77/ A'   TIAM/'TON  Road:;  CONFERl 
H 
If  I  resided  in  Georgia,  with  my  present  senti- 
ments, I  Ml  tell  you  what  I  would  do  if  I  were  in 
your  place.  1  would  go  home  and  gel  the  governor 
of  the  State  to  call  the  legislature  logether,  and  gel 
them  to  recall  all  the  State  troops  lrom  the  war; 
elect  senators  and  members  to  Congress,  and  ratify 
this  constitutional  amendment  prospectively,  so  as 
to  take  effect  —  say  in  five  years.  Such  a  ratification 
would  be  valid,  in  my  opinion.  I  have  looked  into 
the  subject,  and  think  such  a  prospective  ratification 
would  be  valid.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  views 
of  your  people  before  the  war,  they  must  be  con- 
vinced now  that  slavery  is  doomed.  It  cannot  last 
long  in  any  event,  and  the  best  course,  it  seems  to 
me,  for  your  public  men  to  pursue  would  be  to 
adopt  such  a  policy  as  will  avoid,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  evils  of  immediate  emancipation.  This  would 
be  my  course,  if  I  were  in  your  place. 
The  salutary  advice  was  wasted.  Mr.  Ste- 
phens was  a  very  incarnation  of  political  para- 
doxes. Perhaps  in  all  the  South  there  was  not 
another  man  whose  personal  desires  were  so 
moderate  and  correct,  and  whose  political 
theories  were  so  radical  and  wrong.  At  the 
beginning  he  had  opposed  secession  as  pre- 
mature and  foolish,  war  as  desperate  and  ruin- 
ous; yet,  against  his  better  judgment,  he  had 
followed  his  "corner-stone"  theory  of  slavery 
and  his  "  supremacy  "  theory  of  States  rights  to 
the  war  and  the  ruin  he  foretold.  Now,  at  the 
end  of  four  years'  experiment,  he  still  clung 
obstinately  to  his  new  theory  of  secession  as  a 
"continental  regulator,"  and  the  vain  hope 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  yet  adopt  it.  When 
at  last  the  parties  were  separating,  with  friendly 
handshakings,  he  asked  Mr.  Lincoln  to  recon- 
sider the  plan  of  an  armistice  on  the  basis  of 
a  Mexican  expedition.  "Well,  Stephens,"  re- 
plied Mr.  Lincoln,  "  I  will  reconsider  it ;  but  I 
do  not  think  my  mind  will  change."  And  so 
ended  the  Hampton  Roads  conference.1 
The  commissioners  returned  to  Richmond 
in  great  disappointment,  and  communicated 
the  failure  of  their  efforts  to  Jefferson  Davis, 
whose  chagrin  was  as  great  as  their  own.  They 
had  all  caught  eagerly  at  the  hope  that  this 
negotiation  would  somehow  extricate  them 
from  the  dilemmas  and  dangers  whose  crush- 
ing portent  they  realized,  but  had  no  power  to 
1  Stephens,  "War  between  the  States,"  Vol.  II., 
pp.  6 1  o-6 1 8. 
2  Campbell,  "  Recollections,"  etc.    Pamphlet. 
3  Stephens,  "War  between  the  States,"  Vol.  II., 
pp.  224-226. 
4  This  meeting  at  the  African  Church  was  supple- 
mented, a  few  days  later,  by  a  grand  concerted  effort  at 
public  speech-making  at  different  places  in  Richmond, 
intended  to  electrify  the  South.  Pollard,  the  South- 
ern historian,  thus  describes  it :  "  All  business  was  sus- 
pended in  Richmond ;  at  high  noon  processions  were 
formed  to  the  different  places  of  meeting  ;  and  no  less 
than  twenty  different  orators,  composed  of  the  most 
effective  speakers  in  Congress  and  the  cabinet,  and  the 
most  eloquent  divines  of  Richmond,  took  their  stands 
in  the  halls  of  legislation,  in  the  churches  and  the  the- 
averl  except  by  bui 
I.-isi  hope  failed  ii 
flown.    Campbell    ■■_.     h<    ' 
don  i  for  pea<  e  "  2  —  doubtl< 
language  thai  he  advo< 
ilx,-  proffered  '■ 
Mr.  Lincoln  would    be 
can  sdi<rnr;ni<l  would  | 
lie  therefore  i  <!•. 
meeting  should    1-    kepi 
the    other  COD 
to  follow  tin's  advice,  h< 
erate  cause  as  hop 
mond,   abandoned   the    rebelft 
into   retirement.1''     His 
public   report   of  the    1 
the  result  of  the  Hampton   I 
was  his  last   participation   in  the   til-starred 
enterprise. 
Davis  took  the  only  cour-e  open  to  him 
refusing  the  honorable  peace  which  Mr.  Lin- 
coln had  tendered.     He  transmitted  the  com- 
missioners' report  to  the  rebel  ( \  :th  a 
brief  and  dry  message,  stating  that  the  enemy 
refused  any  terms  except  those  the  concp 
may  grant;  and   then   arranged   as  vigorous 
an  effort  as  the  circumstances  permitted,  once 
more  to  "fire  the  Southern  heart."    A  public 
meeting  was  called,   and  on  the  evening  of 
February  6  Jefferson  Davis  and  other-  made 
speeches  at  the  African  Church,4  which,  judg- 
ing from  the  meager  reports  that  were  prii 
were  as  denunciatory  and  bellicose  as  the  bitter- 
est Confederate  could  have  wished     D 
particularly,  is  represented  to   have  excelled 
himself  in  that  lurid  flow  of  partisan  passion 
and  vaunting   prophecy  which   he   - 
ively  used  upon  Southern  listeners  for  many 
years.  "  Sooner  than  we  should  ever  be  111 
again,"  he  said,  "  he  would  be  willing  to  yield 
up  everything  he  had  on  earth  —  if  it  %\  ere  pos- 
sible   he  would  sacrifice  a  thousand  lb. 
and  further  announced  his  confidence  that  they 
would  yet  "  compel  the  Yai                       ihan 
twelve  months,  to  petition  us  for               0  our 
own  terms."5    He  denouni 
coin  as  "  His   Majesty  Abraham  the  Pi 
and  said  "before  the  campaign  was  over  he 
mors,  ami  swelled  the  eloquence  grand  ap- 
peal to  the  people  and  armies  of  the  South.    ...    It 
was  an  extraordinary  day  in   Richmoi  ! 
huddled  around  the  stands  of  th<  r  lined  the 
streets;  and  the  air  was  vocal  with  the  efforts  of  the 
orator  and  the  responses  of  his  audience.    It  appeared 
indeed  that  the  blood  of  the  people  had  again  been 
kindled,    but  it  was  only  :' 
ing  flame;  there  was  no  steadint  — 
there    was   no    virtue  in  the  hi  ation 
ended  with  the  voices  and  a 
and  it  was  found  that  the  spirit  of  the  people  of  the 
Confederacy  was  too  weak,  too  much  broken,  to  react 
with  effect  or  assume  the  position  c 
defiance."  [Pollard.  "The  Lost  t 
5  "Richmond  Dispatch."  Feb.  7,  iS   5.
*s 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
and  Seward  might  find  -they  had  boon  speak- 
ing to  their  masters.'"1 
This  extravagance  of  impotent  anger,  this 
rage  oi  baffled  ambition,  would  seem  merely 
pitiably  grotesque  were  it  not  rendered  ghastly 
by  the  reflection  that  it  was  the  signal  which 
carried  many  additional  thousands  of  brave 
soldiers  to  bloody  graves  in  continuing  a  palpa- 
bly hopeless  military  struggle. 
THE    XIIITH    AMENDMENT. 
We  have  enumerated  with  some  detail  the 
series  of  radical  antislavery  measures  enacted 
at  the  second  session  of  the  Thirty-seventh  Con- 
gress, which  ended  July  17,  1862 — the  abo- 
lition of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia ; 
the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  national  Terri- 
tories; the  practical  repeal  of  the  fugitive  slave 
law ;  and  the  sweeping  measures  of  confiscation 
which  in  different  forms  decreed  forfeiture  of 
slave  property  for  the  crimes  of  treason  and 
rebellion.  When  this  wholesale  legislation  was 
supplemented  by  the  President's  preliminary 
Emancipation  Proclamation  of  September  22, 
1862,  and  his  final  edict  of  freedom  of  Jan- 
uary 1,  1863,  the  institution  had  clearly  re- 
ceived its  coup  de  grace  in  all  except  the  loyal 
border  States.  Consequently  the  third  session 
of  the  Thirty-seventh  Congress  ending  March 
4,  1863,  occupied  itself  with  this  phase  of  the 
slavery  question  only  to  the  extent  of  an  effort 
to  put  into  operation  the  President's  plan  of 
compensated  abolishment.  That  effort  took 
practical  shape  in  a  bill  to  give  the  State  of 
Missouri  fifteen  millions  on  condition  that  she 
would  emancipate  her  slaves ;  but  the  propo- 
sition failed,  largely  through  the  opposition  of 
a  few  conservative  members  from  Missouri,  and 
the  session  adjourned  without  having  by  its 
legislation  advanced  the  destruction  of  slavery. 
When  Congress  met  again  in   December, 
1863,  and  organized  by  the  election  of  Schuy- 
ler Colfax  of  Indiana  as  Speaker,  the  whole  sit- 
uation had  undergone  further  change.  The 
Union  arms  had  been  triumphant  —  Gettysburg 
had  been  won  and  Vicksburg  had  capitulated; 
Lincoln's  edict  of  freedom  had  become  an 
accepted  fact;  fifty  regiments  of  negro  soldiers 
carried  bayonets  in  the  Union  armies;  Val- 
landigham  had  been  beaten  for  governor  in 
Ohio  by  a  hundred  thousand  majority ;  the 
draft  had  been  successfully  enforced  in  every 
district  of  every  loyal  State  in  the  Union. 
Under  these  brightening  prospects,  military  and 
political,  the  more  progressive  spirits  in  Con- 
1  Jones,  "A  Rebel  War  Clerk's  Diary,"  Vol.  II., p. 
411. 
2  Message,  Dec.  8,  1863. 
?>  Carpenter  in  Raymond,  "Life  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln/' p.    752. 
guess  took  up  anew  the  suspended  battle  with 
slavery  which  the  institution  had  itself  invited 
by  its  unprovoked  assault  on  the  life  of  the 
Government. 
The  President's  reference  to  the  subject  in 
his  annual  message  was  very  brief : 
The  movements  [said  hej  by  State  action  for 
emancipation  in  several  of  the  States  not  included 
in  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  are  matters  of 
profound  gratulation.  And  while  I  do  not  repeat 
in  detail  what  I  have  heretofore  so  earnestly  urged 
upon  this  subject,  my  general  views  and  feelings  re- 
main unchanged  ;  and  I  trust  that  Congress  will 
omit  no  fair  opportunity  of  aiding  these  important 
steps  to  a  great  consummation.2 
His  language  had  reference  to  Maryland, 
where  during  the  autumn  of  1863  the  question 
of  emancipation  had  been  actively  discussed 
by  political  parties,  and  where  at  the  election 
of  November  4,  1863,  a  legislature  had  been 
chosen  containing  a  considerable  majority 
pledged  to  emancipation. 
More  especially  did  it  refer  to  Missouri, 
where,  notwithstanding  the  failure  of  the  fifteen- 
million  compensation  bill  at  the  previous  ses- 
sion, a  State  convention  had  actually  passed 
an  ordinance  of  emancipation,  though  with 
such  limitations  as  rendered  it  unacceptable 
to  the  more  advanced  public  opinion  of  the 
State.  Prudence  was  the  very  essence  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  statesmanship,  and  he  doubtless  felt 
it  was  not  safe  for  the  Executive  to  venture 
farther  at  that  time.  "  We  are  like  whalers,"  he 
said  to  Governor  Morgan  one  day,  "who  have 
been  on  a  long  chase  :  we  have  at  last  got  the 
harpoon  into  the  monster,  but  we  must  now 
look  how  we  steer,  or  with  one  '  flop '  of  his  tail 
he  will  yet  send  us  all  into  eternity."  3 
Senators  and  members  of  the  House,  espe- 
cially those  representing  antislavery  States  or 
districts,  did  not  need  to  be  so  circumspect. 
It  was  doubtless  with  this  consciousness  that 
J.  M.  Ashley,  a  Republican  representative  from 
Ohio,  and  James  F.  Wilson,  a  Republican  rep- 
resentative from  Iowa,  on  the  14th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1863, —  that  being  the  earliest  opportunity 
after  the  House  was  organized, — introduced, 
the  former  a  bill  and  the  latter  a  joint  resolu- 
tion to  propose  to  the  several  States  an  amend- 
ment of  the  Constitution  prohibiting  slavery 
throughout  the  United  States.  Both  the  propo- 
sitions were  referred  to  the  Committee  on  the 
Judiciary,  of  which  Mr.  Wilson  was  chairman  ; 
but  before  he  made  any  report  on  the  subject  it 
had  been  brought  before  the  Senate,  where  its 
discussion  attracted  marked  public  attention. 
Senator  John  B.  Henderson,  who  with  rare 
courage  and  skill  had,  as  a  progressive  con- 
servative, made  himself  one  of  the  leading 
champions  of  Missouri  emancipation,  on  the 
nth   of  January,   1864,  introduced  into  the
■////•:   X///77/  A  l/AVVAU// 
Senate  a  joint  resolution  proposing  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  that  slavery  shall  not 
exist  in  the  United  States.1  It  is  not  probable 
that  either  he  or  the  Senate  saw  any  near  hope 
of  success  in  such  a  measure.  The  resolution 
went  to. the  Senate  Committee  on  the  Judici- 
ary, where  it  caused  some  discussion,  but  ap- 
parently without  being  treated  as  a  matter  of 
pressing  importance.  Nearly  a  month  had 
elapsed  when  Mr.  Sumner  also  introduced  a 
joint  resolution,  proposing  an  amendment  that 
"  Everywhere  within  the  limits  of  the  United 
States,  and  of  each  State  or  Territory  thereof, 
all  persons  are  equal  before  the  law,  so  that 
no  person  can  hold  another  as  a  slave."2  He 
asked  its  reference  to  the  select  committee  on 
slavery,  of  which  he  was  chairman ;  but  sev- 
eral senators  argued  that  such  an  amendment 
properly  belonged  to  the  Committee  on  the 
Judiciary,  and  in  this  reference  Mr.  Sumner 
finally  acquiesced.  It  is  possible  that  this 
slight  and  courteously  worded  rivalry  between 
the  two  committees  induced  earlier  action  than 
would  otherwise  have  happened,  for  two  days 
later  —  February  10  —  Mr.  Trumbull,  chair- 
man of  the  Judiciary  Committee,  reported  back 
a  substitute  in  the  following  language,  differing 
from  the  phraseology  of  both  Mr.  Sumner  and 
Mr.  Henderson  : 
ARTICLE  XIII. 
Section  i.  Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servi- 
tude, except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  whereof  the 
party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist 
within  the  United  States,  or  any  place  subject  to 
their  jurisdiction. 
Sect.  2.  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce 
this  article  by  appropriate  legislation.3 
Even  after  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary 
by  this  report  had  adopted  the  measure,  it 
was  evidently  thought  to  be  merely  in  an  ex- 
perimental or  trial  stage,  for  more  than  six 
weeks  elapsed  before  the  Senate  again  took  it 
up  for  action.  On  the  28th  of  March,  how- 
ever, Mr.  Trumbull  formally  opened  debate 
upon  it  in  an  elaborate  speech.  The  discus- 
sion was  continued  from  time  to  time  until 
April  8.  As  the  Republicans  had  almost  unan- 
imous control  of  the  Senate,  their  speeches, 
though  able  and  eloquent,  seemed  perfunctory 
and  devoted  to  a  foregone  conclusion.  Those 
which  attracted  most  attention  were  the  ar- 
guments of  Reverdy  Johnson  of  Maryland 
and  Mr.  Henderson  of  Missouri, —  senators 
representing  slave  States, —  advocating  the 
amendment.    Senator  Sumner,  whose  pride  of 
1  Henry  Wilson,  "Antislavery  Measures  in  Con- 
gress," p.  251. 
2  "Globe,"  Feb.  8,  1864,  p.  521. 
3  "Globe,"  March  28,  1864,  p.  1313. 
4  The  Democrats  voting   for   the  joint   resolution 
Vol.  XXXVIII.— 112. 
erudition  amounted  ata 
earnestly  for  his  phi  jUaI 
before  the  law,"  COpid  'ion 
of  revolutionary  Fran  e.    I;  I  Mr.  11 
Michigan,  one  of  the 
clearest  thinkers  of    th 
the  inapplicability  of  the  words,  and  1 
it  safer  to  follow  the  Ordin  787,  with 
its  historical  ^-abjudi- 
cated meaning. 
There  was,  ot  coi  f     .  from  the  first  D 
whatever  that  the  Senate  would 
stitutional  amendment,  the  poli?: 
lion  of  that  body  being  t'nir 
five  Conditional   Unionists,  and  nir.- 
crats.    Not  only  was  the    whole    Republ 
strength,  thirty-six  votes,  <  ast  in  its  favor,  but 
two  Demoerats, —  Reverdy  Johnson  of  Mary- 
land and   James  W.  Nesmith  of  Oregon, — 
with  a  political  wisdom  far  in  advance  of  their 
party,  also  voted  for  it,  giving  more  than  the 
two-thirds  required  by  the  Constitution 
When,  however,  the  joint  resolution  went  to 
the  House  of  Representatives  there  was  such 
a  formidable  party  strength  arrayed  against  it 
as  to  foreshadow  its  failure.  The  part] 
fication  of  the  House  stood  one  hundred  and 
two  Republicans,  seventy-five  Demo*  rats,  and 
nine  from  the  border  States,  leaving  but  little 
chance  of  obtaining  the  required  two-third>  in 
favor  of  the  measure.  Nevertheless  then 
sufficient  Republican  strength  to  secure  its  dis- 
cussion; and  when  it  came  up  on  the  31st  of 
May  the  first  vote  showed  seventy-six  to  fifty- 
five  against  rejecting  the  joint  resolution. 
We  may  infer  that  the  conviction  of  the 
present  hopelessness  of  the  measur_ 
shortened  the  debate  upon  it.  The  question 
occupied  the  House  only  on  three  different 
days  —  the  31st  of  May,  when  it  was  taken  up. 
and  the  14th  and  15th  of  June.  The 
in  opposition  all  came  from  Democrats:  the 
speeches  in  its  favor  all  came  from  Republi- 
cans, except  one.  From  its  adoption  the  former 
predicted  the  direst  evils  to  th.  rion 
and  the  Republic;  the  latter  the  most  benefi- 
cial results  in  the  restoration  o\  th. 
to  peace  and  the  fulfillment  oi  the  high  dc  - 
intended  for  it  by  its  founders.    Upon  the 
question  of  its  passage  the 
ninetv-three:  nays,  sixty-five:  absent  or  not 
ing,  twentv-three.    Of  those  voting  in  fa\ 
the  resolution  eighty-seven  were  Republi 
and    four    were    Democrats  se    voting 
against  it  were  all  Democrats.    The  resolul 
not    having   secured  a  two-thirds    \ 
were    Moses    F.    Odell    and   John    A.    l=: 
New  York,  [oseph  Bail?  of  Pennsylvania,  ud 
Wheeler  of  "Wisconsin, 'the   latter  ha  made 
the   only   speech   in   its    favor  from  the   Demc. 
side.
»54 
thus  lost;  seeing  which  Mr.  Ashley.  Republi- 
can, who  had  the  measure  in  charge,  changed 
his  vote  so  that  he  might,  if  occasion  arose, 
move  its  reconsideration. 
The  ever-vigilant  public  opinion  of  the  loyal 
s,  intensified  by  the  burdens  and  anxieties 
of  the  war.  took  up  this  far-reaching  question 
of  abolishing  slavery  by  constitutional  amend- 
ment with  an  interest  fully  as  deep  as  that  mani- 
fested  by  Congress.  Before  the  joint  resolution 
had  failed  in  the  House  of  Representatives  the 
issue  was  already  transferred  to  discussion  and 
prospective  decision  in  a  new  forum. 
When  on  the  yth  of  June,  1864,  the  Na- 
tional Republican  Convention  met  in  Balti- 
more, the  two  most  vital  thoughts  which 
animated  its  members  were  the  renominationof 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  the  success  of  the  constitu- 
tional amendment.  The  first  was  recognized 
as  a  popular  decision  needing  only  the  formal- 
ity of  an  announcement  by  the  convention; 
and  the  full  emphasis  of  speech  and  resolution 
was  therefore  centered  on  the  latter,  as  the 
dominant  and  aggressive  reform  upon  which 
the  party  would  stake  its  political  fortunes  in 
the  coming  campaign. 
It  is  not  among  the  least  of  the  evidences 
of  President  Lincoln's  political  sagacity  and 
political  courage  that  it  was  he  himself  who 
supplied  the  spark  that  fired  this  train  of  pop- 
ular action.  The  editor  of  the  "New  York 
Independent,"  who  attended  the  convention, 
and  who  with  others  visited  Mr.  Lincoln  im- 
mediately after  the  nomination,  printed  the 
following  in  his  paper  of  June  16, 1864:  "When 
one  of  us  mentioned  the  great  enthusiasm  at 
the  convention,  after  Senator  E.  D.  Morgan's 
proposition  to  amend  the  Constitution,  abolish- 
ing slavery,  Mr.  Lincoln  instantly  said, '  It  was  I 
who  suggested  to  Mr.  Morgan  that  he  should 
put  that  idea  into  his  opening  speech.'  "  The 
declaration  of  Morgan,  who  was  chairman  of 
the  National  Republican  Committee,  and  as 
such  called  the  convention  to  order,  immedi- 
ately found  an  echo  in  the  speech  of  the  tempo- 
rary chairman,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Robert  J.  Breckin- 
ridge. The  indorsement  of  the  principle  by  the 
eminent  Kentucky  divine,  not  on  the  ground  of 
party,  but  on  the  high  philosophy  of  true  univer- 
sal government  and  of  genuine  Christian  relig- 
ion, gave  the  announcement  an  interest  and 
significance  accorded  to  few  planks  in  party 
platforms.  Permanent  chairman  Dennison  reaf- 
firmed the  doctrine  of  Morgan  and  Breckin- 
ridge, and  the  thunderous  applause  of  the  whole 
convention  greeted  the  formal  proclamation  of 
the  new  dogma  of  political  faith  in  the  third 
resolution  of  the  platform : 
Resolved,  That  as  slavery  was  the  cause  and  now 
constitutes  the  strength  of  this  rebellion,  and  as  it 
must  be  always  and  everywhere  hostile  to  the  prin- 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
ciples  of  republican  government,  justice  and  the 
national  safety  demand  its  utter  and  complete  extir- 
pation from  the  soil  of  the  Republic  ;  and  that  while 
we  uphold  and  maintain  the  acts  and  proclamations 
by  which  the  Government  in  its  own  defense  has 
aimed  a  death  blow  at  this  gigantic  evil,  we  are  in 
favor,  furthermore,  of  such  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution,  to  be  made  by  the  people,  in  conform- 
ity with  its  provisions,  as  shall  terminate  and  forever 
prohibit  the  existence  of  slavery  within  the  limits 
or  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States. 
We  have  related  elsewhere  how  upon  this 
and  the  other  declarations  of  the  platform  the 
Republican  party  went  to  battle  and  gained  an 
overwhelming  victory — a  popular  majority  of 
411,281,  an  electoral  majority  of  191,  and  a 
House  of  Representatives  of  138  Unionists  to 
35  Democrats.  In  view  of  this  result  the  Presi- 
dent was  able  to  take  up  the  question  with  con- 
fidence among  his  official  recommendations; 
and  in  the  annual  message  which  he  trans- 
mitted to  Congress  on  the  6th  of  December, 
1864,  he  urged  upon  the  members  whose  terms 
were  about  to  expire  the  propriety  of  at  once 
carrying  into  effect  the  clearly  expressed  pop- 
ular will.    Said  he : 
At  the  last  session  of  Congress  a  proposed  amend- 
ment of  the  Constitution,  abolishing  slavery  through- 
out the  United  States,  passed  the  Senate,  but  failed, 
for  lack  of  the  requisite  two-thirds  vote,  in  the  House 
of  Representatives.  Although  the  present  is  the  same 
Congress,  and  nearly  the  same  members,  and  with- 
out questioning  the  wisdom  or  patriotism  of  those 
who  stood  in  opposition,  I  venture  to  recommend 
the  reconsideration  and  passage  of  the  measure  at 
the  present  session.  Of  course  the  abstract  question 
is  not  changed  ;  but  an  intervening  election  shows, 
almost  certainly,  that  the  next  Congress  will  pass 
the  measure  if  this  does  not.  Hence  there  is  only 
a  question  of  lime  as  to  when  the  proposed  amend- 
ment will  go  to  the  States  for  their  action.  And  as 
it  is  to  so  go  at  all  events,  may  we  not  agree  that 
the  sooner  the  better?  It  is  not  claimed  that  the 
election  has  imposed  a  duty  on  members  to  change 
their  views  or  their  votes  any  further  than,  as  an 
additional  element  to  be  considered,  their  judgment 
may  be  affected  by  it.  It  is  the  voice  of  the  people, 
now  for  the  first  time  heard  upon  the  question. 
In  a  great  national  crisis  like  ours  unanimity  of 
action  among  those  seeking  a  common  end  is  very 
desirable  —  almost  indispensable.  And  yet  no  ap- 
proach to  unanimity  is  attainable  unless  some 
deference  shall  be  paid  to  the  will  of  the  majority, 
simply  because  it  is  the  will  of  the  majority.  In 
this  case  the  common  end  is  the  maintenance  of  the 
Union  ;  and,  among  the  means  to  secure  that  end, 
such  will,  through  the  election,  is  most  clearly  de- 
clared in  favor  of  such  constitutional  amendment.1 
On  the  15th  of  December  Mr.  Ashley  gave 
notice  that  lie  would  on  the  6th  of  January, 
1865,  call  up  the  constitutional  amendment 
for  reconsideration ; 2  and  accordingly  on  the 
1  Lincoln,  Annual  Message,  Dec.  6,  1864. 
2  "Globe,  Dec.  15,  1864,  p.  53.
