if she is not a State in the Union
then she could not be admitted as an equal with the others if her
admission were trammeled with conditions that did not apply to all the
rest alike."

It had been his expectation, and in his opinion such had been the
expectation of the people generally that the State would assume its
place in the Union whenever the cause of the Confederacy should be
abandoned.

Such were the results of the State-Rights doctrines as announced by
the most intellectual of the Southern leaders in the war of the
Rebellion. In the opinion of Mr. Stephens a State could retire from
the Union either for purposes of peace or of war and return at will,
and all without loss of place or power.

At the close of his examination he made this declaration: "My
convictions on the original abstract question have undergone no change."

As a sequel to the doctrines of Mr. Stephens, I mention the history of
Andrew J. Lewis. When the Legislature of Massachusetts assembled in
January, 1851, Lewis took a seat in the House as the Democratic member
from the town of Sandisfield. He acted with the Coalitionists, and he
voted for Mr. Sumner as United States Senator. Lewis was returned for
the year 1852, and in General Pierce's administration he held an office
in the Boston Customs House.

Upon the fall of Port Hudson I received a letter from General Banks.
In that letter he mentioned the fact that Lewis was among the
prisoners, holding the office of captain in a South Carolina regiment.
His account of himself was this: "I was born in South Carolina. When
my State seceded I thought I must go too, and so I left Massachusetts
and returned to South Carolina."

GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT

General Grant's examination during the investigation embraced a variety
of topics and the report is a volume of not less than twenty thousand
words. His testimony is marked by the qualities for which he was known
both on the civil and military side of his career. These qualities
were clearness of thought, accuracy and readiness of memory, directness
of expression and the absence of remarks in the nature of exaggeration
or embellishment. The character of the man and the history of events
may gain something from an examination of his testimony upon three
important points to which it related: the opinion of President Lincoln
in regard to the reconstruction of the government; the opinion of
President Johnson upon the same subject, and his