New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-06-11
SUBVER71YG THE FOUNDATIONS.

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Massachusetts,, "the patriotic mind of the
Country" was severely shocked" the other
day by occurrences in connection with the
ceremony of decorating the graves of soldiers
in various parts of the country. For at several
places in the South, as we learn, the surviving
friends and relatives of Confederate soldiers
were permitted to decorate the graves of their
dead on the day and hour appointed by the
Grand Army Of the Republic for the regular
Decoration Day ceremonies. Worse than that
moro shocking still to the patriotic mind-in
several places the graves of Union and
Confederate soldiers were strewn with flowers
Unfortunately by the survivors of both, 80
that no one would have supposed, looking
upon these ministrations of bloom, beauty,
and fragrance, that the dead died fighting or
the living had ever been estranged. Especially
was the patriotic mind shocked in st. Louis
where the veterans of the Union and Confed
crate armies marched side by side to lay their
floral offerings upon the graves of the Blue
and the Gray alike. A Union officer delivered
the grafton Confederate colonel made a
brief speech pleading for genuine peace,
mutual forgiveness, and fraternal feeling
Finch's exquisite poem, "The Blue and the
"Gray,n was read, prayer offered, and then
1900 graves, Federal and Confederate, White
and COlOred, were sprinkled with the flowers
of tender and beautiful remembrance, and
not one was passed unhonored. 1t was at the
very hour when these ceremonies were passing
that the Hon. Mr.. Dawes of Massachusetts,
was saying that "the decoration of the graves
"Of Rebel soldiers would shock the patriotic
"mind of this country. They were indeed
"brave they dared, they suffered, and died
"like heroes, but it was in cause which did
"not command the approval of mankind.
"They fought against, while these fought for
"free institutions, and universal liberty and
universal manhood. To decorate their graves
with those of Union soldiers would, therefore,
abe to blot out the distinction in the causes
"for which each laid down his life-between
"loyalty and disloyalty, patriotism and trea-
"son, between the arm uplifted to save and
"that raised to destroy. 1t would blot out,
"too, all distinctions in the actions of men,
"and confound right with wrong upturning
"the very base of society ITSELF"
Not quite 80 shocking to the patriotic mind,
but yet having the essential quality which the
Massachusetts statesman defines as subversive
of the foundations of society, was the transac-
ton at Mobile, where, upon the conclusion
of the usual address in honor of the Union
dead, beautiful bouquet of flowers, in which
the blue and gray were intermingled, was re-
ceiyed with q card which read thus: "The
mobile cadets of the Confederate army honor
"the memory of those who, though their
"enemies in war, were men, and brave enough
to do their duty"
All! how soft and silly and sentimental we
are! For we are not statesmen. We are only
human and fallible. And this sort of recOgni-
ton of common humanity and universal
brotherhood in these converging currents of
sympathy and affection makes us forget that
we are plotting out all distinctions in the
actions of men and confounding right with
wrong. From our poor common point Of
view-the view point of the average man
uncultured in statesmanship-we look very
tenderly on such scenes as those at st. Louis
and Mobile. We seem somehow to forget
our differences and our anger, our strife and
war and blood, and to think kindly Of
those we lately hated. We are so weak and
30 childish, that we see it all with moist eyes
and talk about it in low and tender tones,
that are not the tones Of Mr.. Dawes, and
then we forget-fOrget uttery-that we are
viewing with cOmplacency the confounding of
right with wrong and the subversion of the
foundations of society. All well indeed for
IA that we Rave statesmen among us whose
emotions are held in subsection TO their intel
lecfual perccptiOns-men like Hawley OF Con-
necticut. who, during tho last Congress- pro-
tested against the payment Of pensions to the
Rebel survivors Of the war Of 1872, because