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rate this article about COWARDICE in the military

http://www.nytimes.com/1863/03/13/news/the-crime-of-cowardic...
Cyan Thriller Rigor
  05/22/15
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Cyan Thriller Rigor
  05/23/15


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Date: May 22nd, 2015 11:06 PM
Author: Cyan Thriller Rigor

http://www.nytimes.com/1863/03/13/news/the-crime-of-cowardice-to-the-editor-of-the-new-york-times.html

The fifty-second Article of War ordains that: "Any officer or soldier who shall misbehave himself before the enemy run away, or shamefully abandon any fort, post, or guard which he or they, may be commanded to defend, or speak words inducing others to do the like, or shall cast away his arms and ammunition, or who shall quit his post or colors to plunder and pillage, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as shall be ordered by the sentence of a general Court-martial."

This is the military estimate of the crime of cowardice as defined by law.

The world has always specially honored courage and stigmatized cowardice. To be brave is as essential for a man as to be chaste is for a woman, and a coward among men is in as poor repute as a prostitute among women. These fundamental points of honor are rigidly exacted in proportion to the elevation of society -- as essential to all respect and even tolerance. Prove a man a coward, and you leave him utterly deprived of character, so that none can honor him or suffer his society. This Article of War correctly embodies the settled sense of the civilized world concerning military cowardice. The resort to the death penalty, though rarely made, is strictly just and quite as humane as the worse-than-death penalty of living a branded coward.

It is as much the duty of our citizens to be brave by their firesides as of our soldiers to show pluck "before the enemy." It is as base for the American freeman at his home to give way to cowardice and to clamor for "peace at any price," as it is for the volunteer to run away from the enemy on the battlefield. Indeed it is more so, for the soldier has his senses comfounded by battle sounds and scenes, while the citizen enjoys a quiet which gives to his cowardice the quality of deliberation. Morally speaking, those men who are Unionists -- but &c., are, in the main, simply cowards. To run away from the cause of Constitution and Government when they are in their crisis, just because war is hard work and costly, is more disgraceful and craven than to run away from Stonewall JACKSON for fear of bodily harm.

There is a citizen courage and a citizen cowardice, analogous to these traits in military life, and alike deserving of the highest praise or blame. Gloss it over as we may, to talk of peace until there is a chance of a peace under which an American can hold up his head, is simply to "show the white feather," and deserves just as severe treatment as battle skedaddling. Perhaps, Mr. Smith and Mr. Gunnybags may not have thought of the thing in this light, as they have croaked, and coddled, and clamored, and played the civic coward generally. Those leaders of opinion who "shamefully abandon" their trusts, and "cast away" their principles, as scared soldiers throw away or surrender their arms, are precisely the political cowards they seem, and as such will be remembered. There is a style of Copperhead exactly analogous to the military sneak who "induces others to do the like," and who actually works to make others as bad as himself. There are, too, plundering contractors and pilfering officials, who "quit their posts" as good citizens to rob the Government. Now, to compel all these cowards and sneaks "to suffer death" would overwork the undertakers, which, of course, humanity forbids. They are, however, precisely the same curse to our civil and political contest that arrant cowards are to an army on the battle-field.

It is the sailor's duty never to give up the ship; the soldier's, never to give up the fight; the American's, never to give up the Republic. E.B.H.



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2887123&forum_id=2#27947057)



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Date: May 23rd, 2015 6:10 AM
Author: Cyan Thriller Rigor



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2887123&forum_id=2#27948717)