ical leaders was entirely gone. They had entered on the conflict in the expectation that they should rid themselves of the mild restraints of the Union, and found that they had passed into the power of a ferocious despotism which, caring nothing for the fiction of state-rights, or the reali ties of individual rights, remorselessly conscripted their persons and confiscated their goods. A time comes in all civil wars when a desire for the tranquil possession of property outweighs all care for liberty. Men then prefer that government, regardless what its name or form may be, which intermeddles with them individually the least.

Changed men and changed ideas-these were the facts which the South presented. In settling the basis for a new departure, was it better to go back to the old, the ruined, or to coalesce with the vigorous, the new?

Interview between

ston.

It was a very beautiful morning when Sherman set out for his interview with the Confederate comSherman and John- mander. The air was full of the fragrance of fruit-trees just bursting into blossom. Durham's Station was reached about 10 o'clock. After riding half a dozen miles farther, Johnston was met. The two generals greeted each other very cordially. They repaired to a small farm-house on the brow of a hill a little distance back, and, asking permission of the owner, obtained the use of a room. An orderly brought pens, ink, and paper, and, closing the door, left them alone.

It was remarked that Wade Hampton, the South Carolina cavalry officer, lay stretched all the time upon a broken-down carpenter's bench by the side of the house. South Carolina had brought on the civil war. Was this all the influence she could excite in its closing scenes?

Johnston was ten or twelve years older than Sherman; his hair and beard were quite gray. In person he was short, stout, compact. He wore his gray uniform, which harmonized well with his appearance, buttoned to the neck.

After some unimportant preliminary conversation, Sherman said, “I have just received bad news; the worst news, general, in my judgment, that we have had for a long time. It is especially damaging to your cause." He then handed Johnston the dispatch reporting the President's assassination.

Johnston's exclamations showed how profoundly he was affected. The perspiration came in heavy drops on his high forehead as he was reading. Sherman remarked that this assassination would forever stand as a part of the rebellion, though he did not believe that Lee or any of the higher Confederate officers would sanction such a deed. Johnston declaimed against it bitterly. Sherman told him that he had purposely withheld the information from his own army for a few hours, as he feared that when the knowledge of it spread among his men, vengeance would so seize on them that dreadful scenes would ensue. ston then frankly acknowledged that the cause was lost, that for himself he asked nothing. His anxiety was about his men.

Johnston desires to include all the armies in the surren

der.

John

They then considered what would be the best and speediest method to put the men back in their respective homes. Then said Johnston, "Why can not we make this surrender universal?" He added, "I know I can get an order from Mr. Davis that all the Confederate armies shall disband." It was agreed that if this could be done quickly, in time to raise a crop for the year, it would avert starvation, with all its disorders and crimes, from the South.

Sherman repeatedly offered to accept Johnston's surren der, and that of all the troops subject to his orders, on the identical terms that had been given to Lee's army by Grant.

Johnston as often admitted that the terms were liberal, magnanimous, and better than he could ask for, only he pleaded that things were opportune for closing the war

by the surrender, on common terms, not inconsistent with those of Lee's surrender, of all the Confederate troops, embracing his own in North Carolina and Georgia, Taylor's in Louisiana, Bankhead's in Texas, and other forces scattered all over the South. He asked for some days' delay, perhaps for the purpose of finding Davis, and receiving his orders for all the Confederate armies to surrender. Sherman would consent to yield one day only; and, after three hours, the interview closed, with an appointment to meet at the same place the next day at noon.

At the second interview there was grouped round the A second interview little farm-house, with its grass-plot and blossoming cherry-trees, a brilliantly costumed crowd of officers in full uniform.

takes place.

A Confederate officer galloped down the road, and soon returned with a tall gentleman, John C. Breckinridge, who hurried into the house where the two generals were.

Johnston had not been able to confer with Davis in per. son, but had brought Breckinridge, the Confederate Secretary of War, whose orders to the Confederate armies, he said, would be obeyed as implicitly as if issued by Davis.

Before going to the interview Sherman had again conversed with his generals-Howard, Slocum, Blair, Logan, all of whom were anxious that Johnston's propositions should be acceded to. It was expected that he might ask for some facilities to enable Davis and his cabinet, with the more offensive politicians, to escape.

Johnston manifested great feeling at the downfall of his cause. He seemed oppressed by the clamors and demands. of his own troops and people. He appealed to Sherman to help him and help them in their terrible strait.

All the men of influence and note in the South had become compromised. Its best men were in the Confederate army; but-such had been the course of events- it was

plain that these very persons could be used to maintain peace and order among their own people.

Sherman told Breckinridge that he, and Davis, and the Southern politicians were exceedingly obnoxious, and that they should at once flee the country. Breckinridge replied that he should never be seen again, and intimated that Davis was already far on his way to Europe to escape his doom.

Sherman can alone

to the armies,

The territory in the immediate command of Johnston comprised the States of North Carolina, South treat with respect Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. But he was now offering to disband the armies in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Sherman, in reply to his inquiry what terms would be granted for this, expressed his inability to do any thing except with bellig erents; that he would make terms for the Confederate soldiers in accordance with President Lincoln's amnesty proclamation, viz., that all of the rank of colonel and under should have pardon on condition of taking the oath of allegiance to the United States. He stated his willingness to go farther, and agree that every officer and soldier who would return home, observe his parole, and obey the laws, should not be disturbed by United States authority. Johnston expressed his fears that the Southern States would be dismembered, that their separate to make terms for political existence would be destroyed, and representation in Congress denied them. Sherman listened respectfully to his statements, and, de claring that to deal with these things was beyond his power, simply offered his personal conviction that if the Southern people submitted in good faith to the Constitution and authority of the United States, they would regain their position.

but Johnston desires

In these conversations Breckinridge joined. Sherman had at first objected to his being present, reminding Johnston that the understanding between them had been that

negotiations should be confined to belligerents. "Have you any objection to his being present, not as Confederate Secretary of War, but as a major general?" To that Sherman could not object. Soon after a courier brought in a package of papers, over which the two Confederates conversed. One they handed to Sherman. It was a memorandum by the Confederate Postmaster General Reagan. Sherman read it and rejected it.

The subject is referred to the government at Washington.

Several hours had now been spent; the time was drawing near when the interview must close. Sherman concluded that he had better refer the whole subject discussed to Washington, and stated his determination. He sat down at the table and drew up a paper embodying the terms of the conversation. Each then signed it, and agreed to hold his own army in statu quo until an answer could be received from Washington.

Sherman returned to Raleigh, and without delay dispatched an aid-de-camp, Major Hitchcock, to Washington. That officer traveled with all speed, and on reaching his destination found every thing in confusion. Mr. Lincoln was dead; Mr. Johnson freshly installed; the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, so severely wounded that his recovery was regarded as impossible.

Men of all parties had been shocked at the atrocity perpetrated. In the first burst of indignation, there was a universal regret that such liberal terms had been granted even to Lee. In Washington there seemed to be no one capable of dealing calmly with the crisis.

A condition of things more inopportune for the recep tion of Johnston's peace propositions could hardly be im agined. If, a short time previously, when Grant transmitted Lee's application for an interview, he had been so sharply rebuked as to be compelled to write to the gov ernment almost in a tone of remonstrance, what might be expected now!