The Portland daily press., 1886-04-02
NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
Rnstnn TRANSCRIPT
A RUSIBLING THROUGH THE SOUTH.
Ann11cta Chrnninla
The soIdiers's Monument.

To the Editor OF the HTeSS.
The CITY government has been pettioned
to give Market Square to the Portland Sol
diers' and Sailors Monument Association,
and action thereupon is deferred until the
next regular meeting.
It's the proper time now for tax payers to
defend their rights, and for lovers of art to
prevent the preparation of an act of folly,
but only wish to ask our city fathers to
make personal inquiry of those citizens and
soldiers, whose opinions are valuable, and to
be deaf to a clamor that will subside if firmly
resisted.
We all know how easy it is to manufacture
public opinion when the public has no de-
cded opinion of its own. Our citizens very
properly wish to do something in memory of
the soldiers, and to show that republics are
not always ungrateful. Believing that the
veterans demand it they are willing to make
a sacrifice which is not necessary, and which
many Of our best citizens strongly oppose. 1t
is true that a great many have been made to
say that they want Old City Hall torn down
and replaced by monument, but | affirm it
as my belief, based upon observation, that
this is not their real heartfelt desire; and l
know many of our best soldiers and those
who were their best friends in the dark days,
are Indifferent or decidedly opposed to the
change. Yet they do not care to face the
current of what they suppose to be public
opinion.
If the soldiers had wanted a monument it
would have been built so long ago as to be
rusty and unsightly now.
Since the war we have had regimental,
State and G. A. r. reunions, fairs, sham
G-.l.L Il n a. Ia oil In
soldiers have been chief actors, and they
have fairly shaken up this quiet old town by
their enthusiastic treatment of the matter in
hand. Compared with these how slight has
been their interest in the monument Had
it not been for the efforts of few, and the
mistaken idea that we are perpetuating the
memory of the soldiers the project would
have come to naught long ago.
AS | look at it, it was blunder at the out
set to attempt monument. Ii there had
been distlnctlvely Portland regiment or
Portland ship that had won fame, or ii Port
land had been the place of a battle as We're
Baltimore and New Orleans in the 1872 War
the case would be different Nor were there
any from Portland who were SO superior to the
average soldier in the exhibition OF genius or
valor, as to deserve monument in public
square.
To soldier who has actually fought and
suffered there is nothing so dear as the mem
ory of his old regiment or battery or ship,
and of the individual comrades with whom
he marched and fought. Portland did not
send men to the war as Portlanders; the
larger part of us were members OF some for
ty regiments, ETC., of the State of Maine.
And so far as we had any pride Of locality
we were Maine boys; but even then we were
vastly more proud of our brigade and army
corps. We were the Fifth Maine regiment
of the Bloody Sixth Corps, the Seventeenth
Maine of the Third Corps, and so on. There
is nothing so dear as the recollection of
events centering in our regiment. We cared
little for Portland while the war was going
on.
Itwas natural, therefore, for the men of
the Doth Maine to build monument on Lit
tie Round Top Gettysburg to commemorate
their dead who fell there And | hope l
may live till have seen something placed in
memory of the men of my dear old regiment
Q-1029) who have fallen (niany of them so
needlessly), but the monument should be in
Virginia, not in Portland and the Portland
ers thus remembered will be sons of Maine,
notsof Portland. 1t is straining things, con-
sidering the facts, to build a monument for
Portlanders (as SUCH or to place it inside the
busy town. The Indifference of the soldiers
to the proposed monument is entirely natural
and right, and here / remark that OF the
hundreds | have questioned / find the real
veterans who fought long and hard are the
ones who are the least for a monument in the
Square, or anywhere else. 1t is the fuss
and feather fellows, the non-combatants
and Home Guards, who are so nightly en-
thusiastic to tear down Old City Hall. In
saying this 1 do not forget that there are
some old soldiers who want the monument in
the Square, nor do wish to slur the COM
mittee who have worked hard in poor
cause
If the citizens of Portland feel grateful to
those of her people who fought, suffered or
died, and wish to honor them and keep them
in the memory of coming generations, they
can do three things better than to tear down
a historic hall a They can publish his
tory of those men; ~ they can build me-
mortal hall; or 81 they can make their
graves more conspicuous.
Possibly it is too late now to attempt the
first. The project of a memorial hall was
ably presented by Gen. Shepley years ago.
A hall could now be filled with relics; these,
with uniforms, arms, accoutrements, tents,
wagons, etc., ETC., peculiar to the rebellion,
would have great historical value, and be
thousand times more instructive to future
generations than all the monuments in pub
lie squares that can be devised. AS for the
graves of the dead, shall not undertake to
tell my feelings as | walk through the ceme-
teries around our city. Thanks to the Grand
Army and Sons of Veterans, our dead will
probably be marked with cotton flag and
pine stick for some years to come.
And now if Portland wishes to commit an
act of consummate folly, let her neglect the
graves of her heroes, and build monument
for the benefit of her loafers, peddlers and
dogs. JOHN M. GOULD.