New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-05-31
DECORATION DAY.

DECORATION DAY.
Half a dozen years ago few women clad in
black went ont to o quiet graveyard as soon
az the early roses bloomed to lay them on the
mounds beneath which slept their sons and
brothers, who had died, we think, in the Con-
fcdcrate service. They wanted to give to their
dead whatever of brightest and sweetest the
year brought, with a fond fancy, it may be,
that "the boys. would know that they had
done it. The whole nation was q mOurner at
that time; the fancy touched its sorrOwful hui
NOR The custom spread through the North
in year or two the ceremonies became public
and fell into the hands of the Grand Army of the
Republic, and now Decoration Day is recognized
as legal holiday, and takes its place beside
the Fourth of July. Business is supposed to
stand still while the nation bends as q mOurner
over its hOnored dead. We are not at all sure
that this formal recognition was either wise
or acceptable to the general public. There was q
universal feeling that to enforce as a law
custom beautiful and touching, when sponta-
neOus was like putting our tears for useful pur-
poses into lead pipe. The old pathOs and
sOlemnity of the act have vanished, too, except
in very quiet country places. The post of the
G. A. X. makes stirring holiday of the occasion,
the boys, naturally, being glad to meet again.
Decoration Day. besides the flowers and little
flags for the dead, includes beating of drums,
ard political speeches, and the idle population
of town or city in delighted ferment, and
crowds of shouting boys, and grand dinner
for the living. The real mOurncrs often have
reason to suspect too, that the day and the
hnU tpO In hp Irsc
as capital by small politicians to serve their
own paltry purposes. There is universal
feeling, too at the North, that now that the
war is over and its object gained, the
sooner it is forgotten the better; or, if we
insist on making this day "a national Observ-
ance, is it quite fair to require from the South
a cessation Of business in personal honor to the
men who fought against themf If such honor
is pr0fiered voluntarily, it is worthy OF hearty
and friendly acceptance; but we have no right
to compel it. If the idea be simply to render
homage to men who gave their lives for the
idea that seemed the best and highest to them.
let Federal and Confederate dead be hOnorcd
on the same day, and gray and blue stand as
peacefully together while living as they rest
side by side now that the battle is over.
We have no doubt that Decoration Day will
come to this end at last 1t is not likely that
the custom will be dropped; national holidays
are too scarce and too welcome among us.
But in the course of few years the Grand
Army of the Republic must, in the necessity
of nature, be gathered to the great division
gone before; those who knew and loved the
dead will have followed them; and if we mis-
take not, there will be no pride or hearty zeal
H. Xbo tbu. All in fha
next generation to keep its record in memory.
When we fought the British we were feeble
people struggling with a foreign foe for our
freedom; when We fought the Rebellion we
were only two parts of one family-brothers
with the knife at each others Threats.
If we do not see the matter in this light our
children will. There is. alas, too much in the
miserable strife before the war, the blundering,
frightful sacrifice of life in it, the corruption
and treachery that have followed it, to bring
| blush of shame to their faces as they read its
history Many of the men who won honorable
names in it renamed too long in the public eye
to retain that honor. We may as well frankly
admit that to our descendants, the sole apparent
cause for pride in that crisis of our national
life was the stern bravery of the men who
fought its battles the prOmptitude with which
they reused themselves from their work OF
money getting, and the set purpose with which.
for an idea of Right, they carried the war to
its end. This purpose, too, deserves more
honor because of the unwillingness which
every man felt to resort to arms. There was
in the opening of the war at North and South
a universal mortal shrinking from the sight of
a brothers blood to which no record of the
battle of Bull Run has done justice. 1t was
no light or merccnary motive that made the
American fratricidc. We believe that in
future time the fullest justice will be done
to this motive. Those who come after us
may differ as to the causes of the war, or
the character of the politicians whom it
brought to the surface but they will have
only one Judgment OF the men who, in Caro-
lima or New-I York. gave up self-interest, bust
ness, family, home and went upon the battle
field to offer all that was left them, life itself,
for q cause which seemed to them true and
noble. We may bear with little noise and
turmoil for the present about the resting places
of our dead, if it will help us to bcqueath
this ono heroic memory to the future. Our
only proof to our children that the dollar has
not been almighty in our age, must We fear be
these silent graves and the roses which we lay
upon them.
RESINPIION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS ~
FRINCE.
By the new convention between the French
Government and the Bank of France il is pro-
yided thai specie payments shall be resumed
by the Bank Jan. /, 1878. AZ the Outstand
ing circulation of the Bank is only $iS9,O0O,-
600, against which $307,0OO,OO0 in specie