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"Oh, is that you, Meade?" Lee replied. "How did you happen to get all that gray in your beard?"

"I'm afraid you're the cause of most of it," Meade answered, in the way of the ancient amenities.

INCOLN is dead; slain by a half-crazed actor who was

eaten to the bone by a desire to be seen and heard.

This assassin lived in a fog of whisky and vanity. He

had his little moment when he shot the greatest of Presidents in the back and went limping across the stage of a theater, waving a dagger and bellowing, “Sic semper tyrannis!”

It seems strange to us now that at the time of Lincoln's assassination many people of high standing in the North felt a relief at his passing. Among them were nearly all the "Radical" Republican leaders. They were astonishingly outspoken in their opinions; their words made a crude discord in the nation's sorrow.

The Radicals of 1865 constituted the party of inveterate haters of the South. They were called "Radicals" because they insisted on employing radical, or drastic, punitive measures in dealing with the conquered states. Lincoln's plans for magnanimous treatment of the ex-Confederates had already evoked their determined opposition.

The last meeting of the Lincoln cabinet took place on April 14th, a few hours before the President was assassinated. Grant was present at this assembly of the cabinet as an invited guest. At that time the President said:

I think it providential that this great rebellion is crushed just as Congress has adjourned and there are none of the disturbing elements of that body to hinder and embarrass us. If we are wise and discreet we shall reani

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mate the states and get their governments in successful operation, with order prevailing and the Union re-established before Congress comes together in December. . . . I hope there will be no persecution, no bloody work after the war is over. No one need expect me to take any part in hanging or killing those men, even the worst of them. Frighten them out of the country, open the gates, let down the bars, scare them off. Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and union.

Lincoln was opposed to confiscation, to any sort of dragooning methods in the conquered states, and to universal negro suffrage-though he thought that negroes who could read and write, and those who had served in the army, ought to be allowed to vote. But the states themselves should regulate the suffrage; he contended that the question did not fall within the frame of national functions.

Such a course, on Lincoln's part, would have brought him in head-on collision with the Radicals in Congress, and they constituted a majority. George W. Julian-an entertaining writer who was then a member of the House-wrote that he attended a political caucus the day after Lincoln's death and, "while everybody was shocked at his murder, the feeling was nearly universal that the accession of Johnson would prove a Godsend to the country." He added that Mr. Lincoln's views on reconstruction were "as distasteful as possible to Radical Republicans." Charles Sumner wondered if his death "was not a judgment of the Lord."

The Radical politicians were not alone in their belief that God might have planned the murder. Consider Ralph Waldo Emerson, a philosopher rapt in the contemplation of ageless time, and therefore supposed to be remote from politics. He said at Concord on April 19th: "And what if it should turn out in the unfolding of the web that he [Lincoln] had reached the term; that the heroic deliverer could no longer serve us;

that the rebellion had touched its natural conclusions, and what remained to be done required new and uncommitted hands -a new spirit born out of the ashes of war."

Rev. Albert S. Hunt, a Methodist, thought, like Emerson, that the Lord may have been an accomplice of John Wilkes Booth. Mr. Hunt said: "Wherever Lincoln has erred it has been on the side of mercy and there are those who listen to me to-day who think that Providence has permitted this calamity to befall us that a sterner hand might rule in our national affairs."

General Benjamin F. Butler ranged himself on the side of Providence. He declared at a public meeting in New York the day after Lincoln's death:

Perhaps I may say reverently that this dispensation of God's good providence is sent to teach us that the spirit of the rebellion has not been broken by the surrender of its armies.

These opinions did not represent the feelings of the American people as a whole. The nation was filled with sorrow, and the regret at Lincoln's tragic death was deep and genuine.

Vice-President Andrew Johnson was looked upon by the Radicals as a "Godsend," and as "a man anointed and consecrated to do a great work." He ascended to the presidency amid the quiet exultation of politicians. Senators Wade, Chandler, and other dyed-in-the-wool Radicals-such as Thaddeus Stevens-called on Johnson, clasped his hand and patted him on the back. "Johnson, we have faith in you," Wade exclaimed. "By the gods, there will be no trouble now in running the government."

President Johnson smiled. "I hold that robbery is a crime," he declared. "Rape is a crime; treason is a crime and crime must be punished. Treason must be made infamous and traitors must be impoverished."

The Radical Senators went away with pleasant thoughts

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buzzing in their heads. Dreams of festivals, sacrifices and flowing blood. How astonished they would have been if they had known that, before three years had gone by, they would be arrayed against Johnson and moving heaven and earth to impeach him!

§ 2

Now the incomprehensible Sherman drives these momentous events out of the attention of the public as incontinently as one drives a flock of crows out of a corn-field.

Although Lee has surrendered, the war is not yet over . . . not wholly. General Joseph E. Johnston still has an army of Confederates in North Carolina, and there are smaller bodies elsewhere in the Southern states. The Confederacy has obviously gone to pieces, and it is clear to Johnston that there is nothing left to do but to talk over the terms of surrender, and he suggests to Sherman-by flag of truce-that talk is in order.

So Sherman and Johnston talked in a farmhouse while the two war-bitten armies sat down and waited.

The remarkable document that was created at this conference can hardly be called a protocol of surrender. It was, in fact, a sort of outline for the rehabilitation of the Southern states. It stepped ponderously on the toes of civil authority; it knocked down all precedents; it wandered afar in the spreading fields of national policy.

Here are some of its provisions. The Confederate armies -not only Johnston's command, but all armed forces wherever they may be are "to be disbanded and conducted to their several state capitals." They are to carry their arms with them and deposit them in the state arsenals.

The United States-according to Ambassador Sherman-is to recognize the existing state governments, provided the officials and legislators swear allegiance to the Constitution. The