New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-05-30

ness unwiscy as THE TRIBUNE sara ot inc
time. We thought then and still think that
the day should have been left matter OF
feeling and voluntary and spontaneous oDserv-
ance, not enforced as "A practical legal Doii-
day. In the South, where the war, especially
in rural districts, is still the principal topic OF
talk and Of morbid feeling. there is, we under
stand, much sClemnity in the ceremonies. Even
in cases where with true Southern generosity
the graves Of the Northern dead are decorated
by their old foes there is n heart burning con-
seriousness Of the greatness of the generosity.
But in the active North the war has long been
matter of the past. 1t seems much more I'M
portant to the Ovcrworled clerk or labOrer
that he should have a breath Of fresh air and
bit Of fun on bis rare holiday than that he
should weep over graves of men OF whom he
knows nothing, and who probably died when
ne was a boy. 1t is not at all the worst regret
that Regret can die. There are very few
graves covered with grass for eighteen years
which are ever wet with tears, and it is fortu-
nate that it is so. Human nature has its mex
orable avs of forgetiulness and growth and
they will not be changed by any Act of Con-
grcss.
Yet if the individual memory of the dead
soldiers has faded, it would no doubt be Il
wholesome lesson to future generations to pay
natural homage to them as men who died for a
great cause which they deemed just. The
Passover and the Fourth of July have made
the Hebrew more a Hebrew and the American
n more bigOted American. But in that case,
why should not the graves of Revolutionary
and all other heroes be decorated to-day as
well as those of the Civil Warl Why, too, in
any case should the occasion be used, as 1t
has been for years in both sections, IA an eX-
cuso for political harangues of the basest sort 7
The average American, though he may care
nothing personally for the dead heroes or the
cause for which they died, has usually too
mucn good taste or decent feeling to want to
hear party dia;ribes over any mans grave ;
hence he turns the sO-Called day Of mourning
into one of private junkctng. The whole
business rs managed at present is pitlable
mockcry. If we are to keep 10 the ceremony
Of mourning, let lis at least assume the air Of
mourning and have done with politics and
fcasting; but if the day Is to be kept as a
feast, the only way to give it significance would
be to invite some OF our ancient foes to keep 1t
with us and 50 make 1t a festival for recOncilH-
tion. There is no use in any case IN an attempt
e. keep up the bitterness either OF rancor or of
grief. Let us honor al of our great dead next
year, whether they have served their country
and day on the battlefield or III science or art.
with the sword or the pen. The war which set
brothers face to face to murder each other was
q savage necessity there Is no reason why II
should be exalted rs the enc occasion on which
Americans have proved themselves heroic or
have nODly died.
Another point: A great deal of fustian sent-
ment will be talked to-day IN both North and
South about the brotherly love which should
exist between the two sections 1t Is very
poor quality OF brotherly love which grows out
of talk or speech-makng. That Tuit Is the
product in nations Of mutual interest. Tie
Southcrner sided with the SOutherner in 1851
not because they were OF the same blood. for
they were not, but because their crops, invest
ments in negroes, politics and social aims were
the same. The SOuthcrneT will be at ore with
the NOrtherner in 1SS2 just in proportion as
their capital and Interests and consequently
social ties coincide. Every cotton mill wholly
or partially built by money from New-IOrk IN
Georgia, every iron foundry opened by Penn
sylvanians in Alabama, will do more to rees
tabish the Union on an imperishable basis
than a mint iull Of counterfeit sentiment paid
out 10 win votes.