Mr. Lincoln
or his opinions. Judge Douglas, however, had taken the edge off my
hostility. He had said to me upon his return in triumph to Washington
after the famous Illinois campaign of 1868: "Lincoln is a good man; in
fact, a great man, and by far the ablest debater I have ever met,"
and now the newcomer began to verify this opinion both in his private
conversation and in his public attitude.

II

I had been an undoubting Union boy. Neither then nor afterward could
I be fairly classified as a Secessionist. Circumstance rather than
conviction or predilection threw me into the Confederate service, and,
being in, I went through with it.

The secession leaders I held in distrust; especially Yancey, Mason,
Slidell, Benjamin and Iverson, Jefferson Davis and Isham G. Harris were
not favorites of mine. Later along I came into familiar association with
most of them, and relations were established which may be described as
confidential and affectionate. Lamar and I were brought together oddly
enough in 1869 by Carl Schurz, and thenceforward we were the most
devoted friends. Harris and I fell together in 1862 in the field,
first with Forrest and later with Johnston and Hood, and we remained as
brothers to the end, when he closed a great career in the upper house
of Congress, and by Republican votes, though he was a Democrat, as
president of the Senate.

He continued in the Governorship of Tennessee through the war. He at no
time lost touch with the Tennessee troops, and though not always in the
field, never missed a forward movement. In the early spring of 1864,
just before the famous Johnston-Sherman campaign opened, General
Johnston asked him to go around among the boys and "stir 'em up a bit."
The Governor invited me to ride with him. Together we visited every
sector in the army. Threading the woods of North Georgia on this
round, if I heard it once I heard it fifty times shouted from a distant
clearing: "Here comes Gov-ner Harris, fellows; g'wine to be a fight."
His appearance at the front had always preceded and been long ago taken
as a signal for battle.

[Illustration: John Bell of Tennessee--In 1860 Presidential Candidate
"Union Party"--"Bell and Everett" Ticket.]

My being a Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia Press and having
lived since childhood at Willard's Hotel, where the Camerons also lived,
will furnish the key to my becoming an actual and active rebel. A few
days after the inauguration of