under their President's own hand), a night attack on Grant's right is momentarily successful (25th March); but the Confederates have to withdraw at daybreak, leaving 1200 men behind. Meanwhile, the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley being annihilated, Sheridan has come round to City Point on the James with his troops, victors in so many fights (28th March). Sent to the extreme right of Lee's line, to cut off the last line of communication between Richmond and the South, he wins his wonderful victory of Five Forks, chiefly with dismounted cavalry (1st April), thus severing Lee from Johnstone. The main body of Grant's army now attacks the Confederate lines, and forces them; Petersburg is evacuated, then Richmond (3rd April).* Lee tries to escape by the South-West,

* The day after the evacuation of Richmond, Mr. Lincoln entered the city-in what fashion, I shall borrow Dr. Storr's eloquent pen to describe :—

"After four years of incessant, bloody, desperate struggle, he entered Richmond, with characteristic unostentation-not at the head of marshalled armies, with banners advanced and trumpets sounding, but as a

LEE SURRENDERS.

213

but is pursued by Sheridan, who, on the 6th April, strikes one of his retreating columns, and takes 6,000 prisoners, including six generals. Grant immediately opens negociations for surrender with his worthy, but unsuccessful antagonist; and, after a correspondence equally honourable to both parties, the Confederate army of Northern Virginia is surrendered by its veteran commander (9th April).* Two days private gentleman, on foot, with an officer on one side, holding the hand of his boy on the other. An aged negro met him in the street, and said, with the tears streaming down his face, as he bowed low his uncovered head, God bress you, Massa Lincoln !' The President paused, raised his hat on the instant, and with a hearty 'I thank you, sir,' acknowledged with a bow the greeting. Instinctively, he recognised the poorest as his peer, and the black man as his brother." (Oration, pp. 19-20).

An eye-witness of the scene, who, however, says that the President "bowed in silence," adds: "A woman in an adjoining house beheld it, and turned from the scene in unspeakable disgust." (Raymond, pp. 682-3).

"On the day of the receipt of the capitulation of Lee, the cabinet meeting was held an hour earlier than usual. Neither the President nor any member was able,

214

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S

later, whilst Sherman's army, "in the grandest of spirits," was marching upon Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina-Abraham Lincoln made his last speech (April 11th, 1865):—

"We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburgh and Richmond, and surrender of the principal insurgent army, gives hopes of a righteous peace, whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoicing be overlooked; their honours must not be parcelled out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news

or a time, to give utterance to his feelings. At the suggestion of Mr. Lincoln, all dropped on their knees, and offered, in silence and in tears, their humble and heartfelt acknowledgments to the Almighty for the triumph He had granted to the national cause." (Raymond, p. 735). Can history afford a nobler picture?

to you; but no part of the honour for the plan or execution is mine. To General Grant, his

skilful officers, and brave men, it all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take active part. By these recent successes, the re-inauguration of the national authority, the reconstruction of which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed most strongly upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to treat with, no one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with and mould from disorganised and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction.”

And now, to the astonishment of many no doubt, and probably to the disgust of some of his hearers, he goes into the question of the Louisiana State Government, and never gets out of it during the rest of the speech.

216

MR. LINCOLN'S LAST SPEECH.

general rule, he abstains from reading the reports of attacks upon himself. But he knows that he has been much censured for some supposed agency in getting up and seeking to sustain the new State Government of Louisiana, constructed in accordance with the plan annexed to his annual message of 1863. Others regret that his mind has not seemed "definitely fixed on the question whether the Seceded States, so called, are in the Union or not." That question he believes to be "bad as a basis of controversy, and good for nothing at all." If all will only "join in doing the acts necessary to restore the “ proper practical relations" between these States and the Union, each " may then for ever after innocently indulge his own opinion, whether in doing the acts he brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it."

It would no doubt be more satisfactory if the constituency on which the Louisiana Government rests were 50,000, 30,000, 20,000, rather than 12,000. "It is also unsatisfactory to some that