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SHERMAN'S AGREEMENT WITH JOHNSTON.

subject to the future action of the Congress of the United States, and in the mean time to be used solely to maintain peace and order within the borders of the States respectively.

"3d. The recognition, by the Executive of the United States, of the several State Governments, on their officers and Legislatures taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States; and, when conflicting State Governments have resulted from the war, the legitimacy of all shall be submitted to the Supreme Court of the Uni

ted States.

"4th. The reestablishment of all Federal courts in the several States, with powers as defined by the Constitution and the laws of Congress.

"5th. The people and inhabitants of all States to be guaranteed, so far as the Executive can, their political rights and franchises, as well as their rights of person and property, as defined by the Constitution of the United States and of the States respectively. "6th. The executive authority or Government of the United States not to disturb

any of the people, by reason of the late war; so long as they live in peace and quiet, and abstain from acts of armed hostility, and obey the laws in existence at the place of their residence.

"7th. In general terms, it is announced. that the war is to cease; a general amnesty, so far as the Executive of the United States can command, on condition of the disbandment of the Confederate armies, the distribution of arms and the resumption of peaceful pursuits by officers and men hitherto composing said armies. Not being fully empowered by our respective principals to fulfill these terms, we individually and officially pledge ourselves to promptly obtain authority, and will endeavor to carry out

the above programme.

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"W. T. SHERMAN, Maj.-General, Commanding Army of the U. S. in North Carolina "J. E. JOHNSTON, General, *Commanding Confederate States Army in North Carolina."

Gen. Sherman had already received" with horror the tidings of President Lincoln's assassination; but he had not adequately realized the effect of that atrocious deed on the temper, and spirit of the loyal millions and their rulers. This statement is made in explanation simply. He had seen Gen. Weitzel's permission to the Rebel Legislature of VirApril 17.

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VOL. II.-48.

753

ginia to reassemble at Richmond; he was not aware that President Lincoln's authorization of it had been rëcalled and the permission annulled. And he-neither cherishing nor affecting decided anti-Slavery convictions-unquestionably believed and felt that his arrangement with Johnston was one that ought to be, and probably would be, accepted at Washington; whither he immediately dispatched it by Maj. Hitchcock, of his staff.

He had very gravely miscalculated. There were many in the North who had deemed Grant quite too generous in fixing the terms of Lee's capitulation; but their hesitating utterances had been drowned in the

general burst of gladness and thanksgiving over the virtual collapse of the Rebellion. That other Rebel chiefs -now that their ablest commander and most formidable army had surrendered-should exact and secure better terms than were accorded to Lee, was not imagined, even prior to Lincoln's assassination: after that hideous crime, the bare suggestion of such concession seemed intolerable. Hence, when his agreement reached " Washington, it was-in strict accordance with the views and feelings of the great body of those who had heartily sustained the Government through the War-rejected by the new President and his Cabinet, with the hearty concurrence of Gen. Grant, for reasons unofficially, but by authority, set forth as follows:

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"3d. It undertook to reestablish Rebel | commanders to be ready to resume

State governments that had been over thrown at the sacrifice of many thousand loyal lives and immense treasure, and placed arms and munitions of war in the hands of Rebels at their respective capitals, which might be used, so soon as the armies of the United States were disbanded, and used to conquer and subdue loyal States.

"4th. By the restoration of Rebel authority in their respective States, they would be enabled to reestablish Slavery.

"5th. It might furnish a ground of responsibility on the part of the Federal Government to pay the Rebel debt, and certainly subjects loyal citizens of Rebel States to debts contracted by Rebels in the name of the State.

"6th. It puts in dispute the existence of loyal State governments, and the new State of West Virginia, which had been recognized by every department of the United States Government.

"7th. It practically abolished confiscation laws, and relieved Rebels of every degree, who had slaughtered our people, from all pains and penalties for their crimes.

"8th. It gave terms that had been deliberately, repeatedly, and solemnly, rejected by President Lincoln, and better terms than

the Rebels had ever asked in their most prosperous condition.

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the offensive at noon on the 26th.

Grant reached Raleigh on the 25th; when another invitation to a conference was received from Johnston by Sherman, who referred it to his superior. Grant declined to relieve Sherman from command, as he was authorized to do, and urged him to meet Johnston as requested; so the 26th was appointed for their third and final interview; at which Johnston's army was surrendered on the terms already accorded to Lee's. The agreement was signed by Sherman and Johnston, but indorsed, "Approved: U. S. Grant, Lieut.-General:" and thus passed out of existence the second army of the Confederacy.

