The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-12-30
HGIS.
Md. Dec. 80. 1870.
THE ARLINGTON ESTATE,


THE ARLINGTON ESTATE.
SgsSs " We have not seen q better comment on
&l~ the action of the L. S. Senator on Senator
McCreary's resolution looking to an in
vestigation into the matter OF the contis
cation Of Arlington, the home of Gen. II.
+. Lee, than the following, from the Balti-
more Christian 44deeaSte' edited by DR.,
Ibelh.aasrE Bond:
R Then came Sumner, the oWl of the Sen
~ 10 ate, so wise so solemn, so foh1 OF swoop-
SSs& ing in funereal pomposty upon "a mouse
ssS. and dealing with it as steam-coudor might
ss claw an elephant. Sumner said, He was
present" (of course he was How could
the mean thing have been done without
,xssE his presence p "when Mr.. Stanton gave the
SD order for the Intern ent OF the dead at Ar
y ~ M lin oton and that Secretary Stanton stated
Z 2N that his purpose was forever to prevent
I Tho reinstatement of the Lee family there"
yN Mr.. Sumner might have added that Stan
N.# ton gave express orders that the bodies
NY should be buried close t. the house. Now
M here was IL Secretary of War selecting a
s cemetery upon the one determining rea-
N son of personal spite and using the bodies
$$ of dead heroes and martyrs " to enable
M him to annoy family he hated Abra-
sac ham refused to bury his venerated dead in
a'tomb deferentialy presented to him he
W M would not let the remains of his wife lie
in any ground not her own. But here the
ts heroes and martyrs" have their bones
'tB applied to perpetuate bare faced robbery
Of a widow and her children. They sleep
~ IN graves unpaid for; their very resur-
rectlon to be an ejectment; they hold the
ground against law and justice, so that for
tM ages to come the stranger who sees their
~ tombs will remember that these lie here to
IN he llrJ1p ,npJf Fun had hrnth nr
there we would take him away and give
him az honest grave-who will not when
this thing shall begin to be felt +? If Mr..
-~s- Stanton believed he had a good title to
this land he would not have secured it by
his horrible use of the dead Senator
Sawyer from South Carolina said the Gov
eminent thought the land for taxes"
Everybody knows this was paltry sub
terfuge to which great government stoop-
- ed to escape the limitations of political re-
vengc prescribed in the Constitution.
Would the Government be willing to sub
nit that taX-title to its own courts? The
-~' rhetorical sputter about the removal of
the dead is all gratuitous. What is want
ed is for the Government to pay for the
property. 1t never belonged to General
Lee; it is now the property of his widow.
Ehe Government have made Il graveyard
Of her farm; the question u.s. whether she
ar the Government shall pay for the graves
IN which 1.-The heroes aud martyrs sleep.
Atpresent she is paying for them; size is Civ
ing them their graves. That they have any
ut all ia not due to the gratitude ofthe coun-
try but to the misfortunes ofan inirm wild
ow. That is the fact. If the present Con-
@ress will not pay for that graveyard anoth-
er will or else the mQurners for the dead
that sleep there will relieve them of the
strangesS ruproacii ever laid upon iunccent
@-----11aasr and give them title to their graves,
valid in the sight of God and men-a IT,
tie consistent with the honor of the nation,
and worthy Of the brave men who earned
from the country they defended at least
right to the graves they fill.
AS an American we feel heartily asham-
ed of the rhetorical meanness of u vindit-
tive Senate, up into which creeping things
have crawled during the awful flood of fire
which the nobleness of the country was
left to brave and resist. Thousands of
hearts in the North feel humbed as we do
y The sentiments we have expressed are not
u sectional, but human. Boston, Hartford,
New Haven, either of them would to-mor-
Il row gladly give the money to relieve its
dead at Arlington from the moral lien that
lies upon their graves. Senators do not
represent the feeling of their States. 1t
would be fearful if they did. But we are
not fallen SO low as that. We know that
vindictiveness towards the Southern peo-
pie is passing from the hearts of the North
like IL storm-cloud that has been diseharg-
ed. We owe it to truth to testify to our
z brethren of the South that while the North
q supports the policy of its party leaders, it
4 laments their spirit and despises their
meanness.