Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1870-12-23


against light and knowledge His revolu-
tionary ancestry, his oath of fealty as an off,
Ger of the United States, his finished cduca-
ton and high abilities, all forbade him thus
to sin, and the cnormity of his crime could
not DC concealed by decorating his grave with
flowers OF rhetoric. Iu word, it was now
proposed that the Senate should gravcly con-
slider proposition to degrade the memories
of the patriotic dead of Arlington by rcmov.
ing their bones to less halowed ground, in
tender consideration of the rights of the wild
ow of the arch rebel of the most wicked re-.
bellion in history.
Scott said, coupling together the names
or Thomas and Lee recalled the utterance of
Stephen A. Douglas, made at the time those
two Generals resolved to tread in opposite
paths, that at that time there we're but two
classes in tho municipalities and traitors
| The patience with which tho Senate Of the
United States had to, day listened to a euIogy
upon the chief conspirator in the attempt to
tear down the Government, was but another
illustration of that unparalleled magnanimity
and mercy which had characterized the treat
ment by tho Government of those engaged in
rebellion. Had the subject of that cuogy
| succeeded in his efforts, where would the
American Senate now be sitting? BY bis
triumph slavery would have cast its dark
shadow oil over this land of freedom, from
the st. Lawrence to the Gulf. To-day
r,r of
the bones of thousands, who fell that their
blood might seal the covenant of the nation.
Yet to-day we behold tho spectacle of res
urrectionlst c>mng hero to drag tho dead
doctrine out frou beneath the bones of the
IaLiU'i'o .s."..,
Wiley characterized the resolution as most
insulting and shocking to the sense Of the
Senate and the,country, and as ahhorrent to
humanity Though personally tenacious of
tho rights of individual members, he could
not vote to receive it,
Sawyer said the Arlington estate, like
thousands of acres of property in the South,
had been forfeitcd-sod at public sale for
non payment of taxes, and bought by the
mortal from Mrs. Lee, he regarded the con.
tcmplated inquiry as utterly worthless, as the
facts he had stated were we'll known, and
needed no vcrifcation.
Salisbury disapproved of that part of the
resolution looking to removal of the graves
from Arlington, but he could not see that the
merits of tho cause in which General Lee was
engaged were at all in controversy. lie re-
garded the question as one simply Of Scna-
tor to exercise his right to introduce business.
Nye said the unseemly haste in certain
quarters to restore traitors to favor could re.
suit in no good. The verdict of to day and
of po 'terity is, and will be, that General Lee
was traitor
Flanagan, in some general remarks, spoke
of General Lee as the great traitor of the age,
whose influence had carried into rebellion the
flower of Southern youth Davis, the other
great traitor, still lived, and in the light Of
recent events, it was not unreasonable to cx.
pect an carly move to make him President
Sumner desired that parliamentary Law
should be administered upon the present occa.
sion with the utmost rigor, with view to the
most summary disposition Of the resolution
He Ind nothing to say Of General Lee, cxcep,
that his name stood upon the catalogue Of
those who had imbued their hands in thei,
country's blood. He was content to hand
him over to the nvengipg pen Of history. He
regarded tho resolution as indicative of the
sentiments of tho political associates Of
the Senator from Kentucky, ms prc6gur,
ing the policy they would establish should
thoy obtain power, q policy which was
totake the old rebellion by the hand and to
install it in the high places Of power. Could
he make his voice heard from Massachusetts
to Louisiana, it would be to warn his fellow.
countrymen, especially Of tho South, agans,
that combination which now showed its hand
in the proposition of tho Senator from Ken
tncky. Ilc stated that he was present whom
Secretary Stanton gave the order for tho ia
ternncnt of the dead bodies of Union soldier.
at Arlington, and that Stanton stated at th,
time that his purpose iu SOLICITING tho plac,
! was to forever prohibit the re.intcrment Of thu
! Leo family there that ifthoy did como, tho,
might encounter the ghosts Of their victims
Ho quoted tho epitaph above the gray.
Of Shakespeare, which he now proposed to writ,
I above tho graves of every ono of our partio
dand .s9..N, 81