The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-03-24
1rrmunt TNMthman.
AN ATTACK ON GOV. PROUTY.

says:
"The Age prints below another
criticism Of Governor Prouty, who is
charged with waving the bloody shirt
in a speech recently delivered in Bos-
ton. The Governors quoted remark
is rank enough, to be sure, but pos
sibly, as has been suggested, he may
nave qualified it in a way to render
it comparatively harmless. And any
how the Governors speech will not
echo around the world. The Age would
only criticise Governor Prouty for
Joining the professional flag orators,
with words that might be miscon-
stued, in their incessant patter which.
if il is of any effect, is promotive OF
sectionalism Why should they drill
into infants and school children the
fact that this was ever anything butt
a united country? A bonfire should be
made of the dripping banners.
The criticism to which reference is
made is letter from II. p. Seavy,
dated at Iron City, Tenn, in which he
says:
81 propose three cheers to Col f.
S. Billings for his criticism upon an
extract from a speech by the Cover
nor of Vermont, delivered in Boston,
and the noble and patriotic senti-
ments expressed by Col. Billings in
The Age of March 9TH
Must this glorious country of ours
wait for death to swallow up the pre-
sent and perhaps succeeding genera
tions before malice and hatred is elm
mated from the breast of the last vic
tim Of this unholy and unchristianlike
feeling.
81 trust Governor Prouty may find
himself a minority of one in the grand
old State of Vermont to advocate and
iterate sentiments calculated to en-
gender hostile feelings between North
and South, long since buried by the
rank and file of both the Federal and
Confederate armies, as did Senator
Hepburn of Idaho in his bill to refuse
the loan of Government tents for the
use of eX-Confederate soldiers at their
next annual reunion in April at Mo-
bile Ala.
"The experience of the commander
in-chief of the G. A. r., camps through
out the South, the receptions given
him in every city by prominent citi-
zens regardless of army or political
affiliations, will add to numerous pre-
vious demonstrations on the part of
sonages from the North. Why con-
tinue to wave the bloody shirt?
what is the meaning of the term
Christianity? Is this a Christian ma
ton? Are we not sending missionar-
les into every heather nation COM
handing them to teach-what? Chris
tianity Then let us practice it at
home. To be a Christian is to be fol-
lower of Christ. Is a bloody shirt
waver a follower
Will the Woodstock contemporary
say that the men who fought to de-
stroy the American Union were not
rebels? There is a vast difference be-
tween the "bloody shirt" spirit which
seeks to prolong the enmity between
North and South, and an attempt prac-
tically to deny that there ever was any
secession, or any rebellion.
The Spirit of the Age says
"Why should they drill into infants
and school children the fact that there
was ever anything but united coun-
try?'
For no reason in the woA,d except
that it is the truth. We are DESTROYS
of promoting good relations with
Great Britain. Why not cut out of
our school histories all reference to
the American Revolution and the War
of 1872 And if we are to keep our
children in ignorance of the events of
the Civil War period why not eXpur-
gate the reference to the Missouri
Nompromise, the bred Scott decision
and other controversies over slavery
The folly of such counsel is too APP
siderable number of people. There
are a great many facts in history that
we might wish were otherwise, but if
we are to teach history at all We must
relate events as they actually happen
ed, whether they were good or bad.
In our consideration of Civil WaI
problems we must not forget the debt
we owe to the soldiers of that period
who prevented the success of the
forces of disunion. They offered theI
lives in a stern and awful struggle
to subdue very real rebellion We
cannot teach history and conceal that
momentous fact. There is a real
danger of carrying the attempt at OBJ
literating the memories of that terri
BILE struggle so far that we are found
apologizing for the acts of the North
and depriving the veterans Of the
Union army of a just recognition Of
their services The men of the South
as a rule, now admit that they were
wrong. They do not deny that there
was a rebellion and they are glat
that they failed 1t is wise and nee
essary occasionally to remind the pub
lie, as Governor Prouty did at Boston
that the War of 1S61-65 was a rea
rebellion,
The Journal does not believe tina
Governor Prouty can be accused just
ly of waving the bloody shirt" Prob
ably his acquaintance with and friend
ship for Southern men exceeds that o
most citizens of Vermont. He is no
a narrow partisan, who lives in tn,
past, but a wide-awake, broad-mind
ed, liberal executive, who is donl
more to promote Vermont's best in