The Press., 1888-12-13
THE MEN WHO FOUGHT.
WHAT VERMONT SOLDIER SAYS OF THE
 Ex-CoNFEDERATEs.

At recent meeting of officers of Yer mont's war regiments at Montpelier, Gap tain Fl. c. Parsons, of Natural Bridge, formerly of the First Vermont cavalry, was called up and made a noticeable speech He said
 For nearly quarter of century my whole association has been with the men who fought on the other side. look back upon the part took in the war, and it was not great part, as a troubled dream.
 Difficult as 1t may make my speech here, and somewhat strange, have per- haps been able to judge more correctly than you of the conditions upon the other side of the drift of sentiment; of the calmer judgment; of the shaping and forming of public opinion.
 know as no one can understand who has not been with the southern people in their distress, the terrible condition in which the south was left at the close of the war, and the bitterness of soul of the common soldier who returned from con- test in which he had little at stake, who had been ruined and whose hopes had been destroyed. If you would really un- derstand the people of the south you must separate the confederate government from the confederate army. In the war in which they suffered and sacrificed so much there were scenes to which the confederate sol dier will return while he lives with tender est and strongest emotion. He may never admit publicly that it was bad cause j; he will never admit that it was bad fight | ing. Strange as it may seem to you to- night, say in this presence that the next alliance which is to control the politics of the future and the destiny of the nation Is between the union soldiers and the con- federate soldiers.
 You must come, my friends, to consider the southern confederacy one thing, the southern army another. When you read the report of the celebration at Macon you doubtless thought you saw a people who were glorifying a cause that was not lost, flaming the embers of a fire that was not dead. saw there a people who were 1 burying the emblems of dead cause 10 be laid away for ever like the baubles of a dead child.
 If any of you were at the Pickett process sion in Richmond the other day, you were outraged by seeing the Pennsylvania re- ing behind rebel flag, and may say the true soldiers of the south looked on with amazement, and yet the unfurling of that old flag had different significance from what you saw. What other flag could they unfurl? They could not carry the stars and stripes, or haul it at half mast, when, the statue of one who had fought against the flag was being unveiled.
 I saw the bannerless procession that passed to the mausoleum of Lee, and the mighty gathering of people for the cere- monial ill town over which no ftg could float, and I know the largest sense of deso- lation, out of which the unfortunate sug- gestion of unfurling the confederate flag for the Pickett procession came, and if could not sympathize with the purpose I could look on with sorrow.
 And in these bygone years of suffering, when that people have been groping their way out from the falling walls and the i'm penetrablc shadows of an old civilization, I confess that while have not abated one jot of my loyalty to my country or of my love for my comrades, have yet found strong sympathy with men who offered their lives to lost cause who gave every thing and lost everything. In the great struggle the north preserved everything, including its manhood. The south lost everything except its manhood.
 have looked forward to the time when a common plaIe could be found on which these fighting men could keep step and one line of march. Ibcleve that in Gods providence, the time and opport un ty have come. We are people of a common an- cestry and common destiny. We have the same love of family, the same love ot country. We kneel at the same altars, and pray to the same same God for common blessings. The shadow which rests on the lakes must~r rest on the gulf, and the pros- perify that is coming must send its light through all our borders. l remember to- night, after sll the mistakes and misun- derstandiugs and the awful cost of recon when he was taunted with having no poll cy: II would make every man ill the south feel both in his pocket and in his heart that it was better for him that the war ended as it did"
 In your sympathy for the slave, you have perh ps forgotten that there never yet was q chain that bound slave, that did not also bind and drag down the mas- ter. No one Can doubt the terrlb curse of the degradation of labor, rested on the mas: CT class and destroyed it.. Whether Lincoln's proclamation gave equality to the black man may be doubted, but this is true, 1t destroyed caste distinctions ill the south, and made the majority of the non- slave holding class,-the majority of the white men,-free and equal, with an equal place in society, right to vote for office, and for power When you have come to understand this you will see the 4ignif- canoe of gfeat events and the meaning of the revolution which has burst forth, and will d. stroy the solid south.