Page:Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (Volume Two).djvu/84

Rh abandoned previous to July, 1867. Of an interview with President Johnson, General Grant made this statement:

“He insisted on it that the leaders must be punished, and wanted to know, when the time would come when those persons could be tried. I told him when they violated their parole.” In the opinion of General Grant the terms of the parole did not include Jefferson Davis, as he had been captured.

In the early part of the controversy President Johnson insisted that General Lee should be tried for treason. This purpose on the part of the President was resisted by General Grant. His position, in his own language, was this:

“I insisted on it that General Lee would not have surrendered his army and given up all their arms if he had supposed that after surrender, he was going to be tried for treason and hanged. I thought we got a very good equivalent for the lives of a few leaders in getting all their arms and getting themselves under control bound by their oaths to obey the laws. That was the consideration, which, I insisted upon, we had received.”

General Grant added:

“Afterwards he got to agreeing with me on that subject.”

On the question of political rights as involved in the surrender and in the parole, General Grant said:

“I never claimed that the parole gave those prisoners any political right whatever. I thought that that was a matter entirely with Congress, over which I had no control; that simply as general-in-chief commanding the army, I had a right to stipulate for the surrender on terms which protected their lives. The parole gave them protection and exemption from punishment for all offences not in violation of the rules of civilized warfare.”

The point of difference between General Grant and President Johnson in regard to the parole is very clear from General