THE   XI/ITII    AMENDMENT. 
day  appointed  he  opened  the  new  debate  upon 
it  in  an  earnest  speeeh.  General  discussion 
followed  from  time  to  time,  occupying  perhaps 
half  the  days  of  the  month  of  January.  As  at 
the  previous  session,  the  Republicans  all  fa- 
vored, while  the  Democrats  mainly  opposed  it, 
but  the  important  exceptions  among  the  latter 
showed  what  immense  gains  the  proposition 
had  made  in  popular  opinion  and  in  congres- 
sional willingness  to  recognize  and  embody 
it.  The  logic  of  events  had  become  more  pow- 
erful than  party  creed  or  strategy.  For  fifteen 
years  the  Democratic  party  had  stood  as  sen- 
tinel and  bulwark  to  slavery;  and  yet,  despite 
its  alliance  and  championship,  the  peculiar  in- 
stitution was  being  consumed  like  dry  leaves 
in  the  fire  of  war.  For  a  whole  decade  it  had 
been  defeated  in  every  great  contest  of  con- 
gressional debate  and  legislation.  It  had  with- 
ered in  popular  elections,  been  paralyzed  by 
confiscation  laws,crushed  by  Executive  decrees, 
trampled  upon  by  marching  Union  armies. 
More  notable  than  all,  the  agony  of  dissolution 
had  come  upon  it  in  its  final  stronghold — the 
constitutions  of  the  slave  States.  Local  pub- 
lic opinion  had  throttled  it  in  West  Virginia,  in 
Missouri,  in  Arkansas,  in  Louisiana,  in  Mary- 
land ;  and  the  same  spirit  of  change  was  upon 
Tennessee,  and  even  showing  itself  in  Ken- 
tucky. Here  was  a  great  revolution  of  ideas, 
a  mighty  sweep  of  sentiment,  which  could  not 
be  explained  away  by  the  stale  charge  of  sec- 
tional fanaticism,  or  by  alleging  technical  irreg- 
ularities of  political  procedure.  Here  was  a 
mighty  flood  of  public  opinion,  overleaping  old 
barriers  and  rushing  into  new  channels.  The 
Democratic  party  did  not  and  could  not  shut 
its  eyes  to  the  accomplished  facts.  "  In  my 
judgment,"  said  Mr.  Holman  of  Indiana,  "  the 
fate  of  slavery  is  sealed.  It  dies  by  the  rebel- 
lious hand  of  its  votaries,  untouched  by  the 
law.  Its  fate  is  determined  by  the  war ;  by  the 
measures  of  the  war ;  by  the  results  of  the  war. 
These,  sir,  must  determine  it,  even  if  the  Consti- 
tution were  amended."1  He  opposed  the 
amendment,  he  declared,  simply  because  it  was 
unnecessary.  Though  few  other  Democrats 
were  so  frank,  all  their  speeches  were  weighed 
down  by  the  same  consciousness  of  a  losing 
fight,  a  hopeless  cause.  The  Democratic  leader 
of  the  House,  and  lately  defeated  Democratic 
candidate  for  Vice-President,  Mr.  Pendleton, 
opposed  the  amendment,  as  he  had  done  at  the 
previous  session,  by  asserting  that  three-fourths 
of  the  States  did  not  possess  constitutional 
power  to  pass  it,  this  being — if  the  paradox  be 
excused —  at  the  same  time  the  weakest  and  the 
strongest  argument :  weakest,  because  the  Con- 
stitution in  terms  contradicted  the  assertion; 
strongest,  because  under  the  circumstances 
nothing  less  than  unconstitutionality  could  jus- 
tify opposition.   Bui  ■.•.!:.;.'. •  the  D  a* a 
party  thus  pei  ri  ited  in  al  I  •    ttii 
gressive  member   bad  I  •  in- 
dependent and  v.:  ;  the 
four  Democrats— Mo 
A.  Griswold,  of  New  York  ; 
Pennsylvania  ;  and  Ezra  v.  ht 
sin — who  supported  the  amendment  at  the 
first  session  again  record  then 
but  they  were   now  joined  by  thirta 
of  their  party  a 
Baldwin,  of  Michigan  ; 
and  Archibald   McAllister,  nia; 
James  E.  English,  oi  ( 
son,  Anson  Eierrick,  Homer  A.  Will- 
iam Radford,  and  John  B 
York;  Wells  A.  Hutchins, Ol 
King  and  James  S.  Rollins,  in;  and 
George  H.  Yeaman,  of  Kentucky;  and  b\ 
help  the  favorable  two-thirds  vofc  .red. 
But  special  credit  for  the  result  must  not  be 
accorded  to  these  alone.    Even  more  than  of 
Northern  Democrats  must  be   re  ognized  the 
courage  and  progressive  liberality  of  mem 
from  the  border  slave  States  —  one  from  Dela- 
ware, four  from   Maryland,   three  from  \ 
Virginia,  four  from  Kentucky,  and  seven  trr-m 
Missouri,  whose  speeches  and  votes  aided  the 
consummation  of  the  great  act ;  and,  finally. 
something  is  due  to  those  Democr 
in  number,  who  were    absent  without  | 
and  thus,  perhaps  not  altogether  by  a<  ddent, 
reduced  somewhat  the  two- thirds  vote  r 
sary  to  the  passage  of  the  joint  resolution. 
Mingled  with  these  influences  of  a  public 
and  moral  nature  it  is  not  unlikely  that  others 
of  more  selfish  interest,  operating  both  for  and 
against  the  amendment,  were  not  entirely  want- 
ing. One,  who  was  a  member  of  the  I :. 
writes : 
The  success  of  the  measure  had  been  cons:, 
very  doubtful,  and  depended  upon  c  _otia- 
tions  the  result  of  which  was  not  fully  as* 
the  particulars  of  which  never  reached  the  pul 
So  also  one  of  the  President1  ries 
wrote  on  the  18th  of  January  : 
I    went   to  the   President   this  a ".  I   the 
request  of  Mr.  Ashley,  on  a  matter  connecting      - 
self  with  the  pending  amendment  of  dilu- 
tion.   The  Camden   and  Amboy  railroad    inU 
promised  Mr.  Ashley  that  if  he  would  heir 
the    Raritan    railroad    bill    over    this  they 
would  in  return  make  the  New  Jersey  Dem 
help  about  the  amendment,  either  by  theil 
absence.      Sumner  being  the  Senate  champ:; 
the  Raritan  bill,  Ashley  went  to  him  to  ask  him  to 
drop  it  for  this  session!    Sumner,  however,  sfa 
reluctance  to  adopt  Mr.  A>hle\ 
that  he  hoped  the  amendment  would  pas> 
1  "Globe."  fan.  n.  1865,0.  21-:. 
-  George  \Y.  Julian,"  Political  Reool  k
8*6 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
etc.  Ashley  thought  he  discerned  in  Sumner's  man- 
ner two  reasons:  (1)  That  it  the  present  Senate 
resolution  were  not  adopted  by  the  House,  the  Senate 
would  send  them  another  in  which  they  would  most 
likely  adopt  Sumner's  own  phraseology  and  thereby 
gratify  his  ambition  ;  and  (2)  that  Sumner  thinks 
the  defeat  o\  the  Camden  and  Amboy  monopoly 
would  establish  a  principle  by  legislative  enactment 
which  would  effectually  crush  out  the  last  lingering 
relics  of  the  States  rights  dogma.  Ashley  therefore 
desired  the  President  to  send  for  Sumner,  and  urge 
him  to  be  practical  and  secure  the  passage  of  the 
amendment  in  the  manner  suggested  by  Mr.  Ashley. 
I  stated  these  points  to  the  President,  who  replied  at 
once  :  li  I  can  do  nothing  with  Mr.  Sumner  in  these 
matters.  While  Mr.  Sumner  is  very  cordial  with 
me,  he  is  making  his  history  in  an  issue  with  me 
on  this  very  point.  He  hopes  to  succeed  in  beat- 
ing the  President  so  as  to  change  this  Government 
from  its  original  form  and  make  it  a  strong  central- 
ized power."  Then  calling  Mr.  Ashley  into  the 
room,  the  President  said  to  him,  "  I  think  I  under- 
stand Mr.  Sumner;  and  I  think  he  would  be  all 
the  more  resolute  in  his  persistence  on  the  points 
which  Mr.  Nicolay  has  mentioned  to  me  if  he 
supposed  I  were  at  all  watching  his  course  on  this 
matter/'l 
The  issue  was  decided  in  the  afternoon  of 
the  31st  of  January,  1865.  The  scene  was  one 
of  unusual  interest.  The  galleries  were  filled  to 
overflowing;  the  members  watched  the  pro- 
ceedings with  unconcealed  solicitude.  "  Up 
to  noon,"  said  a  contemporaneous  formal  re- 
port, "  the  pro-slavery  party  are  said  to  have 
been  confident  of  defeating  the  amendment,  and 
after  that  time  had  passed,  one  of  the  most 
earnest  advocates  of  the  measure  said, '  'T  is  the 
toss  of  a  copper.'  "  2  There  were  the  usual  pleas 
for  postponement  and  for  permission  to  offer 
amendments  or  substitutes,  but  at  four  o'clock 
the  House  came  to  a  final  vote,  and  the  roll- 
call  showed,  yeas,  119;  nays,  56;  not  voting,  8. 
Scattering  murmurs  of  applause  had  followed 
the  announcement  of  affirmative  votes  from 
several  of  the  Democratic  members.  This  was 
renewed  when  by  direction  of  the  Speaker  the 
clerk  called  his  name  and  he  voted  aye.  But 
when  the  Speaker  finally  announced,  "  The 
constitutional  majority  of  two-thirds  having 
voted  in  the  affirmative,  the  joint  resolution 
is  passed,"  "  the  announcement  "  —  so  con- 
tinues the  official  report  printed  in  the  "  Globe  " 
— "  was  received  by  the  House  and  by  the  spec- 
tators with  an  outburst  of  enthusiasm.  The 
members  on  the  Republican  side  of  the  House 
instantly  sprung  to  their  feet,  and,  regardless 
of  parliamentary  rules,  applauded  with  cheers 
and  clapping  of  hands.  The  example  was 
followed  by  the  male  spectators  in    the  gal- 
1  J.  G.  X.,  "  Personal  Memoranda."    MS. 
2  Report  of  Special  Committee  of  the  Union  League 
Club  of  New  York.    Pamphlet. 
3  "Globe,"  Jan.  31,  1865,  p.   531. 
leries,  which  were  crowded  to  excess,  who 
waved  their  hats  and  cheered  loud  and  long, 
while  the  ladies,  hundreds  of  whom  were 
present,  rose  in  their  seats  and  waved  their 
handkerchiefs,  participating  in  and  adding  to 
the  general  excitement  and  intense  interest  of 
the  scene.  This  lasted  for  several  minutes."3 
"  In  honor  of  this  immortal  and  sublime  event," 
cried  Mr.  Ingersoll  of  Illinois,  "  I  move  that 
the  House  do  now  adjourn,"  and  against  the 
objection  of  a  Maryland  Democrat  the  motion 
was  carried  by  a  yea  and  nay  vote.  A  salute 
of  one  hundred  guns  soon  made  the  occasion 
the  subject  of  comment  and  congratulation 
throughout  the  city.  On  the  following  night 
a  considerable  procession  marched  with  music 
to  the  Executive  Mansion  to  carry  popular 
greetings  to  the  President.  In  response  to  their 
calls,  Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  at  a  window  and 
made  a  brief  speech,  of  which  only  an  abstract 
report  was  preserved,  but  which  is  neverthe- 
less important  as  showing  the  searching  analysis 
of  cause  and  effect  which  this  question  had 
undergone  in  his  mind,  the  deep  interest  he 
felt,  and  the  far-reaching  consequences  he 
attached  to  the  measure  and  its  success. 
He  supposed  [he  said]  the  passage  through  Con- 
gress of  the  constitutional  amendment  for  the 
abolishment  of  slavery  throughout  the  United 
States  was  the  occasion  to  which  he  was  indebted 
for  the  honor  of  this  call.  The  occasion  was  one  of 
congratulation  to  the  country  and  to  the  whole 
world.  But  there  is  a  task  yet  before  us — to  go 
forward  and  have  consummated  by  the  votes  of 
the  States  that  which  Congress  had  so  nobly  begun 
yesterday.  He  had  the  honor  to  inform  those  pres- 
ent that  Illinois  had  to-day  already  done  the  work. 
Maryland  was  about  half  through,  but  he  felt  proud 
that  Illinois  was  a  little  ahead.  He  thought  this 
measure  was  a  very  fitting  if  not  an  indispensable 
adjunct  to  the  winding  up  of  the  great  difficulty. 
He  wished  the  reunion  of  all  the  States  perfected, 
and  so  effected  as  to  remove  all  causes  of  disturb- 
ance in  the  future  ;  and  to  attain  this  end,  it  was 
necessary  that  the  original  disturbing  cause  should, 
if  possible,  be  rooted  out.  He  thought  all  would 
bear  him  witness  that  he  had  never  shrunk  from 
doing  all  that  he  could  to  eradicate  slavery,  by  is- 
suing an  Emancipation  Proclamation.  But  that 
proclamation  falls  far  short  of  what  the  amendment 
will  be  when  fully  consummated.  A  question  might 
be  raised  whether  the  proclamation  was  legally 
valid.  It  might  be  urged,  that  it  only  aided  those 
that  came  into  our  lines,  and  that  it  was  inoperative 
as  to  those  who  did  not  give  themselves  up ;  or 
that  it  would  have  no  effect  upon  the  children  of 
slaves  born  hereafter ;  in  fact,  it  would  be  urged  that 
it  did  not  meet  the  evil.  But  this  amendment  is  a 
king's  cure-all  for  all  the  evils.  It  winds  the  whole 
thing  up.  He  would  repeat,  that  it  was  the  fitting 
if  not  the  indispensable  adjunct  to  the  consum- 
mation of  the  great  game  we  are  playing.  He  could 
not  but  congratulate  all  present  —  himself,  the 
country,  and  the  whole  world  —  upon  this  great 
moral  victory.    •  <^z-e^     /  F^J?~^?
THE    /'/CONY. 
'3' 
father's  house,  instead  of  taking  his  place  at 
the  table,  he  insisted  upon  acting  as  waiter. 
This  led  to  an  explosion,  and  to  his  expulsion 
from  home.  For  the  last  two  years  he  had  been 
wandering  among  the  various  communities, 
and  during  that  winter  had  been  living  in  Bo 
ton,  in  the  houses  of  various  gentlemen  on 
whom  he  had  intruded  himself  without  invita- 
tion, taking  care,  with  commendable  good 
taste,  to  select  the  best  houses  in  the  city.  In 
pursuance  of  his  system,  he  had  now  come  to 
spend  a  few  days  with  Mrs.  Sturgis.  When 
dinner  was  served  he  went  with  me  to  the 
table,  but  declined  to  eat  anything  except 
apples,  of  which,  fortunately,  we  had  a  good 
store  in  the  house.  A  plate  of  these  was  set 
before  him,  which  he  peeled  and  ate  very  con- 
tentedly, refusing  to  partake  of  anything  else, 
but  lecturing  us  earnestly  on  the  atrocity  of 
our  habits  in  eating  beef,  salt,  and  butter,  and 
drinking  wine  and  coffee.  He  himself  did  not 
drink  at  all,  not  even  water.  He  staid  with 
us  a  few  days,  during  which  I  found  him  a 
very  agreeable  companion ;  and  when  he  went 
away  I  accompanied  him  to  Boston  to  attend 
an  Abolition  convention  which  was  then  in 
session  in  the  city,  at  which  he  was  desirous 
of  speaking.  When  the  convention  adjourned 
for  dinner  he  asked  me  to  go  with  him  to  the 
house  of  Francis  Jackson,  one  of  the  leading 
Abolitionists  of  Boston.  As  I  had  no  acquaint- 
ance with  Mr.  Jackson,  I  declined  to  intrude 
myself  upon  his  hospitality,  and  was  about  to 
set  out  upon  my  return  to  Brookline,  which  I 
could  reach  in  time  for  dinner,  when  Larned 
insisted  that  if  I  would  not  go  to  Jackson's  to 
dinner  I  must  at  least  go  and  dine  with  him 
at  an  eating-house.    We  went  accordingly  to 
a  place  near  by,  v. 
usual  kind,  while  D  .  in  dcfa  . 
appl<  .  whit  h   
. 
within  tli<:  limn  ,  ol  hi 
dinner,  it  sudden!;.  .aire 
if  he  had  am  n 
I    was   nearly   in    I 
only  just,   mon 
in  the  omnibus  to  Bkx  I    told  him  he 
must  get  out.  of  th< 
me.   To  this  he  ■ 
used  to  such  thing 
in  human  nature.    I  |  di- 
rectly out,  leaving  him  to  settle  at  ti.- 
He  came  out  presently,  triumphant.    1 
taurant  keeper  was  indeed  hun  had 
agreed  to  give  him  credit  till   that  indc: 
period,  "  the  next  time  he  came." 
I  then  parted  with  him  in  tlv  .sith 
my  friendship  for  him  a  little  i 
untoward  incident,  and  did  not  see  him 
for  about  three  years,  when  he  sudd<  : 
at  my  lodgings  one  day,  fashionably 
and  acting  and  talking  like  other  ; 
soon  learned  that  he  had  renounced  all  his 
vagaries,  was  settled  in  the  Smith  as  a   I 
tarian  minister,  and  had  married  a  lady  who 
owned  a  number  of  slaves,  whom  he  did  not 
think  it  necessary  to  emanci: 
The  "  Newness  "  with  him  was  compl- 
"  played  out,"  and  after  Brook  Farm 
in  1847  and  Margaret  Fuller  went  to  Era 
I  think  it  had  very  little  distinctive 
in  New  England.    The  aspiring  youth  of  New 
England  seem  now  to  be  contented  with  m 
their  way  in  the  world  very  much  as  other  people 
make  it,  without  seeking  for  any  fundamental 
change  in  the  established  order  of  society. 
rt  Carter. 
THE    PEONY. 
A  STURDY  maid  — 
Plump  hands  upon  her  hips. 
White  throat  flung  back. 
And  laughing  scarlet  lips  — 
Full  bodice  laced 
With  kerchief  well  tucked  in  — 
Smile  for  each  lad. 
A  kiss,  perhaps,  no  sin  ! 
Plain  speech  or  rough. 
No  empty  flattery  — 
But  wholesome  heart  — 
That  is  the  Peony  ! 
'
ABRAHAM     LINCOLN:    A    HISTORY.1 
THE    SECOND    INAUGURAL  — FIVE    FORKS  — APPOMATTOX. 
BY    JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND    JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
THE    SECOND    INAUGURAL. 
E  have  seen  what  effect  the 
Hampton  Roads  confer- 
ence produced  upon  Jef- 
ferson Davis,  and  to  what 
intemperate  and  wrath- 
ful utterance  it  provoked 
him.  Its  effect  upon  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  was  almost 
directly  the  reverse.  His  interview  with  the 
rebel  commissioners  doubtless  strengthened 
his  former  convictions  that  the  rebellion  was 
waning  in  enthusiasm  and  resources,  and  that 
the  Union  cause  must  triumph  at  no  distant 
day.  Secure  in  his  renewal  of  four  years'  per- 
sonal leadership,  and  hopefully  inspirited  by 
every  sign  of  early  victory  in  the  war,  his  only 
thought  was  to  shorten,  by  generous  concilia- 
tion, the  period  of  the  dreadful  conflict.  His 
temper  was  not  one  of  exultation,  but  of  broad 
patriotic  charity,  and  of  keen,  sensitive  personal 
sympathy  for  the  whole  country  and  all  its 
people,  South  as  well  as  North.  His  conversa- 
tion with  Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell  had 
probably  revealed  to  him  glimpses  of  the  un- 
dercurrent of  their  anxiety  that  fraternal  blood- 
shed and  the  destructive  ravages  of  war  might 
somehow  come  to  an  end.  To  every  word  or 
tone  freighted  with  this  feeling,  the  sincere, 
magnanimous,  and  tender  heart  of  President 
Lincoln  responded  with  bounding  impulses. 
As  a  ruler  and  a  statesman,  he  was  clear  in  his 
judgment  and  inflexible  in  his  will  to  reestab- 
lish union  and  maintain  freedom  for  all  who 
had  gained  it  by  the  chances  of  wrar ;  but  also 
as  a  statesman  and  a  ruler,  he  was  ready  to 
lend  his  individual  influence  and  his  official 
discretion  to  any  measure  of  mitigation  and 
manifestation  of  good-will  that,  without  im- 
periling the  union  of  the  States,  or  the  liberty 
of  the  citizen,  might  promote  acquiescence  in 
impending  political  changes,  and  abatement 
and  reconcilement  of  hostile  sectional  feelings. 
Filled  with  such  thoughts  and  purposes,  he 
spent  the  day  after  his  return  from  Hampton 
Roads  in  considering  and  perfecting  a  new 
proposal,  designed  as  a  peace-offering  to  the 
States  in  rebellion.    On   the  evening  of  Feb- 
written  during  the  day,  and  upon  which  he 
invited  their  opinion  and  advice : 
Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives :  I  respectfully  recommend  that  a  joint 
resolution,  substantially  as  follows,  be  adopted,  so 
soon  as  practicable,  by  your  honorable  bodies : 
"  Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress 
assembled,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States 
is  hereby  empowered,  in  his  discretion,  to  pay  four 
hundred  millions  of  dollars  to  the  States  of  Alabama, 
Arkansas,  Delaware,  Florida,  Georgia,  Kentucky, 
Louisiana,  Maryland,  Mississippi,  Missouri,  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Texas,  Virginia, 
and  West  Virginia,  in  the  manner  and  on  the  con- 
ditions following,  to  wit :  The  payment  to  be  made 
in  six  per  cent.  Government  bonds,  and  to  be  dis- 
tributed among  said  States  prorata  on  their  respec- 
tive slave  populations  as  shown  by  the  census  of 
i860,  and  no  part  of  said  sum  to  be  paid  unless  all 
resistance  to  the  national  authority  shall  be  aban- 
doned and  cease,  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  April 
next ;  and  upon  such  abandonment  and  ceasing  of 
resistance  one-half  of  said  sum  to  be  paid,  in  man- 
ner aforesaid,  and  the  remaining  half  to  be  paid 
only  upon  the  amendment  of  the  national  Constitu- 
tion recently  proposed  by  Congress  becoming  valid 
law,  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  July  next,  by  the 
action  thereon  of  the  requisite  number  of  States." 
The  adoption  of  such  resolution  is  sought  with  a 
view  to  embody  it,  with  other  propositions,  in  a 
proclamation  looking  to  peace  and  reunion. 
Whereas,  a  joint  resolution  has  been  adopted  by 
Congress,  in  the  words  following,  to  wit  : 
Now  therefore  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  do  proclaim,  declare,  and  make 
known,  that  on  the  conditions  therein  stated,  the 
power  conferred  on  the  Executive  in  and  by  said 
joint  resolution  will  be  fully  exercised  ;  that  war 
will  cease  and  armies  be  reduced  to  a  basis  of  peace  ; 
that  all  political  offenses  will  be  pardoned  ;  that  all 
property,  except  slaves,  liable  to  confiscation  or  for- 
feiture, will  be  released  therefrom,  except  in  cases 
of  intervening  interests  of  third  parties;  and  that 
liberality  will  be  recommended  to  Congress  upon 
all  points  not  lying  within  Executive  control.2 
It  may  be  said  with  truth  that  this  was 
going  to  the  verge  of  magnanimity  towards  a 
foe  already  in  the  throes  and  helplessness  of 
overwhelming  defeat — a  foe  that  had  rebelled 
without  adequate  cause  and  maintained  the 
contest  without  reasonable  hope.  But  Mr. 
Lincoln  remembered  that  the  rebels,  notwith- 
ruary  5,  1865,  he  called  his  Cabinet  together  standing  all  their  offenses  and  errors,  were 
and  read  to  them  the  following  draft  of  a  yet  American  citizens,  members  of  the  same 
message    and    proclamation,    which    he    had  2  Unpublished  MS. 
1  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1886.     All  rights  reserved. 
132
THE   SECOND   INAUGURAL 
nation,  brothers  of  the  same  blood.    He  re 
membered,  too,  that  the  object  of  the  war, 
equally  with  peace  and  freedom,  was  the 
maintenance  of  one  government  and  the  ] per- 
petuation of  one  Union.  Not  only  must  hos- 
tilities cease,  but  dissension,  suspicion,  and 
estrangement  be  eradicated.  As  it  had  been 
in  the  past,  so  it  must  again  become  in  the 
future  —  not  merely  a  nation  with  the  same 
Constitution  and  laws,  but  a  people  united 
in  feeling,  in  hope,  in  aspiration.  In  his  judg- 
ment, the  liberality  that  would  work  recon- 
ciliation would  be  well  employed.  Whether 
their  complaints  for  the  past  were  well  or  ill 
founded,  he  would  remove  even  the  tempta- 
tion to  complain  in  the  future.  He  would  give 
them  peace,  reunion,  political  pardon,  re- 
mission of  confiscation  wherever  it  was  in  his 
power,  and  securing  unquestioned  and  uni- 
versal freedom  through  the  constitutional 
amendment,  he  would  at  the  same  time  com- 
pensate their  loss  of  slavery  by  a  direct  money 
equivalent. 
