Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1887 — Manly Words from Mr. Conkling. [ARTICLE]

Manly Words from Mr. Conkling.

Overmuch significance need not be attached to perfunclory and spectacular reunion of former foes. There is apt to be a stroke of the theater in elaborately planned fraternal meetings between the soldiers of the Union and of rcbeldom, and this suspicion of insincerity is bkely to repel real interest in such occasions. The dignity and appropriateness of the recent fraterniza-

tion upon the battlefield of Gettysburgy by survivors among the men wno made and the men who repelled the famous charge of Pickett’s division were apparent, but every arrangement of the kind cannot command like attention and commendation. The underlying motive may be meritorious, but the manifestat'on is not more appropriate th: n would be lhe meretriciously spectacular meeting between Cleveland' and Davis tiropos d by a sentimental idiot having his iabita‘ in an Atlanta sanctum. It would be beLer to assume the existence of peace and good-will between sections hitherto at war than to attempt demonstration of the fact by such exquisite tomfoolery. The reunion to which Senator Conkling was recently invited, a proposed gathering in Indiana between survivors from both sides of the war of the rebellion, may of itself be nothing, but it is pleasant to record the manly answer of this stalwart as contrasted with the bitter vindictiveness characteristic of the campaign utterances of such a fire-eater and hate-monger as Candidate Foraker: “My earnest sympathy and hope go to and go with every movement and idea having for its real purpose to weld together all sections and all classes, and to make our country throughout all its borders united, prosperous, and great. Could wish or act of mine decide, every community and neighborhood in all the land should be crowned with the fullness of peace and progress at the South as at the East, the West, or the North. The brave men who faced each other in battle can be the best teachers and most genuine actors of this creed. ” This is direct and forcible expression of a manly and Christian-like sentiment, the sentiment which animated Grant long before failing speech compelled him to use his pencil in declaring it at Mount McGregor to the General his armies captured at Donelson. It is the just, the politic, and the sensible sentiment of the great body of the American people. It is particularly the sentiment of intelligent soldiers who desire a perfect Union to preserve the integrity of which they periled their lives. It is the sentiment of the younger generation which profits by a strife the bitterness of which it does not inherit. But it is not the sentiment of the blind leading the blind, section-seeking mountebanks who fancy there is potency in one more campaign with the bloody shirt.— Chicago Herald.