The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-05-31
A SUIT OF WHITE.

at this juncture. The compact of peace
was about to be violated, and but
spark was needed to involve the country
with territory large enough for empires
with millions of inhabitants in all the
miseries of partisan war. These miserles
would not fall alone upon those against
whom vengeance was directed, but would
entail untold burdens and loss OF life
on the conquerers, and shape for evil
the progress of the country for ages to
come The hope of a reunited country
lay no longer In the hands of the Presl-
dent but was within the keeping OF
Grant and Lee. One was to ask his peo-
pie to forbear, and the other to ask mis-
people to bear, 1t was for his people,
nay, for the whole country, and not Tor
himself, that Lee spoke when he appeal
ed to the victorious soldier to know
whether his plighted faith was to be
trampled In the dust, and those who
had trusted him to be delivered naked
to a reign of vengeance and bloodshed.
Man of the People.
1t is not hard for man to strtAe when
his own rights are invaded, but 1t takes
one of the finest fiber to stake all for
a late enemy, when his own fortunes are
not imperiled. General Grant was the
idol of his people. No faction or party
denied him homage. He had seen MS
great lieutenant leading victorious army
fresh from a march through the heart Oh
the Confederacy to Washington mistrust-
ed denounced and threatened With DIS
ii ,ar1f I'M n
with the policy of vengeance. If the fu-
ture history should recoiI aghast at cruel
ty to a helpless foe his own fame was
at least secure. He had set a different
example. Why should be clash with
the passions of the hour and the Will OK
the President? If he interviewed could ne
breast the storm? would passion turn and
rend him also? If these thoughts came
to him they came only to be put asioe
lie did not hesitate an instant. lie ten
dered his sword and commission to the
President in indignant protest against ms
policy, and in burning words, which
struck the mark like a cannon shot, con-
demned the violation of his plighted faith
to q single paroled Confederate He had
his way and thus the policy of vengeance
was abandoned ere 1t was fairly begun
l know not If 1t be true, as sometimes
said that he proclaimed the intention
to preserve the inviolability of his pa
role If it took the combined power or the
Union and Confederate armies to do IT,
We do know that he held back the storm.
and that he was the only man who had
the power to do it. There is no sublimer
picture In history than the attitude of
the victorious leader at this juncture.
Generations yet uiSorn. whose fathers
followed the illustrious American who
declared that human virtue should equal
human calamity" will rise up to bless the
memory of his victorious antagonist who
spared the country the miserie5 OF a
return to the sword and made possible
the peace and happiness and grandeur and
glory of today.
His Desire for Peace.
From the hour he turned from Apo
mattox to the last days at Mount Nc
Gregor the desire uppermost in the
thoughts of the victorious soldier was to
soothe and better the condition of his de-
feated countrymen. At the very moment
of his victory he said: 1.-THE C--federates
are now our prisoners, and we do not
want to exult over their downfall" He
realized more than any man that his VIC
tory would be tried in the crucible of
after years and tested by the relations
between the victor and vanquished and
no opportunity to speak in terms of ad-
mTration of the Confederate soldier
"whose manhood drew forth such hercu-
lean o.-eds OF valor," and with whom he
hoped for perpetual peace and har-
mony." After the power of speech was
gone he wrote: II feel that we are on the
eve of new era and there is to be great
harmony between the Tederals and Con-
federates. I cannot stay to be living
witness Of the correctness of this prophe-
cy but I feel it within me that 1t is So"
Thus he passed from out of the sight of
men. His prayer for peace and unity has
been granted Stronger and nobler for
the strife rises the nation whose moral
grandeur "throngs in and becomes par
taker'' of the councils of the nations of
the earth.
In that touching idyl, THE Passing of
Arthur" a master hand paints a moving
picture of the agony of the dying hours
of a knight with a shattered casque and
gaping wound, whose last thoughts were
how to confound his foes. From his
parched and dying lips came the firm de-
fiance: king I am, whatsoeer they cry,
and one last act of knighthood shall they
see yet ere I pass" How much noblcr
and grander the last hours at Mount Nc
Gregor! The pale and wan sufferer there
thought only of love for those who had
battled against him. and did not realize
when his dying hand wrote, after his
power of speech was gone, In the close of
his memoirs, of the great harmony be-
tween Federals and Ccnfederates'' that IL
was indeed the last act OF knighthood -
God rest his soul.