It  turned  out  that  he  was  more  humane 
than  his  constitutional  advisers.  The  indorse- 
ment of  his  own  handwriting  on  the  manu- 
script draft  of  his  proposed  message  records 
the  result  of  his  appeal  and  suggestion : 
"  February  5,  1865.  To-day  these  papers, 
which  explain  themselves,  were  drawn  up  and 
submitted  to  the  Cabinet  and  unanimously  dis- 
approved by  them. — A.  Lincoln."  * 
It  would  appear  that  there  was  but  little 
discussion  of  the  proposition.  The  President's 
evident  earnestness  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
unanimous  dissent  of  the  Cabinet  on  the 
other,  probably  created  an  awkward  situation 
which  could  be  best  relieved  by  silence  on 
each  hand.  The  diary  of  Secretary  Welles 
gives  only  a  brief  mention  of  the  important 
incident,  but  it  reflects  the  feeling  which  per- 
vaded the  Cabinet  chamber : 
Monday,  February  6,  1865. 
There  was  a  Cabinet  meeting  last  evening.  The 
President  had  matured  a  scheme  which  he  hoped 
would  be  successful  in  promoting  peace.  It  was  a 
proposition  for  paying  the  expense  of  the  war  tor 
two  hundred  days,  or  four  hundred  millions  to  the 
rebel  States,  to  be  for  the  extinguishment  of  slavery 
or  for  such  purpose  as  the  States  were  disposed.  This, 
in  few  words,  was  the  scheme.  It  did  not  meet  with 
favor,  but  was  dropped.  The  earnest  desire  of  the 
President  to  conciliate  and  effect  peace  was  manifest, 
but  there  may  be  such  a  thing  as  so  overdoing  as 
to  cause  a  distrust  or  adverse  feeling.  In  the  pres- 
ent temper  of  Congress  the  proposed  measure,  if  a 
wise  one,  could  not  be  carried  through  successfully  ; 
I  do  not  think  the  scheme  could  accomplish  any 
good  results.    The  rebels  would  misconstrue  it  if  the 
1  Unpublished  MS.  2  Unpublished  MS. 
3  "New  York  Tribune,"  Sept.  13,  1885. 
4  "Globe,"  Feb.  8,  1865,  p.  665. 
Vol.  XXXIX.— 20. 
offerwere  made.  If  attempted  and  lefcatedh  a 
do  harm  .2 
'l  he  statement  oi 
many  yeai  1  afterwards  from 
cords  111'.-  deep  feeling  with  which  the  I 
received  the  non-<  oncurresu 
( Council : 
The   members  of  the  Cabinet   were  all  opp 
He  seemed   somewhat  sin; 
"  How  long  will  the  war  I 
but  he  soon  said  :  "A  him  We  are  spend- 
ing now  in  carrying  on  the  war  three  millions  | 
which  will  amount  to  all  thismon  y.  besides  all  the 
lives."   With  a  deep  sigh  he  a,i  re  all 
opposed  to  me,  and  I  will  not  send  t; 
The  entry  made  by  Secretary  Welles  in  his 
diary  on  the  morning  after  the  <  al-inet  mor- 
as to  the  amount  and  time,  is  undoubtedly  the 
correct    one,  coinciding   as    it   doea   with   the 
President's  manuscript    But  the  ncy 
in  the  figures  of  the  two  witnef  ittle 
moment.   Both  accounts  show  us  that  the  pro- 
posal was  not  based  on  sentiment  alone,  hut 
upon  a  practical  arithmetic  al  <  alculation.    An 
expenditure  of  three  or  four  hundred  mi 
was  inevitable ;  but  his  -plan  would  save  many 
precious  lives,  would  shield  homes  and  he. 
from  further  sorrow  and  desolation,  would 
solve  sectional  hatred,  and  plant  fraternal  good- 
will. Though  overborne  in  opinion,  clearly  he 
was  not  convinced.  With  the  words,  "  You  are 
all  opposed  to  me,"  sadly  uttered,  Mr.  Lincoln 
folded  up  the  paper  and  ceased  the  further 
discussion  of  what  was  doubtless  the  ]  : 
then  nearest  his  heart.   We  may  sum 
ever,  that,  as  he  wrote  upon  it  the  indorsement 
we  have  quoted  and  laid  it  away,  he  looked 
forward  to  a  not  distant  day  when,  in  the 
term  of  the  Presidency  to  which  he  was  al- 
ready elected,  the  Cabinet,  with  new  and  □ 
liberal  views,  would  respond  more  char:: 
to  his  own  generous  impuls 
Few  Cabinet    secrets  were  better  kepi  than 
this  proposal  of  the  Pn 
sion.    Since  the  subject  was  indefinitely  | 
poned,  it  was,  of  course,  desirable  that  it  sh< 
not  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  \  ublic    S 
lence  was  rendered  easier  by  the  fact  that  pop- 
ular attention  in  the  North  busied  itself  with 
rumors  concerning  the  Hampton  R 
ference.    To  satisfy  this  curiositj  ation 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  passed  on 
February  S,  requested  the  President  to  com- 
municate such  information  res]  t  as  he 
might  deem  not  incompatible  with  the  public 
interest.4  With  this  request  Mr.  Lincoln  1 
plied  on  the  10th.  by  a  message  in  which  all  the 
correspondence  was  printed,  followed  ' 
report  touching  the  points  of  conferee 
On  the  morning  of  the  -,d  [wrote   Mr.  Lincoln] 
the  three  gentlemen.  Messrs.  Stephens.  Hunte  .
*  34 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
Campbell,  came  aboard  of  our  steamer,  and  had  an 
interview  with  the  Secretary  of  State  and  myself  of 
several  hours'  duration.  No  question  of  preliminaries 
to  the  meeting  was  then  and  there  made  or  men- 
tioned. No  other  person  was  present ;  no  papers 
were  exchanged  or  produced  ;  and  it  was,  in  advance, 
agreed  that  the  conversation  was  to  be  informal  and 
verbal  merely.  On  our  part,  the  whole  substance  of 
the  instructions  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  herein- 
before recited,  was  stated  and  insisted  upon,  and 
nothing  was  said  inconsistent  therewith  ;  while,  by 
the  other  party,  it  was  not  said  that  in  any  event 
or  on  any  condition  they  ever  would  consent  to  re- 
union ;  and  yet  they  equally  omitted  to  declare  that 
they  never  would  so  consent.  They  seemed  to 
desire  a  postponement  of  that  question,  and  the 
adoption  of  some  other  course  first,  which,  as  some 
of  them  seem  to  argue,  might  or  might  not  lead  to 
reunion  ;  but  which  course,  we  thought,  would 
amount  to  an  indefinite  postponement.  The  con- 
ference ended  without  result.1 
A  short  discussion  occurred  in  the  House  on 
the  motion  to  print  this  message,  but  it  did  not 
rise  above  the  ordinary  level  of  a  party  wran- 
gle. The  few  Democrats  who  took  part  in  it 
complained  of  the  President  for  refusing  an 
armistice,  while  the  Republicans  retorted  with 
Jefferson  Davis's  condition  about  the  "  two 
countries  "  and  the  more  recent  declarations 
of  his  Richmond  harangue,  announcing  his 
readiness  to  perish  for  independence.  On  the 
whole,  both  Congress  and  the  country  were 
gratified  that  the  incident  had  called  out  Mr. 
Lincoln's  renewed  declaration  of  an  unaltera- 
ble resolve  to  maintain  the  Union.  Patriotic 
hope  was  quickened  and  public  confidence 
strengthened  by  noting  once  more  his  single- 
ness of  purpose  and  steadfastness  of  faith.  No 
act  of  his  could  have  formed  a  more  fitting  pre- 
lude to  his  second  inauguration,  which  was 
now  rapidly  approaching,  and  the  preliminary 
steps  of  which  were  at  this  time  being  con- 
summated. 
A  new  phase  of  the  reconstruction  question 
was  developed  in  the  usual  congressional  rou- 
tine of  counting  the  electoral  votes  of  the  late 
presidential  election.  Former  chapters  have 
set  forth  the  President's  general  views  on 
reconstruction,  and  shown  that  though  the 
executive  and  legislative  branches  of  the  Gov- 
ernment differed  as  to  the  theory  and  policy 
of  restoring  insurrectionary  States  to  their  nor- 
mal federal  functions,  such  difference  had  not 
reached  the  point  of  troublesome  or  dangerous 
antagonism.  Over  the  new  question  also  dis- 
sension and  conflict  were  happily  avoided.  By 
instruction  to  his  military  commanders  and  in 
private  letters  to  prominent  citizens  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  strongly  advised  and  actively  promoted 
the  formation  of  loyal  State  governments  in 
Louisiana,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas,  and  had 
maintained  the  restored  government  of  Vir- 
ginia after  the  division  of  that  State  and  the 
admission  of  West  Virginia  into  the  Union, 
and  had  officially  given  them  the  recognition 
of  the  Executive  Department  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  Legislative  Department,  however, 
had  latterly  withheld  its  recognition,  and  re- 
fused them  representation  in  Congress.  The 
query  now  arose  whether  the  popular  and  elec- 
toral votes  of  some  of  those  States  for  President 
should  be  allowed  and  counted. 
The  subject  was  taken  up  by  the  House,  which 
on  January  30  passed  a  joint  resolution  naming 
the  insurrectionary  States,  declaring  them  to 
have  been  "in  armed  rebellion"  on  the  8th  of 
November,  1864,  and  not  entitled  to  represen- 
tation in  the  electoral  college.  A  searching 
debate  on  this  resolution  arose  in  the  Senate, 
which  called  out  the  best  legal  talent  of  that 
body.  It  could  not  very  consistently  be  affirmed 
that  Louisiana,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas,  held 
by  Federal  troops  and  controlled  by  Federal 
commanders  in  part  at  least,  were  "in  armed 
rebellion"  on  election  day,  under  whatever 
constitutional  theory  of  reconstruction.  The 
phraseology  was  finally  amended  to  read  that 
the  rebel  States  "were  in  such  condition  on 
the  8th  day  of  November,  1864,  that  no  valid 
election  for  electors  of  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  according  to 
the  Constitution  and  laws  thereof,  was  held 
therein  on  said  day,"  and  in  this  form  the  joint 
resolution  was  passed  by  both  houses.  Joint 
resolutions  of  Congress  have  all  the  force  and 
effect  of  laws,  and  custom  requires  the  Presi- 
dent to  approve  them  in  the  same  manner 
as  regular  acts.  His  signature  in  this  case 
might  therefore  be  alleged  to  imply  that  he 
consented  to  or  adopted  a  theory  of  recon- 
struction at  variance  with  his  former  recom- 
mendation and  action.  To  avoid  the  possibil- 
ity of  such  misconstruction,  Mr.  Lincoln  sent 
Congress  a  short  message,  in  which  he  said : 
The  joint  resolution,  entitled  "  Joint  resolution 
declaring  certain  States  not  entitled  to  representation 
in  the  electoral  college,"  has  been  signed  by  the 
Executive,  in  deference  to  the  view  of  Congress 
implied  in  its  passage  and  presentation  to  him. 
In  his  own  view,  however,  the  two  houses  of  Con- 
gress, convened  under  the  twelfth  article  of  the 
Constitution,  have  complete  power  to  exclude  from 
counting  all  electoral  votes  deemed  by  them  to  be 
illegal ;  and  it  is  not  competent  for  the  Executive 
to  defeat  or  obstruct  that  power  by  a  veto,  as  would 
be  the  case  if  his  action  were  at  all  essential  in  the 
matter.  He  disclaims  all  right  of  the  Executive  to 
interfere  in  any  way  in  the  matter  of  canvassing  or 
counting  electoral  votes  ;  and  he  also  disclaims  that, 
by  signing  said  resolution,  he  has  expressed  any 
opinion  on  the  recitals  of  the  preamble,  or  any 
judgment  of  his  own  upon  the  subject  of  the  reso- 
lution.2 
1  "  House  Journal,"  Feb.  10,  1865,  p.  237. 
2  Lincoln,  Message,  Feb.  8,  1865.  "House  Jour- 
nal," p.  213.
77/ A'   SECOND   INAUGURAL, 
In  anticipation  of  possible  debate  and  con 
tention  on  the  subject  of  counting  the  electoral 
votes  of  reconstructed  States,  Congress  had,  on 
February  6,  adopted  what  afterwards  became 
famous  as  the  Twenty-sccom  I  Joint  Rule,  which 
directed  in  substance  that  all  such  questions 
should  be  decided,  not  by  the  joint  convention 
of  the  two  houses,  but  by  each  house  for  it- 
self without  debate,  the  two  houses  having 
temporarily  separated  for  that  purpose ;  and  re- 
quiring the  concurrence  of  both  for  any  affirm- 
ative action,  or  to  count  a  vote  objected  to. 
When  the  two  houses  met  in  joint  convention 
on  the  eighth  day  of  February,  mention  was 
made  by  the  Vice-President,  presiding,  that 
"  The  Chair  has  in  his  possession  returns  from 
the  States  of  Louisiana  and  Tennessee ;  but  in 
obedience  to  the  law  of  the  land,  the  Chair 
holds  it  to  be  his  duty  not  to  present  them  to 
the  convention." 1  No  member  insisted  on  hav- 
ing these  returns  opened,  since  they  could  not 
possibly  change  the  result.  Only  the  returns 
therefore  from  the  loyal  States,  including  West 
Virginia,  were  counted,  showing  two  hundred 
and  twelve  electoral  votes  for  Lincoln,  and 
twenty-one  for  McClellan.  The  Vice-President 
thereupon  announced  "  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
of  Illinois,  having  received  a  majority  of  the 
whole  number  of  electoral  votes,  is  duly  elected 
President  of  the  United  States  for  four  years, 
commencing    on   the   fourth   day   of   March, 
l865."  ^ 
The  usual  committee  was  appointed  to  wait 
upon  Mr.  Lincoln  and  notify  him  of  his  second 
election;  and  in  response  to  their  announce- 
ment, he  read  the  following  brief  address : 
With  deep  gratitude  to  my  countrymen  for  this 
mark  of  their  confidence  ;  with  a  distrust  of  my 
own  ability  to  perform  the  duty  required,  under  the 
most  favorable  circumstances,  and  now  rendered 
doubly  difficult  by  existing  national  perils;  yet 
with  a  firm  reliance  on  the  strength  of  our  free  Gov- 
ernment and  the  eventual  loyalty  of  the  people  to 
the  just  principles  upon  which  it  is  founded,  and, 
above  all,  with  an  unshaken  faith  in  the  Supreme 
Ruler  of  Nations,  I  accept  this  trust.  Be  pleased  to 
signify  this  to  the  respective  houses  of  Congress.3 
In  the  informal  friendly  conversation  which 
followed,  the  President  said  to  the  committee, 
in  substance : 
Having  served  four  years  in  the  depths  of  a  great 
and  yet  unended  national  peril,  1  can  view  this  call 
to  a  second  term  in  nowise  more  flatteringly  to  my- 
self than  as  an  expression  of  the  public  judgment 
that  I  may  better  finish  a  difficult  work  in  which  I 
have  labored  from  the  first  than  could  any  one  less 
severely  schooled  to  the  task.4 
1  "Globe,"  Feb.  8,  1865,  p.  668. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  669. 
3  Unpublished  MS.  The  reply  reported  by  the 
notification  committee  is  incorrect,  having  apparently 
'Mm:  formal  m  dn  for 
his  second  presidential  1 
appointed  time,  Wan  h  
. 
variation   in   the    imple  b  il   is 
eantry  with  whi<  h  tin,  ofru  . 
ebrated.    The  prin<  ip. 
upon  by  tip:  n<  v.  1 
tin:  hitherto  enslaved  r.  <  •■  had,  t<,r 
time,  in  this  public  and  polii 
association  1  ofnegro  1  I  aed  in  th< 
cession,and  a  battalion  1 
part  <>f  the  military  1  <  ort     I 
sufficiently  favorable  to  allow  ti 
to  take  place  on  the  eastern  | 
vast  throng  of  spectators.   Imaginative  befa 
ers,  who  were  prone  todraw  augury  and  I 
fort  from  symbols,  could  r< 
bronze  statue  of  Freedom  nom  I  the 
dome  of  the  Capitol,  and  that  :ian- 
ship  was  justified  by  the  fact  that  the    ! 
teenth  Amendment   virtually   blotted 
from  the  Constitution.   The  centra]  ;•.<  t  of  the 
occasion  was   President   Lincoh  d  in- 
augural address,  which  enriched  the  political 
literature  of  the  Union  with  another  m 
piece,  and  which  deserves  to  be  quoted  in  full. 
He  said  : 
Fellow-Countrymen  :  At  this  second  appearing  to 
take  the  oath  of  the  presidential  office,  there  is  less 
occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  v. 
the  first.  Then,  a  statement,  somewhat  in  detail,  of 
a  course  to  be  pursued,  seemed  fitting  and  proper. 
Now,  at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during  which 
public  declarations  have  been  constantly  called  forth 
on  every  point  and  phase  of  the  great  o 
which  still  absorbs  the  attention  and  >  the 
energies  of  the  nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be 
presented.  The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which 
all  else  chiefly  depends,  is  as  well  known  to  the 
public  as  to  myself;  and  it  is,  I  trust,  reasonably  ! 
factory  and  encouraging  to  all.  With  high  hope  for 
the  future,  no  prediction  in  regard  :.  ...red. 
On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  j 
ago,  all   thoughts  were    anxiously 
impending  civil  war.      All  dreaded  it  —  all  s« 
to  avert  it.    While  the  inaugural  address  was  being 
delivered  from  this  place ,  devoted  altogethei  tfl 
ing  the  Union  without  war.  ins 
in  the  city  seeking    to  destroy   it  — 
seeking  to  dissolve  the  Union,  and  divide  «.: 
by  negotiation.     Both  parties  1  :   but 
one  of  them  would  make  war  rather  than  let  the  na- 
tion  survive  ;  and  the  other  wo 
than  let  it  perish.    And  the  war  cat 
One-eighth  oi  the  whole  population  WC 
slaves,   not  distributed    generally  over    the  I 
but    localized   in   the    southern    part  of  it. 
slaves  constituted  a  peculiar  and   powerful  inU 
All  knew  that  this  intere>t  was.  somehow,  tlM  I 
of  the  war.     To  strengthen,  pc 
been  written  out  from  memory.  Q  ab- 
stract of  the  formal  paper  which  the  President  read 
with  the  informal  conversation  that  succeeded. 
i  "Globe,*'  March  1.  1S05.  pp.  1230  and  M
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
this  interest  was  the  object  for  which  the  insur- 
gents would  rend  the  Union,  even  by  war;  while 
the  Government  claimed  no  right  to  do  more  than 
to  restrict  the  territorial  enlargement  of  it.  Neither 
party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude  or  the 
duration  which  it  has  already  attained.  Neither 
anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the  conflict  might  cease 
with,  or  even  before,  the  conflict  itself  should  cease. 
Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a  result  less 
fundamental  and  astounding.  Both  read  the  same 
Bible,  and  pray  to  the  same  God  ;  and  each  invokes 
his  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange  that 
any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance 
in  wringing  their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other 
men's  faces;  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not 
judged.  The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be  answered 
—  that  of  neither  has  been  answered  fully.  The 
Almighty  has  his  own  purposes.  "Woe  unto  the 
world  because  of  offenses!  for  it  must  needs  be  that 
offenses  come  ;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the 
offense  cometh."  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American 
slavery  is  one  of  those  offenses  which,  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God,  must  needs  come,  but  which,  having 
continued  through  his  appointed  time,  he  now 
wills  to  remove,  and  that  he  gives  to  both  North 
and  South  this  terrible  war,  as  the  woe  due  to  those 
by  whom  the  offense  came,  shall  we  discern  therein 
any  departure  from  those  divine  attributes  which 
the  believers  in  a  living  God  always  ascribe  to  him  ? 
Fondly  do  we  hope — fervently  do  we  pray  —  that 
this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away. 
Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth 
piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  untilevery  drop 
of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another 
drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  "  The  judgments 
of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether." 
With  malice  towards  none;  with  charityfor  all; 
with  firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see 
the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are 
in;  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for 
him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his 
widow,  and  his  orphan  —  to  do  all  which  may 
achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  a  lasting  peace 
among  ourselves,  and  with  all  nations.1 
The  address  being  concluded,  Chief-Justice 
Chase  administered  the  oath  of  office ;  and 
listeners  who  heard  Abraham  Lincoln  for  the 
second  time  repeat,  "  I  do  solemnly  swear  that 
I  will  faithfully  execute  the  office  of  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  will,  to  the  best  of 
my  ability,  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,"  went  from 
the  impressive  scene  to  their  several  homes  with 
thankfulness  and  with  confidence  that  the  des- 
tiny of  the  country  and  the  liberty  of  the  citizen 
1  "Globe,"  March  4,  1865,  pp.  1424,  1425. 
2  Weed,  "  Memoirs/'  Vol.  II.,  p.  449. 
3  Mgr.  Dupanloup,  Bishop  of  Orleans,  in  a  letter,  2d 
April,  1865,  to  Mr.  Auguste  Cochin,  acknowledging 
the  receipt  of  Lincoln's  second  inaugural,  said  : 
"J:ai  lu  ce  document  avec  la  plus  religieuse  emo- 
tion, avec  l'admiration  la  plus  sympathique.  .  .  .  M. 
Lincoln  exprime,  avec  une  solennelle  et  touchante 
gravite,  les  sentiments  qui,  j'en  suis  sur,  envahissent 
les  ames  d'elite,  au  Nord  comme  au  Sud.    Quel  beau 
were  in  safe  keeping.  "  The  fiery  trial "  through 
which  he  had  hitherto  walked  showed  him  pos- 
sessed of  the  capacity,  the  courage,  and  the  will 
to  keep  the  promise  of  his  oath. 
Among  the  many  criticisms  passed  by 
writers  and  thinkers  upon  the  language  of  the 
second  inaugural,  none  will  so  interest  the 
reader  as  that  of  Mr.  Lincoln  himself,  written 
about  ten  days  after  its  delivery,  in  the  follow- 
ing letter  to  a  friend  : 
Dear  Mr.  Weed  :  Every  one  likes  a  compliment. 
Thank  you  for  yours  on  my  little  notification  speech 
and  on  the  recent  inaugural  address.  I  expect  the 
latter  to  wear  as  well  as,  perhaps  better  than,  any- 
thing I  have  produced  ;  but  I  believe  it  is  not  im- 
mediately popular.  Men  are  not  flattered  by  being 
shown  that  there  has  been  a  difference  of  purpose 
between  the  Almighty  and  them.  To  deny  it,  how- 
ever, in  this  case,  is  to  deny  that  there  is  a  God 
governing  the  world.  It  is  a  truth  which  I  thought 
needed  to  be  told,  and,  as  whatever  of  humiliation 
there  is  in  it  falls  most  directly  on  myself,  I  thought 
others  might  afford  for  me  to  tell  it.2 
A  careful  student  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  character 
will  also  find  this  inaugural  address  instinct 
with  another  meaning,  which,  very  naturally, 
the  President's  own  comment  did  not  touch. 
The  eternal  law  of  compensation,  which  it 
declares  and  applies  to  the  sin  and  fall  of  Amer- 
ican slavery,  in  a  diction  rivaling  the  fire  and 
the  dignity  of  the  old  Hebrew  prophecies,3 
may,  without  violent  inference,  be  interpreted 
to  foreshadow  an  intention  to  renew  at  a  fitting 
moment  the  brotherly  good-will  gift  to  the 
South  which  has  been  treated  of  in  the  first 
part  of  this  chapter.  Such  an  inference  finds 
strong  corroboration  in  the  phrases  which 
closed  the  last  public  address  he  ever  made. 
On  Tuesday  evening,  April  n,  a  considera- 
ble assemblage  of  citizens  of  Washington  gath- 
ered at  the  Executive  Mansion  to  celebrate 
the  victory  of  Grant  over  Lee.  The  rather 
long  and  careful  speech  which  Mr.  Lincoln 
made  on  that  occasion  was,  however,  less  about 
the  past  than  the  future.  It  discussed  the  sub- 
ject of  reconstruction,  as  illustrated  in  the  case 
of  Louisiana,  showing  also  how  that  issue  was 
related  to  the  questions  of  emancipation,  the 
condition  of  the  freedmen,  the  welfare  of  the 
South,  and  the  ratification  of  the  constitutional 
amendment.  "  So  new  and  unprecedented  is 
the  whole  case,"  he  concluded,  "  that  no  ex- 
jour  lorsque  l'union  des  ames  se  fera  la,  dans  la  vraie 
et  parfaite  lumiere  de  l'Evangile.  Mais  quel  beau  jour 
deja  lorsque  le  chef  deux  fois  edu  d'un  grand  peuple 
tient  un  langage  chretien,  trop  absent,  dans  notre 
Europe,  du  langage  officiel  des  grandes  affaires, 
annonce  la  fin  de  l'esclavage,  et  prepare  les  embrasse- 
ments  de  la  justice  et  de  la  misericorde  dont  l'Ecri- 
ture  Sainte  a  parle.  Je  vous  remercie  de  m'avoir 
fait  lire  cette  belle  page  de  l'histoire  des  grands 
hommes."  .    .    .
FIVE    FORKS. 
elusive  and  inflexible  plan  can  safely  be  pre 
scribed  as    to   details  and    collaterals.    Such 
exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  would  surely  be- 
come a  new  entanglement.  Important  princi- 
ples may  and  must  be  inflexible.  Jn  the  pres 
ent  situation,  as  the  phrase  goes,  it  may  be  my 
duty  to  make  some  new  announcement  to  the 
people  of  the  South.  I  am  considering,  and 
shall  not  fail  to  act  when  satisfied  that  action 
will  be  proper."1  Can  any  one  doubt  that  this 
"  new  announcement  "  which  was  taking  shape 
in  his  mind  would  again  have  embraced  and 
combined  justice  to  the  blacks  and  generosity 
to  the  whites  of  the  South,  with  union  and 
liberty  for  the  whole  country  ?  It  will  remain 
a  perpetual  sorrow  to  the  nation,  and  espe- 
cially to  the  South,  that  the  lingering  madness 
of  rebellion  tragically  thwarted  the  possibility 
of  such  a  consummation. 
FIVE    FORKS. 
