I intend to say to him, 'The
time has come to make the best terms possible with the enemy,' and I
shall place the columns of the _Examiner_ newspaper at his disposal to
advocate that policy."[1]
[Footnote 1: This, I learned afterward, from the Hon. Mr. -----, was
duly done by Mr. Daniel. But it was too late.]
"Is it possible!" I said. "Frankly, I do not think things are so
desperate."
"You are a soldier, and hopeful, colonel. The smoke blinds you."
"And yet General Lee is said to repudiate negotiations with scorn. He
is said to have lately replied to a gentleman who advised them, 'For
myself, I intend to die sword in hand!'"
"General Lee is a soldier--and you know what the song says: 'A
soldier's business, boys, is to die!'"
I could find no reply to the grim words.
"I tell you the cause is lost, colonel!" with feverish energy, "lost
irremediably, at this moment while we are speaking! It is lost from
causes which are enough to make the devil laugh, but it is lost all the
same! When the day of surrender, and Yankee domination comes--when the
gentlemen of the South are placed under the heel of negroes and
Yankees--I, for one, wish to die. Happy is the man who shall have
gotten into the grave before that day![1] Blessed will be the woman who
has never given suck![2] Yes, the best thing for me is to
die--[3] and I am going to do so.
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