Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/83

 share of responsibility for any and all actions. That is where the "Confederate Ladies' Memorial Association" is wiser and broader-minded than the News and Courier. What is done or acquiesced in to-day we are all responsible for. "Mr. Davis' people" cannot stand apart and say, "We have no responsibility for what was done by Mr. Lincoln's people." We are a common country and everything of national import affects us all; and speaking to the case in point, the South would have its share of responsibility for the mutilated stone still standing if it did not speak, just as the North would have for letting it stand. There is no way in which any of us can "wash our hands" of any national matter. Those of us that are not of the "Government" belong to "His Majesty's opposition," and as good citizens of a common country have their part to play. So we must commend the Confederate Ladies' Memorial Association" for having done its duty and arraign the spirit that we regret to note prompts our esteemed Charleston contemporary as less wise and patriotic. If we grant that it is not revengeful (and we shall confess that we did not greatly fear the vengeful feelings of so wise an exemplar of good influences as the Charleston News and Courier we must hold that it is unjustifiable; for there can be no aloofness or "non-intercourse" on the part of any good citizen in national affairs. It is not a question of what was done more than forty years ago by one side in the heat of civil strife. It is a question of what the American people do to-day and the magnanimity or malice of their action is compounded of the sentiment of the whole people. Whether nearly fifty years after a civil war we shall perpetuate a little thing like this done when men's minds were stirred with passion, or whether we shall obliterate it, is a conclusion to be reached by hearing from the whole country just as the return of the battle flags was based as much on the desire of the Southern States made known to receive them as on that of the Northern States to give them. So we say the "Confederate Ladies' Memorial Association" has chosen the better part and shown the larger spirit.

["Confederate Ladies' Memorial Association" should read "Confederated Southern Memorial Association."—Editor's note.]