From  the  hour  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  reelection 
the  Confederate  cause  was  doomed.  The 
cheering  of  the  troops  which  greeted  the  news 
from  the  North  was  heard  within  the  lines  at 
Richmond  and  at  Petersburg,  and  although 
the  leaders  maintained  to  the  end  their  attitude 
of  defiance,  the  impression  rapidly  gained 
ground  among  the  people  that  the  end  was  not 
far  off.  The  stimulus  of  hope  being  gone,  they 
began  to  feel  the  pinch  of  increasing  want. 
Their  currency  had  become  almost  worthless. 
In  October  a  dollar  in  gold  was  worth  thirty- 
five  dollars  in  Confederate  money ;  a  month 
later  it  brought  fifty  dollars ;  with  the  opening 
of  the  new  year  the  price  rose  to  sixty  dollars, 
and  soon  after  to  seventy ;  and  despite  the  ef- 
forts of  the  Confederate  treasury,  which  would 
occasionally  rush  into  the  market  and  beat 
down  the  price  of  gold  ten  or  twenty  per  cent, 
in  a  day,  the  currency  gradually  depreciated 
until  a  hundred  for  one  was  offered  and  not 
taken.  As  a  result  of  this  vanishing  value  of 
their  money  a  portentous  rise  took  place  in  the 
prices  of  all  the  necessaries  of  life.  It  is  hard 
for  a  people  to  recognize  that  their  money  is 
good  for  nothing;  to  do  this  is  to  confess  that 
their  Government  has  failed  :  it  was  natural, 
therefore,  for  the  unhappy  citizens  of  Rich- 
mond to  think  that  monstrous  prices  were  be- 
ing extorted  for  food,  clothing,  and  fuel,  when, 
in  fact,  they  were  paying  no  more  than  was 
reasonable.  The  journals  and  diaries  of  the 
time  are  filled  with  bitter  execrations  against 
the  extortioners  and  forestalled ;  but  when  we 
translate  their  prices  into  the  gold  standard,  we 
wonder  how  the  grocers  and  clothiers  lived. 
1  Raymond,  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  p.  687. 
2  Jones,  Vol.  II.,  p.  361. 
3  "Rebel  War  Clerk's  Diary,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  3S4. 
To  pay  a  thou  and  do!  rlour 
was  enough  to  strike  a  ho 
but  ten  dollars  a  not  a  I  at  of 
clothes  co  its  from  one  tho  i    ad  hun- 
dred dollars ;  but  if  you  divide  th: 
seventy-five,  there  is  very  little  ;  i 
the  tailor.    High  prk  e  ,  hoi 
in  dry  leaves,  are  a  hard  hip  w\ 
are  not  plentiful  ;   and  then 
of  Confederate  money,  in  the  South.     I 
mond,  which   lived   Upon  the  v.    : .  |  arth 
was  especially  evident.    'J  h< 
partments  received  say  four  thousand  doll 
year,  hardly  enough  fol 
Skilled    mechanics    fared     somewhat    b 
They  could  earn,  so  long  Kept  out 
of  the  army,  something  like  -ix  thou 
lars  a  year.   Statesmanship  v 
gressman's  pay  was  five  thousand  five  hun 
dollars;  but  most  of  the  eivil   1  :  the 
Government   managed   to   get   their   suj  ; 
at  cost  prices  from  the  military  stores.    If 
illegal;  but  they  could  not  have  lived  other- 
wise, and  they  doubtless  considered  their 
necessary  to  their  country. 
The  depreciation  of  the  Confederate  cur- 
rency was  an  unmistakable  symptom  of  a 
of  confidence  in  the  course  of  affairs,  since  it 
did  not  arise  from  inflation.    On  the  contrary. 
Mr.  Trenholm,  the  Secretary  of  the  Trea 
did  all  he  could  to  check  this  dangerou- 
dency,  going  so  far  as  to  incur  the  reproaches 
of  many  who  imagined  his  action  enhanced 
prices.   All  dealers  instinctively  felt  the  m 
was  worthless,  and  their  only  object  1 
it  out  of  their  hands  as  soon  as  possible,  at  what- 
ever prices,  in  exchange  for  objects  of  real  value. 
One  Confederate  diarist-  records  with  mo- 
tion that  he  saw  a  Jew  buy  at  auction  an  ol 
of  table-spoons  for  rive  hundred  ami  seventy- 
five  dollars,  and  makes  this  a  cause  01  com- 
plaint against  the  Government,  which  permits 
men  to  acquire  in  this  way  the  means  oi  run- 
ning away.    Anybody  who  was  able  to  '.. 
the   country  became   the  object  of  the 
and  hatred   of  those  who  remained   behind. 
They  began  to  treat  their  own  financial  s\  s 
with  contempt.    When  the  officer  in  char... 
the  Treasury  Note  Bureau  at  Columbia,  ala: 
at  the  approach  of  Sherman,  asked  where  he 
was  to  go,  he  could  get  no  attention  to  his  in- 
quiries :  one  high  functionary  advising  that  he 
go  to  the  devil.8 
At  everv  advance  ot  General  lines 
a  new  disturbance  and  alarm  was  manifested  in 
Richmond,  the  first  proof  of  which  was  a/ 
a  fresh  rigor  in  the  enforcement,  not  only  l  I 
isting  conscription  laws,  but  of  the  . 
orders  of  the  frightened  authorities.    After  the 
capture  ot  Fort  Harrison,  on  the  north   - 
of  the  fames,  squads  oi  guards  were  sent  into
*3« 
ABRAHAM  LISCOLN. 
the  streets  with  directions  to  arrest  every  able- 
bodied  man  they  met.  They  paid  no  regard  to 
passes  or  to  certificates  of  exemption  or  detail, 
but  hurried  the  unhappy  civilians  off  to  the 
field,  or  herded  them,  pending  their  assign- 
ment to  companies,  within  the  railings  of  the 
public  square.  Two  members  of  the  Cabinet, 
Reagan  and  George  Davis,  were  thus  arrested 
on  the  streets  by  the  zealous  guards  in  spite 
ot  their  protestations,  though  they  were,  of 
course,  soon  recognized  and  released.  The 
pavements  were  swept  of  every  class  of  loiter- 
ers :  the  clerks  in  the  departments  with  their 
exemptions  in  their  pockets  were  carried  off, 
whether  able  to  do  duty  or  not.  It  is  said  by 
one  Confederate  writer *  that  the  medical  boards 
were  ordered  to  exempt  no  one  who  seemed 
capable  of  bearing  arms  for  ten  days,  and  he 
mentions  an  instance  where  a  man  died,  on 
the  eleventh  day  of  his  service,  of  consump- 
tion. Human  nature  will  not  endure  such 
a  strain  as  this:  a  week  after  this  sweeping 
of  Richmond  for  recruits,  General  Gardner 
reported  that  more  than  half  the  men  thus 
dragged  to  the  trenches  had  deserted.  Of  those 
who  remained,  the  members  of  influential  fami- 
lies came,  one  by  one,  back  to  the  town  on 
various  pretexts,  increasing  the  bitterness  of 
feeling  among  those  too  poor  or  too  obscure 
to  rescue  their  sons  and  brothers. 
Desertion  grew  too  common  to  punish.  Al- 
most every  man  in  the  Confederacy  was,  by 
statute  or  decree,  liable  to  military  service,  and 
yet  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them  were  not 
in  the  army.  If  men  were  to  be  shot  for  de- 
serting, it  would  have  been  a  question  whether 
there  were  soldiers  enough  to  shoot  them.  Mr. 
Davis  acted  prudently  in  remitting  the  death 
sentences  laid  before  him,  although  this  occa- 
sioned great  dissatisfaction  in  the  army.  Near 
the  end  of  the  year  1864  Longstreet  reported 
one  hundred  men  of  Pickett's  division  as  in 
the  guard-house  for  desertion,  attributing  the 
blame  for  it  to  the  numerous  reprieves  which 
had  been  granted,  no  one  having  been  exe- 
cuted for  two  months.  General  Lee  sent  this 
report  to  Richmond  with  his  approval,  which 
gave  great  offense  to  the  Confederate  Presi- 
dent. He  returned  the  paper,  with  an  indorse- 
ment to  the  effect  that  the  remission  ofsentences 
was  not  a  proper  subject  for  the  criticism  of  a 
military  commander.2 
As  disaster  increased,  as  each  day  brought 
its  catastrophe,  the  Confederate  Government 
steadily  lost  ground  in  the  confidence  and  re- 
spect of  the  Southern  people.  It  is  character- 
istic of  every  failing  revolt  that  in  the  hour  of 
ruin  the  participators  turn  upon  one  another 
with  reproaches,  often  as  causeless  and  unjust 
1  Jones,  Vol.  II.,  p.  305. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  343. 
as  those  they  cast  upon  their  legitimate  gov- 
ernment. Mr.  Davis  and  his  councilors  now 
underwent  this  natural  retribution.  They  were 
doing  their  best,  but  they  no  longer  got  any 
credit  for  it.  From  every  part  of  the  Confed- 
eracy came  complaints  for  what  was  done,  de- 
mands for  what  it  was  impossible  to  do.  Some 
of  the  States  were  in  a  condition  near  to  coun- 
ter-revolution. Governor  Brown  of  Georgia 
made  no  pretense  of  concealing  his  contumacy. 
The  march  of  Sherman  across  his  State  seemed 
to  have  emancipated  him  from  any  obligations 
to  the  Confederacy.  His  letters  to  Richmond 
from  that  moment  lost  all  color  of  allegiance. 
The  feeling  in  North  Carolina  was  little  better. 
A  slow  paralysis  was  benumbing  the  limbs  of 
the  insurrection,  and  even  at  the  heart  its  vi- 
tality was  plainly  declining.  The  Confederate 
Congress,  which  had  hitherto  been  the  mere 
register  of  the  President's  will,  now  turned  upon 
him  and  gave  him  wormwood  to  drink.  On 
the  19th  of  January  they  passed  a  resolution 
making  Lee  general-in-chief  of  the  army.  This 
Mr.  Davis  might  have  borne  with  patience, 
although  it  was  intended  as  a  notification  to 
him  that  his  meddling  with  military  affairs  must 
come  to  an  end.  But  far  worse  was  the  neces- 
sity put  upon  him,  as  a  sequel  to  this  act, — 
and  in  conformity  with  a  resolution  of  the  Vir- 
ginia legislature, —  of  reappointing  General 
Joseph  E.  Johnston  to  the  command  of  the 
army  which  was  to  resist  Sherman's  victorious 
march  to  the  North.  After  this  he  might  say 
that  the  bitterness  of  death  was  past.  The  Vir- 
ginia delegation  in  Congress  passed  a  vote  of 
want  of  confidence  in  the  Government's  con- 
duct of  the  war.  Mr.  Seddon,  considering  his 
honor  impugned,  and  not  unwilling  to  lay  down 
a  thankless  task,  resigned  his  post  of  Secretary 
of  War.  Mr.  Davis  at  first  wished  him  to  re- 
consider his  action,  claiming  that  such  a  dec- 
laration from  congressmen  was  beyond  their 
functions  and  subversive  of  the  President's  con- 
stitutional jurisdiction;  but  Mr.  Seddon  in- 
sisted, and  General  John  C.  Breckinridge  was 
appointed  in  his  place  in  February,  for  the  few 
weeks  that  remained  before  the  final  crash.3 
Warnings  of  serious  demoralization  came  daily 
from  the  army ;  even  that  firm  support  to  the 
revolt  seemed  crumbling.  Disaffection  was  so 
rife  in  official  circles  in  Richmond  that  it  was 
not  thought  politic  to  call  public  attention  to 
it  by  repression.  A  detective  reported  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress  as  uttering  treasonable  lan- 
guage, and  for  his  pains  was  told  at  the  War 
Department  that  matters  of  that  sort  were  none 
of  his  business.4 
It  is  a  curious  and  instructive  thing  to  note 
how  the  act  of  emancipation  had  by  this  time 
3  Pollard,  p.  441. 
4  "  Rebel  War  Clerk's  Diary, 
Vol.  II.,  p.  390.
FIVE   FORKS. 
virtually  enforced  itself  in  Richmond.  The 
value  of  slave  property  was  gone.  Jt  is  true 
that  a  slave  was  still  occasionally  sold,  at  a 
price  less  than  one-tenth  of  what  he  would 
have  brought  before  the  war.  J3ut  servants 
could  be  hired  of  their  nominal  owners  at  a 
barley-corn  rate  ;  six  dollars  in  gold  would  pay 
the  hire  of  a  good  cook  for  a  year — merely 
enough  to  keep  up  the  show  of  vassalage.  In 
effect  anyone  could  hire  a  negro  for  his  keep- 
ing, which  was  all  that  anybody  in  Richmond 
got  for  his  work.  Even  Mr.  Davis  had  at  last 
become  docile  to  the  stern  teachings  of  events. 
In  his  message  of  November  he  had  recom- 
mended the  employment  of  40,000  slaves  in 
the  army, —  not  as  soldiers  it  is  true,  save  in  the 
last  extremity, —  with  emancipation  to  come 
later. 
Lee  assumed  command  of  all  the  Confed- 
erate forces  on  the  ninth  day  of  February.  His 
situation  was  one  of  unprecedented  gloom. 
The  day  before,  he  had  reported  to  Richmond 
that  his  troops,  who  had  been  in  line  of  battle 
for  two  days  at  Hatcher's  Run,  exposed  to  the 
bitter  winter  weather,  had  been  without  meat 
for  three  days.  "  If  some  change  is  not  made," 
he  said,  "  and  the  commissary  department 
organized,  I  apprehend  dire  results ;  .  .  . 
you  must  not  be  surprised  if  calamity  befalls 
us."  Mr.  Davis  indorsed  this  discouraging 
dispatch  with  words  of  anger  and  command 
easy  to  write  :  "  This  is  too  sad  to  be  patiently 
considered ;  .  .  .  criminal  neglect  or  gross 
incapacity.  .  .  .  Let  supplies  be  had  by  pur- 
chase or  borrowing."  A  prodigious  effort  was 
made,  and  the  danger  of  starvation  for  the 
moment  averted,  but  no  permanent  improve- 
ment resulted  in  the  situation  of  affairs.  The 
armies  of  the  Union  were  closing  in  from 
every  point  of  the  compass.  Grant  was  every 
day  pushing  his  formidable  left  wing  nearer 
the  only  roads  by  which  Lee  could  escape; 
Thomas  was  threatening  the  Confederate  com- 
munications from  Tennessee ;  Sheridan  was 
moving  for  the  last  time  up  the  Valley  of  the 
Shenandoah  to  abolish  Early ;  while  from  the 
south  the  redoubtable  columns  of  Sherman  — 
the  men  who  had  taken  Vicksburg,  who  had 
scaled  the  heights  of  Chattanooga,  and  having 
marched  through  Georgia  had  left  Savannah 
loyal  and  Charleston  evacuated  —  were  moving 
noithward  with  the  steady  pace  and  irresisti- 
ble progress  of  a  tragic  fate.  It  was  the  ap- 
proach of  this  portent  which  shook  the  nerves 
of  the  Confederate  leaders  more  than  the  famil- 
iar proximity  of  Grant.  Beauregard,  and  after- 
wards Johnston,  were  ordered  to  "  destroy 
Sherman." 1  Beauregard,  after  his  kind,  showed 
his  Government  its  duty  in  loud  and  valiant 
words.  He  advised  Mr.  Davis  to  send  him  at 
1  Breckinridge  to  Lee,  Feb.  21. 
0111  e  heav)  re<  nfon  ivetheer* 
battle  and  <  ni  \h  him  " ;  u  tl 
all  for<  <:>  again  1  Gi 
and  dictate  a  pesu      —  a  plan  of  lim 
plicity,  which 
perseded  the  brilliant  I.' 
and  thereafter  did  Id  —  v.  hi. 
scraps  and  renin  u  him 
—  to  resist  the  irre  1  rible. 
A  singular  and  signii  1  it  nego- 
tiation ,  w.-i ,  made  at  this  tin. 
He  was  now  so   trong  in  tl 
people  of  the  South,  and  I      1         rnment  at 
Richmond  was  so  rapidly  be 
that  he  could  doubtle  i  have  obi 
lar  support,  and  compelled  ; 
ecutive  to  any  measures  he  1 
the  attainment  of  pea<  e.    From  this  H 
for  him  and  for  others  to  come  to  the  wholi. 
roneous  conclusion  that  General  Grant  held  a 
similar  relation  to  the  Government  ar 
of  the  United  States.    ( General  1 
. 
the  pretext  of  a  conversation  1  m  by 
General  Longstreet,  as  having  been  held  \sith 
General  Ord  under  an  ordinary  nice 
for  exchange  of  prisoners.  I 
to  Grant,  sanctioned  by  Mr.  Davis,  saying  he 
had  been  informed  that  General  Ord  had 
that  General   Grant  would  not  decline  an  in- 
terview with  a  view  uto  a  satisfi 
ment  of  the  present  unhappy  difficulties 
means  of  a  military    convention,"    providing 
Lee  had  authority  to  act    He  there!,  re 
posed  to  meet  General  Grant,  "with  the  hope 
that  upon  an  interchange  of  views  it  might  be 
found   practicable  to   submit  the  subjects  of 
controversy  between  the  belligerents  to  a  mili- 
tary convention."    In  such  event  he  said  he 
was  "authorized  to  do  whatever  the  resu 
the  proposed  conference  may  render necess 
or  advisable."    G rant  at  once  telegraj  hed  I 
overtures  to  Washington.   Stanton  re. 
dispatch  at  the  Capitol,  where  the  President 
was,  according  to  his  custom,  pas    ng  t 
night  of  the  session  for  th<  e    of 
signing  bills.   The  Secretary  has  :ele- 
gram  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  who   read  it  in  si'. 
He  asked  no  advice  or  suggestion  from 
one  about  him,  but.  taking  a  pen,  wrote  with 
his  usual  slowness  and  precision  a  dispatch  in 
Stanton's  name,  which  he  showed  [     I 
and  then  handed  to  Stanton  to  be  s 
and  sent.    The  language  is  thai 
enced  ruler,  perfectly  sure  of  himself  and  of 
his  duty  : 
The  President  directs  me  to 
you  to  have  no  conference  with  General  Lee 
it  be  for  capitulation  ot"  General  Lee's  army,  or  on 
some  minor  or  purely  military  matters.    H 
me  to  say  that  you  are  not  to  decide,  disc.  - 
fer  upon  any  political  que>tions.    Such  questions  the
4Q 
ABRAHAM 
President  holds  in  his  own  hands,  and  will  submit 
them    to    no    military  conferences  or  conventions 
Meanwhile  you  are  to  press  to  the  utmost  your  mili- 
tary advantages. 
General  Grant,  on  the  receipt  of  this  instruc- 
tion, wrote,  in  answer  to  General  Lee,  that  he 
had  no  authority  to  accede  to  his  proposition 
—  such  authority  being  vested  in  the  President 
of  the  United  States  alone ;  he  further  explained 
that  General  Ord's  language  must  have  been 
misunderstood.  Grant  reported  to  Washington 
what  he  had  done,  adding  that  he  would  in  no 
case  exceed  his  authority,  or  omit  to  press  all 
advantages  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability.  This 
closed  the  last  avenue  of  hope  to  the  Confed- 
erate authorities  of  any  compromise  by  which 
the  dread  alternative  of  utter  defeat  or  uncon- 
ditional .surrender  might  be  avoided.1 
Early  in  March,  General  Lee  came  to  Rich- 
mond and  had  a  conference  with  Mr.  Davis 
on  the  measures  to  be  adopted  in  the  crisis 
which  he  saw  was  imminent.    The  General-in- 
Chief  had  not  taken  his  advancement  seriously. 
He  had  not  sympathized  in  the  slight  which  it 
involved  towards  the  civil  government;  he  had 
positively  refused   to   assume  the  dictatorial 
powers  with  which  the  Richmond  Congress 
had  clearly  intended  to  invest  him;  he  had 
ostentatiously  thanked  "  the  President  alone  " 
for  a  promotion  which  in  reality  came  from  the 
President's  enemies  and  critics.    He  continued 
to  the  end,  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution 
of  the  Confederate  States,  to  treat  Mr.  Davis 
as  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  forces.    He 
now  laid  before  him  the  terrible  facts  by  which 
the  army  was  environed:  Richmond  and  Peters- 
burg must  be  evacuated  before  many  days ;  a 
new  seat  for  the  Confederate  Government,  a 
new  base  of  defense  for  the  armies,  must  be 
taken  up  farther  south  and  west.    There  is  a 
direct  contradiction  between  Mr.   Davis  and 
the  friends  of  General  Lee  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  the  former  received  this  communication. 
Mr.   Davis  says2  he  suggested  an  immediate 
withdrawal,  but  that  General  Lee  said  his  horses 
were  too  weak  for  the  roads,  in  their  present 
state,  and  that  he  must  wait  till  the  ground 
became  firmer.    But  General  Long,  who  gives 
General  Lee  as  his  authority,3  says  that  the 
President   overruled    the    general  ;    that   Lee 
wanted  then  to  withdraw  his  forces  and  take  up 
a  line  behind  the  Staunton  River,  from  which 
point  he  might  have  indefinitely  protracted  the 
war.    Plowever  this  may  be,  they  were  both 
agreed  that  sooner  or  later  the  Richmond  lines 
1  Jefferson  Davis  refers  to  this  incident  in  his  mes- 
of  March  13  to  the  Confederate  Congress,  and 
says  :  "  It  thus  appears  that  neither  with  the  Confeder- 
ate authorities,  nor  the  authorities  of  any  State,  nor 
through  the  commanding  generals,will  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  treat  or  make  any  terms  or  agree- 
ment whatever  for  the  cessation  of  hostilities.    There 
t-BRAC. 
Praise  I  gave  only  to  the  tuneful  Nine, 
And  took  no  heed  of  other  Pens  than  thine. 
But,  much  it  is  that  thus  in  soft  retreat, 
The  cushioned  ambush  of  a  window-seat, 
Reflected  halos  wreathed  about  thy  head 
Of  chromoed  gymnasts,  green, and  blue,  and  red; 
Thy  rus  in  urbe  no  contracted  field, 
But  all  of  Afric's  burning  heart  revealed  ; 
Far  from  the  madding  crowd,  compelled  to  pay, 
Thou  calm  mayst  sit  and  free  the  Show  survey : 
See  the  lithe  leopard  axioms  confound, 
Changing  his  spots  at  every  agile  bound  ; 
The  zebra,  bearing  with  a  martyr's  zeal 
The  stripes  that  only  those  about  him  feel ; 
The  tall  giraffe  a  shapely  neck  display, 
Where  long,  long  woe  might  well  be  wept  away ; 
While  for  communion  if  the  giant  cries, 
Lo  !   the  Fat  WToman  gives  back  size  for  sighs  ! 
Here  under  thine  own  vine  and  fig  tree's  shade, 
And  the  sweet  influence  of  the  Bearded  Maid  ; 
Nature  anigh  —  not  rocks,  nor  streams,  nor  dells, 
But  herds,  heard  often,  and  wild  woodsy  smells 
(But  a  bare  pole's  length  from  the  canvas  where 
The  sleek  seal  scuds  before  the  Polar  bear) ; 
Here  thou  mayst  sit  and  thy  light  zithem  play, 
The  ostrich  rival  with  thine  easier  lay  ; 
Soft  sonnets  warble  to  the  timid  deer, 
Troll  bolder  ballads  to  the  buck-a-near. 
Tiring  of  concourse  that  thy  pace  confines, 
Of  quadrupeds  —  and  quadrupedal  lines, 
With  longer  stride  let  Pegasus  then  lope  — 
Pentameter  —  loved  and  approved  of  Pope; 
That  all  who  visit  the  Great  Show  may  see 
Thou  'rt  not  outfooted  by  thy  vis-a-vis  ; 
And  own,  though  Barnum  permeates  the  street, 
Thy  airs,  O  Singer  !   all  are  strangely  sweet. 
Indeed,  when  I  reflect  on  all  thou  hast, 
And  with  thine  own  my  lowlier  lot  contrast, — 
No  circus  near,  no  beasts  about  my  door, 
Save  the  one  wolf  that  sits  there  evermore, — 
I  ask  why  Fate  does  thus  deny  to  me 
The  beasts  and  blessings  she  bestows  on  thee. 
be  "made  public.  This  put  all  persons  at  their  ease  and 
the  promise  of  privacy  was  well  kept.  It  was  a  time 
of  great  anxiety  and  of  long  suspense ;  one  of  those 
critical  periods  when  decisive  battles  were  expected, 
and  when  news  from  the  front  was  scanty,  and  slow  in 
coming. 
