ple they could have peace at any moment by
simply laying down their arms and submitting to National authority. Now
that they have taken me at my word, shall I betray them by an ignoble
revenge? Vengeance cannot heal and purify: it can only brutalize and
destroy."

Stoneman shuffled to his feet with impatience.

"I see it is useless to argue with you. I'll not waste my breath. I give
you an ultimatum. The South is conquered soil. I mean to blot it from the
map. Rather than admit one traitor to the halls of Congress from these
so-called States I will shatter the Union itself into ten thousand
fragments! I will not sit beside men whose clothes smell of the blood of
my kindred. At least dry them before they come in. Four years ago, with
yells and curses, these traitors left the halls of Congress to join the
armies of Catiline. Shall they return to rule?"

"I repeat," said the President, "you cannot indict a people. Treason is an
easy word to speak. A traitor is one who fights and loses. Washington was
a traitor to George III. Treason won, and Washington is immortal. Treason
is a word that victors hurl at those who fail."

"Listen to me," Stoneman interrupted with vehemence. "The life of our
party demands that the negro be given the ballot and made the ruler of the
South. This can be done only by the extermination of its landed
aristocracy, that their mothers shall not breed another race of traitors.
This is not vengeance. It is justice, it is patriotism, it is the highest
wisdom and humanity. Nature, at times, blots out whole communities and
races that obstruct progress. Such is the political genius of these people
that, unless you make the negro the ruler, the South will yet reconquer
the North and undo the work of this war."

"If the South in poverty and ruin can do this, we deserve to be ruled! The
North is rich and powerful--the South a land of wreck and tomb. I greet
with wonder, shame, and scorn such ignoble fear! The Nation cannot be
healed until the South is healed. Let the gulf be closed in which we bury
slavery, sectional animosity, and all strifes and hatreds. The good sense
of our people will never consent to your scheme of insane vengeance."

"The people have no sense. A new fool is born every second. They are ruled
by impulse and passion."

"I have trusted them before, and they have not failed me. The day I left
for Gettysburg to dedicate the battlefield, you were so sure of my defeat
in the approaching