Soldiers & Sailors Newspaper: The Baltimore Sun · April 6, 1880

The Baltimore Sun · April 7, 1880

The Proposed Confederate ‘Monument-A Suggestion.-

In connection with the proposed Confederate monument in this city and Mayor Latrobe’s veto of the resolution to permit its erection, Col. W. H. S. Burgwyn has written the following letter to the mayor:

“On September 13, 1759, was fought the battle of the Heights of Abraham, and her Canadian possessions were lost forever to the crown of France. The Marquis de Montcalm and Gen. Wolfe were respectively the commanders on the French and English sides. Both fell in the battle. The one congratulated himself that he died before he witnessed the surrender of Quebec; the other died content. as the shouts of victory fell upon his ears. Visitors to the government grounds at Quebec have their attention arrested by a beautiful obelisk, sixty leet high, overlooking the site of the battle, and are filled with admiration at the magnanimity of the conqueror to find that the shaft bears on its opposite faces the names of Montcalm and Wolfe; a memorial erected by the English to the joint memories of the two heroes. As for one, sir, I object to all monuments that serve to keep alive the memory of civil strife. In ancient Rome they were never allowed to be erected; and, besides, I believe that there are deeds and heroisms that outlast structures of brass or stone. But, sir, if a monument to commemorate the dead who fell in battle during the late civil war is to be erected in the city of Baltimore, let it be such a one as will not be a source of irritation and exciter of bad blood in the eyes of a large body of our fellow-citizens, who were equally as sin-core with us in the side they adhered to in that unhappy conflict. Let it be a monument jointly dedicated to the noble dead of both sides who sealed their devotion to principle by the sacrifice of their lives, or let no monument be erected at all until time, with its healing touch, renders such an act appropriate.

Your obedient servant,
WM. H. S. BURGWYN.”

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