Page:Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (Volume Two).djvu/85

Rh Grant’s answers to questions by Mr. Thomas and Mr. Eldridge.

“You have stated your opinion as to the rights and privileges of General Lee and his soldiers; do you mean that to include any political rights?”

“I have explained that I did not.”

“Was there any difference of opinion on that point between yourself and President Johnson at any time?”

“On that point there was no difference of opinion; but there was as to whether the parole gave them any privileges or rights … He claiming that the time must come when they would be tried and punished, and I claiming that that time could not come except by a violation of their parole.”

Grant claimed also that the army that had surrendered to Sherman came under the same rules.

These quotations give General Grant’s standing as an interpreter of public law and as a leader capable of applying the rules and principles of public law to practical affairs. His training at West Point may have given him a knowledge of principles and his good sense enabled him to apply the principles in the terms that he dictated at Appomattox.

General Grant’s natural qualities were such that with training he might have succeeded in great causes involving principles, but he was not adapted to the ordinary business of a county-court lawyer.

It is quite certain from the testimony of General Grant that Mr. Lincoln had had in mind a scheme for the organization of the States that had been in rebellion and that Mr. Johnson’s proclamation for the government of North Carolina was not a wide departure from that scheme.

General Grant was present at two meetings of the Cabinet in Mr. Lincoln’s time, when a proclamation was read and considered. In the language of General Grant, “after the