Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-12-21
The Protest. Against Removing the
Union Dead from Arlington.


Union Dead from Arlington.
Our Washington Correspondent alludes to
the debate n the Senate on the infamous
PROPOSITION of Senator McCreery to return
the Arlington estate to the widow OF Gen.
Lee and we add to his account the speeches
of Senator Edmunds of Vermont and Sena-
tor Patterson of New Hampshire Senator
| Edmunds said
do not intend. Mr.. President, to dignity
this occasion by making speech. : sup
pose the object of the honorable Senator
from Kentucky is pretty much accomplished.
| will say, however, before ask for the yeas
and nays upon his motion for leave to bring
in his joint resolution, that this man whom
he has eulogised, and of whom l am remind
ed by an old maxim to say nothing but good,
and of whom l should have said nothing at
all but for the Senator's remarks, think it
/ safe to say has committed the crime of trea-
son against more light, against better OPP
pOrtunities Of knowing that he was commit
ting it, than probably any man in the whole
| range If the southern States. Instead OF
| being the child of Virginia and welded to
| the institutions of his State, and sharing her
destines with passionate enthusiasm, he
was the child of the people; he was the
ward of the nation. 1t had educated him,
it had fed him, it had clothed him; it had
| instructed his military talents, which he
turned against it at last. He lived at the
capital, and when the capital called upon
him to defend the flag that he had been born
under, and educated under, and protected
under, and honored under, he turned his
back to it deliberately and planted his can
non in sight of the capital that he had sworn
to protect and defend.
But do not desire TO discuss this ques-
ton. General Lee is dead. l have never
wished him i'll. | do not wish his memory
i'll. The only regret, | think, that right
minded men VINO believe in "A country will
have, without any unkindness to him, is that
he had not died earlier than he did. either
in his youth or in his patriotic manhood, or
that he had not died later than that, and
earlier than he did, by the hand of the law
That would have atoned in some measure for
his crimes. | ask for the yeas and nays on
this motion.
Senator Patterson said
Mr.. President, quite enough, perhaps, has
been said in relation to this subject but it
seems to me there is one element of turpi-
tude in this resolution which has not been
fully considered by the Senate. We are
asked, not simply to inquire into the propri-
ETY. of restoring this property to the widow
OF General Lee, but we are to inquire also
as to the propriety of removing the dead
who fell in the cause of the Union from that
estate, in order that the widow Of the great
rebel may return and inhabit her old dwell
ing place. 1t seems TO me that that is an
insult to all the dead who fell in the mighty
struggle for the Union, and an outrage to
all the"iiving who fought for the great cause
In - 10 hot
may be restored to the rank and file of the
rebel army, but that ihiS estate may be re-
stored to the family Of the arch traitor who
left " ashington alter having been educated
at the expense Of the republic LETT this
very capital, where, from his position, he
was cognizant of all the secrets Of the Ad-
mlnistratiOn and Of its plan and policy to
hurl back and crush treason, and took with
him that knowledge to Richmond, that ne
might use 1t to overthrow the Government
which had educated, trusted, and honored
him. We are solicited now to restore to the
widow and children Of the man who added
ingratitude and the betrayal of confidence to
treason, the estate which he fed from in or
der to disintegrate the Union, destroy this
capital, and desolate the homes of the loyal
States.
Sir, there is audacity about this pro-
position which even excels that Of Catiline
when he came into the Roman senate as a
traitor, and against whom Cicero pronOunc-
ed that memorable Grafton which posterity
can never forget. And yet, sir, as If the
proposition itself was not enough, the Sen
ate Of the United States this morning is IN
suited by having a eulogy pronounced upon
the leading traitor whose detection sent hun
dreds of thousands of the loyal sons of the
North to bloody graves and land burden Of
debt upon the country which our pOsterity
TOR three generations cannot OyercOme-a
debt which to-day Is hampering the industry
of the laborIng poor all over the North and
the South alike; that man of ali others up
on whom the black stain Of treason will rest
in all the hereafter, is eulogized in the Senate
Of the United States by an honorable Sen
ator, and we are asked to inquire into the
propriety Of restoring to his widow this es-
tate, from which the arch rebel stole away
hurting back upon the Senate and upon the
capital of the nation, and into the very face
of the people, his contempt we are called
upon to entertain this proposition in behalf
of the man who prostituted his large ability
and his great office to overthrow the Consti-
tuition OF his country and trail its flag dis
honOred in the dust
We are asked TO dig up the bones of the dead
who are sleeping upon the heights of Airing
ton, and to lay them elsewhere, in order that
the woman who fled even before her husband
from the capital may come back to dwell
where our heroes fell for liberty and the ma
tion 5 life. Sir, it is an outrage upon the
loyal feelings of the country, 1t is an outrage
upon the dignity of the Senate, that this
thing should be done, am against it, Let
them sleep where they are-the dead guard
of the capital. | would not say one word or
make one movement that would uncover the
fires over which the ashes of time are settling
would do nothing 70 cause a rekindling of
the passions of the rebellion but when trea-
son itself, when rebellion itself, comes into
the Senate and starts the sad and terrible
memories of the past, | think it is due to
ourselves, it is due to the loyal people of the
country, it is due to the living heroes that
fought for the Union, it is due to the dead,
that we should rise up here and Indignantly
nut our feet upOn the pregnant purpose