The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-05-29
THE GREATER MISSION OF MEMORIAL DAY.


In an address a few evenings since
Gen. Lew Wallace set forth the danger
which turks in a sentiment that the
future welfare of the Nation makes it
necessary to say as little as possible in
history and to set up as few mementoes
as possible to recall the terrible war
which for four years cOnvulsed this
country to establish the idea of nation
atty. The warning is a timely one. 1t
is essential to the future stability of the
Republic that future generations should
understand the issues involved in that
struggle. the magnitude of the war and
the patriotism of the people. to the end
that it may be understood for all time
that the masses of the Republic can be
relied upon to maintain the gov
eminent of the United States. Such
truthful and full relation of the
facts of history need not reflect up
on the masses in the South. Until
the leaders precipitated war by assailing
Fort Sumter. a clear majority of the
people of the South, except in South
Carolina, Louisiana and one or two
other States, was against secession. If
it were otherwise the men in the North
who believe that the truth about that
great crisis in the life of the Nation
should not be forgotten, do not propose
that the history of that period shall be
devoted to the denupciation of the
Southern people who were led to fight
against the Nation and it's government.
What they propose to emphasize is the
vastness of the struggle, the patriotism
and endurance of the masses in the
North, and the infinite Importance Ofthe
result upon civilization and human
progress, and that the fate OF the rebel
lion shall be a warning. They propose,
further, that the issues involved shall
not be lost sight Of and that the recent
attempts of Southern writer's to make it
appear that the rebellion was not the
result of q failure to make slavery ma
tiOnal, but to MAINTAIN the principle of
popular self-government in the States
shall not prevail. Already a timid senti-
mentalism has condensed the history of
the war for the Union into a space no
greater than is given to the Mexican war
in some of the histories which are pre-
pared for public schools, while the treat
ment of the subject is so colorless that a
grandfather was n Union soldier will be
left in doubt whether or not Jefferson
Davis was not as great a character as
Abraham Lincoln. The greater mission of
Memorial day is to see that the impor-
lance of the war for the Union is not
lost sight of. that the value of the price
less heritage which the establishment
and preservation of this gOvernmenthas
involved shall be impressed upon the
| minds of those to whom those years of
blood and agony are history. To that
end the exercises of Memorial day should
be directed.
In this connection it may be added
that, upon mature reflection, those peo-
pie who thought with General Wallace,
during the war, ands who yet recall the
patriotic devotion of the majority in In
diana during the val years, will con-
| clude with him that Indiana was great
| enough in that struggle to have a mon
ument devoted entirely to that period.
But one State sent as large a percentage
of it's sons into the Union armies as did
Indiana. Wherever her name was
borne upon q battle-tlag it was carried
in the front line. These proud facts
the Indiana soldiers monument should
teach and emphasize in ali the years to
come. To place other historical char
acters about the monument will tend to
confuse and to detract from the i'm pOr-
lance Of the event which the monument
is designed to enforce. To surround it
with the statues of men of other times
will lead the visitor to infer that lndi-
ana did not do enough and had not
enough of personality in the war to
round out the State memorial of that
period. The purpose of the monument
is to tell the proud story of Indiana in
the greatest of all national crises, and if
the source and inspiration of that story
is to be told in s%tatuary, let the enlisted
man, standing at ready" be the figure
selected.