The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-23
Let the bloody shirt wave.

The New Orleans Picayune has this re-
freshing paragraph:
1.-THE Baltimore Sun thinks that if the
historic battlefieids of the civil war are
to be turned into national parks, 1t should
be done in such a manner as not to perpet-
, pate the he, bloody FAts sss 5Ss,ra and en aYa i thinks sss-
could be reached by making parks of the
battleields of Manassas, of the seven
burg, and other fields whereon the Con-
federates won victories, as well as of those
where the Union armies prevailed"
One would expect such a sentiment to
issue from a city that furnished a mob,
too cowardly to fight in the open, who from
ambush attacked union soldiers on their
way to the defense of the Union.
This mawkish 'effortsto please and placate
the Confederates has grown in the North
until Southern papers are emboldened to
publish such ideas. And there are fools
up North who pose as friends of the Union
that would gladly carry out the idea of
making national parks of the battlefields
where black treason triumphed. We must
be, oh! so careful not o call the late
enemies of the Union rebels, we must
alter our school histories so as not to
hurt their feelings-by the way, Professor
Fiske mas considerably suppressed the fact
from his new history that jackson was
shot by one of his own men-and we must
coddle and cater TO the heroes VINO starved
Northern soldiers in Southern prison pens.
Bah! how sickening!
1 happened to be one of a party of Re
publican editors who made a trip through
the South three or four years ago. To
our faces the ex-Confederates were lavish
with the ostentatious hospitality which is
the boast of the Southerner, but behind our
backs they muttered their sentiments of
hate. Fitz Hugh Lee addressed the party
mentalists who fairly wept over his gra-
cious words, the burthen of which was:
w graciously let you whip us, but we
are willing to forgive you" 1t was every
where the same in Dixie, rebels glorying in
their shame and Northern fools encouraging
them to do it until 1t was a relief to get
back to Washington and hear Gen. Edward
S. Meyer, a brave Union officer who was
shot all to pieces during the war, wave
Do you know how that bloody shirt ex-
preston originated? Well, it had its origin
among the Malta cutthroats. 1t was the
front his murderer with a view of his
bloody shirt, and il the accused quailed
before before the ne spectacle 4 was was t CONSIDERED h5eped
shirt was to remind the assassin of his
guilt. Instead of that, our Southern Gains
have us bedeck the murderer with garlands
and praise his heroism.
The fostering of patriotism has become
a laudable fashion, and the stars and
stripes float from school yards and school
houses. Quite as great a service could be
done lone by incnieaiing IN th the yd punlic be mi1d a
and the mawkish Northern admirer or
rebels be reminded that they were rebels!
that they fought in defense of the crime
of slavery which gave them a life of ease
and laziness: that they stopped to all the
lowest tricks that warfare ever knew;
that hate and revenge made them
starve thousands of brave soldiers in prison
pens; that but for the generosity of their
induigent conquerors their leaders would
have met merited death and every rebel
would have been di~sfranchised as punish
ment for his treason. If the proper ap-
probation of the crime of treason had
been inculcated it would require a great
deal of hardihood for a Southerner, even
at this late day. to confess that he was
a Confederate soldier and he would do
it with a blush of shame instead of the
spirit of Wanting which he now nanifests.
Indianapolis, April %. NJ. x. NJ.