Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-05-31

years ago, brave men IIOI lAe MI III
and from the South stood facing each
other in hostile array, and the best
blood of the country was poured out
like water on many battlefield.
Thousands. hundreds of thousands Of
our brayest men sleep in bloody
graves; men who gave their lives TO
prove the faith of their convictions;
and now North and South, standing by
these graves. wherever they may be,
grasp hands across the bloody chasm,
and proudly claim Federal and Conted-
crate soldiers as Americans, men who
have given 10 the world as noble eX-
amples of courage and devotion TO duty
as can be enrolled on the page Of his
tory. Nor is this all that marks this
occasion as exceptional and remark
able. and which should render ii mem
orable i'm our annals for all time to
come No monument in the world has
such an honorable history as attaches
TO yonder one, that marks the graves
of no victorious soldiers, but f the fol-
lowers of a LIST cause; it stands not on
Southern soil, but on Northern; the
men who rest under It's shadow come
from our far-of Southland, and it
owes its erection not to the comrades
OF these dead soldiers, but mainly TO
the generosity and magnanimity of
their former foes, the citizens OF this
city. All honor, then, to the brave and
liberal men Of Chicago, VINO have
shown by their action that they regard
The war as over, and that they can well
come as friends on this solemn and
suspicious occasion,
THEIR FORMER ENEMIES.
As long as this lofty column points TO
heaven, as long as one stone of its
foundation remains, future generations
of Americans should look upon il with
pride, not only Us an honor to those
VINO conceived it's construction, but a
silent, though noble emblem Of a re
stored Union and a reunited people
In the name of my comrades, dead and
living, and in my own name, / give
grateful thanks to the brave men Of
Chicago who have done honor TO our
dead, not as Confederate soldiers. but
as brave men who preferred imprison-
ment and death rather than freedom
obtained by a dishonorable sacrifice Of
the principles for which they were will
ing 10 die.
OF the six thousand Confederates
buried here, not one was an officer all
were priya,es, in no way responsible
for the unhappy war which brought
an iliad Of woes upon our country, and
yet these humble private soldiers, any
one Of whom could have gained free
dom by taking the oath of allegiance
to the Federal Government, preferred
death TO the sacrifice of their princl-
pies. Can any possible dishonor attach
to the brave men Of Chicago because
they are willing to recognize the cour-
age and
THE DEVOTION TO DUTY
of these dead Confederates? Imagine.
If you can, my friends, the despair. the
horror of these poor prtvates, lingering
in prison and dying for their faith.
They died here, In what they looked
upon as foreign and hostile land far
from the land Of their birth, with no
tender hand Of mother or wife to
sOOthe their entrance into the dark val
ley Of the shadow OF death, and with all
The memories of their far off homes
and loving kindred to add the sharpest
pangs TO death itself They were true
men, and say if you please that they
were mistaken, that they were wrong.
no brave man on earth can fail to do
honor TO their courage and their
steadfaSt adherence 10 what they con-
ceived to be their duty, You, the
brave citizens of Chicago, in doing
honor TO their memory, honor your
selves and humanity.
We of the South measure orr dead
comrades buried by the standard ap-
piled to men after death, and you OF
Chicago have measured them by the
same standard, the only standard By
which we can measure men, and by app
plying this you have shown that you
have come TO the highest standard
vouchsated to man, and on this North
and South can stand, with honor alike
10 both sections
ARE ANY FEDERAL SOLDIERS
disloyal to the fleg under which they
fought because they join in decorating
the graves OF brave men whom they
met IN battle? Thousands of Federal
soldiers rest under Southern skyes, in
Southern graves, many in unknown
graves. And when, on Memorial Day
IN the South, when the graves OF our
dead are decorated, gray-headed Con-
fcderatc veterans and noble, devoted
women, strew flowers over the graves of
the Federal soldiers. If the humane,
generous action Of the people OF this
city in doing honor TO the memory OF
their old antagonists is denounced as
deseCTadOn, 1t would seem to follow
that the decoration of Federal graves
by Rebel hands, should be opened to
the same criticism, but no denunciatiOn
Of Southern people for daring to honor
the memory OF men who We're once
their enemies has met my eyes. Such
narrow and bigOtted feeling as would
prompt a discOrdont note on occasions
Of this sort are rarely found among
true men and brave soldiers, and /
have often thought that if the two
great captains who were engaged in
that death grapple in Virginia had been
left TO settle the terms Of peace, each
supported by his faithful followers, the
country
WOULD HAVE HAD PEACE,
indeed, one honorable alike to victor
and vanQuished, and which would have
prevented the evils brought about by
the politicians. AS it is, the South rec
OgnizeS and honors the magnimity of
General Grant towards our great chief,
General Lee. and deplores as an unmiti-
gated misfortune the assassination Of
Lincoln ! repeat emphatically that
the untimely death of President Lin
coin was regarded by all thoughtful
men of the South as one OF the most