the conversation had run on in this style for some time, General Lee called my attention to the object of our meeting, and said that he had asked for this interview for the purpose of getting from me the terms I proposed to give his army. I called to General Parker, secretary on my staff, for writing materials, and commenced writing out the following terms: APPOMATTOX, C. H., VA., April 9, 1865.

GENERAL R. E. LEE, Commanding C. S. A.

General: In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the eighth instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of West Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicatc. One copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such 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 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 officer 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 their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.

Very respectfully,

U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General.

When I put my pen to the paper I did not know the first word I should make use of in writing the terms. I only knew what was in my mind, and I wished to express it clearly, so that there could be no mistak ing it. As I wrote on the thought occurred to me that the officers had their own private horses and effects, which were important to them but of no value to us; also that it would be an unnecessary humiliation to call upon them to deliver their side arms. . I then said to him that I thought this would be about the last battle of the war-I sincerely hoped so, and I said further, I took it that most of the men in the ranks were small farmers. The whole country had been so raided by the two armies that it was doubtful whether they would be able to put in a crop to carry themselves and their families through the next winter without the aid of the horses they were then riding. The United States did not want them, and I would, therefore, instruct the officers I left behind to receive the paroles of his troops, to let every man of the Confederate army who claimed to own a horse or mule take the animal to his home. Lee remarked again that this would have a happy effect.

General Lee then sat down and wrote the following letter:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, April 9, 1865 GENERAL: I received your letter of this date containing the terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you. As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the eighth instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.

R. E. LEE, General.

Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant.” Thus was accomplished the final act by which the rebellion came to an end, and the Confederacy that had been created and vaunted in such high hopes and pride fell into ruins forever. The news was sent forth to a country already wild with happiness over the fall of Petersburg and Richmond, and the joy with which it was received can only be understood by those who lived under some portion of the darkness and gloom of the long civil war. The already colossal fame of General Grant was magnified and made secure, while his name was hailed with plaudits by a grateful and victorious people. The closing scenes of the Rebellion followed each other in rapid succession. On April 14 Johnston made his overtures for surrender to Sherman; on the twenty-first Cobb yielded Macon; on May 4 Taylor surrendered all the rebel forces east of the Mississippi. On the eleventh of the same month Jefferson Davis, flying in the disguise of a woman, was captured at Irwinsville, Georgia; on the twenty-sixth Kirby Smith surrendered his entire command west of the Mississippi, and on that day the last organized rebel force disappeared from the soil of the United States. The flag of the Union for the first time, floated over an unbroken land from which the stain of slavery had disappeared forever.

When Grant had made his final arrangements for the surrender of Lee, he declined to enter the rebel lines, or perform any act whatever that would place him in the position of a conqueror willing to humiliate a fallen foe, but quietly turned his attention to the many duties at hand, as unmindful of the greatness he had achieved as he was of the plaudits which filled the north from sea to sea. Leaving orders for the final disposition of affairs in the field, he proceeded to Washington, where he was received with such acclaims as are not often given men to hear, and from which he turned to the duties of his high and yet unfulfilled trust. The direction of the armies yet in the field still devolved upon him, but he was so far along by the fourteenth, that he decided to pay a hurried visit to his children, who were attending school in Burlington, New Jersey. In order to make this visit, he declined an invitation from President Lincoln. to attend the theatre on that fated evening, and perhaps escaped the death that came in the very midst of the Nation's rejoicing, to the heroic chief who had labored so long and faithfully for his country's cause. The news

of the tragedy and of the attack upon Mr. Seward was conveyed to Grant at the ferry in the eastern part of Philadelphia, where were dispatches imploring his immediate return. "It would be impossible," the general has said, in description of this dark hour, "for me to describe the feeling that overcame me at the news of these assassinations, more especially the assassination of the President. I knew his goodness of heart, his generosity, his yielding disposition, his desire to have everybody happy, and above all his desire to see all the people of the United States enter again upon the full privileges of citizenship with equality among all. I knew also the feeling that Mr. Johnson had expressed in speeches and conversation against the southern people, and I feared that his course towards them would be such as to repel and make them unwilling citizens, and if they became such they would remain so for a long while. I felt that reconstruction had been set back, no telling how far." Hastening to Washington he did all that lay in his power to secure quiet, where his presence alone was a guarantee to the people that there was one at hand upon whom they could depend, no matter what might occur.

The return of peace did not leave the lieutenant-general of the armies with empty hands. With internal enemies subdued, the menaces of the Franco-Austrian empire, which had been set up in Mexico, were next responded to by the placing of Sherman in the southwest, in readiness to act in case the necessity should arise. Grant devoted himself to the gradual reduction of the volunteer forces and the reorganization of the regular army. During such seasons of vacation as he allowed himself, he made various trips through the country, and was everywhere received with the greatest enthusiasm. Admiring friends in Philadelphia presented him with an elegant residence in that city, into which he moved, and upon his first return to his old home in Galena he was also presented with a fine residence there, as a token of good will from his old neighbors. The summer was passed in comparative quiet, and in November he made a visit to the south, on the request of President Johnson, and made a report upon the condition thereon in response to a request from the senate. He gave it as his opinion that the great body of thinking men in the lately. rebellious states "accepted the situation of affairs in good faith;" that they regarded the old questions that had divided the sections "as having been settled forever by the highest tribunal," and that they were "anxious to return to self-government within the Union as soon as possible, but that they wanted and required protection from the government during the process of reconstruction.

