New-York tribune., 1873-05-21
nrcoPATJNG TIE CRATES.

by the announcement that the graves ol 'nc
Confederate dead at Arlington are to be decor
ated with flowers on the same day with those
of the Union soldiers who lie buried there.
committee of the Grand Army of the Republic
has waited upon the War Department win
the inquiry who controls the grounds on that
day, and the request that something be done
to prevent the Insult" Precisely who Is in
shifted bv this act of friends who may re-
member tenderly the dead who died in arms
against their country, we do not know; but 1t
seems they are more sensitive about these
things in Washington than we are in New
York, where death so wipes out old scores
that we make no objection to the display OF
friendship and affection, however we may
question its propriety and good taste, which
elaborately decorates the coffin of the male
factor and with ostentatious parade of grief
escorts tie body to the grave.
Of course we discover in this demonstration
of indignation at the proposed insult the
evidence of profound patriotism and earnest
loyalty. We should, perhaps, be thankful In
such times as these for the nice sense OF
honor, the exquisitely sensitive love OF coun-
try the reverent patriotism, the cOnstancy OF
devotion to the Union, and the undying hos
tility to its dead and buried enemies, of which
we have here such tokens. For it must be
confessed that many things of late have made
us skeptcal of any such keenness of suscepti-
bility. For really, when we sell our seats in
the Senate, and our Senators themselves are
DOugnJ anu sofa, wi'r-. Judges haunt the
lobbies of Congress to influence legislation for
pay, when elections are carried by fraud and
the perpetrators of fraud are protected by
Executive pardon, when we peddle out our
honor and trade upon our dignity in the face
of all the world, when we are scandalized in
all departments by venality, corruption and
incompetency, we should perhaps welcome
anything that seems an honest burst of indig-
nation for whatever cause that has in it some
thing akin to pride of land OF race.
And yet, shall we be deemed unDatriotic or
disloyal if we say that there seems somehow
in this bristling up of resentment at the deco
ration of the graves of dead enemies some
thing trivial and narrow; something not en-
tirely worthy great and magnaDimous peo-
ple7 In the year following the close of
the war, before the bitterness of the long
struggle had begun to give place to a more
mellowed and tenderer feeling it would not
have been unnatural if we had protested
against such mingling of tributes and tears
to the memory of the fallen on both Sides
But eight years have passed since then. Surely
loyalty is no such ungracious, churlish virtue
that we should nurse forever the animosities it
engendered; nor is its quality so feeble that to
let little magnanimity grow round and bios
som over it will OvershadOw or destroy it. We
shall be just as loyal, just as true, and just as
tender of the memories of our own revered and
honored dead If, when we go to decorate their
graves, we permit the friends Of those who
when living were their enemies and ours to
bear us company and strew with flowers the
resting-places of those whom they held dear.
The turf springs just as green over COnfed-
crate as over Union dead; the sunshine gids
them both alike; patters the rain and falls the
dew on both in the arms of the gentle mother
of us all there is no difference between them.
Can we not say the bitterness that separated
their lives and made them enemies was buried
with themf Or shall we always keep alive
the embers of mortal hate and treat even the
turf that covers an enemy with unkindness
If these men died IN vain endeavors to per-
petuate wrong while those we honor fell
martyrs TO their love for humanity, let us re-
member that akin to love of humanity is
that Christian charity which suffers long and
is kind, and so carry out the spirit of our own
heroes by laying over the graves of the fallen,
for whatever cause they died, the mantle of
tender and fOrgiving charity.
Let us be grateful to Time that so mellows
and softens the past, that ameliorates the Bit
terness and smooths the asperity of old con-
tests, bringing us out of our selfish narrow
ness and littleness into the largeness and
catholicity Of humanity, into sympathy with
the universal brotherhood Of man. Here and
to-day the pettiness of our lives engrosses us 4;
our struggles and our trials, our triumphs and
our failures, our toll, and sweat, and tears.
are all the world to us; We magnify and dwell
upon them; we draw away from them and
they grow less and ,'and fade away behind
us. We shall exercise a sound philosophy as
well as Christian charity if we gather only |
tender memories as we look back over it ALL
tender, kindly memories not alone of those |
we loved but equally Of those with whom we |
differed, who were of our race and our blood. |
and whatever their faults or their mistakes.
were our brothers. BE sure we shall be doing |
no mans memory an injustice nor any good
cause harm, if on tho same day, and even
by the same hands. tho graves of the Union
and Confederate dead lying side by side in
ia .sr..l.s..ltr. .ssa-44 A. Z. 81