The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-22
GRoUNDLEss FEARS.

When they come to sit down and think of
it, the men who seem to be excited because
the President, i'm one of his speeches in the
South, expressed himself in favor of COM
mon decoration day for the graves of both
Union and Confederate soldiers, must see
that there is no cause for criticism in the
suggestion. If the living Confederates
were standing aloof it would be different.
So far from that, they have met the Pres
ident with enthusiastic acclaim bearing the
flag and processing a devotion to the Union
which they have proved during the past
few months. Most ex-Union soldiers and
those who sympathize with them gladly
welcome to the ranks of the Union these
living ex-Confederates asserting that they
are in the Union to stay-why should they
refuse to extend the reconciliation to the
dead? Such a testimonial cannot be con-
strued as an approval of the cause for
which the Confederates FELL but as evil
dence that both sides have reconciled the
differences of the past. 1t is not a ques-
ton of the past, but of the future. This
people cannot become the Nation they
should If the resentments and the memories
of great strife, which was ended third
of a century ago, are to keep us two sec
tons forever. During the past two years
ex-Confederates have participated in the
Memorial day exercises in Union cemeteries
in the South, simply an expression of
good will at the present time-can those
who are victors, the business of whose
cause has been indicated by events and
tacitly by the ex-Confederates, refuse to ex-
hibit the same desire to be friends in the
future for the good of the Nation? Some
one is troubled because the President per-
mitted an ex-Confederate to pin the badge
of his association upon his coat. 1t was
simply a pleasantly, or at most, an indica-
tion that the President accepted as genuine
the professions of loyalty which the asso-
citation made when it turned out to welcome
him. The President could as well have re-
fused the eX-Confederates who were in the
inaugural procession the privilege of march
ing on that occasion because they wore the
badges of their association. At the present
time that association stands for the Union.
There are those who see in the PROPOSE
ton of Senator Butler, of North Carolina,
to pension ex-Confederates a warning of
what is to come. Senator Butler is scarce
ly representative of ex-Confederates, but
a Populist senator making bid for a re-
election which is not probable. Pensions
are not a logical sequence of the desire ex-
pressed by the President for tnat concilia-
tion which will make us one country with
one flag. This much we may be sure of:
There is not to-day an eX-Confederate, or
his son, who would declare under any SEEM
ing provocation, Il feel like stabbing Nc
Kinley' as did 7. Thomas Fortune, a
would-be colored leader in New York Sen
sible and broadly patriotic men will see that
it is as much a duty to display that good
will toward the South which it's people have
manifested toward the President as 1t was
for them to enlist in 1861. Then they fought
to save the Union; now by manly indica-
lions of concfliation they can help to ce-
ment it and fuse it's vast population into a
Nation.