The National tribune., 1889-06-06
A REFRESHING CHANGE.


The Memorial Day address at Baltimore
of Gen. Cyrus Bussey, Assistant Secretary of
the Interior, was refreshing change from the
noisome utteranees of Rosser, Bradley John
son, Fitzhugh Lee ETC., to which the Balti-
moreans are accustomed. It was as like a
blast Of fresh, pure air into room filled
with unwholesome exhalations. His speech
-eminently appropriate to the day and
his audience-was as different from that
with which ex-Confederates are wont to re-
gale the citizens of that section as day is
from night They exalt treason and glorify
rebellion; they place the crown of the high
est honor on the head of the man who did
the most to destroy the Nation.
Gen. Bussey glorifed patriotism and made
loyalty to country and her institutions the
supreme duty of every man. He spoke in
no ambiguous way. Every word was fifty
spoken, and its meaning was as clear and
unmistakable as trumpet signal. He be-
gan by telling his hearers that Our Nation
is worth the patriotic service of every citizen
of this country. Are we going to hand down
this Nation better than we received it? To-
day on every battlefield were strewn flowers
as tributes to the memory of those who died
that we might have country. Two civil
izations were in this country, one in favor
of liberty and the other of an institution
that was blight and blot upon the Nation.
That produced war, and we fought on the
side of liberty"
That certainly presented the issue with
force and clearness. It stated what every
man who really loves his country believes,
and something which Rosser's rodomontade
or Bradley Johnson's sophistry cannot OBJ
scure. It is the great truth which was the
cornerstone of the Union cause He paid
his respects to Fitzhugh Lee and the recent
unwilling of a monuElent to the Confederate
dead at Alexandria, in these weighty words
of soberness and truth:
The other day, in Alexandria those who fought
on the other side assembled Is it due at this day
that they should glorify their cause? Those who
erected that monument know that those to whom
the monument was erected did not all die in the
discharge of their duty. There were hundreds
conseripted into that army who loyal TO the
Union as /. In Missouri and Arkansas 1 served,
and know who were conscripted there.
Seventy seven men were kept iog-chained in one
town in Arkansas for "a hours because they were
suspected of being loyal to the Union. They were
marched to the State Capital and given the choice
of being tried for treason enlistng in the Con-
federate army. They chose to enlist and after the
battle of Shiloh two only survived, such had been
their privations. Now l ask, could any one of
those 20 men lie under that monument in Alex
| andria? Go down to Andersonville in the Winter
of 1854 There was no shelter for the men in that
pen, and the prisoners had to walk all night to
keep from freezing to death. The scOundrels who
inaugurated that Andersonville prison know that
they could not sleep under that monument.
There is as much difference between the cause
for which they fought and the cause of the Union
| as between Heaven and hell. IAppause.l 1t is a
crime to teach the rising generation that there
anything in that cause TO lead 10 taking up arms.
If we are to put down anarchists must have one
flag. If these Confederate flags are to be brought
their flag. The time must come when there shall
be but one flag in this country, and the man who
comes here must give evidence that he loves that
flag before he is given the elective franchise.
Everywhere to-day men are holding up object
lessons. They the safeguards of the Nation.
There is more patriotism in the songs heard to-
day than in a standing army Of 100000 men. That
music will be known for generations. And we
know on which side it was sung. He is true
patriot who is in love with the flag. We go South
and see how it has blossomed as the rose under a
reconstructed and restored Government. 1t will
be we'll off the North when the citizens of the
South accord to every the right to vote and to
have his vote counted. If they cannot control the
colored mans vote In any other way, let them join
the colOred mans party and direct his vote. In
| Virginia. Carolina and Georgia there men who
are striking hands with anybody and everybody in
| efforts to build up that section. Let everybody
cease to worship the idols of the past.
| The time is approaching when every position in
this Government will be vacant, and the young
men should prepare to take those places. A man
who loves the Union will have better chance to oc-
cupy the Presidential chair than he who is attach
ed to that lost cause, which went to its unhallowed
| grave at Appomattox. My advice to the citizens Of
| Baltimore is to let the past bury It's dead. lAp.
/ plause.l