Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-06-01
WHOLE NO. IT'S.

had on this subject, the good work o
phllanthropic societies, religious Of
educational, together with the effort.
of private men have tended to anchor
ate the feelings of alienation. Blu
the experience of our first decade oil
peace goes so show that the country
will have weary waiting, it she de.
ponds upon time alone to remove the
animosities of the war. The two
means to this end, upon which we
rely for immediate and sure relief, are,
first, the raising OF new issues, and
second, the conversion of war memor
les into common source of inspira-
ton for both parties.
First, as TO the rise of new issues.
A good old divine has said that the
best way to keep the mind free from
evil, is to fill it with good Had he
forsaken theology for politics, he would
have held that the best way to divert
mems minds from dead issues, is to
engage them with live ones. While
the relations Of aggregated wealth to
labor are opening the way for anoth-
er national struggle, if the mechanics,
agricuturalists, capitalists and labor
ers of the South could be united re-
spectively with those of similar occu.
pations in the North, it would not be
long before the old Mason and Dixon
line would be obliterated. At the
convention of Indianapolis in 1871,
we saw the planters of the South
Joining hands with the farmers of the
North to fight railroad corporations.
God speed all measures that tend to
unite any part Of the South with a
portion of the North! Second, that
it may be possible for all the people
of this country to draw inspiration
from memories Of the war, no prefer
ence should be shown to the dead
who wore the grey, or those who
wore the blue. In aid of this object,
the decoration Of soldiers graves, a
custom beautiful in itself, has been
productive OF good in an unlocked
for manner. Let me give its history.
On decoration day of May, 1874,
the ladies of Madison in this State,
strewcd flowers upon the graves of
some confederate prisoners who had
died in the hospital there during the
war. The fact was merely mentioned
in our State papers, but from thence
it went the whole round, of the
Southern press. This happened two
years ago. Now for it's effects: |
read to you from the Congressional
Record of the fifth of this month, an
incident found in speech by Hon.
r. B. Vance, of North Carolina. He
says: 81 will relate you circum-
stance which / had from gentleman.
He was travelling in the South, during
the month Of May, a stranger, and he
stopped near a burial ground, and
through the trees he could see Gimp
ses OF a number Of children all clothed
in white; little girls they were, and
each had basket upon her arm filled
with flowers, and there slept the gray
on the one side and here slept the
blue on the other, and tho children
were singing
" Under the sod aud under tho clay
Here sleep the blue and there sleep the gray.
Light be our steps, as falleth the dew.
Tears for the gray and tears for the blue.
"Come, sisters. come let's scatter anew
Wreaths for the gray and wreaths fo- the blue
Soft be hearts thro' all the sweet day
Smiles for the blue and smiles for the gray
This occurred one year ago.
In the same number of the Record
is found the following anecdote which
Hon. w. d. Kelly, of Pennsylvania,
relates from his own experience: 81
happened to be on last Decoration
in one of the towns of South Carolina,
where l saw a lady decorating as
had never seen a grave decorated i,
framing it in sprays of arbor-vitae and
lettering it beautifully as 'The grave
of some body's loved one On re-
turning to my hotel | inquired who
the soldier was, and learned from a
northern gentleman who had passed
many winters there that it was a
struggling union soldier who had died
of his wounds in that town, Aiken,
South Carolina. He also told me that
the lady whom | had seen decorating
that grave with such care was, to use
his phraseology, a rebel generals wife,
who prayed that some body might
decorate her sons unknown grave. !"
In March, 1875, there appeared in the
Chicago Tribune an editorial upon a
latter from a circuit JUDGE of South
Carolina, to Col. Block, who has
charge of one of our national Gene
teries. The letter was appended to
the article, and read as follows:
"Col. Block:-By express there are
forwarded you to-day for interment in
the national cemetery, three collins
containing the bones of three union
soldiers who fell in a skirmish Of the
war, and were buried by the road
side. These bones were dug up,
transported to the station and guard
ed over night while there by five
confederate veterans, all of whom
bear on their persons unmistakable
marks of conflict. The magnanimous
chiyalry of their conduct IS shown
by the fact that in performing this
service they travelled for miles through
a country marked by monumental
chimneys that are still black with the
fires OF internecine war. When ask
ed why they had performed this deed,
they said because the ladies of Madi-
son, Wisconsin, had not sighted some
of their fallen comrades. That little
deed of woman's kindness performed
up here at Madison had its effect way
down in South Carolina-South Car
DINA! the seat of notification, the
home of Calhoun, Hayne and Pres
ton Brooks, and the state which first
seeded from the union; and those
rough soldiers were so thankful that
they felt called upon to perform such
a deed of labor and sacrifice to ex-
press their gratitude.
Does this support the belief of
Wendell Phillips? Does this argue
that there can be no solid peace at
the South until this war generation is
in its grave? If 'yes,' then let us take