The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1903-05-29
The AMENITIES
Must Be Observed, Where
Even No 0ffenSe Is
Intended.
Gen. Joe Wheeler Sighted by
the COnfederdteS at New
Orleans.

A discussion has been carried on
for a few days, over the action of a !
Committee at Columbus, which voted |
against decorating on Memorial Day, |
the graves of Confederate soldiers
that are buried at Camp Chase, near
that city.
Those who look only to the cultiva-
tion of cordial relations between the
North and the South, think it would
be the proper thing to forget the as
perities of the war. and do equal
honor to the graves of the Union and
Confederate soldiers
The motives of those who take this
view, cannot be questioned. But
their conclusions are very questiona-
BILE.
| AS to the magnanimity of the
North, it has been in evidence from
the time that Grant gave the Con-
federate cavalrymen, their horses
to do their plowing, and the whole
Confederate army was paroled with
out trial, or confscation of their
property. The whole history of the
world does not afford parallel.
But it is another thing to say that
no distinction should be made between
the soldiers who fought to save the
Union and those who fought against
it. Both great parties have recog-
nized the fact, by refusing to nomi-
nate any Confederate officer or sol
dier for the Presidency or Vice Pres
Iidency. and by voting pensions to
lUnion soldiers and refusing them to
Confederate soldiers.
@There is an ineradicable difference,
THAT ought not and cannot be ignored
nor disregarded.
The soldiers fought to save the
Union for the North and South, and
for humanity. The soldiers in gray
. fought to destroy the Union, and to
establish a Government whose foun.
, dation should be human slavery. The
one fought in a righteous cause; the
other was radically wrong.
But the more reasonable of those
who scatter flowers alike on the
Igraves of the blue and the gray, say
it is not a recognition of equal desert
but a magnanimous tribute to the
cause they believed right.
II For the South to decorate the
/ lgraves of her dead and do honor tC
their memories, is a proper thing
thing above question. For those OF
the North who show their magnanim
lity by decorating the graves of the
Confederates who have been buried
far from home, we have no words o.
ldeprecation nor censure.
But to perform this act upon tn,
the day set apart by the Grand Arm,
to honor the memory of the country
defenders, as If to place the enemie
of the flag and its defenders upol
the same planets an impropriety tina
' should not be overlooked.
The other side of this question wa
drought to the front at New Orleans
saturday, when the Confederat
Soldiers at their National Eucamp
ment purposely sighted one of thei
lgreatest soldiers, Gen. Joe Wheeler
because he appeared in the uniform
of the United States officer, which h
lwore in the Spanish American wal
! -lGen. Wheeler said he sought to sho'
Them that he a Confederate officer
had been again permitted to figh
for the Stars and Stripes and ha
been honored by the Government
that he and they sought to destroy
The Confederates did not questio
his loyalty to them, but they though
that on such an occasion when the
all wore the Confederate uniform
was a violation of the amenities, fo
/; him to appear wearing the uniforr
of the soldier in blue, and they ie
nored him, and slighted him an
!. nearly broke his heart.
But there is a question above an
.lgreater than this question of amen
ties, and IL is this, that the govern
e act, do honor to those who sought I
: take its life. The Nation can neve
7 teach lessons of disloyalty by homo
10 ing disloyalty.
Nor can the Grand Army, an organ
ization whose chiefest aim is to teac
;; loyalty, and which admits to men
y bership no man who took up arm
= against his country, in placing flo,
70 ers to honor the loyal soldiers of tt
Union, honor alike the graves of IL
defenders of the Nation and its en-
mics. 1t is not because of any ran
ling hatred of the Confederate sc
+ der, nor of his Government: but b
cause it must uphold in all thinl
the highest type of loyalty.