Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-12-19
To Care for The Confederate Dead.

L
ence has produced unbounded enthusi-
asm and has been the occasion Of UNI
nrecedented demonstrations of loyalty.
He. has won the heart of the South as
no President has won 1t for two score
years. His unfailing faculty for say
ing the right thing in the right way at
the right time has never been more
happily demonstrated than it was Yin
his brief but eloquent and inspiring adj
dress TO the assembled houses of the
Georgia Legislature, and later i'm his
other speeches at Atlanta, Tuskegee
land Montgomery. His utterances were
in perfect tune with the spirit of re-
joicing to which Atlanta has given
such noble expression in f1er great
peace Jubilee; they thrilled with the
rugged patriotism which has but re-
Gently achieved new triumphs on land
and sea, and in both phrase and senti-
-nent, as we'll as in dignity and force.
pthey responded to the highest STAN
dards of American oratory.
The one utterance above all others
(which appealed to the South and is
winning most favorable comment from
|all over the land was that in regard to
the heroes who died in the cause of the
FSohth. Addressing himself to the peo-
Die of the South in praise of their 10y
Ialty, their patience, yalor and achieve
ments, he concluded with this signiti-
cant expression: THE time mas now
come, in the evolution of sentiment
and feeling, under the providence of
God, when, in the spirit of fraternity,
we should share with you in the care
Of the graves of the Confederate SOL
diers''
That was a noble thought we'll ut
tered. That message has been in the
heart of the North for more than de-
cade 1t had to be spoken some time
by somebody. What better time than
now, when the nation stands forth like
a giant, conscious of its power and
flushed with the glory of honorable
success in a war in which every en-
gngement was victory? Who SO fit
10 speak it as William Mckinley, the
so1dier-statesman who mas been true to
every trust in war and peace? And
what better place than the capital city
of Georgia, in the presence of aged
veterans of the Confederate battalons:
This speech signalizes the triumph OF
peace.
From the very outbreak of the war
with Spain the country has witnessed
continuous succession of dramatic in
cidents is the grand reunion of the re-
public. The call to arms sounded the
death knell of sectionalism. The an
cient line of division between the North
and the South disappeared in might.
The veterans of the old Union army
and their former adversaries of the
Confederacy clasped hands and pledged
themselves and their sons to the cause
of the Union. "Yank" and Johnny
Rtlb" got their fighting clothes on and
marched forward shoulder to shoulder
under the same flag ito do battle IN
common cause. The victory of Dewey
of Vermont, had it's echo in the daring
of Hobson, of Alabama. Lee, of Vir-
ginia, named a grandson of Grant as
Ehne of his aides. General Wheeler, the
ESdeal cavalryman of the Confederacy,
fought side by side with Roosevelt, of
New York, at San Juan, and from the
beginning of the conflict TO the end
i-tnere was an almost unbroken series Of
picturesque incidents to illustrate the
fraternal unity Of the. sons of the re-
public in defense of the flag. The eli
| max of these events was the speech Of
President Mckinley at~Atlanta.
This is the time for the nation to be
| charitable and to do tardy justice to
those who wore the gray. Let the
! Confederate celhe terles FDe@tne nalion :
care. The men Who sleep the long
sleep under those mounds We're Amerl-
cans of heroic mould. They fought TO,
their convictions and for their homes
lie. us forget all else, and renembe'
only their valor and their loyalty tt
their cause. Let the Confederate flags
be returned The South is as loyal
today, to the flag OF the Union as is
the North, but those old battle flags o.
a generation ago are priceless for thei'
associations, relics to be forever cher
Iished in the South because the blood 81
loved ones consecrated their statteret
lfolds Let the positions of the Confed
crate armies be marked ON the battle
fields as those of the Northern armie:
have been. Let the graves of those
who wore the gray be carefully pre-
served and marked and covered will
The flowers of love and hope which arr
brought by each succeeding spring. il
this way the true greatness of tn
| American rpDublic will be SHOWN to thi