Alexandria Gazette

THE GAZETTE.

MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 31.

The National Intelligencer, whose constant and devoted attachment to the Union, before the war, during the war, and since the war, is well known, has the magnanimity to speak of the Southern people as follows: "There are men so narrow and so petty as to find evidence of disloyalty in every allusion to Southern valor, in every tribute to the fallen heroes of the South. They would deny the people of the South the satisfaction of gathering up the bones of their deceased comrades, of hanging garlands upon their graves, of celebrating their prowess in oration or in song. In other words, they would degrade the manhood of the South in the vain hope of elevating it to the highest standard of American citizenship. In vain may we attempt to silence the voice of nature. Our prohibitions cannot alter facts. Rather let us join in the tribute. Let us also shed a tear over so much heroism expended in so needless a struggle. Let us never refuse valor and energy and self-denial their meed of praise, even though expended in what we consider a deservedly lost cause." And if, then, our Southern brethren talk at times in a strain of exasperating bitterness, occasioned, for the most part, by the terrific warfare that has been made upon them for mere party purposes, let us not be too swift to condemn men who have been so terribly tried and so sorely disappointed. The victory is ours. Let us make a magnanimous use of it by making them feel that the obligations of citizenship are less enforced than self-imposed.