The Press., 1900-05-31
ALL ARE UNION MEN.
Federals and Confederates Are Unit
 ed Under One Flag.

FSOGE010 anu COm1eOGratG8 AEG UmA3o
 ed Under One Flag.
 Come, let us fairest flowers spread
 Wherever sleep the hero dead,
 Nor ask, on this Memorial day,
 Whether they wore the blue or gray.
 ''The war has made us a nation of great power and intelligence. We have but little to do to preserve peace, happi- ness and prosperity at home and the re- spect of other nations. Our experience ought to teach us the necessity of the first; our power secures the latter. I feel that we are on the eve of a new era, when there is to be great harmony be- tween the Federal and the Confederate. I cannot stay to be a living witness to the correctness of this prophecy, but l feel it within me that it is to be so. The universally kind feeling expressed for me at time when it was supposed that each day would prove my last seemed to me the beginning of the answer to let us have peace"
 These are the words of General Grant, written Is years ago. The condition which he foresaw is now indeed come to pass.
 The great commander did not long sur vive this noble and prophetic utterance. The tributes of which he spoke were no doubt due in a large degree to personal good will on the part of his former an tagonists, for the southern people saw in Grant one of the greatest military men of the age, a frank and resolute oppo- nent, fighting to the last while fighting remained to be done, but ever ready to extend the hand of brotherhood when the battle was over and the enemy had sur rendered. The year just passed has wit messed the fulfillment of General Grants prophecy.
 The era of good feeling between Fed eral and Confederate has come. Indeed there is no Federal; there is no Confeder- ate. All are Union men, united under one flag, upholding the honor and inter- ests of our common country and remem- bering the glories while forgetting the animosities of the past. For the first time in half a century American blood has been shed in foreign war, and on this years Memorial day flowers will be strewn over the gallant dead from north and south who fell not in sectional strife, | but in battle against an alien foe. The veterans of the civil war are fast passing away. The survivors are nearly all old men.
 Memorial day does not lose it's interest 1 however, as years roll on. Rather do its associations become more sacred as the scenes of the great conflict are mellowed by time. Memorial day stimulates pa i triotism; it fosters wholesome interest il the past of our country; 1t teaches Amer i jeans to value the heritage of liberty and union, which cost so many lives, and ii proves that the American republic al | least is not ungrateful. The government followed the admirable precedent of the Mexican war is bringing back to Ameri can soil the remains of our brave mer who died in the war with Spain. Int | touching scene of their reinterment al Arlington recalls the lines of O'Hara re | garding the Kentucky dead brought bacl from the glorious field of Angostura: Sons of the dark and bloody ground, l Ye shall not slumber there, | Where stranger steps and tongues resound l Along the needless air
 Your own proud lands heroic soil Shall be your filter grave; She claims from war it's richest spoil The ashes of her brave.