Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1887 — THE NATIONAL CAPITAL [ARTICLE]

THE NATIONAL CAPITAL

An Associated Press telegram from Washington says: “The battle of the standards is terminated and the captured flags of the dead Confederacy will remain in tire custody of the War Department President Cleveland on Thursday sent the following letter in regard to the matter to the Secretary of War: “I have to-day considered with more care than when the subject was ora'.ly presented me, the action of your department directing letters to be addressed to the Governors of all the States, offering to return, if desired, to the loyal States, the Union flags captured during the war of the rebellion by the Confederate forces and afterward recovered by Government troops; and to the Confederate States the flags captured by the Union forces, nil of which for many vears have been packed in boxes and stored in the cellar and attic of the War Department. I am of the opinion that the return of the flags in the manner thus contemplated is not authorized by existing law. nor j siified as an executive act. I request, therefore, that no further steps be taken in the matter except to examine and inventory these flags, and adopt proper measures for their preservation. Anv direction as to the final disposition of them should originate with Congress, GhovEi: Cleveland. “At the request of Gov. Foraker, of Ohio, that counsel should be retained to institute legal procaodings to enjoin the return of the Confederate flags to the Governors of the Southern States, Gen. H. V. Boynton had selected Hon. Samuel Shellabarger, of Ohio, and Hon. George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, to take charge of the case. These gentlemen expected to have an application for a mandamus filed m the Supreme Court of the district Thursday afternoon, but were deterred by the non-receipt of a necessary telegram from Ohm. The papers were based upon the claim that the Secretary of War wak about to dispose of public property without authority of law. The letter of the President made further action by the attorneys unnecessary. ” . The protests of the

Governors of Ohio and lowa and the public'y expressed indignation of the Grand Army of the Republic over the proposition to return the flags had the effect to stir up much feeling throughout the country. Governor Rusk, of Wisconsin, telegraphed his protest to President Cleveland, claiming that the trophies, if surrendered, should be given up to the States by whose troops they wen captured. Governor Martin, of Kansas, also wired his protest, alleging that ihe scheme was ‘an insult to the heroic dead, and an outrage on their surviving comrades." The Grand Army men throughout the entire West also made vigorous protests. The following statement with regard to the President’s action concerning the proposed return of the battle flags was made at the White House to a representative of die Associated Press: “When the question was proposed to the President by the Adjutant General an important feature suggested was the return to the loyal states of the flags which had been captured by the Confederates and retaken by our army at the collapse of the rebellion. They, with such Confederate flags as had been Captured from the enemy by our troops, had, it was represented, for a long time lain uncared for and neglected, packed away in boxes in the cellar of the War Department, and had been removed to the attic as a better place for their safe keeping. “The disposition of the flags, which seemed to be answering no good purpose where they were, was the main point, and the consideration was presented to the President that some flags had been returned to loyal States, upon their request in individual cases, and the rest, if desired, might as well be returned together. The return of the Confederate flags which were with the others in the department was suggested, but there was not the slightest thought of interfering in any way with the captured flags now held by any State. “The right of the department to make these returns being questioned by the President, such right was distinctly asserted, and precedents alleged, and thereupon his oral assent was gjven to the proposed action. The matter was dismissed from his mind until comment thereupon within the last day or two brought it again to his attention, when, upon personally examining the law, and considering .the subject more caretully, he satisfied himself that no disposition of these flags could bo made without Congressional action; whereupon he directed a suspension of operations by the letter made public this evening.’’ It is pretty well understood at Washington that Secretary Lamar will be nominated to fill the existing vacancy in the Supremo Court Senator Ransom, of North Carolina, is talked of in connection with the Interior portfolio.