The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-05-20
| latfons to the Union and to our fellow
citixnna of the Union

Wlhb ID Cl16uy u60u0u W Sooa.O bho
peace, harm ony and prosperity OF our
country, and the perpetuity OF our re-
publican institutions, is genuine spirit
OF Cancellation pervading the entire
people, under the influence OF which
| the events of our recent civil conflct
may be regarded merely as historical,
and not in any way connected Win Nv
ing political issues. Ii we and our
Northern brethren cannot agree about
present and future issues until we agree
about the past, it is very clear tnat we
shall never agree. Ii we cannot De
friends. in the future untli one OF th me
/ dust and abased his manhood by
asking pardon for confessed crimes in
| the past, it Is very certain we snail
never be friends. I proclaim 1t here
that not merely the present survivors
| OF the lost cause, but their children and
| their children's children will maintain
the Justice of the cause in which their
sires fought and bled, and to the latest
generation will honor the matchless
valor and heroism with which. for four
years they sustained an unequal conflict
in defense OF what they believed to be
right. Whatl Shall we inscribe dis
graceful epitaphs upon the monuments
Of our heroic dead? Nay; shall we
ever cease to honor them, and with rev.
erent devotion to perpetuate the memo
rails of their glorious deeds m
But shall this prevent us from being
loyal citizens of the republic OF to-
day? Shall this prevent us from being
patriots? Nay. shall this present the
slightest impeachment to complete and
cordial brotherhood with our Northern
to you, lay your hand upon your heart
and tell me, If you had been born and
bred in Southern State, do you not
know that when the flag of the Confed-
eracy was flung to the breeze you would
have been found battling under Its
folds? Southern man, l ask you, IL
you had been born and reared in
Northern State, do you not know that
when the flag of the Union was fired
upon you would have rallied with your
people to its defense? From the bot
tom Of my heart I pity the bigot who
questions
What then? Shall we forever hate
each other because we CHANGED to be
born on different sides of an imaginary
line We are brethren, descended from
line of noble ancestry, whose fame
and deeds are our common heritage.
In an evil hour we have quarreled-
fought - fought manfully - approved
ourselves stout soldiers, worthy OF our
sires.
The fight is over. the victory ad-
judged, the judgment accepted. The
questions about which we ,quarreled are
settled-settled irrevocably-th settle
ment 80 thoroughly acquiesced in that
neither would disturb it, II he had
the power. What. then, hinders our
reconciliation
or course there are many armless
sleeves, and MANNED men, and vacant
chairs by many q desolate hearth-stone.
There are wrecked fortunes, and broken
ties, and bleeding hearts. There are
widows, and orphans, and loverless wo-
men. Alasl that it should be so. But
have all these calamities befallen one
side only? II you should invoke the
old code Of an ,...eye for an eye and q
tooth for TOOTH" yet, ask you, is not ot
Where is the evil that that has befallen
the North that cannot be paralleled
with it's fellow in the South yea, and
supplemented with such a prepon-
derance of misfortune as to dash to
earth the unequal scale? Are we Chris
tians? Are We so stepped in selfishness
that we can feel for the calamities of
none but ourselves? Can we not "hnd
In some part Of our souls" q drop OF
sympathy for others woes?
There have been civil wars long be-
fore our time. There is not q nation
upon earth whose history does not
record the story of just such strifes as
ours. Read these stories, oh short
sighted men, and learn the lesson that
there is no fued so bitter but there
comes q time for oblivion and peace.
Are Englishmen still fighting the wars
of the Roses or the battles of the royal
lists and Puritans? Do the descendants
OF the Guises and Condos keep alive the
enmities of those extinguished strifes?
Nay have not the valiant deeds OF the
partisans Of either side been garnered
up into the common historic treasure
house of the nation? Even SO shall 1t
be with us. Unless our insensate hates
shall wreck and destroy the fabric OF
our government and discover into jar
ring and discordant States this mighty
Union, he Is blind who cannot see the
coming time when Lincoln and Davis,
Lee and Grant, Sherman and Jackson,
will find their places side by side in the
historic pantheon of the nation, and
when the valorous achievements of the
champions OF either side will be priced,
not as the property of section, but as
illustrations of American manhood.
II it be said that such differentiation
ana ODllf1Ou vi 5bIHo udNo oCou ohiy
the slow and painful growth OF long
lapses Of years, and cannot be expected
to spring into being in, the brief space
Of a generation, ask, why not? or what
avail is our tremendous progress, In the
arts of inter communication, and swift
exchange of ideas, and popular educa-
ton, aud rapid enlightenment, and lib
crafty Of thought, il they may not
hasten the processes by which human
ity achieves results and reaches the
ends which wisdom and justice point
out to her?
Let US but be true to the duties Of the
hour and to the destiny which has just
been placed in our own hands, and l be-
lieve that we have already seen the dawn
Of the era Of true Cancellation and
genuine reunion.
The prime necessity OF man, under
the conditions Of society and govern
ment, is to have a country which he can
call his country-not merely country
- L. 1N,,f MI