The surrender to Gen. Canby of Gen. Taylor's Rebel forces in Alabama was effected at Citronelle, May "9th. It formed no basis of true and last-4, as the result of negotiations coming peace, but relieved Rebels from the ence of our victorious armies, and left them menced April 19. More words were in a condition to renew their efforts to over-used; but the terms were essentially throw the United States Government and the same as had been accorded to subdue the loyal States whenever their strength was recruited and any opportunity should offer."

Gen. Grant was sent post-haste to Raleigh to announce the rejection of the Sherman-Johnston programme, and to direct an immediate and general resumption of hostilities. On reaching Morehead City," he dispatched the decision of the Government to Sherman at Raleigh, who instantly transmitted its purport to Johnston, adding a notification that the truce would close 48 hours after the receipt hereof at the Rebel lines, with a demand that Johnston's army be forthwith surrendered on the identical terms accorded by Grant to Lee. He at once directed his subordinate

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Lee and Johnston, with this addition:

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Transportation and subsistence to be

furnished at public cost for the officers and men, after surrender, to the nearest practicable point to their homes."

Com. Farrand, at the same time and on the same terms, surrendered to Rear-Admiral Thatcher the twelve Rebel gunboats blockaded in the Tombigbee river, with 20 officers and 110 others.

Mr. Jefferson Davis, with his staff and civilian associates, having journeyed by rail from Richmond to Danville," he there halted, and set up his Government; issuing " thence a stirring proclamation, designed to inApril 3. April 5.

SOUTHWARD FLIGHT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS.

"We have now entered upon a new phase of the struggle. Relieved from the necessity of guarding particular points, our army will be free to move from point to point to strike the enemy in detail far from his base. Let us but will it, and we are free.

"Animated by that confidence in your spirit and fortitude which never yet failed me, I announce to you, fellow-countrymen, that it is my purpose to maintain your cause with my whole heart and soul; that I will never consent to abandon to the enemy one foot of the soil of any one of the States of the Confederacy. That Virginia-noble State whose ancient renown has been eclipsed by her still more glorious recent history-whose bosom has been bared to receive the main shock of this war-whose sons and daughters have exhibited heroism so sublime as to render her illustrious in all time to come-that Virginia, with the help of the people and by the blessing of Providence, shall be held and defended, and no peace ever be made with the infamous invaders of her territory.

755

spirit the Confederates to a deter- | citizens saw fit to throw open their mined prosecution of the contest; houses when the imminence of saying: Johnston's surrender compelled another flitting "this time in wagons and on horseback: the railroad having been disabled by Stoneman—via Salisbury to Charlotte, N. C., where its foundering ark again rested for a few days; and where, unlike their fare at Greensboro', the falling President and his Cabinet were received with consideration and hospitality— until, alarmed by the reported approach of Stoneman's cavalry, it resumed its flittings southward, via Yorkville and Abbeville, S. C.; being now compelled to take entirely to horse, and escorted by 2,000 cavalry, who, as well as the Presidential cortege, gradually dwindled by the way: thus reaching" Washington, Ga., where the rapidly dissolving view of a Government was dispensed withmost of the Cabinet itself having by this time abandoned the sinking craft, leaving Davis attended by Reagan (late Postmaster-General, now acting Secretary of the Treasury) and his military staff; and the remaining fugitives, with a small but select escort of mounted men, took their way southward: perhaps intent on joining Dick Taylor or Kirby Smith, should either or both be still belligerent, or, at the worst, hoping to make their way to some petty port on the coast, and thence out of the country. Mr. Davis had even separated, for greater safety, from his family; but, on an alarm of peril to which they were said to be exposed from a conspiracy to rob them of the gold they were supposed to be carrying off, had rejoined them over night; when his

"If, by the stress of numbers, we should ever be compelled to a temporary withdrawal from her limits, or those of any other Border State, again and again will we return, until the baffled and exhausted enemy shall abandon in despair his endless and impossible task of making slaves of a people resolved to be free.

Let us, then, not despond, my countrymen; but, relying on God, meet the foe with fresh defiance and with unconquered and unconquerable hearts.

"JEFFERSON DAVIS."

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He waited there several days, in anxious expectation of the approach of Lee, or at least of tidings that he was still confronting and baffling the Union forces; until astounded" by advices of his surrender at Appomattox. The Confederacy thereupon took to wheels again-there being no acceptable alternative-and retreated by rail to Greensboro', N. C., where another considerable halt was made -the days and nights spent mainly in the cars by President, Cabinet, and followers; since very few of the sylvan encampment near Irwinsville,

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