The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1869-11-03
Contrast Father Ryan and Gen.
Lee.


implacables. Chaplain Ryan, its edi-
tor, advises our people
ITO let their wounds remain ever
open-ever fresh-ever bleeding. Let
the eyes of the rising generation gaze
upon them, and the hands of the com
ing generations shall pour into then
tho only balm that can heal them-tht
balm Of independence"
In contrast to such an implaeable les
son of hate so little in accord with thu
teachings of his Divine Master, We
have the statetmanlike and Christian
utterances of the leader of the Confed
crate armies. He declined to attend
the Gettysburg memorial meeting, tc
mark the position of the opposing ar.
mics because he deemed that such al
object was calculated to keep aive the
sharp memory and the consequent bit
terness of the war. What a contrast
between the professed ''man of peace
and the "mighty man Of war" The
one wishes ''the wound to remain ever
open-ever 'fresh-ever bleeding
General Lee, more true to our people
and their national destiny, tells them:
'sThat it is the wisest not to keep
open sores, but to follow the example
of those nations who end3avored to OBJ
literate marks of civil strife, and com
NIT to Oblivion the feelings it engen-
dered."
General .. S. Grant did not utter a
meaningless sentiment when he an
nounced '|Let us have Peace" 1t was
uttered by one whose prowress in war,
IL 20 IN
gives it heroic significance.
Father Ryan is the type of class of
implacables, whose boast is "they have
not yet surrendered" yet who never
encountered an enemy, and would still
keep this land torn and rent, with
ats wounds ever open-ever fresh
ever bleeding.n
The Confederate military leader,
however, looking to the inevitable ne
cessity of future in common, both
for ourselves and descendants, would
in order to commit to oblivion the feel
ings engendered, Obfiterate the marks
of civil war, of which he himself was
such conspicuous one. OfEngllsh des-
cent, he saw the pOsterity of once OPP
posing factions, whose hostile swords
rang in the dread encounters of the
rival houses of York and Lancaster,
and the bitter collisions of Charles and
Cromwell, now no longer foes, but
pointing with a common pride to their
common origin, from a twin race of
heroes. These are the special exam
Piles of historic reference by General
Lee.
The civil war of the Roses lasted 80
years during the reign of FIVE English
monarchs, but that period during
which great armies left behind wasted
fields, plundered towns and burning
Villages, attended by an enormous
sacrifice of life by sword and scaffold,
was followed by remarkable era of
peace and progress. The great civil
war of the seventeeth century, in Eng
land, lasted eleven years, yet after so
wasting q Revolution as that of Crom-
well, the historian tells us that Eng
gland exhibited one mark of wisdom,
emery and virtue above all other ma
tions. "They rose, not like Sampson,
shorn of his locks, but like one who is
made virtuous by affection, strong by
exertion, and wise by experience"
1t was the common ancestors of both
North and South, who have furnished
the examples of history cited for the
imitation of their defendants. A phil
Osopher in peace, as he has proven to
be almost peerless in war, Lees coun-
sci and example upon this subject will
not be without fruit.
The grand lesson he suggests in his
reply to the Gettysburg invitation, is
not without its results even now in the
the hearts of the North. The signal
failure of the Gettysburg gathering sig
nalises the hoped for obliteration of
the marks of civil strife; and that those
North or South, who, for mercantile or
political uses would perpetuate those
marks and wounds, have received
merited and lasting rebuke.
The Tribune's correspondent, writ
ing from the ground, says:
"The present gathering at Gettys-
burg does not seem to ME to have had
sufficient motive, or to have answered
any large purpose, or to have satisfied
the vague expectations it aroused. 1t
was rebuked from the South, SHINY at
tended from the North, and it will
probably be the last inflated effort to
lengthen ont the mercantile uses of
this battle field, which should hereaf-
ter be left as the nation intended it-a
pleasant cemetery to many brave dead
but not IL perennial fair ground made
ludicvous by failures such as this which
have noticed beyond its DUE"
The above we take from the "Hous-
ton Union What the poor, little
Houston Union" may think of the
Banner of the South, we care very lit
tie; what the Editor of that little sheet
may thing of ourselves, we care less.
OF late, we have noticed in not few
papers, attacks similar to the above
against the course of the Banner and
its Editor.
This we say in reply: We have new
er written a word for the Banner that
we did not mean; never word that
we would take back. Neither ourselve,
nor the Banner can be bought or bribed
Neither ourselves nor the Banner ever
will compromise. Both ourselves and
the Banner, and Banners readers dis
pIse compromises of principle.
The Texas Editor accuses us ofteaeb-
ing lessons of hate. We admit the ac-
cusation, and plead guilty to the charge