Year: 1879




God Knows Which Was Right"


SOMEWHERE in some of the border
States, it is said, there is a monument
erected by father over his two sons,
who died fighting on opposite sides in
the late war. Two sides of it contain
inscriptions to the memory of the fallen,
and third is inscribed, "God knows
which was right" We do not know
whether the story is true, or the inven-
ton of somebody's poetic fancy; it has
an air of probability, and is very likely
true. 1t contains, at any rate, good
deal of sentiment and pathos, and it is
not strange that it has been made to do
service on one or two of those festive
occasions at which the Representatives
of the lately contending sections have
endeavored to smooth over past differ
ences and say pleasant things to each
other. We have no disposBon to criti-
else the tender and affectionate senti-
ment with which the stricken father
strove to put away from his own mind
and memory the fact of their differ
ences, and to leave it to a Higher
Power to Judge between them. He may
have been so much in doubt himself as
to which side was right in the great
contention as TO have been not merely
unwilling but actually unable to give a
positive opinion, and so have phrased
! his honest doubt in the quoted words.
However that may be, no one can find
fault with the parental tenderness which
took this mute appeal from the falli-
bility of human Judgment. Perhaps,
too, it would be ungracious to intrude
criticism upon the enthusiastic and
sometimes extravagant expressions of
atfectionate regard occasionally in
dulged in by gushing orators from
either side upon memorial and festive
occasions. Much is to be pardoned at
such times to the circumstances and
surroundings, and to the oratorical fer
vor which carries speaker very often
to the point of " stopping over" Who
ever, after maintaining through the
four fiery years of war and blood and
death that the Union should stand,
against those who would destroy it, is
ready now to say it was all difference
of opinion in which only God knew
which was right, may do so. 1t is a
matter somewhat of taste and some
what of fickleness of judgment. We
should not object to tiff it stopped there.
These interchanges of compliments are
for the most part meaningless.


But we do most positively and warm
ly protest against transferring the
motto of this tablet to the official
record. Let our sentimentalism at
least stop short OF self-stulti6cation
We are not willing, nor are millions of
patriots who either participatedi in the
sacrifices of the struggle or inherited
the glories of them, willing to admit by
any legislative action or official utter
ance that there is any question what
ever who or which side was right in the
controversy which ended in the sup
preston of rebellion and establishment
of the Union. The differences which
eliminated in the war had been too
long under discussion, the issues were
too sharply defined and too well under
stood, for men to question their own
conclusions or their convictions of duty.
And we are not yet far enough away, if
indeed we ever shall be, from the seri-
business and solemnity of that period to
be able to dismiss it all with a "God
knows which was right" Since the
war closed and the Right triumphed we
have endeavored by every possible
means to conciliate those who were in
the wrong and were defeated. They
have been restored to all the privi-
leges they forfeited by rebellion; they
have scarcely suffered punishment or
penalty except such as was the imme-
diate effect of their own acts. The very
men who eighteen years ago deliber-
ately disowned their allegiance and
went into rebellion are back to-day in
the National Congress making laws for
the Government which they failed to
destroy. Not only that; they have
4 brought back the old dictatorial ways
and plantation manners. 1t was last
winter that a South Carolina member
urged the abolition of the West Point
Military Academy, the only merit in
which, that he could see, was that it
had educated so many officers for the
late Confederate army. Within the
past week the same member has ex-
pressed the opinion on the floor of Con-
gress that the Government is admins
tered dishonesty by the party to whose
clemency he owes his place, and that it
ought to be placed in the hands of ex-
Confederates.


A short time since there was anoth-
er official utterance of one of the
Confederate Brigadiers on the floor OF
the House to the effect that loyalty to
the COnfederacy was most honorable
sentiment, and, upon the whole, rather
more praiseworthy than loyalty TO the
Union. Within few days Northern
Representative has made advances
toward these gentlemen by Offering the
proposition that the wounded and dis.
abled Confederate soldiers are equally
entitled to pensions with those who
fought for the Union. ALI this shows
that we are making very rapid progress.
Progress not toward conciliation-we
passed that point some time ago-but
toward surrender. The gentlemen en-.
gagged in making our laws are very bus.
lily writing over the record of the bloody
differences of the four years. war,
"GOd knows which was right" North
ern hands are doing it, and obviously
for the most mean and selfish purposes
Meantime it may be noticed that the
reconciled statesmen to whom such
pleasing things are said, and for whose
support such generous bids are offered
do not concede so much as this. They
still assert that they were right, and dc
not ever refer the question to the AL
mighty. They will wait perhaps unit
we have passed the point of admitting
that there is doubt about our own po'
sition, when they will calmly assume
the righteousness of their own side o.
the question, and proceed to correc
history accordingly. But if we do no
greatly mistake the public sentiment o
the country it will presently be founC
that the people do really have positive
convictions upon some questions, anC
that one thing they are very decides
about is that the late rebellion was
crime that cannot be bstiied.-M Y
Tribune.


} "A London teacher has killed u DO,
. by hitting him with n school-book.