Page:Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (Volume Two).djvu/86

Rh assassination it continued right along and I was there with Mr. Johnson.” General Grant’s interest was directed to two points: First, that civil government should be set up but subject to the final action of Congress, and second, that the parole should not be infringed. He states his position thus:

“I was always ready to originate matters pertaining to the army, but I was never willing to originate matters pertaining to the civil government of the United States. When I was asked my opinion about what had been done I was willing to give it. I originated no plans and suggested no plans for civil government.”

The examination by Mr. Eldridge was in the nature of cross-examination and for the purpose of gaining an admission from General Grant that he had advised or sanctioned President Johnson’s plan of reconstruction. Hence General Grant’s declarations that his part was limited to the military side of the measure and that in his view the entire plan was subject to Congressional action.

General Grant’s testimony is explicit upon these points: He advised President Johnson to grant a pardon to General Lee and a pardon to General Johnston. He was especially urgent in favor of a pardon to General Johnston in consideration of his speech to his army at the time of the surrender. He advised against the proclamation of amnesty upon the ground that the act was then premature.

General Grant’s testimony adds strength to the statement that President Johnson contemplated the recognition of a Congress composed of Democratic members from the North and of the representatives from the States that had been organized under the President’s proclamations.

“I have heard him say—and I think I have heard him say it twice in his speeches—that if the North carried the election by members enough to give them, with the Southern