reach of the Mobile and Ohio Railway in northern
Mississippi, and supplies could be sent him by that road. Selma ceased
to be of importance, and my quarters were returned to Meridian. Forrest,
just back from Tennessee, was advised of Hood's purposes and ordered to
cooeperate. Maury was made happy by the information that he would lose
none of his force, and the usual routine of inspections, papers, etc.,
occupied the ensuing weeks.

My attention was called about this time to the existence of a
wide-spread evil. A practice had grown up of appointing provost-marshals
to take private property for public use, and every little post commander
exercised the power to appoint such officials. The land swarmed with
these vermin, appointed without due authority, or self-constituted, who
robbed the people of horses, mules, cattle, corn, and meat. The wretched
peasants of the middle ages could not have suffered more from the "free
companies" turned loose upon them. Loud complaints came up from State
governors and from hundreds of good citizens. I published an order,
informing the people that their property was not to be touched unless by
authority given by me and in accordance with the forms of law, and they
were requested to deal with all violators of the order as with
highwaymen. This put an end to the tyranny, which had been long and
universally submitted to.

The readiness of submission to power displayed by the American people in
the war was astonishing. Our British forefathers transmitted to us
respect for law and love of liberty founded upon it; but the influence
of universal suffrage seemed to have destroyed all sense of personal
manhood, all conception of individual rights. It may be said of the
South, that its people submitted to wrong because they were engaged in a
fierce struggle with superior force; but what of the North, whose people
were fighting for conquest? Thousands were opposed to the war, and
hundreds of thousands to its conduct and objects. The wonderful vote
received by McClellan in 1864 showed the vast numbers of the Northern
minority; yet, so far from modifying in the smallest degree the will and
conduct of the majority, this multitude of men dared not give utterance
to their real sentiments; and the same was true of the South at the time
of secession. Reformers who have tried to improve the morals of
humanity, discoverers who have striven to alleviate its physical
conditions, have suffered martyrdom at its