In the early part of 1866 congress, in obedience to the unanimous. desire of the people that some formal and fitting recognition of Grant's great services to his country should be proffered, created the grade of "general of the Army of the United States," to be filled by the President

"from among those officers in the military service most distinguished for courage, skill and ability," and providing that the act should cease to be in force whenever, after such appointment, the office should become vacant. The office was, of course, intended for Grant, and he was promptly appointed, Sherman becoming lieutenant-general. In May the general sent a letter to the secretary of war in regard to the proposed reorganization. of the army, which was immediately laid before congress. He urged the retention of a small military force in the states lately in rebellion, hoping that it would "not be necessary to enforce the laws, either state or National," but believing that it was needed "to give a feeling of security to the people." In the June following he made a visit to Buffalo, to prevent the invasion of Canada by the Fenians, but was called upon to do little, because of an early collapse of the raid.

When the reconstruction contest arose between President Johnson and congress in 1867, Grant played an important part, acting as a conservator of the interests of the country and furnishing, as it were, a neutral ground upon which the people could rest in the midst of passion, anger and partisan vehemence. Never a politician, he took only such part in the controversy as was in the direction of safety and peace; and it was felt in all quarters that so long as he was at the head of the army, there could be little danger to the country, no matter what excitement might be aroused, or what heat of political strife created. Both congress and the President turned to him for aid, but he gave it to neither, except as he could put in a plea for quiet, or advance a word in favor of peace and good will. As calm and immovable as in the old Vicksburg or Petersburg days, he kept his counsels and knew that so long as he stood in his present relation to the people and the army, the latter could never be used for unwise or partisan purposes. It was with an unusual feeling of security that the people noted the action of congress before its adjournment in March, in providing, in a section of the army appropriation bill, that all orders and instructions relating to military operations should be issued through the general of the army, and that he should, "not be removed, suspended or relieved from command or assigned to duty elsewhere than at the headquarters in Washington except at his own request, without the previous approval of the senate." President Johnson, in signing the bill, expressed his disapproval of this clause, declaring that it virtually deprived him of his "constitutional functions as commander-in-chief of the army." Under this law all orders to the district commanders came from Grant, a state of affairs under which Mr. Johnson naturally chafed. In June there appeared from the attorney-general an opinion upon reconstruction, which was sent by the President to the district commanders as their proper rule of action. Secretary Stanton had already differed vehemently from the attorney-general, and Grant took the same position, instructing the department com

manders that the opinion was not an order, and that they must enforce his own construction of the law until directed to the contrary. By a supplemental act passed at the adjourned session in July, the acts of the military commanders were made subject to the disapproval of the general of the army only, giving Grant full control of the execution of the reconstruction laws. As the President still had the power to remove the district commanders, he proceeded as soon as congress adjourned to its exercise, replacing Sheridan with Hancock at New Orleans, and making other transfers. When Johnson determined to suspend Mr. Stanton from the office of secretary of war, he asked Grant to accept the office ad interim, foreseeing that the country would raise less objection to his bold action when it saw upon whom the responsibility of that great office had been laid. In August Grant had addressed a letter to the President in which he protested against the proposed suspension, defending not only Mr. Stanton, but Sheridan's administration of affairs at New Orleans. But the advice was unheeded, and on August 12 the secretary was suspended and Grant designated as his successor for the time. He accepted with the frank admission that he did so only for the safety of the country, at the same time addressing a letter to Mr. Stanton in which he said: "I cannot let the opportunity pass without expressing to you my appreciation of the zeal, patriotism, firmness and ability with which you have discharged the duties of secretary of war." The general continued to exercise the powers of secretary until the fourteenth of January, 1868, when he informed the President that he had received official notice that the senate. had refused to sanction the suspension of Mr. Stanton, and that he construed that his functions as secretary ad interim ceased from that moment. Foiled in his purpose of using Grant, Mr. Johnson appointed General Thomas ad interim, and then instructed the general of the army to disregard any orders coming from Mr. Stanton as secretary, unless he had personal assurance from the President that such orders had emanated from him. A correspondence ensued upon Grant's declining to pursue any such course, which finally drew from the general these very plain words: "The course you would have it understood I agreed to pursue was in violation of law and without orders from you, while the course I did pursue, and which I never doubted you fully understood, was in accordance with law, and not in disobedience of any orders of my superiors. . . And now, Mr. President, where my honor as a soldier and integrity as a man have been so violently assailed, pardon me for saying that I can but regard this whole matter, from the beginning to the end, as an attempt to involve me in the resistance of law. for which you hesitated to assume the responsibility in orders, and thus to destroy my character before the country. I am, in a measure, confirmed in this conclusion by your recent orders directing me to disobey orders from the secretary of war, my superior and your subordinate,