CHAPTER XIV. An interesting interview with Gen. Lee after the surrender.-Remarks upon the Federal rule.-Indicted for "treason."-Proceedings stayed on the protest of Gen. Grant.-Explanation of Gen. Lee's course with reference to amnesty, etc.-Elected President of Washington College.-The true spirit of his advice of "submission."-His hopes for the repose and welfare of the South. WHEN Gen. Lee entered his house in Richmond, he showed a disposition to shut himself in its four walls, and to exclude all visitors, with the exception of a very few especial friends. There was no bitterness in this disposition. There are times in the lives of all men when retirement is decorous and necessary. In the career of the great man there are pauses where he rests with dignity, weighs past and future, collects the scattered thoughts, and courts solitude for the self-communion. An intimate friend of Gen. Lee, who secured an interview with him shortly after his return to Richmond, gives the following account of what transpired, and quotes the words of the fas commander as precisely as he can recollect: "I had seen him on the field of battle and in victory. I desired to hear how such a man would talk in adversity. When inquiring what guaranty he had that Gen. Grant's terms would be observed, he remarked that he had no assurance beyond his personal good faith, upon which he relied. He said that the civil authorities might nullify Gen. Grant's conditions and exact new ones, as they seemed then by degrees doing; but that it would be in spite of Grant's efforts to the contrary, remarking that he had written to him, calling his attention to the violation of the terms of surrender in the imposition of new conditions; and though he had received no answer, he had implicit faith in the honour of Gen. Grant, and in his determination to stand up to the spirit of his stipulations. I remarked that the paroled officers and men were in a great dilemma as to what to do; and in view of the condition of the country and the gloomy future, many were talking of emigrating to other countries. With a dignity and impressiveness I shall never forget, and with a sigh that came from the depths of a saddened heart, he replied that the condition of our people was, indeed, most deplorable. With every species of industry prostrated, the resources of the country exhausted, want and destitution threatening almost every one, it was a sad spectacle to contemplate, and the duty of every one was clear, but in one respect. 'What course I shall pursue,' said he, 'I have not decided upon, and each man must be the judge of his own action. We must all, however, resolve on one thing-not to abandon our country. Now, more than at any other time, Virginia, and every other State in the South, needs us. We must try and, with as little delay as possible, go to work to build up their prosperity. The young men, especially, must stay at home, bearing themselves in such a manner as to gain the esteem of every one, at the same time that they maintain their own self-respect.' In allusion to the oath which it was required to take before entering upon any pursuit, he remarked that he hoped that would be regarded as violating the terms of surrender, and be no longer required; but 'meanwhile," said he, 'what can we do? Hundreds of brave and gallant men have families starving. Without money, they cannot even work for their sustenance, unless they take the oath under Gen. Halleck's order. We cannot even claim protection from violence. If I walk upon the street, and a ruffian choses to seize my watch in the eye of day, and in a street full of witnesses, I can have no recourse unless I have taken the oath. In fact, the practical operation of the system, as now conducted, is to outlaw all of us who decline to take the oath. My only hope at present is that the power of Gen. Grant will prevail in requiring the strict observance of the terms of my surrender.'" The order of things at Washington soon called Gen. Lee to attend to his personal position. President Johnson's proclamation of amnesty was soon issued; and shortly thereafter the outrage was perpetrated of framing an indictment for treason against Gen. Lee in the Federal court at Norfolk. Proceedings, however, were withheld at the interposition of Gen. Grant, who very properly and manfully insisted that such a prosecution would compromise the engagements he had made in the surrender at Appomattox CourtHouse. In his farewell address to his army, Gen. Lee had expressed his last conviction of the justice of the cause for which he had fought, and had pleaded the satisfaction of a "consciousness of duty." It is certainly in apparent opposition to such sentiments that he should have sought amnesty for the past, and been willing to direct an application to Washington for pardon. There were some hasty strictures on this conduct; but, taken in the light of subsequent explanations, it is found to be the noblest part of Gen. Lee's life, consistent with all he had done, and characteristic of his unselfish spirit. There was no passionate chagrin of defeat when Gen. Lee surrendered