Led by the President, in silence and tears, they fell on
their knees in a prayer of solemn thanks to Almighty God.
General Grant won the gratitude of the South by his generous treatment
of Lee and his ragged men. He had received instructions from the loving
heart in the White House.
Long before the surrender in April, 1865, the end was sure. The
President knowing this, proposed to his Cabinet to give the South four
hundred millions of dollars, the cost of the war for a hundred days, in
payment for their slaves, if they would lay down their arms at once. His
ministers unanimously voted against his offer and he sadly withdrew it.
Among all his councillors there was not one whose soul was big enough to
understand the far-seeing wisdom of his generous plan. He would heal at
once one of the Nation's ugliest wounds by soothing the bitterness of
defeat. He knew that despair would send the older men of the South to
their graves.
Edmund Ruffin, who had fired the first shot against Sumter and returned
to his Virginia farm when his State seceded, was a type of these ruined,
desperate men. On the day that Lee surrendered he placed the muzzle of
his gun in his mouth, pulled the trigger with his foot, and blew his own
head into fragments.
When Senator Winter demanded proscription and vengeance against the
leaders of the Confederacy, the President shook his head:
"No--let down the bars--let them all go--scare them off!"
He threw up his big hands in a vivid gesture as if he were shooing a
flock of troublesome sheep out of his garden.
Pages:
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566