Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1865-1872, 1868-02-14

should not instinctively shrink, and which
should not shock patriots who have love,
their country and have made sacrifices fo
it.
There is, sir, another figure which
makes filmy reading through my old spec
tacles. My youngest son, private In th'
4th Pennsylvania Cavalry, who entered
the army before he was fifteen years o
age, was captured at Sulphur Springs
when Meade fell back to Centreville, witt
one hundred and ffty.six of his regiment
one hundred and forty-two of whom af-
terwards perished in prison. Seventy
four of those who died, went out in the
Covode cavalry from my immediate neigh
borhood-all the sous of my neighbors-
all objects of interest aud care TO me
After passing from one den of imprison.
ment and cruelty to another, they were
finally immured with thousands of other
unfortunates in the death pen of Ander-
sonvile. Eighteen months Of hunger
and nakedness, exposure to the scorcbine
sun, and the winters freezing, did their
work on these stalwart and brave men
Many Of them died idiotic, some Of them
feebly insane; all the victims Of system
of starvation and cruelty planned by de-
mons and executed by devils. My sons
bodily vigor aud resoluteness Of spirit
carried him through the horrors of An
dersonyile, with life left in him-with
hardly anything more lie is home again
with his mother, and have just received
letter from her urging me to "try anoth-
er doctor, for he grows worse" But the
energetic, intelligent, hopeful. selfreliant,
brave boy, who left my house to fight the
enemies Of his country, has not returned
To ne, aud he never will return.
| think you will find that, in common
with me, hundreds OF thousands Of loyal
men, whose hearts yet bleed with wounds
received in the wicked war the slayehold.
ers waged against tie nations life, have
been shocked and outraged by your recon-
mendation to do honor TO the authors of
their sorrows, and the workers of their
counirys woes.
Had you served in the army, either in
person or through son, and presented
your offerings Of patriotism to your conn.
try on the picket line, or the line of pitch
ed battle, you would never have made the
heartIess mistake you have made, in what
your biographer, in writing your life will
call "'rhe Antetam Letter" How much
| wish you had initiated the manly aud
sympathetic behavior of Governor Geary,
of Pennsylvania, soldier and a states
man, who thus repelled the proposition to
mingle the rebel with the Union dead,
under the Antietam Monument:
1.-The custom has ever prevailed to spe-
cially honor those in death who won spe-
cial honor by mcritorious lives. The
monuments removed to the memory Of
departed worth bear ample testimony that
our people have not been unmindlul Of
this custom. But where were such memo
rials ever erected for men whose actions
were Infamous, and who perished in an
ignoble cause2 Who would gloriiy the
treason OF Benedict Arnold with such
monuments as have arisen TO the memory
Of Washingtou? Who would dare to in.
suit the loyal heart Of this nation BY pro.
posing to lay, side by side, in the same
sepulchre, the body Of the assassin Booth
aud that of Abraham Lincoln? No loyal
man would take the heartless Wirz and
the other demons that presided over the
prison dens Of cruelty. starvation and
death, and the executed couspiratorS
against the nations ilustrous chief, aud
deposit them in the same tomb with the
patriotic men who sacrificed their lives in
battling for "lhe right against the wrong"
Yet it is proposed that the loyal States
construct cemeteries for their heroic dead,
aud then desecrate them by the burial
therein of those who prosecuted against
the country warfare, which, for its dia-
bolica ierocity is without parallel in the
history of civilization, and even to erect
monuments to their memory. Carry out
this purpose, and what inducement can
be hereafter offered to the loyal citizens
to fight against treason, when he feels as
sured that should he fall in battle, the
traitors grave will be honored equally
with his own?
"The cause Of the Union was holy
one, while that which opposed it must
have been its converse. To one side alone
the glory belongs. This was not war
Of nations. but Of treason against loyalty.
1t was a contest Of rebels, who would have
drained the lile's blood Of the Govern
ment which had nurtured and protected
them, against its patriotic sons, who fought
to save it from destruction. 1t was war
carried on by the defenders and promo
ters Of oppression, against the friends and
lovers Of liberty and their country's in
tegrity.
awhile there is no reasonable objection
to giving decent sepulture even to the
rebel dead, those who consider them de-
serving of honorable testimonials may
give them. 1t is our duty to render hon.
or only to whom we believe honor is due" {"
1t is with grief, Governor Fenton, that
l write this letter to you. This subject
is painful to me. But there sits on my
hearthstone, and there lies in my village
and there broods in my heart,
u controlling reason why, since the ap
pearance Of your Antietam letter, should
regard your entrance into a National Re-
publican Convention, candidate for Of
fee, as an intrusion to which the survi-
vors Of the Union army, and the relatives
of its dead and wounded, should sternly
object. Yours, &C.,
JouN CovoDE.
A gentleman who had by fall broken