The Irish standard., 1905-03-18
RETURN Of TIE FLAGS.

performed III tnc closing Gays or Con-
gress when. by resolution of the House
and Senate unanimously adopted, the
Secretary Of War was authorized to
deliver to the proper authorities Of the
respective states in which the regi-
ments which bore these colors were
organized, certain Union and Confed-
crate battle flags, now in the custody
Of the war department, for such final
disposition as the aforesaid proper
authorities may determine. Was
there ever enacted into law in any
country such gracious act as that
seemingly unimportant resolution in
the last days Of the Fifty-eighth Con-
gress? We know of none. Warning
nations have made treaties of peace,
the bitterness of strife has been for
gotten and good will and amity re-
stored. Swords have been surrendered
only to be returned by the victors to
the vanquished, but never before have
we heard of captured flags being re-
turned to the vanquished. 1t is the
more remarkable because there were
in 10th houses that voted upon this
resolution men who had fought for the
capture of those trophies and had
been previously wounded in the eff
fort. No other people has ever been
great enough to do such an act before
and yet it was the eminently proper
thing to do. Why should we have
stored up in the war department relics
of that terrible conflict; reminders
which could have no other effect than
to engender anew bitter thoughts in
the descendants of those who fought
for the Confederacy? So within forty
years after the terms of peace dictated
by Grant at AppomattoX, the last pen
atty has been removed from the South.
The North says to the South Take
back your battle flags, brethren Of the
South. We yield them to your keeping
willingly and gladly. They were ours
by the fortunes of war. They are
yours by the right of manifest courage
with which you defended them and by
the gift of the nation with our hearty
concurrence. Cherish them and tell
your children to revere them as EN-
blems and mementoes of the brave
deeds of their fathers and teach them
is well to rejoice with ours. We are
united again and invincible under the
old starry flag Of our fathers"
1t was magnificent act on the part
If Congress and it deserves great
Zeal more attention than it has re-
"eived. Less than 20 years ago when
'irover Cleveland. ordered his Secre.
airy Of War to return these flags to
the Southern states great howl went
p from certain elements in the North
!bicting to the act, and calling Cleve-
land and his party traitors. Cleveland
revoked the order; not because Of the
objections set up by certain part of
the press and the people, but because
upon full consideration he found that
The executive had no power to dispose
of United States property: that it
needed an act of Congress to do that.
Congress ut that time was not quite
big enough to do such a gracious act.
The Civil war was too close; memories
were too vivid, but now what the peo-
pie objected to 20 years ago, they al
most unanimously applaud. Most of
those who fought under the Blue will
be glad that this last Offering of per-
feet peace and reconciliation has been
offered up while they are yet alive.
No other act of the Fifty-eighth Con-
gress will do so much for the common
good of our country as this last short
resolution adopted.