Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-24
COurtesies Between Old Soldiers.


A Northern paper publishes the fol-
lowing:
"The Society of the Army of the
Cumberland for the Northwest at its last
meeting decided to attend the reunion to
be held in Milwaukee, Wis, September
20 and p, and directed its secretaries to
extend through the press an invitation to
all former members of the Army of the
Cumberland to meet with the society at
Room No Grand Pacific Hotel, at g.
o. m, August Is, at which meeting re-
ports from the various committees are
expected, also the transaction Of such
other business as may be thought neces-
sary to make this reunion worthy OF the
men and the history it represents. An
invitation has been extended to members
of the late Confederate Army to join IN
the reunion.
How different the spirit manifested in
this invitation from veterans of the Fed
eral cause during the war to their oppo-
nents in arms-the late champions of the
Lost Cause-to that shown by Radical
leaders and the Radical press? Here is
a body of men who took their lives in
their hands and went forth to brave the
perils of war, and who met upon bloody
fields foe determined to battle with
them to the death for cause believed
to be right and sacred. How well these
two armies fought the decimated ranks
on both sides too plainly told, and surely
it would seem most natural that if any
i'll feeling remained in the country it
would be among those who, but a few
years since, were actively engaged in the
terrible task of slaughtering each other.
But here we are presented with practical
proof of the fact that such is
not the case. The Society of the Army
of the Cumberland desire, of course, to
maintain old associations and old remi-
niscences, but there is no malice in such
desire. They do not wish to meet to-
gether for the purpose of keeping alive
sectional hate and reviling the ''rebels"
who dared oppose their onward march
into a country which those same rebels
deemed their own, and felt it their duty
to defend against invasion with their last
drop of blood. They meet to recall the
past only as they played part in its
history, and they take special pains to
show that they have no intention of
cherishing old feuds, or of boastfully
clarifying over defeated but gallant foe,
by extending a cordial invitation to
members of the late Confederate army
to participate with them in their reunion.
There is something brave and manly
in this, and it shows most plainly that
had the settlement of political affairs il
the country been left only to the old
soldiers who. fought, pacifcation would
long since have been complete. Sec
tional hate and bad blood would years
ago have been forgotten. Yankee
and ''rebel" would not now, nearly two
decades since the conflict ended, be
banded about as terms of contempt and
reproach, and to day the men of the
North and South would be heartily
striving together to forget the animosi
ties of the past and to advance
the mutual interests of both sections.
Unfortunately, however, this is not the
case and will not be the case while the
Republican party exists and is power
in the country Abolish sectional hate,
and that party must perish since it will
be deprived of the very food upon which
it feeds. While the Conklings, the
Robesons, the Blaines and the malignant
Radical press of the country live and ply
their vocation as paTtisans and poll
ticians, so long will efforts to poison the
minds of the people of the North against
the "semi- barbarous, "rebellious" and
solid South" be persisted in.
But if the soldiers North and South
determine to take matters in their own
hands. the malignant fabricatiOns and
falsehoods of the Republican leaders and
press of the North against the South will
soon lose their influence. The men who
did the fighting on both sides know and
respect each other, and if they shake
hands across the bloody chasm, the out
bursts of the non combatants. who stayed
in safe hiding until the conflict was end
ed. will speedily be rated at their true
value. 1t is TO be hoped, then, that this
invitation of the Society of the Army OF
the Cumberland to the ex Confederate
soldiers to meet with and join them in
smoking the pipe of peace, may be &C
cepted as cordially as it is extended. By
so doing the ignorant and credulous dupes
of ambitious politicians who have here
tofore thoughtlessly. allowed themselves
to be carried away by prejudices aroused
by the eloquent words and willy tongues
of their political leaders, will have their
eyes opened. When they see old antago-
nists in arms meeting on terms of amity,
and holding friendly converse together,
they must arrive at the conclusion, II
they think for themselves at all, that if
the South is the rebellious and traitorous
region which they have been accustomed
to hear about, men who were formerly
personally active in suppressing what
they considered rebellion do not believe
her to be so. Let the people of the
country-the voting masses-but be
as thoroughly convinced of the falsity
of the misrepresentation of the enemies
of the South as are the veterans of the
civil war, and the party of hate will dis
appear as mist before the sun, while the
Union will be established at length on
the only basis upon which it can be
made substantial, permanent and truly
glorious-thorOugh friendship and per
feet harmony throughout all sections.
There is some food for solid reflection
in the following from the Hartford
Tines
Senator Ben Hill died comparatively
poor, 'Secor' Robson and John Sher-
man made life at Washington pay
they are millionaires, and they aren't