New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-30
DECORATION DAY.

A good deal of the noise and parade and pO-
litical maneuvring of Deco; alton Day has been
properly deferred until Tomorrow in many
parts of the country, and it is only pity for
the sake Of decency that it could not be laid
over altogether But the real observance of the
day will b. held, we have little doubt, to-day, in
the stiffness and calm of Sunday, bya few faith
full loving hearts, who will go ont to lay wreath
upon the grave of those still 30 dear to them.
With every year the real Specification of this
observance has become coarser and more
blurred. At first in the wounded Overstrained
hearts of the survivors on both sides of the
conflict, our grief, triumph or defeat seemed
immortal. No sacrifice was ever like ours; no
heroes had ever laid down their lives with the
high purpose of our dead sons and brothers.
We went out reverently to their graves to
salute the sacred dead" to pay them deep
homage; we saw them IN our heated fancies
forever alive they "came TRANSPORTED back,
"secure from change, beautiful evermOre, and
with the rays of nom on their white shields
"Of expectation" They would be, we fOndly
hoped, forever undying, as was the cause for
which they died and our hate for their enemies
But in fifteen years any cause is apt TO grow old
and halt hate and love fade out, and grief for
the most beloved dead is. for the most part of
the day, forgotten. The flowers laid by weep
ing women on the bare graves have been re-
placed by bought wreaths and little flags car
ried in wagons and deposited by strangers amid
drum-beatlng, shouts, political haIangues, and
a gDod deal Of drunken ribaldry. Much more,
rs everybody knows, will be done 10 elect
Grant, Tilden, or some other candidate, to-
morrow, than to honor the dead. There arc
many men of loyal and deep feeling who, 10
doubt, remember with keen emotion the real
significance of the observance, and will go out
u pay respect to it; but the more loyal they
are, and the more true is their feeling, the
greater will DO their effort to put out of sight
the causes of the war, the hate and bitter
ness which we thought immortal.
Far be it from The TRIBUNE to throw any
disrespect upon Decoration Day, or to question
the propriety of It's observance. But, in the
name of decency, let it be kept out of the slough
of politics, if anything American can be kept out.
Do not let blatant ward politicians take even
the graves of Our dead as pedestals on which to
stand and thrust themselves into Office. 1t is
not likely that the fresh, keen regret with
which we mourned those dead should last. It
is not natural nor is it right that it should.
Neither is IL eApVuICHb Jllhb GilO IeUu DeJWetQ
North and South should be kept:up or renewed
in the minds of our children by incorporate
yearly declamations on the old quarrel, which
all good men hope to see healed over But it
is right that we and our children should look
back, now and then, with cool second thought
upon that terrible struggle which was real
enough to the Nation, while it lasted, to rend
body and soul apart, and reckon for ourselves
what led to it, what it gave to us, what that
gift cost, and how we shall keep the possession.
1t is right that the memory of those men who
gave their lives on both sides for an idea which
seemed to them most noble and true should be
kept for our children. They could have no
more helpful, sacred legacy. The days they
have been born in are not heroic; they are full
of fraud, corruption, bargain and sale. Men
are not now pushing to the battlefield to die
for an ideaj they are pushing into place.
Should the time of need'cOme, and the trumpet
sound for them to offer their lives for their
country or their religion, they will be just rs
ready to do it as we're these men on whose
graves we lay roses this morning, or any Others
Human nature bas tho same possibilities in
every ago, bus the outcome Of 1t in this is sordid