Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 17.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

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Grant and reconstruction.

But in the contemplation of our own misfortunes, let us not forget the generous treatment received at the hands of that great soldier who gave to a brave but fallen foe, terms alike honorable to himself and to them. Ulysses S. Grant, the Union hero and President, was never greater in all his eventful career than when, with the destinies of the two armies in his hands, he reconstructed the Union by the terms given at Appomattox. A reconstruction which, if allowed to stand, would have quickly healed the wounds of war, and left no bloody chasm to be bridged by the devilish devices of pestilent politicians.

No fact of the entire civil war more strongly emphasizes the truth that there was no such thing as rebellion or treason involved in the issue, than the terms of surrender of the Confederate armies. Rebels are never granted paroles of honor, traitors are never trusted on their simple promise to obey the laws, and their leaders have never, in the world's history, been granted the distinction of quitting the field of defeat with their swords and badges of rank upon them. The Confederate soldier was worthy of such terms.

English historians regard it as the greatest glory of the soldiers of Cromwell, whose backs no enemy had ever seen in battle, that at the ‘Restoration’ they laid down their arms and retired into the mass of the people, thenceforward to be distinguished only by superior diligence in the pursuits of peace. So it is the peculiar glory of the soldiers of the Confederacy that their citizenship has never belied their splendid record in arms. Yielding in a contest in which they had lost all but honor, they have preserved that inviolate, and will so bequeath [106] it to future generations as the noblest legacy that heroism can leave to posterity. As they were true to their convictions in resorting to arms, true to their country in her sorest need, true to every pledge they have given, so they are true to-day, to themselves and to the future in perpetuating the memory of their heroes and in vindicating the principles for which they fought and their comrades fell.