National Republican., 1875-06-21
Who, vainly brave,
& Died for q cause Ihey oOul

D1ed Tor q cause they could not save,
and to decorate their rude graves with fresh
and beautiful flowers upon each returning ?
spring; but for US 10 join with those who
brought all our misfortunes upon US in deco
rating the graves of those who wantonly laid
dercd thousands OF our young men, the flower
Of this Southern land, is utterly abhOrrent 20
the feelings of every true Southern man.
4 Commiugling of all sections in celebrating
the Centennial of Lexington, Mecklenburg
aud Bunker Hill may lie very proper, as "ur
victories at those places are a common h"ri-
tage but it is mere sham and mOckery for
us to gather flowers to strew over the graves
OF those who not only put the torch to our
dwellings, but, in many instances, with ruth
less hand destroyed the shrubbery and lovely
flower gardens that surrounded them, ami
many places that were sweet with the perfume
of roses were left as black and desolate as
desert.
A voluntary agreement on our part to any
such arrangement as alluded to in the article
referred to would be a surrender OF our man
hood, and would be scorned and .despised by
those whose good will we thus seek to secure =.
That this is so we have only to satisfy our
selves by calling to mind the treatment of our
dead comrades at Arlington. Our own people
were not permitted to place tokens of affection
upon their graves, and more recently similar
conduct i'll Greenwood Cemetery, New York,
where the remains Of the brave General Whit
ing lie mouldering to dust.
We take the following extract from a letter
Of June l., written in New York by South
ern man "There were many thousands of
people in all parts of Greenwood decorating
the graves of Federal soldiers and civilians,
but the only tribute to Whiting was by your
correspondent; his the only visit to that lonely
and unmarked grave. l make no comment
you may do that"
After such instances as these, for the South
ern people to join with those of the North in
decorating the graves of the Federal soldiers is
repugnant to our idea Of honor and self-respect.
how can we, without feelings of shame and
selfabasement, place flowers, emblems of
love, upon the graves of those, It may be,
whose hands were once red with the blood OF
our brothers, or who fired the fatal bullet
through the heart of an only son. To do this,
human nature must undergo a revolution.
Ito be guilty of such a sacrilege, we must
blot from our memories all recollections of the
glorious past, and the outrages and inhuman
Vasalage of our enemies; we must cease to re-
member the burning of Atlanta and driving
twenty thousand men, women and children
from their homes upon thirty hours notice
burning the beautiful city Of Columbia, the
firing Of one hundred guns over the burning Oh
Richmond and the burning of two hundred
nOWerlng mills IN the faley OF virginia; the
burning Of thousands Of Southern residences
and robbing the Southern people of countless
millions Of property; Buffers Infamous New
Orleans order rejecting upon the chastity oi
our women; Sheridan's banditti dispatch, in.
dorsed by Grant and to q great extent sus-
tanned by popular sentiment at the North, and
many other crimes and outrages not herein
enumerated. When we forgot all this, we may
'unite with Federal soldiers and Northern
men in decorating the Federal dead, }" and moi
before.
We wish to see concord in our land and the
animosiies of the war forever buried !" but oul
Glove for peace" does not require us to de
grade ourselves by kissing the rod that smotC
us, or 10 honor those who lost their lives while
trying to take ours. r. W. j.
FAIKLAND- N