At  the  appointed  hour  the  delegates  were  ushered 
into  the  President's  office.     Soon  afterwards  Mr.  Lin- 
coln came  in  slowly  and  looking  careworn,  sad,  and 
anxious.    In  brief  remarks  by  men  representing  the 
various  work  of  the  Christian  Commission,  he  was  told 
that  we  had  no  requests  to  make,  no  favors  to  ask,  no 
offices  to  seek ;  that  we  were  there  only  to  assure  him 
'   of  our  profoundest  respect,  sympathy,  and  loyalty  to 
'   the  Government  and  to  himself  as  its  head,  and  of  our 
:   intention  to  carry  on  the  philanthropic  and  spiritual 
'  ministrations  of  the  Commission  in  the  army  and  navy, 
1  with  the  continued  sanction  and  help  of  himself  and  of 
1  the  military  and  naval  authorities.     It  was  also  said 
,  that  "  behind  all  the  political  and  patriotic  forces  of 
the  Union  there  was  a  vast  Christian  constituency  in 
the  homes  and  churches  of  loyal  States  which  would 
1  never  fail  him  with  their  prayers  and  consecration  to
F/V/i   FORKS. 
p 
The  assault  was  made  with  great  spirit  at 
half-past  four  on  the  morning  of  the  25th  of 
March.  Its  initial  success  was  due  to  a  singu- 
lar cause.  The  opposing  lines  at  tin-  poinl 
chosen  were  only  150  yards  apart;  die  pickets 
were  only  50  yards  from  each  other \  it.  was 
therefore  a  favorite  point  of  departure  lor 
those  Confederates  who  were  tired  of  the 
war.  Desertions  had  of  late  become  very 
numerous  and  had  naturally  been  encouraged 
in  everyway;  orders  had  been  issued  allowing 
deserters  to  bring  their  arms  with  them.  When 
Gordon's  skirmishers  came  stealing  through 
the  darkness  they  were  at  first  mistaken  for  an 
unusually  large  batch  of  deserters,  and  they 
overpowered  several  picket  posts  without  a 
shot  being  fired.  The  storming  party  at  once 
followed,  took  the  trenches  with  a  rush,  and  in 
a  few  minutes  had  possession  of  the  main  line 
on  the  right  of  Stedman.  Turning  on  the  fort, 
they  soon  drove  out  or  made  prisoners  the 
garrison.  It  was  the  dark  hour  before  dawn, 
and  the  defense  could  not  distinguish  friends 
from  foes ;  and  for  a  little  while  General 
Parke,  who  acted  with  his  usual  vigor  and 
intelligence,  was  unable  to  make  headway 
against  the  invisible  enemy  who  swarmed  on 
both  sides  of  the  breach  in  the  lines.  General 
N.  B.  McLaughlen,  who  was  posted  to  the  left 
of  Fort  Stedman,  at  once  got  to  work  and  re- 
captured an  outlying  battery  with  the  bayonet, 
and  then  hurrying  into  the  fort,  in  ignorance 
of  its  capture,  was  made  prisoner.  As  soon  as 
it  was  light,  Parke's  troops  advanced  from  every 
direction  to  mend  the  breach ;  Potter  on  the 
left,  Wilcox  on  the  right,  and  Hartranft,  who 
had  been  held  in  reserve,  attacking  directly 
from  the  high  ground  in  the  rear.  The  last 
two,  between  them,  first  made  short  work  of 
the  Confederate  detachments  that  were  mov- 
ing on  the  City  Point  road  and  telegraph  and 
searching  in  vain  for  three  forts  in  the  rear  of 
Stedman  which  they  had  been  ordered  to  take, 
and  which  in  reality  did  not  exist.  By  half-past 
seven  Parke  had  his  task  well  in  hand.  He  had 
repulsed  the  Confederate  attack  to  the  right 
and  left  of  Fort  Stedman,  recaptured  two  of 
the  detached  batteries,  forced  the  enemy  with 
heavy  loss  back  into  the  fort,  and  concentrated 
upon  them  a  heavy  artillery  fire  from  three 
sides.  A  few  minutes  later  Hartranft's  division 
carried  Fort  Stedman  by  assault,  and  Gor- 
don withdrew  to  the  Confederate  lines  what 
he  was  able  to  save  of  his  attacking  force. 
The  cross  fire  of  artillery  was  now  so  wither- 
ing that  few  of  the  Confederates  could  get 
back,  and  none  could  come  to  their  assistance. 
General  Parke  captured  2000  prisoners,  includ- 
ing 7 1  officers  and  9  stands  of  colors  ;  his  own 
total  loss  was  about  1000. 
1  Grant,  "  Personal  Memoirs,"  Vol.  IT.,  p.  424. 
Vol.  XXXIX.— 21. 
Put  tin  ,  !. 
the   Con! 
■  Mid  Wright,  in  COB 
Union  left,  who  .. 
persed  according  1     I  I 
being  informed  oi 
<  orre<  tlj  a    Liming  that  Park<   1 
Of  himself,  m  tantl)    •■    r<  \. 
front  to  see  if  they  had 
ened  to  support  Gordo:  jnd 
they  had    not  ;    but    in    th  :   pro<  • 
this    information    tiny    <  apt  U  red    the 
intrenched  pi<  ket  In,-,  m  tront  of  them,  M  I 
in  spite  of  repeated  atti 
were  firmly  held,     I 
tage  to  the  Union  arm)  it:  - 
next  week.  The  net  results  therefon   to  ( 
eral  Lee  of  the  day's  work  were  a  bitter 
appointment,  a  squand  <>ur  thou 
of  his  best  troops  against  half  that  numb-  1 
the  other  side,  and  the  loss  of  his  intrer:< 
picket    line,    which  brought    such  d   • 
neighbors  as  Wright  and   Hun.  ithin 
arm's-length  of  him. 
For  several    weeks  General    Grant's  chief 
anxiety  had  been  lest    Lee  should  abandon 
his  lines.    At  first  he  feared  a  concenti 
of  Lee  and  Johnston  against  Sherman  ;  but 
when  the  victorious  army  of   the  West  had 
arrived  at  Goldsboro'  and  formed  conne 
with  Schofield  his  anxiety  on  that  score 
at  rest,  and  there  only  remained  a  ke 
ness  to  make  an  end  of  the  Army  « >f  _\<  rthcrn 
Virginia.    "  I    was   afraid."   he    says, 
morning  that  I  would  awake  from  n.\ 
hear  that  Lee  had  gone,  and  that  nol 
left  but  a  picket  line.*'1    Still  — 
though   feeling    every    hour    of   wail  1 
fraught  with  danger,  was  prei  ented  fri  m  mov- 
ing by  the  bad  roads  and  the  Richmond  compli- 
cations—  Grant,  although  burning  to  atl 
was  delayed  by  the  same  1 . 
and  by  another.   He  did  not  wis'.  until 
Sheridan  had  completed  the    work 
him  in  the  Valley  and  joined  either  Sherman 
or  the  army  at   Petersburg.    But  at 
tied  with  Sheridan's  progress  and  with  S 
man's  condition,  he  resolved  to  wait  no  lor 
and  on  the  24th  of  March,  at  the  very  mOE 
when  Gordon  was  making  his  arr.:- 
for    the  next    day's    >>  I   his 
orders  for  the  great  movement  to  the  left  which 
was  to  finish  the  war.    He  intended  to  \ 
on  the  29th,  but  Lee's  desj  ish  of  the 
25th  appeared  to  the  Union  comm; 
indicate  an  intention  to  secure  a  wider  open- 
ing to  the  Danvilk  im- 
mediate move  of  the  Conft  s  wes  •  ard. 
and  he  felt  more  than  ever  that  not  a  moment 
was  to  be  lost.  Sheridan  reach*  Point 
on  the    26th,    and    Sherman  came   up    from
142 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
North  Carolina  for  a  brief  visit  the  next  day. 
He  said  he  would  be  ready  to  move  on  the 
ioth  of  April,  and  laid  before  Grant  a  plan 
for  a  cooperative  campaign,  which  was  of 
course  satisfactory,  as  was  always  everything 
that  Sherman  proposed,  but  which  the  swift 
rush  of  events  soon  rendered  superfluous.  The 
President  was  also  there,  and  an  interesting 
conversation  took  place  between  these  famous 
brothers-in-arms  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  after  which 
Sherman  went  back  to  Goldsboro'  and  Grant 
began  pushing  his  army  to  the  left  with  even 
more  than  his  usual  iron  energy. 
It  was  a  great  army  :  it  was  the  result  of  all 
the  power  and  wisdom  of  the  Government, 
all  the  devotion  of  the  people,  all  the  intelli- 
gence and  teachableness  of  the  soldiers  them- 
selves, and  all  the  ability  and  character  which 
the  experience  of  a  mighty  war  had  developed 
in  the  officers.  Few  nations  have  produced 
better  corps  commanders  than  Sheridan,  War- 
ren, Humphreys,  Ord,  Wright,  and  Parke,  tak- 
ing their  names  as  they  come  in  the  vast  sweep 
of  the  Union  lines  from  Dinwiddie  Court 
House  to  the  James  in  the  last  days  of  March ; 
north  of  the  James  was  Weitzel,  vigilant  and 
capable.  Between  Grant  and  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  was  Meade,  the  incarnation  of  indus- 
try, zeal,  and  talent;  and  in  command  of  all 
was  Grant,  then  in  his  best  days,  the  most 
extraordinary  military  temperament  this  coun- 
try has  ever  seen.  When  unfriendly  criticism 
has  exhausted  itself,  the  fact  remains,  not  to 
be  explained  away  by  any  reasoning,  subtle 
or  gross,  that  in  this  tremendous  war  he  ac- 
complished more  with  the  means  given  him 
than  any  other  two,  on  either  side.  The  means 
given  him  were  enormous,  the  support  of  the 
Government  was  intelligent  and  untiring ;  but 
others  had  received  the  same  means  and  the 
same  support  —  and  he  alone  captured  three 
armies.  The  popular  instinct  which  hails  him 
as  our  greatest  general  is  correct;  and  the 
dilettante  critics  who  write  ingenious  argu- 
ments to  prove  that  one  or  another  of  his  sub- 
ordinates or  his  adversaries  was  his  superior 
will  please  for  a  time  their  diminishing  coteries, 
and  then  pass  into  silence  without  damaging 
his  robust  fame. 
The  numbers  of  the  respective  armies  in 
this  last  grapple  have  been  the  occasion  of 
endless  controversy.  We  take  the  figures  given 
by  General  Humphreys — not  merely  on  ac- 
count of  his  profound  study  of  the  subject  and 
personal  acquaintance  with  it,  but  because  we 
consider  him  the  most  thoroughly  candid  and 
impartial  man  who  has  written  the  history  of 
this  army.     The  effective  force  of  infantry  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  69,000;  of  field 
artillery,  6000,  with  243  guns.  The  effective 
force  of  infantry  of  the  Army  of  the  James  was 
32,000;  of  field  artillery,  3000,  with  12.6  guns 
and  1700  cavalry,  though  General  Ord  took 
with  him  only  about  one-half  his  infantry; 
Sheridan's  cavalrymen,  present  for  duty,  13,- 
000;  the  grand  total  of  all  arms  was  124,700. 
Lee's  infantry  numbered  46,000  ;  his  field  ar- 
tillery, 5000;  his  cavalry,  6000;  in  all,  57,000. 
Grant's  plan,  as  announced  in  his  instructions 
of  March  24,1  was  at  first  to  dispatch  Sheri- 
dan to  reach  and  destroy  the  South  Side  and 
Danville  railroads,  at  the  same  time  moving 
a  heavy  force  to  the  left,  primarily  to  insure 
the  success  of  Sheridan's  raid,2  and  then  to 
turn  Lee's  position.  But  his  purpose  grew  and 
developed  every  hour,  and  before  he  had  been 
a  day  away  from  his  winter  headquarters  he 
had  given  up  the  comparatively  narrow  scheme 
with  which  he  started  and  had  adopted  the 
far  bolder  and  more  comprehensive  plan,  which 
he  carried  out  to  his  immortal  honor.  It  is 
probable  that  to  General  Sheridan  belongs  a 
part  of  the  credit  of  this  change  of  plan.  He 
informs  us  that  when  discretion  was  given  him, 
in  the  Valley,  either  to  go  south,  past  Lee's 
right  flank,  and  join  Sherman,  or  to  turn  east 
and  unite  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  he 
chose  the  latter  course,  because  he  thought  it 
best  that  the  Eastern  army,  which  had  thus  far 
won  scanty  laurels  when  compared  with  the 
Western,  should  have  the  glory  of  this  final 
victory;  and  that  when  he  arrived  at  City 
Point  and  found  General  Grant's  plans  once 
more  contemplated  the  possibility  of  sending 
his  cavalry  to  Sherman  and  bringing  that  com- 
mander, after  disposing  of  Johnston,  to  share 
in  the  destruction  of  Lee,  Sheridan  urged  the 
General-in-Chief  to  finish  the  work  immediately 
with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  that  had  so 
richly  merited  the  glory  which  would  come  of 
the  fruition  of  their  long  years  of  blood  and 
toil.  Both  commanders  were  full  of  the  spirit 
of  victory.  On  the  evening  of  the  29th  of 
March,  Sheridan's  cavalry  was  at  Dinwiddie 
Court  House,  and  the  left  of  the  moving  force 
of  infantry  extended  to  the  Quaker  road  — 
almost  to  Lee's  right  flank  on  the  White  Oak 
Ridge.  Grant's  purpose  had  now  taken  com- 
plete shape  in  his  mind.  From  his  tent  on 
Gravelly  Creek  he  wrote  to  Sheridan,  telling 
him  the  position  of  all  his  corps,  and  adding 
in  simple  words,  which  will  stir  the  blood  of 
every  reader  for  ages  to  come,  "  I  now  feel 
like  ending  the  matter  .  .  .  before  we  go 
back."  He  ordered  Sheridan  not  to  cut  loose 
and  go  after  the  railroads,  but  to  push  for  the 
1  Grant,  Report.  ing  Lee's  forces  from  following  Sheridan.    But  I  will  be 
2  Grant  wrote  to  Sherman  on  the  22rl  of  March:     along  myself,  and  will  take  advantage  of  anything  that 
"  I  shall  start  with  no  distinct  view  further  than  hold-     turns  up."    [Sherman,  "Memoirs,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  323.]
FIVE    FORKS. 
enemy's  right  rear.  "  We  will  all  act  together 
as  one  army  here,  until  it  is  seen  what  can  he- 
done  with  the  enemy." 
The  next  day  Sheridan  advanced  to  Five 
Forks,  where  he  found  a  heavy  force  of  the 
enemy.  Lee,  justly  alarmed  by  Grant's  move- 
ments, had  drawn  all  his  available  troops  out 
of  the  trenches,  dispatched  a  sufficient  force 
under  Fitzhugh  Lee  to  Five  Forks  to  hold 
that  important  cross-roads,  and  had  taken  per- 
sonal command  of  the  rest  on  the  White  Oak 
Ridge.  A  heavy  storm  of  rain  began  the  night 
of  the  29th,  continuing  more  than  twenty-four 
hours,  and  greatly  impeded  the  march  of  the 
troops.  Warren,  on  the  morning  of  the  21st, 
worked  his  way  towards  the  White  Oak  road  ; 
but  before  he  reached  it  Lee  came  out  of  his 
lines  and  attacked  Warren's  advanced  division 
(Ayers's)  with  such  impetus  that  it  was  driven 
back  on  the  main  line  at  Gravelly  Run.  There, 
gallantly  supported  by  General  Miles  of  Hum- 
phreys's corps,  who  made  a  spirited  attack  on 
Lee's  left  flank,  Warren  held  his  own,  and  in 
the  afternoon  moved  forward  and  drove  the 
enemy  into  his  works. 
Lee,  not  satisfied  with  opposing  Sheridan  at 
Five  Forks  with  cavalry,  had  on  the  30th  sent 
Pickett  there  with  some  7000  infantry,  which, 
with  nearly  an  equal  force  of  cavalry,  was  too 
much  for  the  Union  horse  to  handle.  Sheri- 
dan was  therefore,  on  the  31st,  forced  back  to 
Dinwiddie  Court  House.  "  Here,"  says  Grant, 
"  Sheridan  displayed  great  generalship."  He 
fought  with  obstinate  tenacity,  disputing  every 
inch  of  ground,  deploying  his  cavalry  on  foot, 
leaving  only  men  enough  with  his  horses  to 
guard  them.  He  gave  Pickett  and  Lee  a  hard 
day's  work  on  the  way  to  Dinwiddie,  and  at 
night  reported  his  situation  to  Grant  in  his 
usual  tone  of  valorous  confidence.  Grant,  in- 
deed, was  far  more  disturbed  than  Sheridan. 
He  rained  orders  and  suggestions  all  night 
upon  Meade,  Warren,  and  Sheridan,  the  pur- 
pose of  which  was  to  effect  a  concentration  at 
daylight  on  that  portion  of  the  enemy  in  front 
of  Sheridan.  Warren,  giving  his  troops,  who  had 
been  marching  and  fighting  for  three  days,  a 
few  hours'  needed  rest,  came  in  on  Sheridan's 
right  about  dawn.  But  Pickett,  seeing  that  he 
was  out  of  position,  did  not  wait  to  be  caught 
between  the  two  Union  columns  ;  he  withdrew 
noiselessly  during  the  night 1  and  resumed  his 
1  The  testimony  of  the  Confederate  generals  in  the 
Warren  court  of  inquiry  shows  that  Pickett  and  Fitz- 
hugh Lee,  anticipating  Warren's  arrival  at  daybreak, 
resolved  to  retire  at  ten  o'clock  on  the  night  of  the  31st 
of  March,  and  that  the  movement  began  at  once. 
"  Nearly  everything  on  wheels,"  Fitzhugh  Lee  said. 
"was  away  by  midnight."  At  daylight  the  cavalry 
moved,  covering  the  rear  of  the  infantry.  (Warren 
Court  of  Inquiry,  p.  469.)  General  W.  H.  F.  Lee's 
testimony  is  to  the  same  effect,  p.  536. 
strongly  intren<  bed  po  I  rraot, 
in  ignorant  eol  ely  flighted  Pi<  kett, 
greatly  in*  en  led  at  Wan 
what  is  n  to  have  b< 
do,  since    Pi<  :  the  hour 
when  Grant  v. 
long-smoldering  dj  like  oi  '• 
been  lor  months  in<  rea  ing  in  I 
now  blazed  out  b  tility,  and  be 
sent  an  aide-de-<  amp  • 
that  W'arnn  be  relieved  from  h 
Sheridan  hurried  Up  I 
cavalry,  leaving  Warren  to  bring  up  the  i 
Corps.    Filled, 
vt  itli  the  mo  I  inten   •  martial  an  ;dg- 
ment  and  control   of  his  n 
more  powerful  and  comprehensive,   i  1 
with  his  cavalry  the  r  □ 
until  they  came  to  Li.  and   the: 
signed  to  Merritt  the  duty  of  demonstrating 
strongly  on  Pickett's  right,  while  with  the  in- 
fantry of  the  Fifth  Corps  he  strike  the 
left  flank,  which  ran  along  the  White  (  >ak  road 
about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  east  from  I 
Forks  and  then  made  a  return  of  a  bun 
yards  to  the  north,  perpendicular  to  the  road. 
It  was  the  old  tactics  of  the  Valley  repeated, 
with  the  additional  advantage  in  this  case  that, 
if  successful,  he  would  drive  l'i<  kett  west- 
ward and  cut  him  off  from  Lee.  To  guard 
against  any  interruption  from  the  <. 
kenzie  had  been  sent  to  take  pos  f  the 
White  Oak  road,  some  three  mi]  :  the 
Forks,  a  task  which  he  promptly  performed, 
and  then  came  back  to  take  his  n  on 
the  right  of  the  Fifth  O 
The  battle    was  fought    almost  as    it    was 
planned:  the  only  difference  between  com 
tion  and  execution  arose  from  the  fact  that  it 
had  not  been  practicable  to  ascertain  the 
cise  position  of  the  enemy's  left  flank,  lest  the 
attempt  mightputthem  on  their  guard.  Aj 
division  was  on  the  left,  Crawford  on  the  ri 
Griffin  behind  Crawford,  and  in  I 
moved  to  the  attack  about  four  i 
ren,   understanding   that    the   enenr 
reached  farther  down  the  road  thai] 
case,  sent  Avers,  his  smallest  division,  in  a  di- 
rection which  broughl  itag  .  and 
Crawford  and  Griffin  were  movii             s  the 
road  and  altogether  past  the  left 
into  the  woods,  when  the  heavy  firinj 
-  Thorough  inquiry  among  the  friend-  of  DOtl 
erals  seems  to  establish  the  fact  that  Gi 
towards  Warren  arose  from  the  habit  Warren  ha 
discussing  his  orders,  - 
battle,  ana  movements 
regarded  this  habit  as  lacking  in  respect  to  himself, and 
although  Warren  was  Looked  up   0    is 
and  most  devoted  officers  in  the  army,  it  was  evident 
that  sooner  or  later  Grant's  irritation  would  come  to  a 
point  which  would  prove  ruinous  to  Warren.
144 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
of  Avers  warned  Warren  of  his  error,  and  he 
immediately  bestirred  himself  to  rectify  it, 
sending  his  aides  in  every  direction,  and  finally 
riding  off  into  the  woods  to  bring  back  Craw- 
ford and  Griffin  to  the  point  where  they  were 
so  greatly  needed.  All  this  occupied  consid- 
erable time,  and  in  the  mean  while  the  brunt 
of  the  battle  fell  upon  Ayers's  division.  They 
were  hardly  strong  enough  for  the  work  thus 
accidentally  assigned  them,  and  there  might 
have  been  a  serious  check  at  that  moment  but 
for  the  providential  presence  of  Sheridan  him- 
self, who,  with  a  fury  and  vehemence  founded 
on  the  soundest  judgment,  personally  led  the 
troops  in  their  attack  on  the  intrenchments. 
Those  who  saw  him  that  day  will  tell  the  story 
to  their  latest  breath,  how,  holding  the  colors 
in  his  hand,  with  a  face  darkened  with  smoke 
and  anger,  and  with  sharp  exhortations  that 
rang  like  pistol-shots,  he  gathered  up  the  fal- 
tering battalions  of  Ayers  and  swept  like  a 
spring  gust  over  Pickett's  breastworks.  Mean- 
while Warren  was  doing  similar  work  on  the 
right.  He  had  at  last  succeeded  in  giving  his 
other  two  divisions  the  right  direction,  and 
came  in  on  the  reverse  of  the  enemy's  lines. 
At  one  moment,  finding  some  hesitation  in  a 
part  of  Crawford's  force,  "  Warren,  riding  for- 
ward," says  Humphreys,  "  with  the  corps  flag 
in  his  hand,  led  his  troops  across  the  field." 
His  horse  was  shot  dead  in  the  final  charge. 
The  dusk  of  evening  came  down  on  one  of  the 
most  complete  and  momentous  victories  of  the 
war.  Pickett  was  absolutely  routed;  every 
man  was  driven  from  the  field  except  the  killed 
and  wounded,  and  the  prisoners,  who  were 
gathered  in  to  the  number  of  some  five  thou- 
sand, with  a  great  quantity  of  guns  and  colors. 
As  the  battle  was  ending,  Sheridan  sent  an  or- 
der to  W'arren  relieving  him  of  his  command 
and  directing  him  to  report  to  General  Grant 
for  orders. 
It  does  not  come  within  the  compass  of  this 
work  to  review  all  the  circumstances  which 
led  General  Grant  to  entertain  so  rooted  a 
dislike  to  Warren,  and  General  Sheridan,  who 
had  but  a  slight  acquaintance  with  him,1  to 
adopt  his  chiefs  opinions.  In  removing  him 
from  command  they  were  perfectly  justified. 
Honestly  holding  the  opinion  they  held  of 
him,  it  was  their  duty  to  prevent  the  evils  they 
thought  might  result  from  his  retention  in  so 
important  a  trust.  But  it  is  not  improper  here 
to  say  that  a  court  of  inquiry,  which  General 
Warren  succeeded  in  obtaining  after  General 
Grant  had  for  twelve  years  denied  it  to  him, 
decided  that  the  opinions  under  which  Grant 
and  Sheridan  acted  were  erroneous,  and  that 
Warren  did  his  whole  duty  at  Five  Forks. 
Grant  never  changed  his  opinion  of  him.  It 
is  true  he  offered  him  another  command  the 
next  day,  and  soon  afterwards  he  was  given 
an  important  department  to  administer;  but 
the  General-in-Chief  wras  always  implacable 
towards  him.  Even  on  his  death-bed,  when 
he  forgave  all  his  enemies,  and  sent  forth  that 
touching  appeal  for  human  kindliness,  not  only 
to  his  friends,  but  to  those  who  had  not  hith- 
erto been  friends,  he  kept  his  feeling  of  keen 
dislike  for  WTarren — then  sleeping  in  his  hon- 
ored grave  —  and  wrote  it  down  for  future 
ages  in  his  "  Memoirs."  A  curious  instance  of 
his  increasing  bitterness  is  seen  in  one  phrase. 
In  his  report  of  1865  he  says  Warren  was 
relieved  "  about  the  close  of  this  battle "  ; 
in  his  "  Memoirs  "  he  says  "  the  troops  were 
brought  up  and  an  assault  successfully  made  " 
—  after  Warren  was  relieved. 
APPOMATTOX. 
The  battle  of  Five  Forks  ought  to  have 
ended  the  war:  Lee's  right  had  been  shattered 
and  routed  ;  his  line,  as  he  had  long  predicted, 
had  been  stretched  westward  until  it  broke ; 
there  was  no  longer  any  hope  of  saving  Rich- 
mond, or  even  of  materially  delaying  its  fall. 
But  General  Lee  apparently  thought  that  even 
the  gain  of  a  day  was  of  value  to  the  Richmond 
Government,  and  what  was  left  of  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia  was  still  so  perfect  in  dis- 
cipline and  obedience  that  it  answered  with 
unabated  spirit  and  courage  every  demand 
made  upon  it.  It  is  painful  to  record  or  to  read 
the  story  of  the  hard  fighting  of  the  2d  of 
April ;  every  drop  of  blood  spent  on  the  lines 
of  Petersburg  that  day  seems  to  have  been  shed 
in  vain. 
Parke  and  Wright  had  been  ordered  on  the 
30th  of  March  to  examine  the  enemy's  works 
in  their  respective  fronts  with  a  view  to  deter- 
mine whether  it  was  practicable  to  carry  them 
by  assault ;  they  had  both  reported  favorably. 
After  the  great  victory  of  Five  Forks,  Grant, 
whose  anxiety  for  Sheridan  seems  excessive, 
thought  that  Lee  would  reenforce  against  him 
heavily,2  when,  in  fact,  Lee  had  already  sent  to 
his  right  all  the  troops  that  could  be  spared, 
and  Sheridan  had  routed  them.  To  relieve 
Sheridan,  and  to  take  advantage  of  any  weak- 
ness in  Lee's  extended  front,  Grant  now  ordered 
an  assault  all  along  the  lines.  The  answers 
came  in  with  electric  swiftness  and  confidence : 
Wright  said  he  would  "make  the  fur  fly"; 
Ord  promised  to  go  into  the  Confederate  lines 
"like  a  hot  knife  into  butter."    The  ground, 
1  "As  we  had  never  been  thrown  much  together,  I  2  Grant  to  Ord  :  "I  have  just  heard  from  Sheridan, 
knew  but  little  of  him."  [Sheridan, "  Memoirs,"  Vol.  .  .  .  Everything  the  enemy  has  will  probably  be 
II.,  p.  168.]  pushed  against  him."