his army. He had fought gallantly while by fighting he could hope to achieve any practicable result; but when the fate of war determined such hope, submission became a duty, humanity spared the useless effusion of blood, and honour demanded compliance with the arbitration of arms. But Gen. Lee proposed to go further than the sheer act of submission, and determined to show a lively acquiescence in the result, to manifest renewed allegiance to the Federal authority, and under its direction to qualify himself afresh for the active pursuits of life. It was a determination taken in no selfish spirit; he knew the immense weight of his name with his countrymen; he saw with pain and anxiety the disordered condition of the South; and he resolved to give an example of acquiescence in the new order—an example of ready resumption of the active duties of life calculated to restore the public spirit and reëstablish some of the prosperity of former times. His duty to the South was not yet ended, and he had no false pride to set above the true interests of his country. Even if his own desires pointed to retirement, and he had been content to reject all relations with the new authority, while he gave it the bare submission conditioned in his parole*, and rested on a reputation complete in history, there was a higher sense of duty which contemplated the peculiar necessities of his Southern countrymen, and prompted him by his personal example to assist in the restoration of a cordial and lasting peace. To secure such a peace it was * The following is a copy of the parole sigued by Gen. Lee and his staff-officers: "We, the undersigned, prisoners of war belonging to the Army of Northern Virginia, having been this day surrendered by Gen. R. E. Lee, commanding said army, to Lieut.-Gen. Grant, commanding the armies of the United States, do hereby give our solemn parole of honour that we will not hereafter serve in the armies of the Con not only necessary that the South should abandon its arms, but abandon also all enmity and negative position, and accept with cheerful alacrity the changes of the time. It was mainly from unselfish considerations such as these, and yet with much of that natural elasticity with which the true hero rises from misfortune and takes up the broken thread of his life, that Gen. Lee resolved to emerge from retirement and qualify himself for whatever active employment the broken fortunes of the South might now bestow upon him. It has been well remarked since the war that the truest Confederate, the man who now gives the best proofs of wisdom and affection for the land he loves, is not he who disputes and disparages the restored Federal authority, or resents the results of the war by private violence, or shows an unjust temper to the unoffending negro. The standard of Southern patriotism is now quite to the contrary. He comes best up to it, who gave his whole heart and soul to the cause when the war prevailed; who fought, and would willingly have died for it; but who, having surrendered, observes with a scrupulous and knightly fidelity all its terms and conditions, and all the obligations implied by the oaths he took; who keeps the peace, aims at the repose and welfare of his people, and, by example and influence, endeavours so to shape the Southern conduct, as to leave the North no excuse for the further exclusion of the South from her proper place in the Union. Such a model Southern man, such a true Confederate, was Gen. Lee. federate States, or in any military capacity whatever, against the United States of America, or render aid to the enemies of the latter, until properly exchanged in such manner as shall be mutually approved by the relative authorities. R. E. LEE, General. W. H. TAYLOR, Lieut.- Col. and A. A. G. Done at Appomattox Court-House, Va., this ninth (9) day of April, 1865." The parole was countersigned as follows: The above-named officers will not be disturbed by United States authorities as long as they observe their parole and the laws in force where they may reside. GEO. H. SHARPE, General, and Assistant Provost-Marshal. In August, 1865, he was offered the Presidency of Washington College, at Lexington. Here was the home of his great and be loved lieutenant, Stonewall Jackson; here an institution of learning had been planted under the gifts and auspices of George Washington; and in these pleasing and appropriate associations Gen. Lee undertook a task which was not unbecoming, to which his nature was not foreign, and to which his personal example gave assistance and dignity. Having qualified himself by taking the "amnesty oath," he was installed with interesting ceremonies on the 2d October, 1865. In his letter accepting the appointment, he wrote: "It is the duty of every citizen, in the present condition of the country, to do all in his power to aid in the restoration of peace and harmony, and in no way to oppose the policy of the State or General Government directed to that object; and it is particularly incumbent on those charged with the instruction of the young to set an example of submission to authority." |