Cities of the Dead: Contesting the Memory of the Civil War in the South, 1865-1914

CHAPTER 7. Arlington Sectional Cemetery

7 ARLINGTON SECTIONAL CEMETERY In 1914 Woodrow Wilson committed a political blunder over commemorating the dead. The southern-born president declined an invitation by the gar to speak at Union Memorial Day in Arlington Cemetery. Although a disappointment to the veterans, Wilson’s decision came as no great surprise. He had refused a similar request the preceding year, and few people expected anything di√erent this time. What perplexed the veterans, and then increasingly angered them, was Wilson’s promise to the Daughters of the Confederacy to address the throngs expected for the dedication of the monument in the Confederate section in Arlington on June 4—same cemetery, di√erent crowd, much di√erent meaning. The sitting president of the United States was ignoring the celebration of the men who had saved the Union while honoring the men who had tried to reject that same government. Irony turned to comedy when Champ Clark, Speaker of the House and a Democratic political rival, happily chimed in that he would be delighted to address the Union veterans on the 172 Arlington Sectional Cemetery nation’s Memorial Day. After a visit from a representative of the Democratic congressional committee, Wilson had a change of heart and agreed to speak at both celebrations, even as he denied that Clark’s appearance had anything to do with his decision. Not surprisingly, the Speaker of the House received a louder ovation than his president when both were introduced on Union Memorial Day.∞ Wilson survived a minor bump along the campaign road, but he had received a reminder that some northerners still took the Civil War very seriously. Although Americans had put to rest sectional conflict, a president could not snub Union veterans in favor of their Confederate counterparts . Fifty years after the war the northern press still employed the adjective ‘‘loyal’’ to describe the men who had sacrificed themselves to save the Union. Republicans still relished the opportunity to pounce on ga√es by an opposition president. Senator Joseph Bristow, a Republican from Kansas, typified the responses of Republicans when he said, ‘‘The members of the Grand Army of the Republic doubtless never expected to see the day when a President of the United States would refuse to speak a few words in commendation of their heroic services to the country until driven to do so by public indignation.’’≤ The president recovered five days later in an address before a large assembly that included Confederate and Union veterans as well as the grand commander of the gar. In his speech, a president more concerned with the Mexican border declared that the dedication at Arlington symbolized the end of sectional discord. ‘‘This chapter in the history of the United States is now closed,’’ he said, ‘‘and I can bid you turn with me with your faces to the future quickened by the memories of the past, but with nothing to do with the contests of the past, knowing as we have shed our blood on opposite sides, we now face and admire one another.’’≥ The commander in chief of the United Confederate Veterans agreed. Bennett Young fully appreciated the special nature of the scene before him: a commemorative event of the Confederacy that attracted the president of the United States and the principal organization for Union veterans. The Stars and Bars were intertwined with Old Glory. Small wonder that Young remarked, ‘‘Nothing more strange and unwonted has ever happened in national life than the exercises of this afternoon. It’s happening marks another step in the complete elimination of sectional passions, suspicions, or prejudice.’’ He added that the event ‘‘gives assurance that North and South have clasped hands across a fratricidal grave.’’∂ More had changed than Young or the people assembled at Arlington Arlington Sectional Cemetery 173 realized. Memorial Days and freedom celebrations remained useful occasions for making a political point, but they no longer held the same relevance for partisan behavior. The organization of the Confederate section in Arlington took place during a transition in the American political landscape, a period defined by one historian as the decline of popular politics. For a variety of reasons that included disfranchisement of black people, participation in elections dropped as the twentieth century arrived . The style of American campaigns also changed; street activity diminished as a party ritual. Political issues still wormed their way into Civil War memorialization, as Wilson learned the hard way...