State, and crushed the
hopes of so many Northern generals. Chief and soldiers have
now failed for the first and last time. They were victorious
until victory was no longer to be achieved by human valour,
and then they fell with honour[1286]."

The people of the North, also, were complimented for their slowly
developed but ultimate ability in war, and especially for "a patience, a
fortitude, and an energy which entitle them to rank among the very first
of military nations[1287]." No one remained to uphold the Southern
banner in Europe save the Confederate agents, and, privately, even they
were hopeless. Mason, it is true, asserted, as if bolstering his own
courage, that "this morning's" news did not mean an overwhelming
disaster; it could not be wholly true; even if true it must mean peace
on the basis of separation; finally, "5th. _I know_ that no terms of
peace would be accepted that did not embrace independence." But at the
conclusion of this letter he acknowledged:

"I confess that all this speculation rests on, what I assume,
that Lee surrendered only in expectation of a peace derived
from his interview with Grant--and that no terms of peace
would be entertained that did not rest on
_independence_[1288]."

But Slidell saw more clearly. He replied:

"I cannot share your hopefulness. We have seen the beginning
of the end. I, for my part, am prepared for the worst. With
Lee's surrender there will soon be an end to our regular
organized armies and I can see no possible good to result
from a protracted guerilla warfare. We are crushed and must
submit to the yoke. Our children must bide their time for
vengeance, but you and I will never revisit our homes under
our glorious flag. For myself I shall never put my foot on a
soil from which flaunts the hated Stars and Stripes.... I am
sick, sick at heart[1289]."

The news of Lee's surrender arrived at the same moment with that of a
serious injury to Seward in a runaway accident, and in its editorial on
the end of the war the _Times_ took occasion to pay a tribute to the
statesman whom it had been accustomed to berate.

"There seems to be on the part of President Lincoln a desire
to conciliate vanquished fellow-citizens. Under the guidance
of Mr. Seward, who has creditably distinguished himself in
the Cabinet by his moderate counsels, and whose life will,