THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. VOL. 143.-JUNE TO DECEMBER, 1886. JULY NUMBER. Mohammedan Marriages, by Minister S. S. Cox; Letters to Prominent Persons, by Arthur Richmond-No. 3: to the Rev. Henry M. Dexter; Chinese Immigration, by Prof. E. W. Gilliam; Should the Government Own the Telegraph? by William A. Phillips; Defense of Charleston, S. C., by Gen. G. T. Beauregard; The People's Share in Wealth, by Edward Gordon Clark; Words, by Gail Hamilton. IMPORTANT HISTORICAL LETTERS-Introduction, by George S. Boutwell; Letters to Gens. Ord and Augur, by Gen. W. Sherman; Letters to Gen. Sherman, by Gen. U. S. Grant; Letter to President Johnson, by Gen. W. T. Sherman: Letter to Gen. Grant, by Gen. W. T. Sherman; Jobs in Cities, by Dr. Ferdinand Seeger. NOTES AND COMMENTS-A Mistake of Beauregard, by Rear-Admiral W. R. Taylor; Gold and Silver Money, by Cassius M. Clay; Anarchism Defined by an Anarchist, by C. L. James; Mr. Eaton's Novel Law, by S. W. McCall; Postal Telegraph in England, by W. H. Preece. AUGUST NUMBER. Bismarck, Man and Minister, by John A. Kasson; Why am I a Catholic? by Rev. S. M. Brandi, SEPTEMBER NUMBER. Payment of the National Debt, by N. P. Hill; Reconstruction Days, by S. H. M. Byers, with unpublished letters by Halleck and Chase; Socialism in England, by H. M. Hyndman; Letters to Prominent Persons, by Arthur Richmond-No 4 To Samuel J. Randall, M. C.; A Study in Civilization, by Albion W. Tourgée; Mormon Blood Atonement, by Kate Field; Labor in Pennsylvania, by Henry George; Why am I a Methodist? by Rev. George R. Crooks, D. D.; Female Suffrage, [by Ouida. NOTES AND COMMENTS-President Lincoln's Letter to Gov. Hahn, by the editor, with a fac-simile of Lincoln's Letter; The Newspaper Habit, by Augustus A. Levey; Origin and Purpose of the Veto Power, by W. A. Phillips; Indifference: A Posthumous Fragment, by George Sand; Two Unpublished Letters of Abraham Lincoln. OCTOBER NUMBER. Arbitration, by Prof. Richard T. Ely; An American Queen, by Gail Hamilton; Silver and the Savings Banks, by Willis S. Paine, L.L. D.; Cremation and Christianity, by Allen Gilman Bigelow; Labor in Pennsylvania, by Henry George; Woman Suffrage, by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore; Prohibition, by Petroleum V. Nasby; Mr. Blaine on the Tariff, by Prof. W. G. Sumner. NOTES AND COMMENTS-Earthquake Probabilities, by Prof. Richard A. Proctor; Send Back the Obelisk, by Col. C. Challié Long; Mistakes of Rear-Admiral Taylor, by Gen. Beauregard; Progress of Colorado, by C. S. Thomas. How Shall the Negro be Educated? by Edmund Kirke; Robert Burns as Poet and Person, by Walt Whitman: The Indian Policy of the United States, by Jefferson Davis; A Slave-Trader's Letter-Book, No Name Series; The Cities of Italy, by Ouida; Six Unpublished Letters of George Washington; Why am I a Churchman? by the Bishop of Kentucky; Some Unpublished War Letters of Generals Grant, Halleck, Burnside, Bragg and Admiral Porter, addressed to Gen. W. T. Sherman; Railway Legislation, by Frank S. Bond. NOTES AND COMMENTS: The South in the Union Army, by Felix A. Reeve; Industrial Arbitration, Thomas Commerford Martin; Rome or Reason? Helen H. Gardener; Earthquake Studies, by Felix L. Oswald. DECEMBER NUMBER. My Campaign in East Kentucky, by James A. Garfield (A_Posthumous Military Autobiography); Labor and Condensed Labor, by Pierre Lorillard Heathendom and Christendom, by Gail Hamilton; Why am I a Churchman? by the Bi. hop of Kentucky: Educational Methods: A Posthumous Essay, by George Sand; Lessons of the New York City Elections, by a Symposium: 1. Republican View, by "A Republican ;" 2. Labor Party View, by Rev. Edward McGlynn, D. D.; 3. Democratic View, by S. S. Cox: Jefferson Davis and the Mississippi Campaign, by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston; Salmon P. Chase, by Donn Piat; Letters to Prominent Persons, by Arthur Richmond-No. 5: To the President Recent Reforms in Balloting, by Allen Thorndike Rice. NOTES AND COMMENTS-Mormon Blood Atonement, by Joseph A. West; The last Confederate Killed, by Gen. J. A. Wilson. Price, per volume, unbound, $2.50; bound in cloth, $3.50; in half morocco, $4.00. BINDING-CASES, FOR HOME BINDING, SUITABLE FOR ANY VOLUME, 60 CENTS. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price. Address THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, 3 East Fourteenth Street, New York. REMITTANCES.