Liberty and Union.
The veterans of both sides have long been teaching the country that peace and brotherhood have been restored to it. There is not a grave of a veteran of the Gray in any cemetery in the
North, where the graves of Union soldiers are made beautiful and fragrant on Decoration Day, that is not decorated with equal care, and the veterans of the
Union thus pay equal respect and honor to the fallen on both sides of the conflict; and the veterans of the Gray never fail to decorate the graves of the fallen Union veterans when that tribute is paid to their fallen brethren.
‘A Confederate soldier was a Cabinet officer under
Grant; a Confederate soldier was a Cabinet officer under
Hayes, and a Confederate soldier is a Cabinet officer under
Roosevelt.
Surely the time has come, after forty-three years of a reunited nation when all the terrible asperities should be only a shadowed memory, and when all the grand attributes of generous and affectionate brotherhood should be visible in every section of our great republic.
Here, standing among the graves of the heroic dead of both the great armies that were engaged in deadly struggle, all will unite in the patriotic utterance of the great expounder of the
Constitution when he replied to the early advocacy of secession by one of
South Carolina's great statesmen: “Liberty and Union; now and forever, one and inseparable.”
’
Many of the Pennsylvanians will remain here several days visiting the historic points and battlefields at and near
Fredericksburg.
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President Baer came in a special train of three coaches, composed of an engine, private car ‘Reading,’ sleeping car ‘
Atlas,’ dining car ‘
Pennsylvania,’ with a number of prominent people as his guests.
Two special trains brought
Governor Stuart and staff, and many of the
Federal veterans.
