The Shasta Courier

Grand Army.—The Democratic press and politicians in this State are particularly fierce just now in their abuse of the Grand Army of the Republic and denounce it as being a secret political organization. The Grand Army is composed of soldiers and sailors who have served under the Government, and its leading objects are to provide for the maintenance of the widows and orphans of those who fell in the service, to assist disabled soldiers and marines and to uphold the laws and constitution of the country. The charge that the organization was formed for secret political purposes is not founded in truth. The Democratic editors and politicians who are so ready to denounce the Grand Army as a secret political organization, and therefore dangerous to the liberties of the country, have evidently forgotten that a secret political organization, composed exclusively of Democrats lately existed in this State, and that it was led by Beriah Brown and other noted members of their party. In order to refresh their memory we refer them to the revelations of one of the Santa Clara Stage robbers, as published in the San Francisco Flag in 1865, or to C. B. McDonald of the Oregon Unionist.