Arizona republican., 1901-11-06

 No man has been a more consistent | "northerner." MT. Adams is of the opinion that the nation owes debt of gratitude to General Lee, for had l it not been for his influence the coun- try in 1865 would have been plunged into a practically endless war exceed ing in horrors the interminable strug- gle now going on in South Africa. Says | MT. Adams:
 l It is well known that, in the face O. disaster, Jefferson Davis had not for an instant given up the thought of continuing the struggle. To do so was certainly practicable. Foreign opin- | ion. for instance. Was c:i this point | settled; it was assumed as a certainty of the future that the conquest of the confederacy was impossible. The Eng fish journals had always maintained, | and still did maintain. that the de | feat of Lee in the field. or even the surrender of all the confederate armies. would be but the close of one phase of the war and the opening of another 1 phase,-the final phase being a long, fruitless effort to subdue united peo- pie in q region so vast that it would be impossible to penetrate every por- ton Of it, much less to hold it in sub Jctlioii AS dll bilc scales on the 9th of April. 1865, hung wavering in the balance: a mere turn of the hand would decide which way they were to incline. Thus, on the morning of that momentouS day, it was an absolutely open question, an even chance. whether the course which was actually pursued should be pur sued, or whether the leaders of the confederacy would adopt the policy !, ,i1l, .ls- Botha and DeWet have in South Africo more recently adopted, and are now following.
 In was in the early morning Of that 9th of April. 1865. that General (and ex- governor Henry A. Wise sought out General Lee at his temporary head quarters. John S. Wise, then lad of 19, was present at the interview and has published his recollections of 1t. Lee asked his father what he thought of the situation. There is no situa- tion,' said the elder Wise. Nothing remains, General Lee, but to put your poor men on your poor mules and send them home in time for spring blow ing. He said more to the same effect, and told the commander-in-chief that the blood of any man killed thereafter would be on his head. General Lee asked what "the country would think of him. General Wise promptly (and profanely) rejoined that there wasn't any country. You know the game is desperate beyond redemption he con tinued. and that, if you so announce. no man or government or people will
 
 made no reply.
 Mir. Adams is able to supplement John s. wise's report of this interview with bit of history never before made public. Some. years ago he came into close association with General E. P Alexander. Longstreet's chief of artil- lery and in 1865 (uniess Mir. Adarrs' memory is al faulD chief of artillery Of the Army of Northern Virginia. Alex ende- told him that after a sleepless night he went to General Lee that 9th of April, and submitted to him a plan. The army was nominally to capitulate Then the men were to hurry to their respective states, report to their gover- nors, and hold themselves ready to begin shooting yankees again. They were to do what the South African burghers have since done. No. Gen eral Alexander said Lee. That will not do. You must remember we are a Christian people. We have fought as long and as well as we know how. We have been defeated For us as a Christian people there is now but one course to pursue. We must accept the situation; these men must go home and plant a crop. and we must proceed to build up our country on a new basis. We cannot have recourse to the methods you suggest And Alexander with a sense of awe on hirn. silently swung into his saddle and rode away.
 Lees decision determined in advance Joe Johnston's decision; in vain Mir Jefferson Davis endeavored to shake it. "The south feels that it Is whipped and is tired of the war was Johnston's final word. That settled it. The peril was averted-
 MT. Adams remarks:
 Recalling the circumstances of that time, it Is fairly appalling to consider what in 1865 must have occurred, had Robert F. Lee then been of the same turn of mind as was Jefferson Davis, or as impiacable and unyiel1ing in dis position as Kruger or Botha have more recently proved The national govern ment had in arms a million men, rnur5u to the hardships and accustomed to the brutalitieS of war; Lincoln had been freshly assassinated; the temper of the north was thoroughly aroused. while it's patience was exhausted. An irreg- ular warfare would inevitably have re- suited, a warfare without quarter. The confederacy would have been re- duced to a smoldering wilderness-to n1ursn1onIuDzya