revealed comrade to comrade, knit life
to life, and gave opportunity for the expression of nobility by noble
men.

Ask him now how he values his memory of the hours of conflict,
when, by the magnetic touch of elbow to elbow, comrade to comrade
gave courage, and the line grew firm as adamant ; when the spirit
of those who fell entered into those who remained, and the dying
transformed their unwilling groans into cheers for the living. In
the crucible of conflict, men become moulten. Their blood mingles.
Their souls blend. Their lives are fused into the life of the nation.
Who that has felt the mysti€ power, the grand exaltation, the unut-

15

terablejoy of that supreme moment when his heart's blood leaped
forth as he fell at his post, would call back one drop of it for all
that can be given him in return ?

Ask him now how he values his memory of that day, duty done,
his mission accomplished, when, with tattered battle flags, clothes
soiled and torn, bronzed face and hardened muscles, it may be with
scarred and disabled body, he returned with the survivors of his
regiment to his home. Again the streets are thronged with the pop-
ulace and decorated with the national flag. The storm cloud passed,
all are wild with joy made solemn by the thoughts of them that
could not come ; by none more tenderly remembered than those by
whose side they fell. The glory of flowers, the mingled voice of
music and song, enchant the eye, perfume the air, exalt the soul.
Suddenly, out from the mass of eager- faces there darts a father,
mother, sister, or lover, as some looked-for one is recognized. The
heart can endure the strain no longer. He is snatched from the ranks
and embraced, midst the cheers of all observers. Words ! ! There are
no words for such moments ! But the entry the recording angel
wrote that day will forever read : Thank God ! my boy, my brother,
my lover, has done his duty.

25. The days of trial and victory are passed, but memory causes
them to live forever in the eternal — NOW.

Such memories are the true reward of loyalty. They can be pos-
sessed only by those that earn them. Find such an one, become
acquainted with him, and you will find one wiio will exact least
from the defended and is most generous to the vanquished.

It is these memories that sfir within old soldiers their best man-
hood, and thrill them with noblest pride, as they look into each
others' faces. They only are capable of appreciating at his true
value their comrade of the campaign, the veteran of the battlefield.
They, better than all others, know how to honor him that was loyal
when the nation had need of his services.

16

To him that has no need, let no mercenary stain come. To him
that is in n^ed, let abundance be given. To all that were faithful
to their duty of loyalty, let the true reward of loyalty be an untar-
nished possession, a crown of true glory.

26. All who seek to perpetuate the history of the war for the
preservation of the Union, by pen, or brush, or chisel; all who
speak about or ponder over the events of those days, must ever
stand uncovered in the presence of him who can say of the first
battle of Bull Run ; of the last grand review ; or of any of the bat-
tles between : " I performed the duties of loyalty — I was there."

JL:

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