Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-10-10

/ United States, on the 18th of April, 1861
when our neighbors and comrades were
being shot down in Baltimore, resigned
his commission and went back to his ma.
tive State. For what purpose? For the
purpose of, on the morning of the 22d OF
April following, receiving a commission as
commander of all the rebel forces in Vir-
ginia. Is there any man so stupid as not
to know that Colonel Lee, of the Uni
ted States cavalry, when he resigned his
commission on the 10Th of April, believed
and knew that he was to be appointed on
the 22d Commander-in-Chief of the Rebel
army IN Virginia? He did know it. Now,
then, fellow soldiers, what shall be done
with the soldier who deserts his flag and
takes with him the secrets of his COM
mander, (cries of hang him, shooting is
too good for him. who deserts for the
purpose of taking command, or bribed by
higher command in the armies of the
enemies of his country? Why, we all
know that by every law, human, and
hope that without irreverence l may say
divine, any soldier who deserts his flag
for the purpose of taking command in the
army of the enemy, shall surely suffer
death. (Applause.J
Oub say gOu, Ocll. Lee Oub lOAlOHCO tue
secession of his State Alas my friends,
history shows that there was not left to
him even that poor excuse for rebellion.
For on the 18th of April his State passed
the ordinance of secession, but they put
in that ordinance a clause that it should
be void and of none effect until it was
ratified by the people at a vote to be ia
ken on the 22d of the following May
more than a month afterwards. So that
General Lee left the army of the United
States, and was at the head of the rebel
forces of Virginia before his State sece-
ded-carried her out at the point of the
b&yonet. Now, gentlemen, we have had
an Arnold, and he escaped punishment I;
but he did not remain here. We have
had, as it seems to me, an equally guilty
/ traitor, and the question to be decided in
this country is whether his surrender as
a prisoner of war when he was captured
shall avail him against the desertion of
his flag to take service in the army of the
enemies of his country. [Cries of "No !
no."l
/, therefore, again say that I would
make an example of this man, so that no
soldier hereafter should ever find it con-
yenient to desert the flag of his country.
GOOD p Cheers And for the rest, the
most humiliating spectacle that took
/ place at the close of this war was to
hear these rebels threatening that, if we
did not do pretty much as they wished,
they would go to Mexico, or Brazil, or
South America, or someWhePe-they
would go and leave US. What ought we
to have said to them $50! "Stand not
on the order of going, but go at once."-
More than that. Here is free ticket on
board a United States transport to
take you where you like, and the farther
the better but see to it that you never
come back" And is there one man here
to doubt that, if that course had been
taken, there would be to-day peace, qui-
ct and amity with the South? Nobody
doubts it. A golden opportunity was
then lost, but not lost forever. We have
offered to the States in rebellion that if
they would accept the Constitutional
Amendment they shall return to their
share in the government. But, fellow
soldiers, want to add another condition
to that. ''Good, good"l There may be
many that the country may need to add,
but l, as a soldier, desire to add one con-
dition, and you shall judge me whether
wish to be very harsh. In the State
cemetary of Texas did lay reposing the
bones of our comrades who fell victims
to the climate and 10 the war in that
State. They were sleeping side by side
with the Confederate dead. There all
animosities should have been forgotten.
But the State Legislature Of Texas have
passed resolution that our comrades
bones must be removed to some other
place lest they contaminate the Confede-
rate dead.
Again at Hollywood sleep our brave
comrades who died at Belle Isle and Lib
by, and when on a time of festival, all
Virginia turned out to deck the graves of
confederate dead, few Northern ladies
whom they call school-marms, and a few
women of darker hue, but of true patri-
otism, went to deck the graves of our
comrades with their loyal tokens of re-
spect; these flowers and these wreaths
were torn down and trampled in the dust.
Again the United States took money
from the treasury of the North, sustained
by our taxation, and bought piece of
land near Malvern Hill; and the brave and
glorious dead who repose in their last
resting-place on that battlefield (where |
we may say, without doing wrong to any
body, if their victory had been followed |
up, the war would have been ended)- i
the United States, say, bought eeme- |
terry, and gathered the fragments of our
dead heroes, and buried them there with |
due respect and Christian kindness, and |
over their remains they raised this our
flag, [pointing to the American standard
as the most fitting monument to soldier |
of the Union. TCheers1 And yet the re-
constructed rebels of Virginia tore down
that flag and trampled it in the dust
| Cries of shame. There was time in
this war when a man who tore down the
American flag met his deserts great |
cheering for the only man that dared to
hang a traitor and that time will come |
again. Now, the condition that l would |
you shall judge whether or
not it is a hard one-is this: That we /
shall not have States brought back into
the Union until our dead comrades can /
sleep in peace and honor within their /
borders CheersI and if any man wants
before that happens, am
not with him for one. Loud cheers.
Therefore the committee have said in
their resolutions that it was unfortunate
that our Congress were not received in
The same fraternal spirit with which they
we're offered, and until that time comes,
be it sooner or later, until every man
can walk in peace. carrying the flag of
the United States, if he pleases, with de-
Votion to the Union on his lips, and not
be molested, in every reVolted State in
the Union making laws for me. Great
cheering The sooner that time come
the better but never until the two come
Ny friends, they say that we
have unkind feelings towards those men,
that we are governed by malice. Why, 1
was at Philadelphis, and met the true
Union men of the South there; and the
malice that we showed them was to take
hem to our hearts, to our arms, and
With every good feeling to embrace them
IS the true brothers of the North. That
vas the way we met the Southern loyal
SITS who had ever stood by US. For one
can point back to when we achieved
he greatest victory we ever did achieve
when we elected President Johnson