The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-05-01
VICKSBURG MEMORIAL.
The Old Soldiers Feel Grleved Over.fhe
Action, of h Legislature In Refus--
ing an Appropriations ut
&zg National Park. ~ 80 -

st. Paul, April 21.-To@the Editors: The
old soldiers of Minnesota and especially
the survivors of the Third, Fourth and
Fifth regiments and the First battery,
ara astonished and grieved beyond meas
ure by the refusal of the late legislature
to make. an appropriation for the placing
of memorials to the memory of her%dead
heroes in the Vicksburg National. Mill
tary. Park. -" ,~E ~
1t is due to the living and to the friends
Of the dead that a statement Of the con-
ditions that Influenced this result should
be made. 1t is doubtless generally known
hat the national government has estab-
lished a military park upon the battle
field of Vicksburg, similar to those es-
tablished at Gettysburg. Chickamauga
and Shiloh, and is expanding a large sum
in it's Improvement and establishment.
This work is already in an advanced
stage and will be largely done the: pres
ent season. A prominent feature for the
adornment of the park cOntemplates the
erection of monuments within its limits
by each state that had troops serving in
the Vicksburg campaign, commemora-
tive Of such service, and, in addition,
separate tablets marking the places where
it's several organizations distinguished
themselves in their assaults upon this
GIBRALTAR of the Confederacy, and on
W--.ch shall be inscribed the names Of
the soldiers who lost their lives on those
historic fields. r.
The legislature of Minnesota at it's
session of 1901 enacted a law creating a
commission for the purpose of locating
the positions thus occupied by the troops
from this state, and of making such rec
concentrations in that behalf in a report
to the governor as their duties under the
law might suggest This commission
made an elaborate report to the govern
or, in which it recommended the erection
Of a stable monument N three separate
bronze tablets, at a cost of $4,000
Gov. Van SAINT, in his message to the
legislature last January, made an earnest
and eloquent plea for the establishment
of these memorials to the soldier dead of
Minnesota. A bill was introduced early
in the session by The military committee
Of the house of representatives with the
unanimous indorsemen nj of IL commit
tee, providing for the placing Of memori-
ais in the Vicksburg National Military
Park in accordance with the recon-
mendations of the commission, and ap-
propriating 100000 to defray the cost of
the same. The bill waS. referred to the
committee on appropriations of the
house, where it was held for several
weeks. With a view of expediting the
passage Of the bill. the undersigned had
several interviews with different men,
bers of the committee, and especially
with its chairman. urging that the bill
be reported for passage to the house. 1t
was finally suggested to both the UNDER
signed by the chairman OF said commit
tee that it would be more in accordance
with the procedure of the house to in
clude such appropriation in the general
appropriation bill to be offered later in
the session, and our acGu1escence was
asked to such action in regard to this
all 0r,u o~,~~~ 4--+ .v~
objection to the proposition if we could
be sufficiently ASSURED hat the appro-
priation would be included in the general
or "omnibus' bill. The chairman gave us
the assurance that there could be no
question i'll that regard and that he
would personally urge it at the proper
time. Our anxiety being thus quieted We
assented to the proposition. The original
bill, with the appropriation elm mated,
was reported and passed the Legislature
in that form. To our CONSERVATION the
information. reached. us. late in: the ses-
sion that there was doubt about this aD-
preparation being included in the omni-
bus bill. We asked for a hearing before
the joint committee having in charge the
formulation of the omnibus bill, Which
was courteously granted and the UNDER
signed, with Archbishop Ireland (who
had been named as one of a committee
by the Fifth Regiment association to aid
in securing this lessislation). made an
earnest plea for the recognition of this
obligation Of our state to honor the mem
Dry of her heroic dead. Although we had
learned that the support we relied on
and of which we had early been assured
had become unfrien1ly and was antag-
Onizing the appropriation. yet we were
hopeful until the "omnibus' bill was re-
ported with our appropriation omitted.
In explanation, we are now told that the
state has no money for such purDOses;
that her treasury and her resources arc
too limited to stand the strain. This ex-
PLANTATION, we think, aggrayates the con-
ditions that suggest it. 1t is puerile; to
assert that this imperial commonwealth
cannot spare from it's abundance the sum
required to grant this testimonial to her
sons who died hat the commonwealth
might live, n but for whose sacrifices
and that of their comrades there would
be now no state or treasury. except, per-
haps, as a struggling and declining COM
ponent of a dismemhered country. What
a contrast Minnes-~a presents in this
regard to her sister and close neighbor,
Iowa, whose legislature 'appropriat ted in
1902 by an unanim- Us vote $3.50, 00G for
memorials to her Older sons who lie
buried upon the fields of Vicksburg; or of
Illinois, whose legislature proposes by a
bill now before it (f not already passed.,
to appropriate $3.50, 600 for the same pur-
pose, and Ohio with her offering of $780,
900. All the states that had troops at
Vicksburg have, so far as we are ad-
vised, or are about to make suitable pro-
vision for memorials to their soldier dead
at Vicksburg. Minnesota is thus made
conspicuous by her absence from this
roll of honor. ~
The legislature as a body should not
be held responsible for the pitiable posi-
ton in which our state appears in this
matter. A: large majority of that body
were cordially in favor of the PROPOSE
ton, and if given an opportunity would
have passed the appropriation. The
sentiment was overwhelmingly in it's
favor and many members nave expressed
to us the keenest grief tina such discred-
it should come upon our state. Thesbill
that passed directing the erection Of
these memorials, with the appropriation
omitted, is a mockery. 1t is utterly With
out force or effect. It is an affront to the
old soldier living and to the memory of
his dead comrades. The members of the
commission at whose instance this legis-
lation was sought feel hu1niiia ted that
they should have ben misled by assure
ances that finally a~ntagonized their eff
forts, and caused the defeat Of the patri-