The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-01-06
TEE EoRTH AND TIE soUTH.

1 loHibS'
"The day had come, he said. when no i'll
| feeling should exist between the North and
4 South. The rebels should be respected for
| the bravery they showed in fighting for
| wrong cause, but as long as the people OF the
South remained loyal to the government they
| should be regarded as brothers, and treated as
| SUCH"
With the highest respect to gallant sol
der and an honorable citizen, we beg to say
that such talk in such place, and under
the circumstances, is the merest platitude, If
not worse. What occasion is there for an
Union soldier to address a post of his COM
rades and tell them that 'the day for i'll feel
ing between the North and South has passed"
and that 'the people of the South should be
treated as brothers" so long as they remain
loyal? Is there member of Geo. n Thomas
Post, to whom Colonel Blacks words were ad-
dressed, who harbors the faintest shadow Of
ill feeling" toward any man, woman or child
in the South, particularly toward any "loyap
man, woman or child9 Was there ever
time even in the fercest heat of war,
when a mere feeling of personal hatred
existed in the heart of any Northern soldier
against rebel2 Did not picket lines coalesce
in the hottest days, and was ever honor
able Union soldier found who maltreated
rebel soldier from wanton personal malicef
Was the Union army made up of men who
knew no higher motive and were moved by no
broader principle than 'ill feeling toward
either "the South" or the people of the SouthP
Did ever any one hear of representative
Union soldier expressing sentiments of per-
sonal hostility toward the Southern peoplef
Read the history of any battle, and let US have
the facts that show there was ever day when
there was ell feeling" between the North and
South, so far as the North was concernedf
Did such feeling appear when Lee
rendered to Grant at Appomattox; when the
conqueror gave to every soldier the horse or
mule he owned, and issued 25 900 rations
from his own commissary to feed the starv-
ing confederates2 Is there any instance
to show that in the prison camps in the
Northern States Southern soldiers were
subjected to unsoldierly treatment born of
'fll feeling" on the part of their guards9 It
is piece of meaningless cant into which
many people have thoughtlessy fallen, to
talk as Colonel Black is reported to have
done, but it is cant that is nevertheless dan
gerously misleading, tending to the develop
ment of false public sentiment and still
further decline in hearty, robust, healthful
manhood among the people of the North.
The soldiers of the Union army were not
actuated by any ell feeling" toward 'the
South" or toward its people, when they took
up arms to maintain the government and
preserve the Union and they are not actuated
by any such feeling now. They were actuated
by sentiments of exalted patriotism, which
went far above and beyond any personal
contentious. They regarded as the only enemy
they sought to destroy the cause and the
principles behind the lines of brave and
courageous in gray, and when the
cause failed blue and gray melted into one
common brotherhood. We will not attempt
to say whether the feeling of the people of the
matter of history. both before, during and
after the war. But the North can well afford
to maintain its magnani nifty, and can heartily
allow bygones to be bygones in that matter, so
far as we are concerned.
What we have said as to the feeling of the
soldiers of the Union army is true, also, as to
the feeling of the people of the North, without
notable exception. No ell feeling" was man
ifested toward the South in any .regard. His |
tory is dumb with establishment. and the fut-
ho will he
nanimity of the government toward the rebels. |
Not life taken, not an estate confscated, |
not a hardship imposed: the only man not |
fully rehabilitated in citizenship is SO by his |
own choice. Within twenty years after the |
war closed, by virtue of the measures put up
on the statute book by those who are charged |
with holding gill feeling" the men who
were in against the government are
now in virtual control of its principal
departments. Is it the North or the South |
that is engaged to-day in perpetuating "sec-
tionalism" and in stimulating i'll feeling, if
there is to be any9 Who is it that is con-
stantly and Extensively Wanting the cause"
for which they fought? Who is hostile to
the results of the war? Who refuses to bury
the past. and continues to stand in the way
of perfect homogeneity the basis of the
principles presumed to be dominant in the
arbitrament of armsY It is high time the
people of the North were done with apologize
advice to stop hurting the feelings of the
South. 1t is high time the solid, earnest,
Gods truth about the whole business were
being told and retold by every speaker in the
North, around every Grand Army campfire,
and on every husting-that the people of the
North respect the bravery of the men who
died for wrong cause; that there is no "ill
feeling" on their part TO be buried, as there is