The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-04-10
From the New York Commercial.


 THERE are for too many people in this blooming country of ours A who don't know that "the war is over"--that it terminated with Lees surrender at Appomattox almost ii years ago. Here, for instance, are 40 posts in the Grand Army of the Re public in Massachusetts sending to Sen ator Lodge formal protests against the acceptance by Congress of the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Virginia's pro- posed contribution under the law to Statuary Hall in the national capitol and the senator has duly filed tn ern with the United States Senate as a part of his functions and duties as one of the two representatives in that body of the sovereign state of Massa- chusetts It ought to have been a fcation for him. The lot of United States senator or of a representative in Congress, like that of Gilbert and sullivans policeman, is not always a happy one.
 By one of these posts of union army veterans. the great Confederate com mander is referred to as "a traitor, whose name should not be mentioned save with contempt" Now, Great Bri- tain was the country of one George | Washington of Virginia, colony of England, and to it he owed allegiance; but, for reasons good and sufficient to him. he rebelled against that rule and became traitor to his country | he and his cause succeeded-but tha, aid not change his relations to the mother country in the first instance still, nobody of patriotism and comm on sense in England is today branding George Washington as traitor to his country or maving in any way to have his memory discredited; had the cause of the American colonies failed, Great Britain would not be any less broad minded 40 years after the event.
 | The news reports record that an- sachusetts characterizes the contem- plated presence of the Lee statue in
 the hall of the capitol as "a studied and direct insult to every living union
 soldier and sailor and doubly so to those who sacrificed their lives for the preservation of the union." Several of the petitions commend General Lee and laud his private character while ob-
 jecting to the acceptance of the statue ati +I,o
 of one Massachusetts post to the pres-
 ence of the Confederate leader in Stat uary Hall is due to the fact that Lee is portrayed in Confederate uniform.
 What does it all amount to? Vir-
 ginia has the right, under the law,
 to choose her own representative for
 Statuary Hall--and who shall say tliat
 any of her sons is more worthy of
 the honor from the point of view os
 a state than Robert F. Lee? He fought for a principle and fought we'll every union general has conceded that. And Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the victor, handed him back his sword when he proffered it at the surrender. Can any
 Massachusetts veteran who fought un I der Grant afford to be less generous than that? Again, what would tn csc Massachusetts protestants have-a Gen eral Lee Garbed in union uniform or A farmers blouse or college pres lident's cap and gown? Who remeni" lbers Lee except as a great soldier: And who would see his statue garbed otherwise than in his soldiers uni form?
 The members of the 40 posts of the Ma assach usetts Grand Army of the Re- public are unquestionably most worthy citizens and are clearly entitled to hold their own personal opinions. But iwhy try to impose them on. the nation