This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[559]
so long as they should respect that parole and be obedient to law.1 Grant even went so far, in his generosity, at Lee's suggestion, that he gave instructions to the proper officers to allow such cavalrymen of Lee's army as owned their horses, to retain them, as they would, he said, need them for tilling their farms.
Lee professed to be touched by this leniency and magnanimity of his conqueror, who represented his deeply injured country; yet, on the following day, in disregard of that generosity, and with a feeling of perfect security under the protection of a promise made in the name of his Government, which had ever been kind and just to himself and his kindred, he issued a farewell address to his army, which no right-minded and right-hearted man would care to imitate under like circumstances.
Under the disguise of very guarded language, he told his soldiers, in effect, that in taking up arms :against their country, and trying to destroy the Republic, in whose government they had always shared, they had done a patriotic act, and for which they would take with them “the satisfaction that proceeds from consciousness of duty faithfully performed;” therefore, he invoked God's blessing upon their acts.
He gave them to understand that they had no “country” --no Government to which their allegiance was due, excepting the territory and rule, over which, for four years, the Conspirators had held sway; and he spoke of his “unceasing admiration” of their “constancy and devotion” to that “country,” which had “endeared them to their countrymen.”
They were instructed, in that address, to consider themselves unfortunate patriots who had “been compelled to yield to the overwhelming numbers and resources” of a tyrannical and unjust Government.
His words were treasured, in memory and feeling.
That farewell address was afterward beautifully lithographed, in Baltimore, with a portrait of Lee at its head, surrounded by Confederate flags, and a fac-simile of his signature at its foot; and it became a cherished document and ornament in the houses of the enemies of the Republic.
1 The following is the text of the Capitulation:--
Appomattox Court-House, Va., April 9, 1865.General — In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate; one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained bysuch other officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged; and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property, to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they reside.
Signatures of Grant and Lee.
Scanned printed text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.