Augusta County: "Memorial Day," by Unknown, June 15, 1887
Summary: In the wake of the recent Memorial Day, this article expresses southern wishes for reconciliation and calls for the North to match that sentiment (in the process accusing Republican presidential candidate John Sherman of constantly waving the "bloody shirt" in the North, and accusing northerners of embracing that tactic).
ITS LESSON-A STRIKING CONTRAST
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER AND THE "BLOODY-SHIRT"-THE PAST AND THE FUTURE
The observance on the 9th inst., of the annual memorial services in honor of the soldiers who sleep in the "bivouack of the dead," was not only remarkable for the great numbers who were present, and the success of every feature of it, for which great credit is due to all who participated in efforts to make it such, but also for the fact that it demonstrated in a most conclusive manner that our people cannot only fraternize with, but cherish esteem and entertain admiration for, the most prominent and efficient officers and men who made vigorous, but fair, war upon their soldiers, whilst they were manly and soldierly enough not to make war upon defenceless civilians, but acted the part of true soldiers in holding the homes of wives and children sacred from intrusion and outrage, as was shown by the cordial manner in which ten thousand of our people, male and female, greeted the presence on that occasion of General W. W. Averill, of New York. It shows how very easy it would be, if the people of the North generally would exhibit a similar feeling of friendship for the people of the South, to make the Union in the future a thousand times stronger than it has even been in the past, as it would then be cemented by mutual esteem and affection, and be united in bonds stronger than "hooks of steel."
It would seem that the North, which was the stronger and the conquering power, should have been the first to exhibit magnanimity, and to inaugurate demonstrations of fraternal feeling, and to counsel and practice oblivion of past animosities, and to cherish and nourish feelings of national and fraternal friendship. But the South, though the weaker and the conquered and humiliated party,-though overrun and trampled upon during the war, and treated worse for several years after, has gained a prouder moral victory than the North, in that it is the first to conquer feelings of personal and sectional animosity and to extend the hand of friendship and cordial union "across the bloody chasm." In the South, the ensanguined nether garment, yclept "the bloody-shirt," is not known. It is never waved in the southern breeze. Its home is in the North, where it is still waved aloft by politicians chiefly who never smelt gunpowder during the war,-who belong to that valiant class who are "invisible in war, and invincible in peace"-of whom John Sherman, a Republican candidate for the Presidency, is a conspicuous example.
Whilst our people are, by thousands, greeting with cordial friendship a distinguished Federal General who gave us much trouble during the war; and whilst they are cultivating fraternal and national feelings, John Sherman is making speeches in the West, to advance his candidacy for the Presidency, in which he vigorously waves the "bloody-shirt," and strives to revive the feelings of animosity which existed during the war, and to make the people of that section believe that the citizens of the South are the enemies of the county-that they are rebels and traitors and deserve to be proscribed and denied their just share in the management of the government. He is either very blind to the sentiment that exists there, or else the people there are far behind the South in national sentiments and fraternal feeling. He must either be very unwise, or else the people there are very sectional in their sentiments and very hostile in their feelings. The contrast presented is very striking, and the South occupies the vantage-ground. As we said before, the moral victory-greater than that of arms-is with the South. She waves the Star-Spangled Banner, whilst the Republicans of the North wave the "bloody-shirt." We have an abiding faith that the Star-Spangled Banner will triumph over the "bloody-shirt," and that all will yet be well, and that we will live in peace and harmony as brethren of a common country; and that, in the patriotic and eloquent language of Major Baker P. Lee, in his Memorial address at Norfolk, May 19th 1887, "as one people with one country, we will look backward with a common pride, in contemplation of the valor of both sections. As one people with one country, we will look forward with a common purpose in a common patriotism, for the promotion of the interests, for the maintenance of the honor, for the expansion of the power, for the support of the dignity of our government, without remembering, either on the one side or the other, that there was ever a war between us. We have a great people, a great country, and a great Government, with a glorious past, and, let us hope, with a still more glorious future." So may it be, is our most devout wish.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Staunton Spectator, June 15, 1887