APPOMATTOX. 
however,  in  front  of  Orel  was  so  difficult  that 
Grant  gave  him  no  positive  orders  to  assault, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  enjoined  upon  him  greal 
vigilance  and  caution.  Similar  instructions  were 
given  to  Humphreys;  Miles,  of  his  corps,  was 
ordered  westward  on  the  White  Oak  road  to 
help  Sheridan,  and  Wrighl  and  Parke  were 
directed  to  attack  at  four  o'clock  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  2d.  Grant's  principal  anxiety  w;is 
lest  Lee  should  get  away  from  Petersburg 
and  overwhelm  Sheridan  on  the  White  Oak 
road.  Lee  was  thinking  of  nothing  of  the 
kind.  The  terrible  blow  his  right  had  received 
seemed  to  have  stunned  him.  He  waited, 
with  a  fortitude  not  far  from  despair,  for  the 
attack  which  the  morning  was  sure  to  bring, 
making  what  hasty  preparations  were  in  his 
power  for  the  coming  storm.  It  came  with 
the  first  glimmer  of  dawn.  Wright,  who  had 
carefully  studied  the  ground  in  his  front,  from 
the  safe  point  of  vantage  he  had  gained  the 
day  of  Gordon's  ill-fated  sortie,  had  selected 
the  open  space  in  front  of  Forts  Fisher  and 
Walsh  as  the  weak  point  in  the  Confederate 
harness.  Not  that  it  was  really  weak,  except 
in  comparison  with  the  almost  impregnable 
works  to  right  and  left:  the  enemy's  front 
was  intersected  by  marshy  rivulets ;  a  heavy 
abatis  had  to  be  cut  away  under  musketry 
fire  from  the  parapets  and  a  rain  of  artillery 
from  the  batteries.  It  was  a  quarter  to  five  be- 
fore there  was  light  enough  to  guide  the  storm- 
ing columns ;  but  at  that  instant  they  swarmed 
forward,  rushing  over  the  Confederate  pickets 
with  too  much  momentum  to  be  delayed  a 
minute,  and,  gaining  the  main  works,  made 
them  their  own  after  a  brief  but  murderous 
conflict.  In  fifteen  minutes  Wright  lost  eleven 
hundred  men.  They  wasted  not  an  instant  after 
this  immense  success.  Some  pushed  on  in  the 
ardor  of  the  assault  across  the  Boydtown  road 
as  far  as  the  South  Side  Railroad ; 1  the  gallant 
Confederate  General  A.  P.  Hill  rode  unawares 
upon  a  squad  of  these  skirmishers,  and,  refus- 
ing to  surrender,  lost  his  life  at  their  hands. 
But  the  main  body  of  the  troops  wisely  improved 
their  victory.  A  portion  of  them  worked  reso- 
lutely to  the  right,  meeting  strong  resistance 
from  the  Confederates  under  Wilcox;  the 
larger  part  re-formed  with  the  celerity  that 
comes  from  discipline  and  experience,  and 
moved  down  the  reverse  of  the  captured  lines 
to  Hatcher's  Run,  where,  about  seven  o'clock, 
having  swTept  everything  before  them  and  made 
large  captures  of  men  and  guns,  they  met  their 
comrades  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Corps,  whom 
they  joined,  facing  about  and  marching  over 
ground  cleared  of  the  enemy  till  the  left  closed 
in  on  the  Appomattox  River. 
1  Humphreys,  p.  365. 
2  W.  H.  Taylor,  "Four  Years  with  General  Lee." 
Parke al  os    aulfc 
big  wiili  ,-i   nit 
brilliant  and  bnpoti 
yards  of  intrem  1m, 
and  pri  iona  .    Bui  i 
.-in  interior  line,  heavily  fortifr  d,  an 
enemy,  under  ( reneral  I  - 
a  stand,  but  re  turned  theoffi  i 
several  time  i  durir 
the  lines  v.  Iik  li  Parke  h 
lng  and  hastily  rever  ed 
displayed  In  .  u 
as  he  heard  of  the 
on  his  right,  h  d  with  If 
the  Confederate  redoubt 
turingthe  work>,  the  guns,  and  mo  -t  oi  the 
rison,  while  upon  his  left  Mott's  division  d 
the  enemy  out  of  their  work  Mill. 
Humphreys  wanted  to  hole 
corps  against  tin-  s<  attered  1  nemy  by  the  I 
bourne  road;   but   General    M  mter- 
manded  the  movement.    Nf  Ott  and  li 
ordered  towards  Petersburg,  and  Miles,  who  had 
been  holding  the  White  Oak  mad  for  Sheridan, 
was  therefore  left  alone  to  deal  with    H 
division, which  had  hastily  intren<  hed 
Sutherland's  Station,  and  here  a  sharp  fight  took 
place.    Miles,  twice  repulsed,  stuck  obstinately 
to  his  task,  and  about  three  o'clock  whi: 
and  dislodged  the  enemy,  making  large  cap- 
tures, and  driving  him  off  towar  ^po- 
mattox  and  Amelia  Court  House. 
Two  forts — Gregg  and  Whitworth  —  on  the 
main  line  of  the  Confederate  intrenchn 
west  of  Petersburg  made  a  stoat  resistance  to 
the  National  troops.    The  former  wfi 
strong  work,  surrounded  by  a  deep  and  • 
wet  ditch,  flanked  by  fire  to  the  right  and  left. 
It  was  an  ugly  thing  to  handle,  but 
and  Turner's  divisions  of  Gibbon's  corps  as- 
saulted with  unflinching  valor,  meeting  a  des- 
perate resistance.    Every    advanl 
that  of  numbers,  was  on  th< 
defenders,    and    they    put    twice    theil    own 
number    hors  du    combat    before    : 
rendered.    Gibbon  reports  a      ss       - 14  killed 
and  wounded:    55    Confederal  .vere 
found  in  the  work.    After  Gregg  h; 
Turner's  men  made  short  work  of  Whitworth. 
and  the   Confederates,   from  the  \\\ 
to  the  Weldon  road,  fell  slowly  '       1 1      :heir 
inner  line  of  works  near  Petersburg,  1 
risoned  by  Longstreet's  troops,  who'.. 
in  from  the  north  side  ofthl 
The  attack  of  Wright,  though  it  mi 
been    anticipated,  came    upon    Gene 
with  the  stunning  effect  of  lightning 
the  advance  oi  the  National  army  had 
reported  to  Lee  or  Hill,  they  saw  squa  Is 
men  in  blue  scattered  about   the   1 
road,-  and  it  was  in  riding  forward  I
146 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
tain  what  the  strange  apparition  meant  that 
General  Hill  lost  his  life.  General  Lee,  in  full 
uniform,  with  his  dress  sword,  which  he  seldom 
wore,  but  which  he  had  put  on  that  morning 
in  honor  of  the  momentous  day  he  saw  com- 
ing,1—  being  determined,  with  that  chivalrous 
spirit  of  his,  to  receive  adversity  splendidly, — 
watched  from  the  lawn  in  front  of  his  head- 
quarters the  formidable  advance  of  the  Na- 
tional troops  before  whom  his  weakened  lines 
were  breaking  into  spray,  and  then,  mounting 
his  iron-gray  charger,  slowly  rode  back  to  his 
inner  line.  There  his  ragged  troops  received 
him  with  shouts  and  cheers  which  showed 
there  was  plenty  of  fight  left  in  them ;  and 
there  he  spent  the  day  in  making  preparations 
for  the  evacuation  which  was  now  the  only 
resort  left  him.  He  sent  a  dispatch  to  Rich- 
mond, carrying  in  brief  and  simple  words  the 
message  of  doom  to  the  Confederate  authori- 
ties :  "I  see  no  prospect  of  doing  more  than 
holding  our  position  here  till  night.  I  am  not 
certain  I  can  do  that."  He  succinctly  stated 
the  disaster  that  had  befallen  him,  announced 
his  purpose  of  concentrating  on  the  Danville 
road,  and  advised  that  all  preparations  be 
made  for  leaving  Richmond  that  night. 
Some  Confederate  writers  express  surprise 
that  General  Grant  did  not  attack  and  destroy 
Lee's  army  on  the  afternoon  of  the  2d  of 
April ;  but  this  is  a  view,  after  the  fact,  easy  to 
express.  Wright's  and  Humphreys's  troops  on 
the  Union  left  had  been  on  foot  for  eighteen 
hours;  they  had  fought  an  important  battle, 
marched  and  countermarched  many  miles,  and 
were  now  confronted  by  Longstreet's  fresh 
corps,  behind  formidable  works,  led  by  the  best 
of  Lee's  generals ;  while  the  attitude  of  the 
force  under  Gordon,  on  the  south  side  of  the 
town,  was  such  as  to  require  the  close  attention 
of  Parke.  Grant,  anticipating  an  early  retire- 
ment of  Lee  from  his  citadel,  wisely  resolved  to 
avoid  the  waste  and  bloodshed  of  an  immediate 
assault  on  the  inner  lines  at  Petersburg.  He 
ordered  Sheridan  to  get  upon  Lee's  line  of  re- 
treat, sent  Humphreys  to  strengthen  him;  then, 
directing  a  general  bombardment  for  five 
o'clock  the  next  morning,  and  an  assault  at 
six,  he  gave  himself  and  his  soldiers  a  little  of 
the  rest  they  had  so  richly  earned,  and  which 
they  so  seriously  needed,  as  a  restorative  after 
the  labors  past  and  a  preparation  for  the  labors 
to  come. 
He  had  telegraphed  during  the  day  to  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  who  was  at  City  Point,  the  great 
day's  news  as  it  developed  hour  by  hour.  He 
was  particularly  happy  at  the  large  captures. 
"  How  many  prisoners  ?  "  was  always  the  first 
question  as  an  aide-de-camp  came  galloping 
in  with  news  of  success.  Prisoners  he  regarded 
as  so  much  net  gain :  he  was  weary  of  slaugh- 
ter; he  wanted  the  war  ended  with  the  least 
bloodshed  possible.  It  was  with  the  greatest 
delight  that  he  was  able  to  telegraph  on  this 
Sunday  afternoon,  "  The  whole  captures  since 
the  army  started  out  gunning  will  amount  to 
not  less  than  twelve  thousand  men  and  proba- 
bly fifty  pieces  of  artillery." 
General  Lee,  after  the  first  shock  of  the 
breaking  of  his  lines,  soon  recovered  his  usual 
sang-froid^  and  bent  all  his  energies  to  saving 
his  army  and  leading  it  out  of  its  untenable  po- 
sition on  the  James  to  a  point  from  which  he 
could  effect  a  junction  with  Johnston  in  North 
Carolina.  The  place  selected  for  this  purpose 
was  Burkeville,  at  the  crossing  of  the  South 
Side  and  Danville  roads,  fifty  miles  from  Rich- 
mond, whence  a  short  distance  would  bring 
him  to  Danville,  where  the  desired  junction 
might  be  made.  Even  in  this  ruin  of  the  Con- 
federacy, when  the  organized  revolt  which  he 
had  sustained  so  long  with  the  bayonets  of  his 
soldiers  was  crashing  about  his  ears,  he  was 
able  still  to  cradle  himself  in  the  illusion  that 
it  was  only  a  campaign  that  had  failed ;  that 
he  might  withdraw  his  troops,  form  a  junction 
with  J  ohnston,  and  continue  the  war  indefinitely 
in  another  field.  Whatever  we  may  think  of 
his  judgment,  it  is  impossible  not  to  admire 
the  coolness  of  a  general  who,  in  the  midst  of 
irremediable  disaster  such  as  encompassed 
Lee  on  the  afternoon  of  the  2d  of  April,  could 
write  such  a  letter  as  he  wrote  to  Jefferson 
Davis  under  date  of  three  o'clock.2  He  be- 
gan it  by  a  quiet  and  calm  discussion  of  the 
question  of  negro  recruitment;  promised  to  give 
his  attention  to  the  business  of  finding  suitable 
officers  for  the  black  regiments;  hoped  the  ap- 
peal Mr.  Davis  had  made  to  the  governors 
would  have  a  good  effect;  and,  altogether,  wrote 
as  if  years  of  struggle  and  effort  were  before 
him  and  his  chief.  Lie  then  went  on  to  narrate 
the  story  of  the  day's  catastrophe  and  to  give 
his  plans  for  the  future.  He  closed  by  apolo- 
gizing for  "  writing  such  a  hurried  letter  to 
your  Excellency,"  on  the  ground  that  he  was 
"  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy,  endeavoring 
to  resist  his  advance." 
At  nightfall  all  his  preparations  were  com- 
pleted. He  mounted  his  horse,  and  riding  out 
of  the  town  dismounted  at  the  mouth  of  the 
road  leading  to  Amelia  Court  House,  the  first 
point  of  rendezvous,  where  he  had  directed 
supplies  to  be  sent,  and  standing  beside  his 
horse,  the  bridle  reins  in  his  hand,  he  watched 
his  troops  file  noiselessly  by  in  the  darkness. 
At  three  o'clock  the  town,  which  had  been  so 
long  and  so  stoutly  defended,  was  abandoned ; 
only  a  thin  line  of  skirmishers  was  left  in  front 
of  Parke,  and  before  daybreak  he  pierced  the 
1  J.  E.  Cooke,  "  Life  of  R.  E.  Lee." 
2  Davis,  "  Rise  and  Fall,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  660.
APPOMATTOX. 
line  in  several  places,  gathering  in  the  few 
pickets  that  were  left.  The  town  was  formally 
surrendered  to  Colonel  Ely  at  half-past  lour, 
anticipating  the  capitulation  which  some  one 
else  offered  to  General  Wright  a  few  minutes 
4th,  Sheridan,  irho  Men- 
Hon  to  i  oncentrate  at  Ameli  i  i 
brought  hi,  i  avalrj 
ville,  about  eight  m 
House,  where  I 
later.    Meade  reported  the  news  to  Grantand    dan  intren*  hed,  ai 
instantly  received  the  order  to  march  his  army    the  enemy's  positioi  n    the 
immediately  up  the  Appomattox  by  the  river    afternoon  ol   the  |  and 
road;  and  Grant,  divining  the  intentions  of 
Lee,  dispatched  an  officer  to  Sheridan,  direct- 
ing him  to  push  with  all  speed  to  the  Danville- 
road  with  Humphreys  and  Griffin  and  all  the 
cavalry. 
Thus  the  flight  and  the  pursuit  began  almost 
at  the  same  moment.  The  swift-footed  Army 
of  Northern  Virginia  was  now  racing  for  its 
life;  and  Grant,  inspired  with  more  than  his 
native  tenacity  and  energy,  and    thoroughly 
Sixth  corps  came  up.    A  terrible 
ment  awaited  Genera]  I  i  at 
Amelia  Court  Hou  e.    He  b  id  01 
says,  supplies  to  be  sent  there  ;  but 
half-starved  tTOOpS  arrived  on  the  4th  of  April 
they  found  that  no  food  had 
them,  and  nearly  twenty-four  h< 
in  collecting  sub-;  n  and   h< 
"This  delay  was  fatal,  and  could   r. 
trieved.":<   The  whole  pursui  ,uth 
aroused  to  the  tremendous  task  of  ending  the    and  stretching  out  to  the   west  of  him, 
war  at  once,  not  only  pressed  his  enemy  in  the 
rear,  but  hung  upon  his  flank,  and  strained 
every  nerve  to  get  in  his  front.  It  is  charac- 
teristic of  him  that  he  did  not  even  allow  him- 
self the  pleasure  of  entering  Richmond,  which, 
deserted  by  those  who  had  so  often  promised 
to  protect  it,  and  wrapped  in  flames  lighted  by 
the  reckless  hands  of  Confederate  officials,  sur- 
rendered to  Weitzel  early  on  the  morning  of 
the  3d. 
All  that  day  Lee  pushed  forward  towards 
Amelia  Court  House.  He  seemed  in  higher 
spirits  than  usual.  As  one  who  has  long  been 
dreading  bankruptcy  feels  a  great  load  taken 
from  his  mind  when  his  assignment  is  made,  so 
the  Virginian  chief,  when  he  drew  out  from  the 
ruin  and  conflagration  in  which  the  Confederate 
dream  of  independent  power  was  passing  away, 
and  marched  with  his  men  into  the  vernal 
fields  and  woods  of  his  native  State,  was  filled 
with  a  new  sense  of  encouragement  and  cheer. 
"  I  have  got  my  army  safe  out  of  its  breast- 
works," he  said,  "  and  in  order  to  follow  me 
the  enemy  must  abandon  his  lines,  and  can 
derive  no  further  benefit  from  his  railroads  or 
James  River." x  But  he  was  now  dealing  with 
the  man  who,  in  Mississippi,  had  boldly  swung 
loose  from  his  base  of  supplies  in  an  enemy's 
country,  in  face  of  an  army  equal  to  his  own, 
and  had  won  a  victory  a  day  without  a  wagon 
train. 
There  was  little  fighting  the  first  day  except 
among  the  cavalry.  Custer  attacked  the  Con- 
federates at  Namozine  Church,  and  later  in 
the  day  Merritt's  cavalry  had  a  sharp  contest 
with  Fitzhugh  Lee  at  Deep  Creek.    On  the 
he  started  on  the  night  of  the  :th  of    April  to 
make  one  more  effort  to  re.  ■  tem- 
porary safety.    Burkevflle,  the  juncti 
Lynchburg  and  Danville  roads  was  in  (irant'- 
possession;  the  way  to   Danville  was  1> 
and  the  supply  of  provisions  from  the  south 
cut    off.    Lee  was   compelled    to  chang- 
route  to    the  west ;  and  he  now    started  for 
Lynchburg,  which  he  was  destined  never  to 
reach. 
It  had  been  Meade's  intention  to  attack   I 
at  Amelia  Court  House  on  the  morning  of  the 
6th  of  April,  but  before  he  reached  that  place 
he  discovered  that  Lee's  westward  march  had 
already  begun,  and  that  the  Coit  ..ere 
well  beyond  the  Union  left.    Meade  quickly 
faced  his  army  about  and  started  in  pursuit 
running  light  ensued  for  fourteen  mile^  :  the 
enemy,  with  remarkable  quickness 
ity,  halting  and  partially  intrenching  \ 
from  time  to   time,  and   the   National   f 
driving  them  out  of  every  position,  r. 
swiftly  that  lines  of  battle  follow 
the  skirmish  line.    At  several  points  the  cavalry, 
on  this  and  the  preceding  day.  harassed  the 
moving    left   flank    of   the   Con  and 
worked  havoc  on  the  trains,  on 
causing  a  grievous  loss  to  history  by  burning 
Lee's  headquarters  baggage  with  all  its  wealth 
of  returns  and   reports.    Sheridan  and  M 
pressed  so  closely  at  last   : 
was  brought  to  bay  at  Sailor's  Creek,  a  rivulet 
running  northward  into  the  Ap]  x  1  Here 
an  important  battle,  or  rath,  ittles, 
took  place,  with  fatal  results  to  1  van- 
ishing army.    The  Fifth  Corps  held  the  extreme 
1  J.  E.  Cooke,  "Life  of  R.  E.  Lee,"  p.  451. 
2  April  5. 
3  Lee's  report  of  the  surrender.  Other  Confederate 
writers  insist  that  the  train  which  should  have  borne 
these  supplies  to  Lee  was  directed  to  Richmond  to  assist 
the  flight   of  the  Confederate   authorities.     (Pollard, 
"  Lost  Cause,"  p.   70;.  >  Jefferson  Deris   ("Rise  and 
Fall."  Vol.  II.,  p.  668) denounces  the  whole 
malignant  calumny,  and  gives  volumi 
from  Confederate  officers  to  confa  seems 
DO  reason  to  doubt  General  bee's  statement,  made  to 
Mr.  Davis  in  his  report  at  the  time.
i4S 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
right  and  was  not  engaged.  Humphreys,  com- 
ing to  where  the  roads  divided,  took  the  right 
fork  and  drove  Gordon  down  towards  the 
mouth  of  the  creek.  A  sharp  battle  was  fought 
about  dark,  which  resulted  in  the  total  defeat 
of  the  Confederates,  Humphreys  capturing 
1700  prisoners.  15  tlags.  4  guns,  and  a  large 
part  of  the  main  trains;  Gordon  making 
his  escape  in  the  night  to  High  Bridge  with 
what  was  left  of  his  command.  Wright,  on  the 
left-hand  road,  had  also  a  keen  fight,  and  won 
a  most  valuable  victory.  With  Wheaton's  and 
Seymour's  divisions  he  attacked  EwTell's  corps, 
in  position  on  the  banks  of  the  creek,  enveloping 
him  with  the  utmost  swiftness  and  vehemence; 
Sheridan,  whose  cavalry  had  intercepted  the 
Confederates,  ordered  Cook  and  Merritt  to  at- 
tack on  the  left,  which  was  done  with  such 
vigor  —  Davies's  horsemen  riding  over  the 
enemy's  breastworks  at  a  single  rush — that, 
smitten  in  front  and  flank,  unable  either  to 
stand  or  to  get  away,  E well's  whole  force  was 
captured  on  the  field.  The  day's  loss  was 
deadly  to  Lee,  not  less  than  eight  thousand 
in  all ;  among  them  such  famous  generals  as 
Ewell,  Kershaw,  Custis  Lee,  Corse,  and  others 
were  prisoners. 
In  the  mean  time  Ord,  under  Sheridan's  or- 
ders, had  moved  rapidly  along  the  Lynchburg 
road  to  Rice's  Station,  where  he  found  Long- 
street's  corps  intrenched,  and  night  came  on 
before  he  could  get  into  position  to  attack. 
General  Read,  Ord's  chief-of-staff,  had  gone 
still  farther  forward  with  eighty  horsemen  and 
five  hundred  infantry  to  burn  High  Bridge,  if 
possible.  He  passed  through  Farmville,  and 
was  within  two  miles  of  the  bridge,  when  he 
fell  in  with  two  divisions  of  Confederate  cav- 
alry under  Rosser  and  Munford.  One  of  the 
most  gallant  and  pathetic  battles  of  the  war 
took  place.  General  Read,  Colonel  Washburn, 
and  all  the  cavalry  officers  with  Read  were 
killed,  and  the  rest  captured;  the  Confederate 
loss  was  also  heavy.  Read's  generous  self-sac- 
rifice halted  the  Confederate  army  for  several 
hours.  Longstreet  lost  the  day  at  Rice's  Station 
waiting  for  Anderson,  Ewell,  and  Gordon  to 
unite  with  him.  They  were  engaged  in  a  fruit- 
less attempt  to  save  their  trains,1  which  resulted, 
as  we  have  seen,  in  the  almost  total  loss  of  the 
trains,  in  the  capture  of  E well's  entire  force, 
and  in  the  routing  and  shattering  of  the  other 
commands.  The  day's  work  was  of  incalculable 
val  Lie  to  the  National  arms.  Sheridan's  unerring 
eye  appreciated  the  full  importance  of  it;  his 
hasty  report  ended  with  the  words,  "  If  the  thing 
is  pressed,!  think  that  Lee  will  surrender."  Grant 
sent  the  dispatch  to  President  Lincoln,  who  in- 
stantly replied,  "  Let  the  thing  be  pressed."  2 
In  fact,  after  nightfall  of  the  6th  Lee's  army 
could  only  flutter  like  a  wounded  bird  with  one 
wing  shattered;  there  was  no  longer  any  possi- 
bility of  escape.  Yet  General  Lee  found  it  hard 
to  relinquish  the  illusions  of  years,  and  his  val- 
iant heart  still  dreamed  of  evading  the  gather- 
ing toils  and  forming  somewhere  a  junction 
with  Johnston  and  indefinitely  prolonging  the 
war.  As  soon  as  night  had  come  down  on  the 
disastrous  field  of  Sailor's  Creek,  he  again  took 
up  his  weary  march  westward.  Longstreet 
marched  for  Farmville,  crossed  to  the  north 
bank  of  the  Appomattox,  and  on  the  7th  moved 
out  on  the  road  which  ran  through  Appomattox 
Court  House  to  Lynchburg.  His  famishing 
troops  had  found  provisions  at  Farmville,  and 
with  this  refreshment  marched  with  such  celer- 
ity that  Grant  and  Sheridan,  with  all  the  energy 
they  could  breathe  into  their  subordinates, 
could  not  head  them  off,  or  bring  them  to  deci- 
sive battle  that  day.  Nevertheless  the  advance 
of  the  Union  army  hung  close  upon  the  heels 
of  the  Confederates.  The  rear  corps  under  Gor- 
don had  burned  the  railroad  bridge,  near  Farm- 
ville, behind  them;  but  General  Barlow,  sending 
his  men  forward  at  double-quick,  saved  the 
wagon  bridge,  and  the  Second  Corps  crossed 
over  without  delay  and  continued  the  chase, 
Humphreys  taking  the  northern  road,  and  send- 
ing Barlow  by  the  railroad  bed  along  the  river. 
Barlow  overtook  Gordon's  rear,  working  great 
destruction  among  his  trains.  Humphreys  came 
up  with  the  main  body  shortly  after  noon,  and 
pressing  them  closely  held  them  till  evening, 
expecting  Barlow  to  join  him,  and  Wright  and 
Crook  to  cross  the  river  and  attack  from  the 
south,  a  movement  which  the  swollen  water  and 
the  destruction  of  the  bridge  prevented.  General 
Irwin  Gregg's  brigade  had  indeed  succeeded 
in  getting  over,  but  was  attacked  by  an  over- 
whelming force  of  Confederate  cavalry, —  three 
divisions, —  Gregg  being  captured,  and  his  bri- 
gade driven  back.  This  trivial  success  in  the 
midst  of  unspeakable  disaster  delighted  Gen- 
eral Lee.  He  said  to  his  son,  W.  H.  F.  Lee, 
"  Keep  your  command  together,  General ;  do 
not  let  it  think  of  surrender.  I  will  get  you 
out  of  this."  3 
But  his  inveterate  optimism  was  not  shared 
by  his  subordinates.  A  number  of  his  princi- 
pal officers,  selecting  General  Pendleton  as 
their  spokesman,  made  known  to  him  on  the 
7th  their  belief  that  further  resistance  was 
useless,  and  advised  surrender.  General  Lee 
replied :  " { I  trust  it  has  not  come  to  that.  .  .  . 
