The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1905-04-07
THE Blue AMD GRAY.

who wore the blue and those who
wore the gray each fought for wha
he thought was right. y
Perhaps it would be just as well
to accept this conclusion without
further argument and let it go al
that. Perhaps each still thinks be
was right. according to the point
of view, but that would not alter
the fact that the questions at issue
were definitely settled by the ar
bitrament of war and that they can
never be reopened.
The trainers of the Constitution
left the question open as to wheth-
er one or more of the States had
the right to break the Federal COM
pact at pleasure and set up shop on
its own hook. States rights" ad-
vocates contended for the right of
secession on the theory that each
State was sovereign and at liberty
to withdraw from the Union when
its interests or inclinations should
move it to do so. This idea prevail
ed as strongly in Massachusetts, as
it did in South Carolina before there
had been any war of secession, but
that idea has been forever dissipat-
ed and there is no one left to re
gret it. Neither in the East nor in
the West, neither in the South nor
in the North, are there any now
who would wish to see the country
divided or who would not fight for
the preservation of the Union if its
disintegration were threatened.
There is from Maine to Mexico,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a
united country and patriotic pride
in the glorious achievements of the
great Republic. Those who wore
the gray and fought for what they
thought was right were as lofty
patriots as any that ever suffered |
hardships through a protracted |
struggle when they had nothing
but patriotism to sustain them. |
Half-fed and hardly half-clothed,
they followed the fortuaes of the
flag they had raised anti it went
down in defeat, anh then they fold
ed it reverently an ID turned to the
task of rebuildingl their shattered
homes. In the forty years that
since thd se trying days,
most of the activ9 participants in
that great struggle-those who
wore the blue and those who wore
the gray-have passed to the great
beyond and their descendants are
in one common purpose
and with one common aspiration,
forgetful of the rancor and the pas
sions and prejudices which were
the outcome of conditions which
no longer exist.
Some one once said that the
South had long since forgiven the
North for whipping her, but the
North had never forgiven the South
for being SO internally hard to lick.
But that was long ago. Now the
Blue and the Gray march side by
side in the great battles of life and
"a social reunions, and each is ac-
corded the honesty of purpose
which actuated the other. Colonel
Roosevelt, in his contest for the
Presidency, had the support of
many Confederate veterans and
heir descendants, and his opponent
lad the>support of many who were
veterans OF the Union army, and
heir descendants. He is now in
he section of the country which
furnished the soldiers to the Con-
sederate army, and which was
equally ready to fuEnish soldiers to
uphold the flag III the war in which
Colonel Roosevelt played so con
'picuous a part, and equally ready
o come to the support of that flag
low whenever he, as the head of
he Government. shall call for
hem.
The Blue and the Gray will well
,ome President Roosevelt to Texas