But it was about slavery.
Frederick Douglass gave this portion of a speech on Decoration Day 1871:
"...We are sometimers asked, in the name of patriotism, to forget the merits of this fearful struggle, and to remember with equal admiration those who struck at the nation's life and those who struck to save it, those who fought for slavery and those who fought for liberty and justice.
I am no minister of malice. I would not strike the fallen. I would not repel the repentant; but may my "right hand forget her cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth," if I forget the difference between the parties to that terrible, protracted, and bloody conflict.
If we ought to forget a war which has filled our land with widows and orphans; which has made stumps of men of the very flower of our youth; which has sent them on the journey of life armies, legless, maimed and mutilated; which has piled up a debt heavier than a mountain of gold, swept uncounted thousands of men into bloody graves and planted agony at a million hearthstones--I say, if this war is to be forgotten, I ask, in the name of all things sacred, what shall men remember?
The essence and significance of our devotion here to-day are not to be found in the fact the men whose remains fill these graves were brave in battle. If we met simply to show our sense of bravery, we should find enough on both sides to kindle admiration. In the ranging storm of fire and blood, in the fierce torrent of shot and shell, of sword and bayonet, whether on foot or horse, unflinching courage marked the rebel not less than the loyal soldier.
But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as t has been displayed in a noble cause. We must never forget that victory to the rebellion meant death to the republic. We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation's destroyers. If today we have a country not boiling in agony of blood, like France, if now we have a united country, no longer cursed by the hell-black system of human bondage, if the American name is no longer a by-word and a hissing to a mocking earth, if the star-spangled banner floats only over free American citizens in every quarter of the land, and our country has before it a long and glorious career of justice, liberty, and civilization, we are indebted to the unselfish devotion of the noble army who rest in these honored graves all around us."
I agree with Mr. Douglass.
We should not forget the differences between the two parties in that terrible, protracted, struggle.
We should have no problem recognizing that there was courage and bravery displayed on both sides.
And we should not forget that one side fought to preserve slavery and end the nation's life as folks knew it then while the other side fought to preserve the nation and ended up destroying slavery.
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