New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-05-09
THE FOMENTERS.

Dattle, whether they Tell lighting on tn,
wrong or right side; and our dead soldiers
of either army were our brothers ant
fathers. There is no questioning thu
record Of him who died by bullet the
r wound and the blood answered present
, to the roll call on the field. There was
, no shirk in the man who was shot In
r the spring time of each year, when the
{ greatest life comes to nature, we remembe,
the dead who were loved; nothing is too
sweet or beautiful for their memories and
we lay on'their graves the choicest flow
ers Of the land. At such time there
should be no bitterness left in the heart
OF any living creature. Tennyson sings
of the estrarged couple who kissed
and made up at the grave of
their child. II ever narrow and sectional
strife should be forgotten, it is when the
dead Of the war are remembered Unfor-
tunately, whenever decoration day ap-
proaches, there are those who come for
ward to decorate themselves more than to
give laurels to the dead. The sobs of the
widow and orphan are drowned in the tu-
multi of word wars waged by men who
could serve their fellows best by silence.
Under what provocatiop we do not know,
but General Frank Sherman, of Chicago,
a merchant now, and representative man
of the West, said, referring to soldiers
! celebration:
am not in favor of extending an invita-
| ton to man who had said he was in favor
| OF shooting all prisoners taken under the
American flag.
Those were his sentiments, and they
might have been passed as such to his
| honor or credit. There is no discount on
the record of Frank Sherman; he was
colonel of an Illinois regiment, and he
| was made Brigadier General because he
was always found at the front when fight
ing was to be done. But General
Beauregard takes up the gauntlet and
says: !
In this section of our country such exhibi-
lions OF anlnoslty are confined to those who
curing tho war were furthest from the
enemy. gathering up the spoiie in the wake
OF the confenGlDg armies. Is not this Gen
eral Frank Sherman one of those despicabie
characters?
He also says much more in letter to
the Governor Of Tennessee, which re-
counts at some length his campaigns
during the war, and which is not of gen
eral interest at this time. Many who !
We're federal soldiers regret the words of |
General Sherman. To forgive is Christian |
like, and those who were victorious by |
right and might can afford to forgive By
silence General Beauregard would have |
made conquest Of public sympathy; he
would have been forgiven as one who |
acted in extreme times. He adopts a
different course and seeks to belittle the
soldier who spoke, and to explain his own
actions by exhuming the acrimony which
should lie buried with the soldiers whom
decoration days and soldiers reunions
are designed to honor. He refers to re-
ports that the federal government refused
to recognize Confederate prisoners as
prisoners of war to system of
warfare developed in Louisiana, Mis-
sissippi and Virginia; to the excusable
burning of Atlanta and Columbia; to the
destructive march to the sea by Sherman:
the campaign Of Sheridan in the Valley
OF the Shenandoah; to many things
chargeable to the havoc of war, as a rea-
son why he advocated hosting the black
flag IN the war growing out of the South
ern rebellion against the United States
government. This was done long before
many of the causes for grievance cited by
him had occurred, and it does not write him
down among the noblest minded soldiers
who fought for the Confederacy General
Lee would never have suggested the exc
cutlon of soldier captured in battle; nor
would he have characterized such me-
taken in fighting for the perpetuation of
the old Union as 'abolition prisoners"
Such an argument is a lowering of
the cause OF conflict to degree not ac-
ceptable to high-minded men of either
side. 1t says the Union soldier was fight
ng merely for the abolition of African
slavery in tie South, and that the rebel +
lad no other motive than its perpetuation d
The abolition Of slavery was result y
# the war; if the Union and slavery o
ould not both exist, slavery had to be d
'roken up first, ard it was. If Mr.. Davis ;
lad also agreed to the emancipation of
laves-an act which would have greatly
trengthened the Confederacy with for
ign powers-there would still have been
1T glorious object for the Northern and
Western soldier to fight for-an object
hich called out and kept even Democrats
the army-and that object was plainly ST
nc perpetuation of tie American Union; al
placing of federal authority above the v;
ainous policy Of State factions The ia
reat deeds of great men live without hs
0nstant rehearsal. Hippocrates repre- at
.nts only silence; yet he is not forgotten.
I'D comes down to US from time lone
siore the war, with other gods, and with
IS hand On his mouth. The golden
lence is much greater and more re-. r.
'ected than much talking. ca
OF
Judge Kelley spent the greater part of an
rnb% al.