-Subscribers should remit by Express Money Order, Draft, Post-Office Order, or Registered 1.etter. Copyright, 1887, by ALLEN THORNDIKE RICE. Entered at the Post-Office at New York, and admitted for transmission through the mails as second-class matter. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CCCLXVI. MAY, 1887. GRANT, THOMAS, LEE. IN" Macmillan's Magazine" for March, 1887, published in London and New York, appears a most interesting article of ten pages from the pen of General Lord Wolseley, in which, reviewing the recent Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, his Military and Personal History, by Gen. A. L. Long and Gen. Marcus J. Wright, General Wolseley describes his personal acquaintance in 1862 with that famous man, the great impression made by his graceful manner and profound intelligence, and concludes with the following paragraph: "When all the angry feelings roused by secession are buried with those which existed when the Declaration of Independence was written, when Americans can review the history of their last great rebellion with calm impartiality, I believe all will admit that General Lee towered far above all men on either side in that struggle. I believe he will be regarded, not only as the most prominent figure of the Confederacy, but as the great American of the nineteenth century, whose statue is well worthy to stand on an equal pedestal with that of Washington, and whose memory is equally worthy to be enshrined in the hearts of all his countrymen." As I happen to be one of the very few survivors of the great Civil War in America who had a personal and professional ac29 VOL. CXLIV.-NO. 366. quaintance with the chief actors in that grand drama, I am compelled to join issue with General Wolseley in his conclusion, while willing to admit nearly all his premises. Though he is much my junior in years, I entertain for him the highest respect and admiration; he has deservedly gained fame by deeds here in America, in South Africa, Egypt, and in Great Britain. His estimate of the men whom he has met in life will command large attention, but I trust his judgment in this case will not be accepted by the military world as conclusive and final. In all wars, in all controversies, there are two sides, and the old Roman maxim applies, "Audi alterem partem." England has so long been accustomed to shape and mould the public opinion of our race, that her authors, critics, and officials seem to forget that times are changing, have changed. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland contained in 1880 only thirty-six millions of inhabitants, with an area of 121,571 square miles; whereas the United States of America had fifty millions of people, with 3,602,990 square miles of territory. Great Britain is crowded, whereas in our vast interior there still remains land enough for three hundred millions of inhabitants. All of these are taught the English language, believe in the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, Walter Scott, Dickens, Thackeray and Tennyson; all read English magazines, periodicals, and newspapers, and have a way of thinking for themselves. They have had twenty-one years for thought and reflection since the smoke and confusion of battle obscured the horizon, and have settled down. to the conclusion that Abraham Lincoln was the great civil hero of the war, and that Ulysses S. Grant was the chief military hero. We all admit that General Robert E. Lee was, in the highest acceptation of the term, "a gentleman and a soldier." He did not graduate at the head of his class at West Point, as stated by General Wolseley, for "Cullum's Register" shows that Charles Mason, of New York, afterwards of Iowa, was No. 1 of the date of 1829; that Robert E. Lee, of Virginia, was No. 2, and that Joseph E. Johnston, also of Virginia, was No. 13 in that class of forty-six members. Lee was very handsome in person, gentle and dignified in manner, cool and self-possessed in the midst of confusion and battle, not seeking strife, but equal to it when it came, and the very type of manhood which would impress itself on the young enthusiast, General Wolseley. That special phase of his character which General Wolseley thinks a "weakness," his invariable submission to the President of the Southern Confederacy, is probably better understood on this than the other side of the Atlantic, where from childhood to manhood is impressed on us the