The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-14
WHAT LEE DID.
CHARLES FRANCIS AD4MS' TRiB'
 UTE TO THE GREAT SOLDIER.
A Parallel Between the Closing Days of the Confectionery and the Dutch
 Republic-Lce Prevented Guerrilla

Repubiic-Lce Prevented Guerrilla Warfare.
 In address at Worcester, Mass, be- | fore the American Antiquarian society on Wednesday Charles Francis Adams, | of Boston, said:
 | It is unnecessary for me even to re- | fer to the series of events which 1ol- | lowed the abandonment of Richmond
 and preceded the surrender of Appo- 1 mattox It is sufficient to say that the
 equalization of the Army Of Northern | Virginia had become inevitable. Not | the less for that, the course thereafter 1 to be pursued as concerned further re-
 sistance on the part of the Confectionery was still to be decided. It is well
 known that, in the face of disaster, Jet- | ferson Davis had not for an instant given up the thought of continuing the struggle. To do so was certainly prac- | ticable Foreign opinion, for instance, | was on this point settled; it was as sumed as certainty of the future that the conquest of the Confectionery was impossible The English journals had always maintained, and still did main tain, that the defeat of Lee in the field, or even the surrender of all the Conted- crate armies, would be but the close Of one phase of the war and the opening of another phase--the final phase being
 long, fruitless effort to subdue
 united people in a region so vast that IL would be impossible to penetrate every portion of it, much less to hold It In subjection. As a historical fact the
 scales on April g, 1885, hung wavering in the balance; mere turn Of the hand
 would decide which way they were to
 incline. Thus on the morning ot that momentous day, it was an absolutely
 open question, an even chance, whether the course which was actually pursued would be pursued or whether the lead CTS of the Confectionery would adopt the policy which President Kruger and Generals Botha and De Wet have in
 South Africa more recently adopted, and are now following
 The decision rested in the hands or one man-the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Fairly reliable and very graphic accounts of what took place at General Lees headquarters Tn the early morning hours of that day have either appeared in print or been told in conversation, and to two or these accounts I propose to call atteh- tion. Apparently the second of the in terviews described followed close on the first. not more than couple Of hours intervening between them. Of the first I find this account in a book recently
 T1l,,. l. tied "The End of an Era John Sar- gent Wise is the son of Henry A. Wise, once prominent in our national polltlcs' Governor of Virginia in the later flt- ties. he was subsequently, brigadler- general in the Confederate service, Though in 1865 but a youth of nine teen, John s. Wise was hot Confede- rate, and had already been wounded In battle. At the time now in question he chanced to have been sent by Jeffer- son Davis, then on his way from Rich mond to Danville, with dispatches to Lee. and while seeking Lees headquar- ters he came, in the early morning of April 9, across his father, Governor and General Wise, in bivouac with his brig ade. The father was then nearly sixty years of age, but the son found him ly- ing on the ground, asleep among his men. A typical southern 'fire-eater' of the extreme type. Henry A. Wise was an ollt-and- out secessionist and Confederate. Aroused by his son from his uneasy slumber, almost the first wish he expressed was to see General Lee, and he inquired impetuous!y Of his whereabouts. The son knew where the Confederate headquarters were, and the two starte ed together to go to them. VIVID PICTURE OF THE SCENE.
 John S. Wise has described vividly the aspect of affairs as they passed along: "The roads and fields were filled with stragglers. They moved, looking behind them, as if they expect ed to be attacked and harried by pur- suing foe Generalization, panic, abandonment of all hope, appeared on every hand. Wagons were rolling along without any order or system Caisson and Timber chests, without commanding officers, seemed to be floating aimlessly unon tide Of dlsor- ganization. Rising to his full height, casting a glance around him like that of an eagle, and sweeping the horizon with his long arm and bony forefinger my father exclaimed: This is the end!' It is impossible to convey an idea of the agony and the bitterness of his words and gestures" Then follows this description of the interview which ensued:
 we found General Lee in the rear portion of the house that l have men, tioned. He had washed his face in a tin basin and stood drying his beard will a coarse towel as we approached General Lee exclaimed my father my poor, brave men are lying on yon- der hill more dead than alive. For more than a week they have been fighting day and night without food, and by God, sir they shall not move another step until somebody gives them something to eat!'
 Come in, General said General Lee, soothingly. They deserve some thing to eat and shall have it, and meanwhile you shall share my break fast He disarmed everything like de- fiance by his frankness.
 Ut was but a few moments howev- CT, before my father launched forth in a fresh denunciation of the conduct of General Bushrod Johnson in the en- gagement of the 9th. I am satisfied that General Lee felt as he did; but, assuming an air of mock severity, he said: General are you aware that you