n shed tears of joy, such as in King
Arthur's day rewarded some peerless deed of Galahad. In truth, it was a
manly thing to hide dishonorable plunder beneath the prostrate body of
the South. The Emperor Commodus, in full panoply, met in the arena
disabled and unarmed gladiators. The servile Romans applauded his easy
victories. Ancient Pistol covers with patches the ignoble scabs of a
corrupt life. The vulgar herd believes them to be wounds received in the
Gallic wars, as it once believed in the virtue and patriotism of Marat
and Barrere.

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Divine Moralist instructed his hearers
to forgive those who had injured them; but He knew too well the malice
of the human heart to expect them to forgive those whom they had
injured. The leaders of the radical masses of the North have inflicted
such countless and cruel wrongs on the Southern people as to forbid any
hope of disposition or ability to forgive their victims; and the land
will have no rest until the last of these persecutors has passed into
oblivion.

During all these years the conduct of the Southern people has been
admirable. Submitting to the inevitable, they have shown fortitude and
dignity, and rarely has one been found base enough to take wages of
shame from the oppressor and maligner of his brethren. Accepting the
harshest conditions and faithfully observing them, they have struggled
in all honorable ways, and for what? For their slaves? Regret for their
loss has neither been felt nor expressed. But they have striven for that
which brought our forefathers to Runnymede, the privilege of exercising
some influence in their own government. Yet we fought for nothing but
slavery, says the world, and the late Vice-President of the Confederacy,
Mr. Alexander Stephens, reechoes the cry, declaring that it was the
corner-stone of his Government.

CHAPTER XV.

RECONSTRUCTION UNDER JOHNSON.

The following considerations induced me to make a pilgrimage to
Washington, where, by accident of fortune, I had a larger acquaintance
with influential politicians than other Southern commanders. When the
Whig party dissolved, most of its Northern members joined the
Republicans, and now belonged to the reigning faction; and I had
consorted with many of them while my father was President and afterward.

Mention has been made of the imprisonment of Governors Clarke and Watts
for adopting my advice, and it was but right for me to make an effort to