![]() ![]() ![]() But we equally believed that those who stood against us held just as sacred conviction that were the opposite of ours, and we respected them as every men with a heart must respect those who give all for their belief. We believed that it was most desirable that the North should win we believed in the principle that the Union is indissoluable we, or many of us at least, also believed that the conflict was inevitable, and that slavery had lasted long enough. ![]() I know that I and those whom I knew best had not. I have heard more than one of those who had been gallant and distinguished officers on the Confederate side say that they had had no such feeling. The soldiers who were doing their best to kill one another felt less of personal hostility, I am very certain, than some who were not imperilled by their mutual endeavors. So far as this last is concerned, to be sure, there is no trouble. Not the answer that you and I should give to each other-not the expression of those feelings that, so long as you live, will make this day sacred to memories of love and grief and heroic youth-but an answer which should command the assent of those who do not share our memories, and in which we of the North and our brethren of the South could join in perfect accord. ![]() Not long ago I heard a young man ask why people still kept up Memorial Day, and it set me thinking of the answer. Speech delivered before John Sedgwick Post No. ![]()
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