The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-12-07
WHAT DOES 1T MEAN

WHAT DOES IT MEANr
IL is exceedingly difficult for us Of IL
North torealize just what is the preser
attitude OF the Sonth toward that oil
question OF secession that was submitte
to the awful arbi:rament of war, an
there settled, as it was supposed.
1t can scarcely have escaped the obsel
walton of attentive readers of Southern
papers that the disposition to defend an,
Justify the position of the South in th
war has become more prominent an,
more frequently and strongly expressed
IL creeps into journals that woul,
naturally be acquitted of entertainin.
sentiments that verge so perilously neal
to outspoken treason. In the Atianti
Constitution, one of the three or foul
! aDlest papers in all the South and one OF
the most readable and interesting jour
hais III the country, not longer ago than
last sunday occurs this, which is only
to be read to elicit astonishment
Our old soldiers who fought with Lee and
"'N iiiiHE up lntlf neNuS with the
glad assurance that their mother state H.
going TO stand by them, even as they stood by
iHer ner when they marched with bleeding feet
through the SHOWS of Virginia and faced
Sherinan's rain of fire around Atlanta
our Old soldiers are safe The proudest
anu anu most prosperous commonwealth in the
S0uth fQrgets none of her debts and least of
all the debts OF gratitude and patriotism She
clasps her Old heroes To her bosom.
The Georgia General Assembly votes
to-day upon proposition to appropriate
money to support home for Confeder-
ate soldiers who are objects of charity
now.
Not much can be said against any
generous project for the care of its
worthy INDECENT citizens by a state. If
the Southern states based their argu-
ments for the care of old Confederate
soldiers upon the ground that the mis-
taken zeal that impelled them to fight
against the Union was mistake for
mally shared by the state as political
whole and that therefore the conseauen-
ces should be borne by the state as a
whole, the situation would be logical
and honorable to the state. To insist.
and insist with fervor and eloquent en-
,husiasm, that the debt owed TO these |
ndigent old soldiers by the state is n
lebt of gratitude and PATRIOTISM as
he Constitution declares, is to carry the
more than thirty years into
he past.
such an attitude cannot be understood
ere at the North unless it is interpret
d to mean that the motive of secession
'as patriotic one, and that the men
mo fought for it are now to be consid-
red as patriots. A patriot is person
no loves his country and is devoted 70
nat which truly tends to his countrv's
nifty and glory. The secessionists
ught to disrupt their country-what
as their country when they sought 70
vide it and what has been their conn.
y since they were forced to abandon
cir purpose. For many years thev
We been protesting loyalty to the gov
as it has been preserved from !
cir attacks. and have been protesting e
at they were satisfied that the result
the war was for their own best good =
is not easy to estimate the Importance h
the meaning of the rise of secession g
ltiment in the South.
n view of the fact that utterances of is
lilar import to those quoted from the IL
Institution o.day and from an alleoed r'
story of the United States" yester-
:, are far from infrequent or uncom. "
n 1T strikes us that it is time that ~ ~
he adequate explanation is made bv "
hority. 1t might be well for the
lstitution itself to explain how II 81
lie to apply the term patriotism TO
4 who fought to destroy their conn.
and just what it means when il de- ~; uj
es that the state of Georgia owes
sc men n debt of gratitude. Sucb
frances sound very much like trea.