The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-04-14

THURsDAY......... -, 10 io'o'
$3.50 Whose Bones? ..r>-.sg-.-,,
A correspondent Of a northern paper
writes letter from Richmond describing
the battle-felds and tho Government ceme-
tory below Richmond. In the course OF his
letter the following paragraph, with resa'u
to the cemetery, occurs;
"The grounds occupy eight acres eno naJ
are beautifully laid out, WIN e'",v 80
walks, numerous poeticai 1necr;p'ion'' H.
raj arbors, and keepers house.
graves are about three feet apart. ian ,sS.
In reometrical order, and everything 10 hers
charmingly neat. The keeper, VINO gave 10
the foregoing figures, said they haa u,S'p ~
tinued receiving remains TOR pafEl
cause the Government had reason 20 oe IT,
that persons employed in gatnerlns M.n
we're passing off the remains OF Conisoet"sess
AZ Union soldiers. Owing to the !aPse u
time since the war, it is OF course imPossi-
HE in many cases to now find anything WIN
The remains of body that will positively
prove on which side it fought"
The Government had good reasons for its
euspicions. It is not certain but that other
animals besides man are inferred under the
simple and touching inscription, One I'm
known Union Soldier" Tits probable that
in some future age LAYARp, in examining
these national cemeteries, may deduce
from the remains that he may find the
inference that the people of this age wor-
shipped dogs and hogs and other animals
and that barbarous superstitions existed IN
America amongst the descendants of Euro"
peans four hundred years after its disco
very
Seriously, these cemeteries, devoted to
Union soldiers, are a blot upon the history
of this nstion. They are monuments to
strife that will perpetuate its recollection.
Instead of proceeding wisely and humanely
to take care of the remains of the dead
without distinction, the Government has
erected cemeteries to the followers of the
triumphant cause in the bosom OF the de-
feated country; and the defeated are made
to bear o part of the expense Of the costly
and extravaganza system by which this was
done, whilst the bones of their own poor
dead are left to bleach on the plains or are
huddled together outside the gates OF the
chosen relics, without sign and without
bonori
It was this that gave birth to southern
-
bones of 80 many gallant men-as gallant
as any that ever lived, and actuated by
az noble sentiments as ever fired hui
man soul-from utter abandonment, and
placed them in decorous graves, to be an
nuslly adorned by the tender hands oil
the virtuous daughters of the South.
The nation has committed great error
in preparing these cemeteries. They were
not suggested by an honest and generous
sentiment. Party spirit and party trickery
we're at the bottom of the whole proceeding.
Our people fought on point Of honor, and
were actuated by as high motives as were
theirs. We were beaten. We returned to our
fealty to the Federal Government. That
Government should have donc all it could
to quiet the rancors of the war and Sec
tionsl hate, and the gallant dead who gave
UP their lives in testimony of their sincerity
and faith in the justice of their cause
should have been gathered up tenderly and
carefully and laid in their graves within
the same enclosure, as proof that their
survivors we're at peace and the country
was again one.
Let us ask the party which could carry
it's partisanry to the grave, and use the bones
of the dead as party capital, what lesson Is
this that they have placed before the cyesoi
the youth of this nation The early i'm
pressions which these cemeteries, with their
neatly dressed graves, their sinecurist keep
ers, with the flag flying over them, on the
one hand, and the simple burial-grounds OF
the Confederate dead, monuments of love
and pity, built BY on impoverished people,
on the other, will not be such as this Co.
vernment should seek to make upon the
people. The nation ia one; its public SEN
timent should be harmonious; its section
alisms should be converted from hatred to
generous rivalry in good actions and in
contributions to the wealth and fame OF the
nation. The Government has done little in
this direction.