Connecticut western news., 1880-06-16
Decorative Mem Orials

ED. NEws:-In the NEWS of June 9th prominently noticeable is an article under the caption of Decoration Day." advocating the adorning of the graves of those who fell fight ing against the Union, as well as the memo rial decoration of the men who died to save in all her pristine glory and strength, our Re- public. The author, in a moment of enthu- siasm, pleads for the abolishment of section al feeling, as between north and south, "' speaks of the discomfort of partisan speech es and political acts," and believes that "re- membranes and thoughts of other days should be the strong incentive of brotherly love-" concluding by reference to the southern chiyalry, "who fought for the liberties we now cherish so dearly" Our remembrance es and thoughts' are, that from the initiating of the Federal Government Hthe chivalrous sons of South Carolina had been noted for their restive and troublesome temper. Not only among the most tardy and unwilling of the States to assent in approval of the Feder- al Constitution, but they had an erroneous and exaggerated valuation of their importance in the Union, and in all the troubles which had worried or estranged the different quar- ters of the land, in all contentious in the Con gressional Legislature which had threatened the cohesion of the Union, they had been conspicuously and notoriously prominent. The people of South Carolina, although not entirely accountable for the origination and subsequent perpetration of the rebellion, were nevertheless the prime instgators; in their bosoms were sown the first seeds of discord which grew 10 that greatest of calamities nation can be called upon to bear-the hor- TOTS of civil war Shall we then wreathe garlands for the men who wore the grey, hon. bring them alike with "our brave boys in blue ?" Shall we eulogize the memory of the "chivalrous sons" who fought against the ''dear old fag?" Where, think you, that flag would wave to-day had the southern chivalry conquered? The beautiful stars and stripes so dear to us, the colors which to every tor eigDer and alien speak of equality and free dom, would be trailing in the dust of an igno- minious Past, torn, beaten thing remot. ed, for the palmetto branch, by the unloyal hands who sought to overthrow the supreme power of our nation. When petted, spoiled and troublesome child, coveting some object withheld by judicious mother, turns, with dangerous menace or murderous intent to harm that parent, is he approved and lauded, his memory cherished and sung in after years? Nay, is he not the rather, scorned, and summed? Is he not a traitor, and as such allowed to sleep in dishonored silence in the traitors grave? Let us have no more of thls morbid sentimentalisn. Honor the braves who gave their lives to save the integrity of the Nation. Forgotten be the men who fought for the maintenance of state rights as paramount to the authority of the Federal Government Twine the laurel, chant the re- quiem, sound the muffled drum in yearly con- memoration of our martyred dead, but ask us not to mingle our tears and prayers with chose who were false to their country and false to the God through whose instrumental ity and divine aid the threatened ruin of our American Republic was ayerted.
 EsTA GARNETr
 Troy, N. Y, June 10, 1880.