We  have  yet  too  many  bold  men  to  think  of 
laying  down  our  arms.'  .  .  .  Besides,  he  feared 
that  if  he  made  the  first  overtures  for  capitu- 
lation Grant  would  regard  it  as  a  confession 
of  weakness,  and  demand  unconditional  sur- 
1  Humphreys,  p.  385. 
2  Badeau,  Vol.  III.,  p.  581. 
3  J.  E.  Cooke,  "  Life  of  R.  E.  Lee,"  p.  455.
APPOMATTOX. 
render."1  l>ut  General  Grant  did  not  wish  to 
drive  a  gallant  antagonist  to  such  extremes. 
On  this  same  day,  seeing  how  desperate  was 
Lee's  condition,  and  anxious  to  have  an  end 
of  the  now  useless  strife,  he  sent  him  this 
courteous  and  generous  summons:2 
The  result  of  the  last  week  must  convince  you  of 
the  hopelessness  of  further  resistance,  on  the  part 
of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia*,  in  this  struggle. 
I  feel  that  it  is  so,  and  regard  it  as  my  duty  to  shift 
from  myself  the  responsihility  of  any  further  effu- 
sion of  blood,  by  asking  of  you  the  surrender  of 
that  portion  of  the  Confederate  States  army  known 
as  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 
This  letter  was  sent  at  night  through  Hum- 
phreys's lines  to  Lee,  who  at  once  answered  : 
"  Though  not  entertaining  the  opinion  you  ex- 
press of  the  hopelessness  of  further  resistance 
on  the  part  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia, 
I  reciprocate  your  desire  to  avoid  useless  ef- 
fusion of  blood,  and  therefore,  before  consider- 
ing your  proposition,  ask  the  terms  you  will 
offer  on  condition  of  its  surrender."  The  for- 
lorn remnant  of  the  Confederate  army  stole 
away  in  the  night,  on  the  desperate  chance  of 
finding  food  at  Appomattox  and  a  way  of  es- 
cape to  Lynchburg,  and  at  daybreak  the  hot 
pursuit  was  resumed  by  the  Second  and  Sixth 
corps.  All  this  day  the  flight  and  chase  con- 
tinued, through  a  portion  of  Virginia  never  as 
yet  wasted  by  the  passage  of  hostile  armies. 
The  air  was  sweet  and  pure,  scented  by  open- 
ing buds  and  the  breath  of  spring  ■  the  early 
peach  trees  were  in  flower;  the  sylvan  by-paths 
were  slightly  shaded  by  the  pale-green  foliage 
of  leafing  trees.  Through  these  quiet  solitudes 
the  fast-diminishing  army  of  Lee  plodded  on, 
in  the  apathetic  obedience  which  is  all  there  is 
left  to  brave  men  when  hope  is  gone,  and  be- 
hind them  came  the  victorious  legions  of 
Grant,  inspired  to  the  forgetfulness  of  pain  and 
fatigue  by  the  stimulus  of  a  prodigious  suc- 
cess. Sheridan  on  the  extreme  left,  by  unheard- 
of  exertions  at  last  accomplished  the  important 
task  of  placing  himself  squarely  on  Lee's  line 
of  retreat.  His  advance,  under  Custer,  captured, 
about  sunset  on  the  evening  of  the  8th,  Ap- 
pomattox Station  with  four  trains  of  provisions, 
then  attacked  the  rebel  force  advancing  from 
Farmville,  and  drove  it  towards  the  Court 
House,  taking  twenty-five  guns  and  many  pris- 
oners. A  reconnaissance  revealed  the  startling 
fact  that  Lee's  whole  army  was  coming  up  the 
road.  Though  he  had  nothing  but  cavalry, 
Sheridan  with  undaunted  courage  resolved  to 
hold  the  inestimable  advantage  he  had  gained, 
sending  a  request  to  Grant  to  hurry  up  the  re- 
quired infantry  support,  saying  that  if  Gibbon 
and  Griffin  could  get  to  him  that  night  "  the 
job  might  be  finished  in  the  morning.''  He 
added,  with  singular  prescience,  referring  to 
Vol.  XXXIX.— 22. 
the  negotiation!  irhich  bad  been  op  i 
do  not  think   Lee  meai     to  mtil 
i  ompelled  to  do 
This  was  rtnu  tly  true.  W 
Lee's  first  letter  he  replied 
the  8th, saying:  '•  Peace  beh 
there  is  but.  one  <  ondition  1  would  m  i  .•  ui 
namely,  that  the  men  and  o 
shall  be  disqualified  from  taking  up  an 
against  the  Government  oi 
until  properly  exchanged    1  inU 
designate  officers  t<  ■ 
name    for    the    same    purp< 
agreeable  to  you,  for  the  pi  i 
definitely  the  terms  upon  which  the 
of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  will  I, 
ceived."    Hut  in  ': 
hope  seemed  to  have  come   to  1  ■.   • 
might  yet    reach  Appomattox 
thence  make  his  way  to  Lyn<  bburg — a 
utterly  fallacious,   for  Stonem;m   was  now  on 
the  railroad   near  Lynchburg.    II  i  th  i 
while  giving  orders  to  his  subordinates  I 
with  the  utmost  energy  wot  ward,  ansn 
General  Grant's  letter  in  a  tone  more  ingei 
than  candid,  resen ing,  while  negotiations  were 
going  on,  the  chance  of  breaking  away. 
In  my  note  of  yesterda)  [he 
tend  to    propose   the    surrender    ot 
lot  in- 
the    Ar: 
Northern  Virginia,  but   to   ask  the  terms  of 
proposition.    To  be  frank.  I  do  not  think  I 
gency  has  arisen  to  call    for  the  surrender  c>: 
army;  but  as  the  restoration  of  peace  should  be  'he 
sole  object  of  all,   I  desire  to  know  whether  your 
proposals  would  lead  to  that  end.     I  cannot  I 
fore  meet  you  with  a  view  to  surrender  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia;  but  as  far  as  youi 
affect  the  Confederate  States  forces  under  my  com- 
mand, 1  should  be  pleased  to  meet  you  at  io  ■• . 
to-morrow,  on  the  old  stage  road  to  Rid 
tween  the  picket  lines  o\  the  two  ar: 
Grant  was  not  to  be  entrapped  into  a  futile 
negotiation  for  the  restoration  .  H 
doubtless  had  in  view  the  President's  peremp- 
tory instructions  of  the  3d  of  March,  forbid 
him  to  entertain  any  pn  r  the 
surrender    of  armies,    or    to    eng  any 
political  discussion  or  conference.    1 1 
fore  answered   General   Lee  on  the  morning 
of  the  9th  of  April  with  perfect  .  but 
with  unmistakable  frankness,  saying :  M  1  have 
no  authority  to  treat  on  the  subject  of  p- 
The  meeting  proposed  for  10  a.  M..to-e..  . 
. 
lead  to  no  good.    I  will  state,  however,  I 
eral,  that  I  am  equally  desirous  for  peace  with 
yourself,  and  the  whole  North  entertains  the 
same  feeling.     The  terms  upon  which   \ 
can  be  had  are  well  understood.    By  the  South 
laying  down  their  arms  they  will  hasten  that 
1  L0113,  p.  417- 
-   April  7.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
most  desirable  event,  save  thousands  of  human 
li\  es  and  millions  oi  property  not  yet  destroyed. 
Seriously  hoping  that  all  our  difficulties  maybe 
settled  without  the  loss  of  another  life,  I  sub- 
scribe  myself."  etc.  He  dispatched  this  letter 
to  Lee  and  then  set  off  to  the  left,  where  Sheri- 
dan was  barring  Lee's  last  avenue  of  escape. 
It  appears  from  General  Lee's  report,  made 
four  days  after  the  surrender,  that  he  had  no 
intention  on  the  night  of  the  8th  of  giving  up  the 
fight.  He  ordered  Fitz  Lee,  supported  by  Gor- 
don, in  the  morning  "  to  drive  the  enemy  from 
his  front,  wheel  to  the  left  and  cover  the  pas- 
sage of  the  trains,  while  Longstreet  .  .  .  should 
close  up  and  hold  the  position."  He  expected 
to  hnd  only  cavalry  on  the  ground,  and  thought 
even  his  remnant  of  infantry  could  break  through 
Sheridan's  horse  while  he  himself  was  amus- 
ing Grant  with  platonic  discussions  in  the  rear. 
But  he  received,  on  arriving  at  the  rendezvous 
he  had  suggested,  not  only  Grant's  stern  refusal 
to. enter  into  a  political  negotiation,  but  other 
intelligence  which  was  to  him  the  trump  of 
doom.  Ord  and  Griffin  had  made  an  almost 
incredible  march  of  some  thirty  miles  during 
the  preceding  day  and  night,  and  had  come  up 
at  daylight  to  the  post  assigned  them  in  sup- 
port of  Sheridan ;  and  when  Fitzhugh  Lee  and 
Gordon  made  their  advance  in  the  morning 
and  the  National  cavalry  fell  slowly  back,  in 
obedience  to  their  orders,  there  suddenly  ap- 
peared before  the  amazed  Confederates  a  for- 
midable force  of  infantry  filling  the  road,  cov- 
ering the  adjacent  hills  and  valley,  and  barring 
as  with  an  adamantine  wall  the  further  pro- 
gress of  the  army  of  the  revolt.  The  marching 
of  the  Confederate  army  was  over  forever.  The 
appalling  tidings  were  instantly  carried  to  Lee. 
He  at  once  sent  orders  to  cease  hostilities,  and, 
suddenly  brought  to  a  sense  of  his  real  situa- 
tion, sent  a  note  to  Grant,  asking  an  interview 
in  accordance  with  the  offer  contained  "in 
Grant's  letter  of  the  8th  for  the  surrender  of 
his  army."  Grant  had  created  the  emergency 
calling  for  such  action.  As  Sheridan  was  about 
to  charge  on  the  huddled  mass  of  astonished 
horse  and  foot  in  front  of  him  a  flag  of  truce 
was  displayed,  and  the  war  was  at  an  end.  The 
Army  of  X orthern  Virginia  was  already  cap- 
tured. "  I  've  got  'em,  like  that ! "  cried  Sheri- 
dan, doubling  up  his  fist,  fearful  of  some  ruse 
or  evasion  in  the  white  flag.  The  Army  of  the 
Potomac  on  the  north  and  east,  Sheridan  and 
Ord  on  the  south  and  west,  completely  encir- 
cled the  demoralized  and  crumbled  army  of 
Lee.  There  was  not  another  day's  fighting  in 
them.    That  morning  at  three  o'clock  Gordon 
1  The  President  in  his  Amnesty  Proclamation  of 
December  8,  1863,  expressly  excepted  officers  above 
the  rank  of  colonel,  all  who  left  seats  in  Congress  to 
aid  the  rebellion,  and  all  who  resigned  commissions  in 
had  sent  word  to  Lee  that  he  "had  fought  his 
corps  to  a  frazzle,  and  could  do  nothing  more 
unless  heavily  supported  by  Longstreet."  Lee 
and  his  army  were  prisoners  of  war  before  he 
and  Grant  met  at  Appomattox. 
The  meeting  took  place  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
McLean,  in  the  edge  of  the  village.  Lee  met 
Grant  at  the  threshold,  and  ushered  him  into 
a  small  and  barely  furnished  parlor  where  were 
soon  assembled  the  leading  officers  of  the  Na- 
tional army.  General  Lee  was  accompanied 
only  by  his  secretary,  Colonel  Charles  Marshall. 
A  short  conversation  led  up  to  a  request  from 
Lee  for  the  terms  on  which  the  surrender  of 
his  army  would  be  received.  Grant  briefly 
stated  the  terms  which  would  be  accorded. 
Lee  acceded  to  them,  and  Grant  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing letter : 
In  accordance  with  the  substance  of  my  letter  to 
you  on  the  8th  inst.  I  propose  to  receive  the  sur- 
render of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  on  the  fol- 
lowing terms,  to  wit :  Rolls  of  all  the  officers  and 
men  to  be  made  in  duplicate  ;  one  copy  to  be  given 
to  an  officer  to  be  designated  by  me,  the  other  to 
be  retained  by  such  officer  or  officers  as  you  may 
designate.  The  officers  to  give  their  individual  pa- 
roles not  to  take  up  arms  against  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  until  properly  exchanged  ;  and 
each  company  or  regimental  commander  sign  a  like 
parole  for  the  men  of  their  commands.  The  arms, 
artillery,  and  public  property  to  be  parked  and 
stacked,  and  turned  over  to  the  officers  appointed 
by  me  to  receive  them.  This  will  not  embrace  the 
side-arms  of  the  officers,  nor  their  private  horses  or 
baggage.  This  done,  each  officer  and  man  will  be 
allowed  to  return  to  his  home,  not  to  be  disturbed 
by  United  States  authorities  so  long  as  they  observe 
their  paroles  and  the  laws  in  force  where  they  may 
reside. 
General  Grant  says  in  his  "  Memoirs  "  that  up 
to  the  moment  when  he  put  pen  to  paper  he 
had  not  thought  of  a  word  that  he  should  write. 
The  terms  he  had  verbally  proposed,  and  which 
Lee  had  accepted,  were  soon  put  in  writing, 
and  there  he  might  have  stopped.  But  as  he 
wrote,  a  feeling  of  sympathy  for  his  gallant 
antagonist  gradually  came  over  him,  and  he 
added  the  extremely  liberal  terms  with  which 
his  letter  closed.  The  sight  of  Lee's  sword,  an 
especially  fine  one,  suggested  the  paragraph 
allowing  officers  to  retain  their  side-arms ;  and 
he  ended  with  a  phrase  which  he  had  evidently 
not  thought  of  and  for  which  he  had  no  author- 
ity, which  practically  pardoned  and  amnes- 
tied every  man  in  Lee's  army  —  a  thing  he  had 
refused  to  consider  the  day  before,  and  which 
had  been  expressly  forbidden  him  in  President 
Lincoln's  order  of  the  3d  of  March.1  Yet  so 
great  was  the  joy  over  the  crowning  victory,  so 
the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States  and  afterwards 
participated  in  the  rebellion.  The  terms  granted  at 
Appomattox  practically  extended  amnesty  to  many  per- 
sons in  these  classes.
TELL  US. 
deep  was  the  gratitude  of  the  Government  and 
the  people  to  Grant  and  his  heroic  army,  thai 
his  terms  were  aceepted  as  he  wrote  them,  and 
his  exercise  of  the  Executive  prerogative  of  par- 
don entirely  overlooked.  It  must  be  noticed 
here,  however,  as  a  few  days  later  it  led  the 
greatest  of  Grant's  generals  into  serious  error. 
Lee  must  have  read  the  memorandum  of 
terms  with  as  much  surprise  as  gratification. 
He  said  the  permission  for  officers  to  retain 
their  side-arms  would  have  a  happy  effect 
He  then  suggested  and  gained  another  impor 
tant  concession  —  that  those  of  the  cavalry  and 
artillery  who  owned  their  own  horses  should 
be  allowed  to  take  them  home  to  put  in  their 
crops.  Lee  wrote  a  brief  reply  accepting  the 
terms.  He  then  remarked  that  his  army  was  in  a 
starving  condition,  and  asked  Grant  to  provide 
them  with  subsistence  and  forage,  to  which  he  at 
once  assented,  and  asked  for  how  many  men  the 
rations  would  be  wanted.  Lee  answered,  "About 
twenty-five  thousand,"  and  orders  were  at  once 
given  to  issue  them.  The  number  surrendered 
turned  out  to  be  even  larger  than  this.  The 
paroles  signed  amounted  to  28,231.  If  we  add 
to  this  the  captures  at  Five  Forks,  Petersburg, 
and  Sailor's  Creek,  the  thousands  who  deserted 
the  failing  cause  at  every  by-road  leading  to 
their  homes,  and  filled  every  wood  and  thicket 
between  Richmond  and  Lynchburg,  we  can 
see  how  considerable  an  army  Lee  commanded 
when  Grant  "started  out  gunning."  Yet  every 
Confederate  writer,  speaker,  and  singer  who 
refers  to  the  surrender  says,  and  will  say  for- 
ever, that  Lee  surrendered  only  seven  thousand 
muskets. 
With  these  brief  and 
of  ilie  most  tnome 
times  u.i ,  1  oncluded.    I 
pired,  and  the  1  r.i^r.  .-•  n.-.-r    pi 
a  national  lalute;  bul  I 
mil  it.    He  forbade  an)  r  j 
enemy,  who  he  hoped  would  hi 
enemy  no  Ion-.,.    1 ;., 
Confederate  tines  to  m 
toGeneral  Lee.    Sitting  on 
the  lines,  the  two  heroe    ol  the  was  ..■ 
friendly<  onversation.    I 
al  an  end,  slavery  dead,  th  \  n  don  il   •   • 
restored  ;  JohnstOl 
sooner  the  better     '  \v   nf    ill  . 
a  public  appeal  to  hasten  t!  e  rei  ini 
but  Lee,  true  to  his  ideas  ol  sul 
a  government  which  had  1 
he  could  not  do  this  without  < 
federate  President.   They  parted  with  < 
good  wishes,  and  Grant,  without  \ 
at  the  city  he  had  taken  or  the  enoi 
of  works  which  had  so  long  held  him  at 
intent  only  upon  reaping  the  pea<  eful  n 
of  his  colossal  victory,  and  putting  an  ei 
the  waste  and  the  burden  of  war,  hurried  a 
to  Washington  to  do  what  he  could  for  this  t  - 
tical  and  beneficent  purpose.  He  had  done  an  in- 
estimable service  to  the  Republic  :  he  had  1 
immortal  honor  for  himself:  but  neither  then 
nor  at  any  subsequent  period  of  his  life 
there  any  sign  in  his  v,  s  bearing  of 
the  least  touch  of  vainglory.    The 
Appomattox  he  was  as  simple,  and 
unassuming  a  citizen  as  he  was  the  d 
Sumter. 
Ty/fft? 
TELLUS. 
WHY  here  on  this  third  planet  from  the  sun 
Fret  we,  and  smite  against  our  prison-bars  ? 
Why  not  in  Saturn,  Mercury,  or  Mars 
Mourn  we  our  sins,  the  things  undone  and  done  ? 
Where  was  the  soul's  bewildering  course  begun  ? 
In  what  sad  land  among  the  scattered  stars 
Wrought  she  the  ill  which  now  for  ever  s< 
By  bitter  consequence  each  victory  won  ? 
I  know  not,  dearest  friend  :  yet  this  1  see. 
That  thou  for  holier  fellow  ships  wast  meant : 
Through  some  strange  blunder  thou  art  here  :  and  we, 
Who  on  the  convict-ship  were  hither  sent 
By  judgment  just,  must  not  be  named  with  thee 
Whose  tranquil  presence  shames  our  discontent. 
William  R.  H
MEMORANDA    ON    THE    CIVIL    WAR. 
Southern  Cadets  in  Action. 
IN  
his  sketch  of  "  The  West  Point  of  the  Confeder- 
acy."' published  in  The  Century  Magazine  for 
January,  1SS9.  Mr.  John  S.  Wise  says:  "At  a  later 
period  o(  the  war  it  [the  Virginia  Military  Institute] 
had.  I  believe,  the  exceptional  honor  of  having  sent  its 
corps  of  cadets,  as  a  body,  into  battle."  The  cadets 
of  the  University  of  Alabama  share  with  the  Virginia 
Military  Institute  corps  the  honor  of  haying  received 
"a  baptism  of  fire"  in  the  closing  days  of  the  war.* 
In  fact,  from  the  thoroughness  of  its  military  organi- 
zation and  equipment,  and  from  the  number  and  qual- 
ity of  the  officers  it  furnished  the  Southern  army,  the 
University  of  Alabama  may  fairly  contest  with  the 
Virginia  Institute  the  honor  of  having  been  the  "West 
Point  of  the  Confederacy." 
Unlike  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  the  University 
of  Alabama  was  not  founded  as  a  military  school ;  but 
the  legislature  of  the  State,  at  its  session  of  1859-60, 
probably  in  anticipation  of  the  "  irrepressible  conflict  " 
between  the  sections,  took  steps  towards  grafting  a 
military  department  on  the  classical  and  scientific 
courses  of  the  institution,  and  in  September,  i860,  its 
students  for  the  first  time  went  into  camp  on  the  college 
grounds  as  a  military  body  under  the  name  of  the  Ala- 
bama Corps  of  Cadets.  Colonel  Caleb  Huse,  now  in 
charge  of  a  training  school  for  West  Point  at  Highland 
Falls,  N.  V.,  who  was  then  a  young  army  officer,  was 
detailed  as  commandant  of  cadets,  and  under  his  direc- 
tion the  corps  soon  reached  a  high  degree  of  excellence 
in  drill  and  discipline.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
Colonel  Huse  resigned  his  commission  in  the  army  and 
accepted  an  important  post  under  the  Confederate 
Government.  Colonel  J.  T.  Murfee,  an  accomplished 
officer  and  a  graduate  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute, 
succeeded  Colonel  Huse  as  commandant,  and  he  was 
aided  in  perfecting  the  organization  of  the  military 
department  of  the  institution  by  a  complement  of  young 
officers  known  as  "  State  Captains,"  most  of  whom 
were  also  Virginia  Military  Institute  graduates. 
As  the  war  became  more  and  more  an  earnest  reality 
the  University  of  Alabama  assumed  more  and  more 
the  aspects  of  a  second  West  Point.  The  president, 
Dr.  L.  C.  Garland,  now  the  venerable  chancellor  of 
the  Vanderbilt  University,  donned  the  regulation  gray 
of  a  Confederate  colonel,  and  held  reviews, inspections, 
etc.,  with  the  soldierly  precision  of  a  West  Point  super- 
intendent. From  time  to  time  the  young  men  whom 
the  University  had  trained  to  the  profession  of  arms 
were  commissioned  as  officers  in  the  Southern  army, 
and  of  these  quite  a  number  rose  rapidly  in  rank;  one 
1  In  a  communication  published  in  the  "  Battles  and  Leaders 
of  the  Civil  War,"  Lieutenant  James  Gates,  of  the  9th  Illinois 
Mounted  Infantry,  writing  of  Sherman's  march  towards  Atlanta, 
says;  •' Jt  was  during  the  advance  that  day  [May  9,  1864]  that 
we  came  in  contact  with  the  Georgia  Cadets  from  the  Military 
Institute  at  Marietta,  who  had  come  out  from  the  woods  at  Resaca 
and  formed  their  line  behind  a  rail  fence.  After  a  volley  from  the 
Cadets,  which  killed  several  of  our  men,  our  regiment  charged 
them.   .   .  ." —  Editor. 
of  them,  the  lamented  General  John  C.  Saunders,  hav- 
ing won  the  stars  of  a  brigadier  before  he  had  reached 
his  majority. 
The  university,  being  located  at  Tuscaloosa,  in  the 
interior  of  the  State,  was  for  a  long  time  exempt  from 
danger  from  the  raiders  who  ravaged  the  northern 
borders  of  Alabama  ;  but  as  the  crisis  drew  on  in  the 
spring  of  1865  the  Federal  troops  came  nearer  and 
nearer.  On  the  30th  of  March,  General  E.  M.  Mc- 
Cook,  then  at  Elyton  (at  present  a  suburb  of  the 
new  city  of  Birmingham),  fifty  miles  northeast  of 
Tuscaloosa,  acting  under  orders  from  General  J.  H. 
Wilson,  detached  Brigadier-General  John  T.  Croxton 
and  his  brigade  of  fifteen  hundred  veteran  cavalry  with 
orders  "  to  proceed  rapidly  by  the  most  direct  route  to 
Tuscaloosa,  to  destroy  the  bridge,  factories,  mills,  uni- 
versity (military  school),  and  whatever  else  might  be 
of  benefit  to  the  rebel  cause." 
The  opportunity  was  now  at  hand  for  the  cadet 
corps  to  taste  the  realities  of  war  that  it  had  so  often 
mimicked  in  the  marching  and  countermarching  of  the 
battalion  manceuvers.  The  corps  was  about  three  hun- 
dred strong  and  was  in  fine  trim.  On  the  night  of  the 
3d  of  April  "  taps  "  was  sounded  as  usual.  The  cadets 
went  to  bed  with  little  thought  that  within  three  miles, 
just  across  the  Black  Warrior  River,  lay  Croxton 's 
raiders,  ready  to  make  a  dash  across  the  bridge  into 
Tuscaloosa.  The  Federal  general,  by  his  capture  of 
scouts  and  citizens,  had  prevented  knowledge  of  his 
approach.  The  surprise  was  complete.  For  the  sake 
of  form,  a  few  of  the  "home  guard" — old  men  and 
boys — had  been  kept  at  the  bridge  that  night ;  but  no 
one  had  an  idea  that  the  Federals  were  near.  When 
their  approach  was  discovered,  a  courier  was  at  once 
dispatched  to  the  university.  The  long  roll  was  sounded, 
and  in  a  few  moments  the  cadet  battalion  was  formed 
and  hurried  away  in  the  darkness  to  the  brow  of  the 
hill  overlooking  the  bridge.  There  a  line  of  battle  was 
formed. 
It  was  too  late.  Croxton's  men  had  already  crossed 
the  bridge  and  were  formed  on  the  river  bank.  The 
cadets,  however,  were  eager  for  the  fray,  and  the  two  or 
three  volleys  that  they  poured  down  the  hill  for  a  while 
disconcerted  the  Federals  and  checked  their  advance. 
