National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1869-06-25
HONORS TO THE REBEL DEAD

HONORS TO THE REBEL DEAD
Gen. Logan, in behalf of the grand
Army of the Republic, under date
of June =, has issued a letter in re-
gard to the decoration ofreJel graves
in which he says:
The Grand army of the Republic
seeks to honor and preserve the
principles and institutions for which
its members and their dead COM
rades fought, to keep green the
memory OF the latter, and make
stronger the devotion to those who
survive.
Hence the institution of Memo
rial Day. Hence, too, the necessity
of combining it strictly to the holy
purpose indicated; that Of honor
ing the men who died that the ma.
ton might live, and of thereby re-
viving in our hearts, and those who
are to come after rs, the lofty devo- |
ton to freedom and Republican ma
tionality, which marked the Repub-
lies Grand Army of the dead.
Is such an act incompatible
with the noblest idea of magnani-
nifty? We know it is not. We
strew flowers, therefore, on the
graves of our comrades, and pre-
vent their being strewn in the ma
tional cemeteries at the same time on
the graves of such rebel dead as
may be buried therein, not because
we cherish any feeling of hate or
desi ire to triumph over individual
foes, but because we seek to mark
r in this distinction and manner, the
F feelings with which the nation re-
CARDS freedom and slavery. loyalty
and treason, Republican principals
aud those of a slaveholding oligar
t chy.
We are ready to forgive. We
hold no malice, but we will never
s consent, by public national tribute,
to oblitcrate the gulf lying between
the objects, motives and principles
Il for which we fought and our con-
If radcs died, and those for which the
= rebel armies banded together, and
l. for which their dead now lie in nu-
HiNiouo Z iuNNo'
It They were brave, and we know it
r None can better appreciate that
1t fact than those who fought against
y them. But mere courage never Ell
re nobled treason.
De 1t cannot turn slavery into lib
70 erty, nor make despotic intentions
desirable and to be applauded vir
tues. Our refusal to decorate reb
s. ell graves marks not hatred of theil
s, occupants or friends, but our indy
M ing hostility to the ideas for which
re they fought and died.
al To do less than keep the distinc
IS, ton fresh in the nation.tl mind is t.
IS undermine the Republic itself.
r ' PRoGREsS.-The New York Even
~ ing Post calls attention to these in
a. tcrcsting facts:
~ 'The present century has secl
e. four great events:
hn l, More's invention of the Tele
IS graph.
r rS 2. The laying of the Atlanta
'n"S Gable.
NJ 3. The death of Slavery in Uni
Nm ted States.
o., 4. The completion of the Pacifi
,oe Railway.
ho In twenty-five years the continen
us has been spanned by the wires o
nn the telegraph. Ten years the ligh
vi; ming began to run beneath the Sc;
~ Five years ago the way for ircedol
a. ended, and Slavery died. Monda
.ns the iron track was made complct
wv from Portland to San Francisco.
mt The New York Ecening Post mel
,ri. tons among the Catholic Office holt
nv, ers of that city seventeen of I'll
va most prominent, besides all the civ
til, justices, all but two Of the polio
CHI justices, all the police court clerk
the three out Of four coroners, two mel
ch, bers of Congress, three out OF fi'
the State Senators, eighteen out
on. twenty.onc members of Asscmbl
md fourteen ninetecnths Of the CommC
rim. Council and eight tenths of the 81
,er. pcrvisorS.