and said with earnest emphasis, 'I believe that in this measure [meaning his proclamation] my fondest hope will be realized.' Over twenty years had passed between the two conversations.”

The end of the great conflict was at hand. The Southern army after a long and heroic defence against overwhelming numbers could resist no longer. Its great leader, General Robert E. Lee, whose career shed new lustre upon the name of Virginia, and recalled memories of the glorious Revolutionary struggle, who had long been a conspicuous figure in the sight of the world, and who, though of our times, takes rank with the great captains of antiquity, felt that it was due to his people and to the remnant of the gallant army that still surrounded him, to surrender the cause.

On Sunday, the 2d of April, 1865, he sent a telegram to President Davis that he was about to withdraw from Petersburg. He had some time previously in an interview with Mr. Davis stated that his extended line of defence could not be much longer maintained. The President was in Saint Paul's Church in Richmond when General Lee's telegram was delivered to him; he rose and quietly walked out of the church. He immediately proceeded to make preparation for the evacuation of Richmond. General Lee withdrew his army from Petersburg and retired before General Grant's massive column, until he reached Appomattox Court House. On the evening of the 8th General Lee decided, after conference with his corps commanders, that he would make a stand if the state of his army was in a condition to do so. The reports

brought in to him satisfied him that the time had come to surrender his army to General Grant. A communication, under a white flag, was made by General Lee to General Grant, inviting him to come to Appomattox where terms of surrender could be agreed upon. General Grant came promptly, and entering a room which had been prepared

THE SURrender AT APPOMATTOX.

341 for their conference, the two Generals took their seats at a small table. General Lee opened the interview thus:

"General, I deem it due to proper candor and frankness to say from the beginning of this interview that I am not willing even to discuss any terms of surrender inconsistent with the honor of my army which I am determined to maintain to the last."

General Grant, appreciating the character of General Lee, replied:

"I have no idea of proposing dishonorable terms, General, and I would be glad if you would state what you consider honorable terms."

After a brief statement of the terms by General Lee upon which he was willing to surrender, General Grant expressed himself as satisfied with them, and they were formally reduced to writing. The terms agreed upon were honorable to both parties, and illustrate the great qualities of the two commanders who arranged them.

General Lee was firm; General Grant was magnanimous. They were representative men, and as they sat face to face they constituted a picture that will be historic; they comprehended each other.

General Grant addressed his communication, submitting the terms of settlement, to "General R. E. Lee, Commanding Confederate States Army"; and signed it “Very respectfully, U. S. Grant, Lt.-General." General Lee sent a prompt reply accepting the proposed terms.

On April 18, 1865, near Durham Station in North Carolina a memorandum of agreement between General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate army, and Major-General W. T. Sherman, commanding the army of the United States in North Carolina, was made,-liberal in its terms, and honorable to its great commanders.

A patriotic spirit prompted these two important settle

ments; they were characterized by an American tone, and they were worthy of the great commanders who had confronted each other in a gigantic civil war.

The Confederate States government had fallen. The principles involved in the conflict were, on the one side the preservation of the Union; and, on the other, the vindication of the right of the people of co-ordinate States to a full participation in the benefits of a common government. Questions affecting the interests, and exciting the passions of the people engaged on either side affected the conflict, but the great controlling principle asserted by the Southern States which had formed an independent government was, that a State had the right under the Constitution to withdraw from the Union when, in the course of events, its people solemnly declared in convention that its interests demanded a separation. A strong anti-slavery sentiment prevailed at the North. In the South the people felt that the subordination of the negro race to the white race was absolutely essential for the maintenance of their system of civilization,—a system which existed previous to the formation of the government, and recognized in the Constitution, which provided for a basis of representation of that servile class.

We have emerged from a great civil war; our political system is still a federal government composed of co-ordinate States; the Union is to stand, and the Constitution is supreme. One flag known and honored by all nations under the whole heavens floats as our national ensign, from the Atlantic gilded with the morning beams of the sun, to the Pacific where he sheds his evening splendors upon that broad ocean.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Assassination of President Lincoln-A National Calamity-The North and the South both Mourned his Death, and Paid Tributes to his Memory— His Character-His Place in History-Accession of Andrew Johnson to the Presidency-Reconstruction Measures-Mr. Seward-Chief-Justice Chase.

THE war was over. Peace returned to our land.

President Lincoln made a brief visit to Richmond. The torch of the incendiary had done its work, and a great part of the beautiful city was in ruins.

Returning to Washington, he received the gratulations of the nation. In the supreme hour of his triumph he fell by the hand of an assassin. He attended, by invitation, a performance in Ford's Theatre on the evening of April 14th, accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln and two guests. He entered the crowded theatre at 9.20; the audience rose and cheered enthusiastically as the presidential party passed to the "state box" reserved for them.

At 10 o'clock John Wilkes Booth swiftly entered the box, and drawing a pistol, fired. The shot was fatal-the ball entered just behind Mr. Lincoln's left ear, and immediately produced complete unconsciousness. Springing upon the stage, he rushed across it, and escaped through a back door. The President was in his chair unconscious when Miss Laura Keene and others entered the box with water and stimulants. Medical aid soon came; it was too late. The dying President was immediately carried

to a house opposite the theatre, where at 7.22 the next morning, the 15th of April, he expired.

The event was tragic beyond description. It is stated that Mr. Lincoln had often said that he had a presentiment that he would rise to a high position and be suddenly cut off; but on this evening no cloud seemed to rest upon him. The heart of the nation was moved. The President, who only a few weeks before, on March 4th, standing in front of the Capitol, and for the second time inaugurated for his great office, uttering words of kindness which will be ever memorable: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and orphans; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and all nations," had been suddenly stricken down by the hand of an assassin.

It was a national calamity. The North and the South mourned his death; both paid tributes to his memory. Assassination never advances civilization; it sometimes inflicts an irreparable injury upon public liberty. In the case of President Lincoln the country lost by his death the only man who could restore to it tranquillity. Many of the leaders of his party who surrounded him were inflamed with resentment against the South; they displayed neither statesmanship nor magnanimity. He alone could control his party; he had their confidence, and they respected his views of public affairs. If he had lived the South would have found in him a statesman of broad views and a friendly spirit in the adjustment of the great questions which affected her relations to the government at the close of the war. No occurrence in our time had so affected the nation as the death of the President.