Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-10-29
THE POLITICAL FUTURE.
Remarkable Utterances or Gen. Pope
As TO Reconciliation With Our
Southern Brethren.

AT the reunion Oh tfle army OF tnc len |
nessee, held at Des Moines, September -, |
Major General Jno. Pope delivered an adj
dress, from which we make some extracts. !
In speaking OF the relations between the !
North and South, Gen. Pope says;
The days Of conciliation and reconciliation
have long been upon us, and many there be who
even maintained that the time has come when
the saint and the sinner should be alike honor
ed in this land Of ours. II may be so, but let
~, comrades, at least be careful that the artih-
cial flowers which we are permitted rather
than invited to scatter over the remains Of those
who fell 10 cause so righteously lost be not
suffered 10 impair the sweet Odor Of the more
natural flowers which we yearly strew over
the graves Of those who lie buried that their
cOuntry might've. Let us remember the sol
emu legacy those dead men have bequeathed to
us, consecrated by their bluod and sancl6ed
with their lives, 10 maintain among ourselves,
and to transmit TO their aud our descendants
the results they laid down 10 achieve. They
would wish, as we do, that the bitter feelings
engendered by the war should be buried deep
be eath the monuments we erect to their mem
Ory utthey could not wish, as we who rev.
erence their memory should not, that the re-
suits for which they so freely poured out their
blood should BE- entombed there likewise. They
would desire, as we do, that every effort b.
m ade TO bring about an honest aud wholesome
|
have sinned so previously against us aud
their country but they would protest, as we
should protest, against the maudln sentiment
tality and political quackery which would con.
found right with wrong; which would teach
| us 10 honor alike the cause which was inst and
the cause which was unjust aud which would
| reduce us to that condition Of mental aud NOR
al idiocy that we shall reverence the memory
Of the man who died in arms to destroy his
country, equally with the man who died in
arms to defend 1t.
No reconciliation based upon such confusion
ofthe moral sense can ever bring forth good
| fruit, nor can anV people or any government
| dare encourage II without destroying
! that lofty sense OF patriotism which is their
| only safeguard, and under the influence of
which so many thousands Of our best and brav-
est marched with intrepid souls to au unlimely
and cruel death. y
To whatever political party, however, we
may now belong, we all know we'll what VIC
| fought fOr-to maintain constitutional govern
| meni, and to enforce respect for law to those
| who wurred on both. The distinction between
| the cause we N tintained and the spirit in
which we maintained Il, and the cause Of our
adversaries and the purpose with which they
| upheld Il is broad and deep; no less, indeed, f,
than the difference between American constiIu-
tiOnai government and Mexican anarchy.
IL is not surprising that the people OF the free
| States, bred up in reverence for constitutional
government and respect for law aud order
should have been 10th to believe and hard TO
| tnViuce, that war was upon Onr threshold on
such an issue. But war did como and if we
| fail now to learn the lessons it has taught us
| we shall commit sin against humanity and a
crime against our pnsterity forever. So long
| as any considerable portion of our people main
tain the fatal heresy that armed resistance is
juslfabe when elections are unsatisfactory
this governme Mt is in danger.
| When we forget or cease to assert aud to in
81. tl,a 80. 1..t,,, LIT.
cause andtlnt OF the rebels, or the difference in
respect due to the men who fought on our side
nnd tlIuse who fought on theiIs, the days O
this republic are numbered.
There is something startling in these
words, coming as they do from one Whose
profession and whose life removes him
from all influences of party politics, nnj
whose uttersnces, therefore, are free from
that bins that makes it necessary to regard
the suggestions OF the partisan with sus
picion, and render it impossible to com
; pute their just weight, until it is know
which side he is on.
III our Northern people, under the I'M
pulse OF mistaken mugninimity, or the
influence Of feelings not the less fatal be-
cause they are generous, have so far tor
gotten the tragedies of the past ns to bC
willing to merge all ideas OF right an,
wrong in desire for what is so mucl
hNrped on under the popular name OF re
cancellation, 1t is certainly true TINT VI
Wheaf hafFasa 10 he R as se St
, ing a reconciliation with anybody ha
i never yet been made appnrent.e We ar
= not aware that the North has committei
any fault, needing atonement, Tor the par
it took in the affairs of 1861 and 1865. \
all events, that fault has never impresse
itself, in large proportions, upon any bu
those Democratic statesmen who were III
able to discover the olfense of taking II
arms south of Mason and DiXOn's line
o while The same act north of it was uncOr
y stitutional, null and void-as history show
:, that there was no act of the general GOV
; ernment during the rebellion that was nj
: characterized by those three epithets.
Upon the other hand, il our Souther
l. brethren entertain desire OF any such r.
= Cancellation, as all good citizens should d.
% sire, they do not give it ont in speeches, M
s do they proclaim it by their acts. The
i claim great credit FOR candor in sayir
e they have laid down arms finally and 70
is ever. With equal candor do they nsse
n that the principles for which they fougl
J. are undying, and will ultimately prevail
10 Has any Southerner yet admitted that Il
one been heard to express regret for u
.e four years of deviltry they played wi
n such saiguine temperament? Indeed Il
Of general tone of public conversation is SIT,
,e TINT one might fairly suppose that o
n. Southern brethren were the most abuse
n outraged set of men on the face of the ear
r. and that the North had committed gra
,e crimeA and misdemennors in trasiing the
l. into proper sense OF their flial oblig
tions, and furnishing them to make the
behave themselves.
Is it not an alarming fact that the d.
trne of secession is still discussed in t
"a Southern States? That the proposition
est gravely put, as automatic, that the Fede
at Union was concern into which Sta
ho went by their own consent, and by con
"0 quence they can go out Of it Just when tn
EE please This is States rights !-whi
be chooses its own mode and measure OF
in dress"
M II il be matter for grave considerati
=, that the old schOol-doctrincs on which
INK war was fought, are slill held in the Son
Is ern section OF the Union, the gravity OF
occasion is not diminished by the fact 4
for these same opinions are held by pow
" ful party at the North. Under the the
III of States rights ms understood by the
'st, mocracy, Mr.. Buchannan's last message
I'd; Congress averred that he was unable 70 {
nd any constitutional warrant for COMPEL
he a State to obey the laws. Has the war
M discovered to Democratic statesmen {
ota such latent constitutional power? Or
a. the war wrought any such change i'll Dc
n,, Ocratic sentiment as TO compel an alb
,;, donment of their former ideas on this ST
no. ject? Have they thrown overheard, W
% er shot tied to their heels, those leaders "
"a. followed in Mr.. Buchannan's wake, a
81 who were convinced that Union arm
~. must pass over tho dead bodies of ten hi
~ dred Democrats before they could Strike
Ie Union foe7 Is that class of Democr
no quite defunct who, in times of convulsio
;Ss despair and revolution had no higher c.
IN eeption of duty than such as might mt
nj, the gay gallantry of a French danci
;,k master as nc bowed his benediction uI
mo- mo- the wayward sisters whom lie longed to
~ departing in peace