The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1867-02-21
GEN. THOMAS ON TAE DISPLAY OF
THE REBEL FLAG AT ROME, GA.
VERY PLAIN TALK.
HEADQUARTERS DEPT OF TENN,
LOUISVILLE. Ky, Feb. 9, 1867.

The following lotter is published tor
the benefit for allconcerned. By com
mand of
Major General THOMAS.
WIN. D. WHIPPLE, Bvt. Major Gen'l
and A. .A.G.
"HEADoUARTER Dept OF TENN.
"LoUIsvlLLE, KY Feb 8, 1867. (
"Charles H Smith, Mayor of the city
of Rome, Georgia, James G Pembcr-
ton, Member OF the City Council, of
Rome, and others:
"GENTLEMEN-Th6T Major General
commanding the Department directs
me TO acknowledge the receipt OF your
communication of tho 25th ult., address
ed to Brevet Major General Davis
Tillson. commanding the Sub District
of Georgia, giving statement OF facts
and circumstances which caused the ar
rest of certain cblzens Of Rome. Geor-
gia, for bsing concerned in the display
of the flag of the late Southern Confed-
eracy in that city, asking that justice
may be done, and the prisoners releas-
ed
"In your letter you state that no
disrespect was intended to the United
States Government by the exhibition
of the Confederate flag, and that the
parties who displayed it have accept
ed, in good faith, the present state Of
affairs, and do acknowledge the juris.
diclion o! the United Ststes Govern.
ment, &c.
''lfthat is the case IL can only be
supposed, presuming that they possess
ordinary intelligence, that they misun-
derstood the present status Of affairs,
which is that the rebellion has been
decided TO be huge crime, embodying
oil the crimes of the decalogue, and
that it hao been conquered and dsarm-
cd and that its very name and emblems
az hateful 10 the people OF the United
States, and he must be indeed obtuse
who experts. without offense, to parade
before the eyes OF loyal people that
which they cxecrate, and their abhor-
renee Of which they have expressed in
Tho most emphatic language in which
it is possible for great nation to utter
its sentiments
ut IS pretended by certain newspa-
pers that because no order had been
issued from these headquarters tha.
the flag Of the Conlederacy was not to
SEQ the light, the citizens were not
warned that it would be reasonable
act.
This excuse is too puerle to answer,
and unworthy Of schoolboy even.
The young men arrested as well as
other citizens of the South, know well
enough what is right and what is wrong
in such matters without waiting to be
guided by orders especially naming
and prohibiting displays hdnoring trea.
son, and Of course coLtcmning loyalty,
Were they so stupid as not to possess
such innate sense of propriety, the or
der from these headquarters forbidding
a rebel glorification over the remains
of the rebel Brigadier General Hanson
should have been a sufficient warning
that such performances would not be
tolerated.
"The sole cause of this and similar
offenSes lies in the fact that certain
citizens of Rome, and portion of the
people of the States lately in rebellion
do not and have not accepted the sit
uation, and that is, that the late civil
war was a rebellion, and history will
so record it. Those engaged in it arc
and will be pronounced rebels rebel
lion implies treason, and treason is a
crime, and heinous one too, and de-
serving of punishment; and that trai.
tors have not been punished is owing
to the magnanimity of the conquerors
With too many people of the South,
the late civil war is called II revolution,
rebels are called Confedorates, loyal.
lists to the whole country are called
id Yankees and traitors, and over
tho Whole great crime with its accurs
ed record OF slaughtered heroes, patri-
ols murdered because of their true
hearted love of country, widowed
wives and orphaned children, and pris-
oners of war slain amid such horrors as
find no parallel in the history of tho
world. they arc trying to throw the
gloss of respcctabiity, and thrusting
with contumely and derisiOn from
their society the men and women who
would not join hands with them in the
work of running their country Every
where in the States lately in rebellion
treason is respectable and loyalty odi,
Gus. This the people Of tho United
States, who ended the rebellion and
saved The country, will not permit,
and all attempts to maintain this un
natural order OF things will be met by
decided disapproval.
"As, however, il is pretended by the
friends of the citizens arrested that
they were so innocent as not to know
that II was wrong for paroled prisoners
and unpunished traitors to glory in
their shame, aud flaunt the symbol of
their crime in the face of the country,
they will be released from confinement,
with the understanding that no act Of
treason will be passed unnoticed when
detected ; and may they, and others
who think like them, profit by the
lesson they have received.
81 am, very respectfully, your obodi.
ont servant,
"WM, D. WHIPPLE.
"BrvtMaj Gen'l U. S, A., and A. A.
"Olficial: ALFRED Il. HoUaH, Brv't
LIT. Col. and A. A A Gn