Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1865-04-15
and all of us fell down, and bloody treason

eno Al oL us 1elt ooWn, ana DtoodY treason
Aourished over us,"-goes up t.. 80
exalts the Nations honor TO the,h al
up rise our spirits, jubilant with Praise to
God. The stars that dropped like blasted
6gs are re-ascending to their stations, and
the whole constellation begins TO be more
efulgent than ever.
Such is the import of this day. This
Good Friday is the Festival Of Flags. It
is the day for the stars TO shine At noon
tide as they did, it is said, when the Pres
ldent was delivering his Inaugural
You remember Whist q showing of colors
there was throughout the loyal North at
the first glorious uprising Of the people.
S. many were the banners, SO did they
wave from church steeple and doors and
window, SO did they hutter in every breeze,
and gleam on every street, and drape ev-
cry hall, that we wondered whence they all
came, and whether those that disappeared
in the regions of Seeessia had not by some
magic re-sppeared in the faithful States.
It was indaed magnificent spectacle, and
chiefly because it was emblemstic of the
radiant spirit of patriotism that famed up
everywhere The four years cycle brings
back the national display Of eolors. This
is the Flag Festival Day. Nov, thanks to
God, the stars and stripes wave on Sum-
ter's battlements again. Proud day, glad
day, Good Friday, hall See the hsg un-
furled on Sumter's wallis Thousands of
eyes gaze on it with rapture, millions Of
eyes, from the hills of New England, from
the shores of the Lakes, from the .prairies
of the Northwest, from the peaks Of Colo
RADIO, from the mountains Of California,
from the plains Of Oregon, are strained to
descry the vision. Every face is turned to
Fort Sumter, and every ear listens as if to
catch that loud acclaim with which the
flag is greeted, upon parspet and deck,
and shore and ses, around.
Now is the Festival of Flags. Lo, see
The stars and stripes float in every south
arn breeze, from cope and castle turret,
from custom house and courthouse, from
prison and palace. In Charleston, in Sa-
vsnnah, in Wilmington, in Petersburg, in
Richmond, shines the starry emblem Of the
Union. From Fort Fisher, from Castle
Thunder, the Federal flag flashes ssluta-
tions to the colors Major General Anderson
plants on Fort Sumter. And in every har-
Dor and bay and gulf, and on every sea the
flags of our iron-clads and merchant ships,
streaming aloft, futter greetings to the Old
Flag raised to its place on Sumter.
Upon all this stir of banners, doubtless,
heaven looks down well pleased and bends
propitious over the passing scene of
Sumter. Angels know the import of
that unfurling flag They survey
its worldwide mission. They per-
ceive with Joy that it is not henceforth to
faunt scornfully and mockingly in the face
of the slave, for South Carolina even is
from this Good Friday devoted to Freedom.
To the eye of God that old flag wears a
new face; for whereas before its fall it
waved sbhorrently "0er the land of the
lash and the home Of the slave F' Here
after the prophetic anthem shall be real
lied, and
" That Star spangled Banner in triumph shall
Ger the land of the free and the home of the
brave ~
In the same All. seeing eye there was
no doubt 8 moral comeliness in the degrs-
dsLion of that ensign four years ago. lift
was struck down and irailed in the blood
dyed dust, it was becsuEe it had given the
national protection and sanction to sys-
tenn Of CORY oppression which made one
class chsttels snd therefore made the rest
of the people despots and despersdoes. In
the sentiment OF a just God, and OF Just
men, the flag that gave its stars benignant-
ly to white tyrants, black with crime and
its stripes inescorably to black slaves,
white in innocency, ought TO fall. We
did not so regard it at the time; but now,
with the light of these four years llumin-
ing our eyes, we all see the fitness there
was IN the first defiant blow of treason be-
ing struck, effectively too, ct the flag which
had been the fsvoring Federal witness of
the fendish bsrbsrities, the insolent dicts-
tions and malignant menaces of the slave
ocracy; the flag that had guarded such
treAson-hatchers as Calhoun, Hsyne,
Pickens, Brookz aud Keitt.
The comparison may belittle the subject,
but it is nevertheless true that, like poor
dog Tray, that ill-starred bunting suffered
the inevitable consequences of being in
bad company. It was sadly worried and
vilely trsmpled on by the bloOd-hounds,
which had been nurtured under its folds.
If it was distained in its fall, it was stained
before it fell. The murk of the prison.
house discolored its azure. The tears from
the cotton fields, rising in mist, obscured its
stars; the blood-red scores on scourged
backs of men and women dimmed its
stripes. 1t was well, too that that flag
which overlooked the foulest dens of op-
preston, and was most defled, should be
the first to be leveled and trailed; and
that after it others should be struck
down throughout the slave cursed South.
This was part ofthe humiliation which
retributive justice had to infict on our
guilty nation. Il was severe indeed; it
touched the peoples patriotism, it wound
ed their public pride, it sufused into the
crimson of modification cheeks that ought
10 have blushed before st the countfy's
shame and iniquity. Better the tsTdy |
blush than persistent brsggadocio-shout- |
ing, HOur country, right or wrongp
We have been chastised sorely, but |
Ioundly. That flag which to-day retakes |
ts airy station has been thoroughly purg- |
ID Of moral deAlementG, and the marks Of |
7iolence it may still bear shall henceforth |
Do salutsry mementoes of the dark past. |
We should not, our children's children |
jhould never, forget the hole of the Dit |
whence we have been digged, the miry |
LAY out Of which our feet have been taken. |
We shall not SO long as that. soiled, riven, |
lsg floats over Fort Sumter; 20 long az
! relic Ike this 1 hold in my hand re-
mains of the shattered staff which bore that
lag sloft and fell with It.
Here let me say that among the thanks
yivings appropriate to this day one should |
be rendered in the fullness of our hearts |
or the fiery purgstion of the flag, which |
las cleansed it of pro-slavery turpitude, and |
made it fresh and pure, the stainless SYM
ool of Liberty. This is conspicuous in the |
planting of the banner on the walls of |
Fort Sumter; the old Hsg has q new in
cription- Universal Freedom The rais-
ng of the ensign on that battered. Fort is
he signal for the raising of it everywhere
n the South, everywhere in the Republic,
with the same glorious inscription.
Thus we reach the height Of the trans
Iciion now passing into history in Charles
on haV IL Is q national ant inuoIu;-..