There  was  rapid  firing  for  a  short  time  on  both  sides ; 
but,  owing  probably  to  the  darkness  of  the  night,  the 
casualties  were  few.  The  officer  in  charge  of  the 
cadets,  seeing  the  hopelessness  of  an  attempt  to  dis- 
lodge a  force  so  superior  in  numbers,  drew  off  his 
command,  having  sustained  a  loss  of  only  three  or  four 
wounded. 
General  Croxton,  in  his  official  report,  makes  no 
mention  of  the  losses  sustained  by  the  Federals.  He 
says:  "They  [the  militia  and  cadets]  made  several 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  dislodge  us,  but  failed,  and 
morning  found  us  in  peaceful  possession  of  the  prem- 
ises, with  sixty  prisoners  and  three  pieces  of  artillery." 
The  prisoners  referred  to  were  members  of  the  "home 
guard,"  and  not  cadets.    The  three  pieces  of  artillery
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN:    A     HISTORY 
THE    FALL    OF    THE    REBEL    CAPITAL  — LINCOLN     IN     RICHM< 
BV   JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND    JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE       ECRETARIES    TO    TH1 
THE    FALL    OF    THE    REBEL    CAPITAL. 
INCEthe  visit  of  Blair  and 
the  return  of  the  rebel 
commissioners  from  the 
Hampton  Roads  confer- 
ence, no  event  of  special 
significance  had  excited 
the  authorities  or  people 
ever  consent  to  purchase,  at  the  cost  of  degradation 
and    slavery,   pel  a  country 
risoned  by  their  own  negroes,  .offi- 
cers sent  by  the  conqueror  to  rule  over  them.3 
Jefferson  Davis  was  Strongly  addict* 
political  contradictions,  but  we  mu>t  sup] 
even  his  cross-eyed  philosophy  capable  o; 
tecting  that  a  negro  willing  to  fight  in  sL . 
in  preference  to  fighting  in  freedom   was  not 
of  Richmond     February    a  very  safe  reliance  Tor  Southern  in<lc,,en.: 
^  ^tPt!,la:fy^  tVTZfZll    ^e  languages  heemploys  it  here  ntlv  c 
and  politics,  which  at  the  end  of  four  years 
had  become  familiar  and  dull.  To  shrewd 
observers  in  that  city  things  were  going  from 
bad  to  worse.  Stephens,  the  Confederate  Vice- 
President,  had  abandoned  the  capital  and  the 
cause  and  retired  to  Georgia  to  await  the 
end.  Judge  John  A.  Campbell,  though  per- 
forming the  duties  of  Assistant  Secretary  of 
War,  made,  among  his  intimate  friends,  no 
concealment  of  his  opinion  that  the  last  days 
of  the  Confederacy  had  come.2  The  members 
of  the  rebel  Congress,  adjourning  after  their 
long  and  fruitless  winter  session,  gave  many 
indications  that  they  never  expected  to  reas- 
semble. A  large  part  of  their  winter's  work 
had  been  to  demonstrate  without  direct  accu- 
sation that  it  was  the  Confederate  mal-Admin- 
istration    which  was    wrecking   the  Southern 
the  continuous  official  Confederate  wail  al 
Northern    subjugation,    Northern    d 
Northern    barbarity,   Northern    atrocity,  and 
Northern  inhumanity  which  rings  through  his 
letters,  speeches,  orders,  me  ud  proc- 
lamations with  monotonous  dissonance  dm 
his  whole  four  years  of  authority. 
Of  all  the  Southern  people  none  were  quite 
so  blinded  as  those  of  Richmond.   Their  little 
bubble   of  pride    at   being    the    Confederate 
capital  was  ever  iridescent  with  the  \>nr 
hopes.    They  had  no  dream  that  the  visible 
symbols  of  Confederate  government  and  gl 
upon  which    their  eves  had    nourished  their 
faith  would  disappear  almos 
if  an  earthquake  had  swallowed  them.    Pov- 
erty, distress,  and  desolation  had  ind< 
into  their  homes,  but  the  approach  had  been 
cause.    On  his  part  Jefferson  Davis  prolonged  slow>  and  so  mitj^ateci  by  the  exaltations  of 
their  session  a  week  to  send  them  his  lastmes-  a  heroic  self-sacrince  that  they  welcomed  the 
sage  — a  dry  lecture  to  prove  that  the  blame  change  mther   than  suffered  by  it    For  the 
rested  entirely  on  their  own  shoulders.    The  moment  nature  was  their  helper.     The  cheer- 
last  desperate  measure  of  rebel  statesmanship, 
the  law  to  permit  masters  to  put  their  slaves 
into  the  Southern  armies  to  fight  for  the  rebel- 
lion, was  so  palpably  illogical  and  impractica- 
ble that  both  the  rebel  Congress  and  the  rebel 
President  appear  to  have  treated  it  as  the 
merest  legislative  rubbish;  or  else  the  latter 
would  scarcely  have  written  in  the  same  mes- 
sage, after  stating  that  "  much  benefit  is  antic- 
ipated from  this  measure,"  that 
The  people  of  the  Confederacy  can  he  but  little 
known  to  him  who  supposes  it  possible  they  would 
II., 
2  Jones,  "  A  Rebel  War  Clerk's  Diary,"  Vol 
p.  450. 
y  Davis,    Message,    March    13,    1S65.     "American 
Annual  Cyclopaedia,"  1865,  pp.  718,  719. 
1  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1886 
Vol.  XXXIX.— 43.  305 
ing,  healing,  revivifying  influences  of  tl 
time  were  at  hand.    The  warm  sunshine 
on  the  hills,  the  songs  of  birds  were  in  th< 
buds  and  blossoms  rilled  the  gard 
All  accounts  agree  that  when  on    S   l 
morning,  April   2,  1865,  the  people  of  Rich- 
mond went  forth  to  their  places  of  worship, 
they  had  no  thought  of  impending  chang* 
public  calamity.    The  omiiv  ich  a 
possibility  had  escaped  their  attention.    A  few 
days  before,   Mrs.  Jefferson   Davis,  with  her 
children,  had  left  Richmond  for  the  South 
sent  some  of  her  furniture  to  auction.    S 
some  weeks  before,  the  horses  remaining 
the  city  had  been  impressed  to  collect  the 
bacco   into   convenient  warehouses  where  it 
All  riirhts  reserved.
306 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
could  be  readily  burned  to  prevent  its  falling 
into  Yankee  hands.1 
But  the  significance  of  these  and  perhaps 
other  indications  could  not  be  measured  by 
the  general  populace.  In  fact  for  some  days 
a  rather  unusual  quiet  had  prevailed.  That 
morning  Jefferson  Davis  was  in  his  pew  in  St. 
Paul's  Church  when  before  the  sermon  was 
ended  an  officer  walked  up  the  aisle  and  handed 
him  a  telegram  from  General  Lee  at  Peters- 
g,  dated  at  half-past  ten  that  morning,  in 
winch  he  read.  "  My  lines  are  broken  in  three 
places  :  Richmond  must  be  evacuated  this 
evening."  He  rose  and  walked  out  of  church  ; 
whereupon  the  officer  handed  the  telegram  to 
the  rector,  who  as  speedily  as  possible  brought 
the  services  to  a  close,  making  the  announce- 
ment that  General  Ewell,  the  commander  at 
Richmond,  desired  the  military  forces  to  as- 
semble at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  The 
news  seems  also  to  have  reached  in  some  form 
one  or  two  of  the  other  churches,  so  that  though 
no  announcement  of  the  fact  was  made,  the 
city  little  by  little  became  aware  of. the  har- 
rowing necessity. 
The  fact  of  its  being  Sunday,  with  no  busi- 
ness going  on  and  rest  pervading  every  house- 
hold, doubtless  served  to  moderate  the  shock 
to  the  public.  Yet  very  soon  the  scene  was 
greatly  transformed.  From  the  Sabbath  still- 
ness of  the  morning  the  streets  became  alive 
with  bustle  and  activity.  Jefferson  Davis  had 
called  his  Cabinet  and  officials  together,  and 
die  hurried  packing  of  the  Confederate  archives 
for  shipment  was  soon  in  progress.  Citizens 
who  had  the  means  made  hasty  preparations 
for  flight ;  the  far  greater  number  who  were 
compelled  to  stay  were  in  a  flutter  to  devise 
measures  of  protection  or  concealment.  The 
banks  were  opened  and  depositors  flocked 
thither  to  withdraw  their  money  and  valuables. 
A  remnant  of  the  Virginia  legislature  gathered 
in  the  Representatives'  Hall  at  the  Capitol  to 
debate  a  question  of  greater  urgency  than  had 
ever  before  taxed  their  wisdom  or  eloquence. 
In  another  room  sat  the  municipal  council,  for 
once  impressed  with  the  full  weight  of  its  re- 
sponsibility. Meanwhile  the  streets  were  full  of 
hurrying  people,  of  loaded  wagons,  of  gallop- 
ing military  officers  conveying  orders.  One 
striking  sketch  of  that  wild  hurry-skurry  de- 
serves to  be  recorded. 
Lumpkin,  who  for  many  years  had  kept  a  slave- 
trader's  jail,  also  had  a  work  of  necessity  on  hand  — 
fifty  men,  women,  and  children,  who  must  he  saved 
to  the  missionary  institution  for  the  future  enlight- 
enment of  Africa.  Although  it  was  the  Lord's  day 
(perhaps    he   was   comforted   by  the  thought  that 
3  Jones,  "A  Rebel  War  Clerk's  Diary,"  Vol.  \\. , 
p.  438. 
2  "  Atlantic  Monthly,"  June,  1865. 
"the  better  the  day  the  better  the  deed")  the 
coffle-gang  was  made  up  in  the  jail  yard,  within 
pistol  shot  of  Davis's  parlor  window,  within  a  stone's 
throw  of  the  Monumental  Church,  and  a  sad  and 
weeping  throng,  chained  two  and  two,  the  last  slave- 
cotrle  that  shall  ever  tread  the  streets  of  Richmond, 
were  hurried  to  the  Danville  depot.2 
But  the  "  institution,"  like  the  Confederacy, 
was  already  in  extremis.  The  account  adds 
that  the  departing  trains  could  afford  no  trans- 
portation for  this  last  slave  cargo,  and  the  gang 
probably  went  to  pieces  like  every  other  Rich- 
mond organization,  military  and  political. 
Evening  had  come,  and  the  confusion  of  the 
streets  found  its  culmination  at  the  railroad 
depots.  Military  authority  made  room  for  the 
fleeing  President  and  his  Cabinet,  and  depart- 
ment officials  and  their  boxes  of  more  impor- 
tant papers.  The  cars  were  overcrowded  and 
overloaded  long  before  the  clamoring  multi- 
tude and  piles  of  miscellaneous  baggage  could 
be  got  aboard,  and  by  the  occasional  light  of 
lanterns  flitting  hither  and  thither  the  wheez- 
ing and  coughing  trains  moved  out  into  the 
darkness.  The  legislature  of  Virginia  and  the 
governor  of  the  State  departed  in  a  canal  boat 
towards  Lynchburg.  All  available  vehicles 
carrying  fugitives  were  leaving  the  city  by 
various  country  roads,  but  the  great  mass  of 
the  population,  unable  to  get  away,  had  to  con- 
front the  dread  certainty  that  only  one  night 
remained  before  the  appearance  of  a  hostile 
army  with  the  power  of  death  and  destruction 
over  them  and  their  homes. 
How  this  power  might  be  exercised,  present 
signs  were  none  too  reassuring.  Since  noon, 
when  the  fact  of  evacuation  had  become  certain, 
the  whole  fabric  of  society  seemed  to  be  crum- 
bling to  pieces.  Military  authority  was  concen- 
trating its  energy  on  only  two  objects,  destruc- 
tion and  departure.  The  civil  authority  was 
lending  a  hand,  for  the  single  hasty  precaution 
which  the  city  council  could  ordain  was,  that 
all  the  liquors  in  the  city  should  be  emptied 
out.  To  order  this  was  one  thing,  to  have  it 
rigorously  executed  would  be  asking  quite  too 
much  of  the  lower  human  appetites,  and  while 
some  of  the  street  gutters  ran  with  alcohol, 
enough  was  surreptitiously  consumed  to  pro- 
duce a  frightful  state  of  excitement  and  drunk- 
enness. No  picture  need  be  drawn  of  the 
possibilities  of  violence  and  crime  which  must 
have  haunted  the  timid  watchers  in  Richmond 
who  listened  all  night  to  the  shouts,  the  blas- 
phemy, the  disorder  that  rose  and  fell  in  the 
streets,  or  who  furtively  noted  the  signs  of 
pillage  already  begun.  And  how  shall  we 
follow  their  imagination,  passing  from  these 
visible  acts  of  the  friends  of  yesterday  to  what 
they  might  look  for  from  the  enemies  expected 
to-morrow?    For  had  not  their  President  offi-
77/ A'    FALL    ()/>'   THE   REBEL    CAPITAL 
3<>7 
daily,  their  statesmen,  and  their  newspapers 
with  frantic  rhetoric,  warned  them  against  the 
fanatical,  penny-worshiping  Yankee  invader? 
And  that  final  horror  of  horrors,  the  negro  sol- 
diers held  up  to  their  dread  by  the  solemn  presi- 
dential message  of  Jefferson  Davis  only  two 
weeks  before.  What  now  of  the  fear  of  servile 
insurrection,  the  terrible  specter  they  had 
secretly  nursed  from  their  very  childhood  ? 
It  is  scarcely  possible  they  can  have  escaped 
such  meditations  even  though  already  weary 
and  exhausted  with  the  surprises  and  labors 
of  the  day,  with  the  startling  anxieties  of  the 
evening,  with  the  absorbing  care  of  burying 
their  household  silver  and  secreting  their  yet 
more  precious  personal  ornaments  and  tokens 
of  affection.  In  Europe,  a  thousand  wars  have 
rendered  such  experiences  historically  com- 
monplace; in  America,  let  us  hope  that  a 
thousand  years  of  peace  may  render  their 
repetition  impossible. 
Full  of  dangerous  portent  as  had  been  the 
night,  the  morning  became  yet  more  ominous. 
Long  before  day  sleepers  and  watchers  alike 
were  startled  by  a  succession  of  explosions 
which  shook  every  building.  The  military 
authorities  were  blowing  up  the  vessels  in 
construction  at  the  river.  These  were  nine  in 
number,  three  of  them  iron-clads  of  four  guns 
each,  the  others  small  wooden  ships.1  Next, 
the  arsenal  was  fired ;  and,  as  many  thousands 
of  loaded  shells  were  stored  here,  there  suc- 
ceeded for  a  period  the  sounds  of  a  continuous 
cannonade.  Already  fire  had  been  set  to  the 
warehouses  containing  the  collected  tobacco 
and  cotton,  among  which  loaded  shells  had 
also  been  scattered  to  insure  more  complete 
destruction. 
There  is  a  conflict  of  testimony  as  to  who  is 
responsible  for  the  deplorable  public  calamity 
which  ensued.  The  rebel  Congress  had  passed 
a  law  ordering  the  Government  tobacco  and 
other  public  property  to  be  burned,  and  Jeffer- 
son Davis  states  that  the  general  commanding 
had  advised  with  the  mayor  and  city  authori- 
1  "  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  vessels  destroyed : 
Virginia,  flag-ship,  four  guns,  iron-clad  ;  Richmond) 
four  guns,  iron-clad ;  Fredericksburg;  four  guns,  iron- 
clad ;  Nansemond,  two  guns,  wooden  ;  Hampton,  two 
guns,  wooden;  Roanoke,  one  gun,  wooden;  Torpedo, 
tender;  Shrapnel;  Patrick  Henry,  school-ship."  [Por- 
ter, Report,  April  5, 1865.  Report  Sec.  Navy,  1S65-66.] 
2  Davis,  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment," Vol.  II.,  p.  666. 
3  Ewell  to  Lossing,  November,  1866.  "  The  Inde- 
pendent," March  11,  1886. 
Lossing,  writing  from  both  the  written  statement 
and  verbal  explanations  of  General  Ewell,  says  :  "  Now 
General  Ewell  earnestly  warned  the  city  authorities 
of  the  danger  of  acting  according  to  the  letter  of  that 
resolution ;  for  a  brisk  wind  was  blowing  from  the 
south  which  would  send  the  flames  of  the  burning 
warehouses  into  the  town  and  imperil  the  whole  city. 
Early  in  the  evening  a  deputation  of  citizens  called 
ties  about  precautio 
On  the  other  band, 
the  military  command  •. 
merit  that  lie  not  00 
city  authorities  of  the  i 
the  measure,  but  that  hi 
of  disobeying  the  law  and  m  ••  I 
left  the  city  aboul    even  o\  la  k  in  the  morn- 
ing," he  unites,  "  and  as  yet  nodi 
fired  by  my  orders;  yet  the  building! and  <: 
near  the  railway  bndgi 
flames  were  so  close  as  to  be  di 
I  rode  by  them."-1    Jiy  this  time 
lawlessness  and  hunger  for  pillage  b 
full  headway.    The  rearguard  oi 
Confederates   set  the  three  great   bridge 
flames,  and  while  the  tire  started  at  the  four 
immense  warehouses  and  various  points,  and 
soon  uniting  in  an  uncontrollable 
was  beginning  to  eat  out  the  heart  of  tl 
miscellaneous  mob  went  from  store  I 
and  with  a  beam  for  a  battering  ram  smashed  in 
the  doors  so  that  the  crowd  might  freely  • 
and  plunder  the  contents.    This  rapacity,  hr>t 
directed  towards  bread  and  provision  St 
gradually  extended  itself  to  all  oth   • 
until  mere  greed  of  booty  rather  than  need  or 
usefulness  became  the  ruling  instinct,  and  pro- 
moted the  waste  and  destruction  of  that  which 
had  been  stolen.    Into  this  pandemoniun 
fire   and  license   there   came   one   additional 
terror  to  fill  up  its  dramatic  completes 
About  ten  o'clock   [writes  an  eye-witn 
before  the  entrance  of  the  Federal  army 
dismay  rang  all  along  the  streets  which 
of  the  track  of  the  tire,  and  I  saw  a  a  wd  of  leap- 
ing, shouting  demons,  in  parti-colored  clothes,  and 
with  heads  half  shaven.     It  was  the  cor.-. 
the  penitentiary,  who  had  overcome  ihj  guar d 
fire  to  the  prison,  and  were  now  at  libeii 
a  heart  which  had  kept  its  courage  to  this  point 
quailed  at   the  sight.     Fortunately,   they  were  too 
intent   upon   securing  their   freedom    to  do  much 
damage.4 
It  is  quite  probable  that  the  magnitude  and 
upon  President  Davis  and  remons 
ing  out  that  order  of  Congress, 
the  city  would  be  jeopardized.    He  was  in  un- 
amiable  state  of  mind,  and  curdy  replied,  *  Your  s 
ment  that  the  burning  of  the  warehouses  will  emi. 
the  city  is  only  a  cowardly  ; 
for  the  Yankees ! '  After  IV.  niltee 
of  the  city  council,  at  the  sngg 
went  to  the  War  Office  to  remo 
ever  might  represent  the  department,  against  the  exe- 
cution of  the  perilous  order.  M  ruddy 
replied  in  language  which  was  almost  an  echo  oi 
of  his  superior,  and  General  Ewell,  in  5] 
earnest  remonstrances,  was  ordei  B  tour 
warehouses  near  the  river  to  he  set  on  tire  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning."  [Lossing,  in  -The  Independ- 
ent" (New  York).  March  II,  1SS0.] 
-i  Mary   Tucker   Ma^ill,   in   -The    Independf 
(New  York),  fan.  7.  1886.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
rapidity  oi  the  disaster  served  in  a  measure  to 
mitigate  its  evil  results.  The  burning  of  seven 
hundred  buildings  comprising  the  entire  busi- 
ness portion  of  Richmond,  warehouses,  manu- 
factories, mills,  depots,  and  stores,  all  within 
the  brief  space  of  a  day,  was  a  visitation  so 
sudden,  so  unexpected,  so  stupefying  as  to 
overawe  and  terrorize  even  wrong-doers,  and 
made  the  harvest  of  plunder  so  abundant  as 
to  serve  to  scatter  the  mob  and  satisfy  its 
rapacity  to  quick  repletion. 
Before  a  new  hunger  could  arise,  assistance, 
protection,  and  relief  were  at  hand.  The  citi- 
zens' committee  which  went  forth  to  surrender 
Richmond  met  the  vanguard  of  the  Union 
army  under  General  Weitzel  outside  the  limits 
of  the  city  in  the  early  forenoon,  and  after  a 
formal  ceremony  of  submission,  a  small  de- 
tachment of  white  Union  cavalry  galloped  into 
the  late  rebel  capital,  and  proceeding  directly 
to  the  State  House  raised  the  national  flag 
over  it.1  Soon  afterward  there  occurred  what 
was  to  the  inhabitants  the  central  incident  of 
the  day  —  the  event  which  engrossed  their  so- 
licitude even  more  than  the  vanished  rebel 
Government,  the  destroyed  city,  or  the  lost 
cause.  This  was  the  arrival  of  the  colored 
soldiers,  the,  to  them,  visible  realization  of 
the  new  political  and  social  heavens  and  earth 
to  which  four  years  of  rebellion  and  war  had 
brought  them.  The  prejudices  of  a  lifetime 
cannot  be  instantly  overcome,  and  the  rebels 
of  Richmond  doubtless  felt  that  this  was  the 
final  drop  in  their  cup  of  misery  and  that  their 
"  subjugation  "  was  complete.  General  Weit- 
zel had  arrived  with  the  first  detachment  of 
Union  cavalry ;  and  seeing  the  conflagration 
and  disorder,  he  sent  back  an  aide  in  haste  to 
bring  into  the  city  the  first  brigade  he  could 
find,  to  act  as  a  provost  guard. 
At  length  they  came  —  a  brigade  of  colored 
cavalry  from  the  division  of  General  Devens.2 
It  is  related  that  about  this  time,  as  by  a  com- 
mon impulse,  the  white  people  of  Richmond 
disappeared  from  the  streets,  and  the  black 
population  streamed  forth  with  an  apparently 
instinctive  recognition  that  their  day  of  jubilee 
had  at  last  arrived.  To  see  this  compact,  or- 
ganized body  of  men  of  their  own  color,  on 
horseback,  in  neat  uniforms,  with  flashing  sa- 
bers, with  the  gleam  of  confidence  and  triumph 
in  their  eyes,  was  a  palpable  living  reality  to 
which  their  hope  and  pride,  long  repressed, 
gave  instant  response.  They  greeted  them 
with  expressions  of  welcome  in  every  form  — 
cheers,  shouts,  laughter,  and  a  rattle  of  ex- 
1  The  flag  was  raised  by  a  young  officer  named  John- 
ston Livingston  de  Peyster,  who  had  carried  it  at  his 
saddle-bow  for  a  week  with  this  purpose. 
2  Weitzel,  testimony  ;  Report  of  Committee  on  Con- 
duct of  the  War.    Supplement,  Part  I.,  p.  523. 
clamations  as  they  rushed  along  the  sides  of 
the  street  to  keep  pace  with  the  advancing 
column  and  feast  their  eyes  on  the  incredible 
sight ;  while  the  black  Union  soldiers  rose 
high  in  their  stirrups  and  with  waving  swords 
and  deafening  huzzas  acknowledged  the  fra- 
ternal reception. 
But  there  was  little  time  for  holiday  enjoy- 
ment. The  conflagration  was  roaring,  destruc- 
tion was  advancing ;  fury  of  fire,  blackness  of 
smoke,  crash  of  falling  walls,  obstruction  of 
debris,  confusion,  helplessness,  danger,  seemed 
everywhere.  The  great  Capitol  Square  on  the 
hill  had  become  the  refuge  of  women  and 
children  and  the  temporary  storing-place  of 
the  few  household  effects  they  had  saved 
from  the  burning.  From  this  center,  where  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  were  first  hoisted,  there  now 
flowed  back  upon  the  stricken  city,  not  the 
doom  and  devastation  for  which  its  people 
looked,  but  the  friendly  help  and  protection 
of  a  generous  army  bringing  them  peace,  and 
the  spirit  of  a  benevolent  Government  tender- 
ing them  forgiveness  and  reconciliation.  Up 
to  this  time  it  would  seem  that  not  an  organ- 
ization had  been  proposed  nor  a  hand  raised 
to  stay  the  ravages  of  the  flames.  The  public 
spirit  of  Richmond  was  dead  even  to  that 
commonest  of  human  impulses,  the  willingness 
to  help  a  neighbor  in  affliction.  The  advent 
of  the  Union  army  breathed  a  neW  life  into 
this  social  paralysis.  The  first  care  of  the  of- 
ficers was  to  organize  resistance  to  fire ;  and 
instead  of  the  blood  and  rapine  which  the  de- 
luded Virginians  feared  from  the  Yankee  of- 
ficers and  "  niggers  "  in  Federal  uniforms,  they 
beheld  them  reestablish  order  and  personal 
security,  and  convert  the  unrestrained  mob  of 
whites  and  blacks  into  a  regulated  energy,  to 
save  what  remained  of  their  city  from  the 
needless  fire  and  pillage  to  which  their  own 
friends  had  devoted  it,  against  remonstrance 
and  against  humanity.  And  this  was  not  all. 
Beginning  that  afternoon  and  continuing  many 
days,  these  "  Yankee  invaders  "  fed  the  poor 
of  Richmond,  and  saved  them  from  the  star- 
vation to  which  the  law  of  the  Confederate 
Congress,  relentlessly  executed  by  the  Con- 
federate President  and  some  of  his  subordi- 
nates, exposed  them. 
LINCOLN     IN     RICHMOND. 
A  little  more  than  two  months  before 
these  events,  President  Lincoln  had  written 
the  following  letter  to  General  Grant : 
Please  read  and  answer  this  letter  as  though  I 
was  not  President,  but  only  a  friend.  My  son,  now 
in  his  twenty-second  year,  having  graduated  at 
Harvard,  wishes  to  see  something  of  the  war  before 
it  ends.     I  do  not  wish  to  put  him  in  the  ranks,