old fundamental doctrine that the pen is mightier than the sword, and that the military must be subordinate to the civil authority. A coup d'état in this country would excite a general laugh, and I confess to a feeling of pride that at no period of our history has the idea of a military dictator found permanent lodg ment in the brain of an American soldier or statesman. Mr. Lincoln, in assigning General Hooker to the command of the Army of the Potomac, wrote him, under date of January 26th, 1863, "I have heard in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship." General Lee was a typical American, and knew that the Southern States could only succeed in forming an independent nation by united action under a President armed with both military and civil functions, and he was unquestionably right in subordinating his conduct to the head of the government which he had chosen and undertaken to support and defend. Before entering upon the analysis of his military character and deeds, permit me to digress somewhat. General Wolseley constantly refers to the Revolutionary War of 1776 as similar to that of our Rebellion of 1861. They were as different as two things could possibly be. In the first our fathers most humbly and persistently petitioned the Parliament of Great Britain for the simple and common rights conceded to every Englishman; they were denied and repelled with a harshness and contumely which no British community of to-day would tolerate. They rebelled because they were denied the common inheritance of their race; and when they had achieved Independence they first undertook for themselves a government which was a "Confederacy of States," and which proved impracticable. Then, after years of hard experience, in 1789 they adopted the present Constitution of the United States, which, in its preamble, sets forth clearly: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, do ordain this Constitution, etc." This was not a contract between "Sovereign States," but a decree of the aggregate people of the whole United States. Now, on the other hand, there was a fair election in November, 1860, for a President under that Constitution. The Southern people freely participated in that election. After they were fairly beaten, and Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, was duly elected, some of the Southern leaders, delving back into the old abstractions of 1776-1789, revived this doctrine of State Allegiance: that a man happening to be born in a State, (an accident he could not control) his allegiance became due thereby to that State, and not to the aggregation of States, the Union. I have too high an opinion of General Robert E. Lee to believe that he could have been humbugged by such shallow doctrine. No many of us believe that Lee, in 1861, saw and felt the approaching horrors and tortures of a civil war, resigned his commission in the army, hoped to hide away; first declined service in the so-called Confederacy, and accepted temporary service to defend Virginia, his native State; but, being possessed of large qualities, he was importuned, dragooned and forced to "go in," to drift over the Niagara which was inevitable, and which he must have foreseen. His letter of April 20th, 1861, addressed to Lieutenant-General Scott, is in that direction: "Since my interview with you on the 18th instant, I have felt that I ought no longer to retain my commission in the army. I therefore tender my resignation, which I request you will recommend for acceptance. It would have been presented at once but for the struggle it has cost me to separate myself from the service to which I have devoted all the best years of my life, and all the ability I possessed. During the whole of that time-more than a quarter of a century -I have experienced nothing but kindness from my superiors, and the most cordial friendship from my comrades. To no one, General, have I been so much indebted as to yourself for uniform kindness and consideration, and it has always been my ardent desire to merit your approbation. I shall carry to the grave the most grateful recollections of your kind consideration, and your name and fame will always be dear to me. Save in defense of my State, I never desire to draw my sword. most earnest wishes for the continuance of your happiness and prosperity." His resignation was not accepted until April 25th, 1861 (Townsend, p. 31). Be pleased to accept my |