The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-06-01
WEDNESDAY. JUNE /, 1898.
THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER is
SATISFIED.

Our article Of Sunday rather COM
planned that the President was hardly
doing justice by the old Confederate
soldiers in his appointments In the army.
The appointments that have been made
since then do away entirely WIN all
such ground OF complaint. Take the
army appointments by and large that
Mr.. Mckinley has now made. and We
think that all parts Of The country must
feol that me has been perfectly fair and
impartial. and has distributed the APP
pointments IN a spirit Of perfect justice No
one can blame him for placing his chef
reliance in the educated and traine' sj'-
dlers of the regular army. These are
men who are educated AMI trained 10
their businesses. they understand il, and
the Chief Executive naturally feels safer
in starting out I'm the serious business
of war with agents Of that sort rather
than with raw and unskilled men. who
have no qualifications but their patriot
ism and their courage. But upon
leaving the regular army for appointees
the President has now shown that he
thinks the old Confederate soldiers are
as much entitled TO consideration as the
old Union soldiers, and, in manifesting
that spirit. he has done all that the old
Confederate soldiers ask for and ne
has done wiseley too. lie will never
have any occasion 20 regret the appoint
Inent OF Lee. Wheeler. Butler and Oates
10 high command. When these men
meet the enemy it is lust as certain that
they will present him a heroic front as
that the encounter takes place.
1t is truly gratifying to a true Ameri-
can TO see this intermXture of Confed-
crate and Union soldiers for the mainte-
nance Of the honor and rights of our re-
united country The old Confederate
soldier IS as loyal to-day 10 the memory
of the days Of 'G-65 as he was then.
But he fought out his quarrel then like
man: he owned up Ike man that
he was beaten. and agreed from that time
forward TO be a loyal citizen Of the
restored Union. He has been as loyal
10 that new allegiance as he was to the
old one, and the Union is now his coun-
try, which he will defend with the last
drop Of his blood. The Confederacy is
with him a memory, and very glorious
and tender memory, and ne will always
be loyal to the memory, and he viii
teach his children TO be loyal 10 It, But
he abandoned It as a practical matter
he
uoned Il and agreed TO the new Union
without any mental reservations OF any
sort whatever, and he will be just as
loyal and true to the new Union as he
was 20 the Confederacy. II Is a glorious
thing that this war has enabled him
10 demonstrate 20 mankind that this Is
fact.
IL was certainly an astonishing fact
TO see United States soldiers marching
IN a procession to lay flowers upon the
graves OF Confederate soldiers killed IN
our civil war. but just that thing was
witnessed I'm Richmond on Monday last.
Nlonoay was the Confederate Memorial
Day. and our citizens turned out IN large
heroic dead. that mankind might know
they had not forgotten the way IN which
those heroes offered w their lives as
a barrier 10 the homes OF those citizens.
il was a beautiful and touching owl
dence that the high and the noble in
our peoples nature rules them still, ana
that the vacant chairs Left by our dead
OF the great civil war arc sim vacant
and stnl guarded with revereniai at
feniion. But It was surely matter 10
make an old Confederate soldiers heart
swell With many honest emotions TO see
the procession moving out 20 the deco
ration OF their graves. composed in large
part OF soldiers Of the United states
about TO 90 out TO meet the enemies
o. the Union IN deadly combat. Il was
a strange and a striking evidence q the
revolutions wrought by time.