office, sacrificed personal advantage to a spirit of lofty patriotism, much as did Lee at the beginning of the war, she makes him ridiculous. Her own naive account of the activities and the luxury of his last years emphasizes this, and the swelling phrases of her affectionate enthusiasm require no comment: "I love best to think of him, not as the warrior leading his legions to victory, but as the grand citizen after the war was ended, nobly dedicating himself to the rehabilitation of his broken people, offering a brave man's homage to the flag of the established government, and standing steadfast in all the passions, prejudices, and persecutions of that unhappy period. It was the love and honor and soul of the man crystallized into a being of wonderful majesty, immovable as Gibraltar." 45
Verily, "those have most power to hurt us that we love." Yet, as to the substance, I think Mrs. Longstreet is right, and the many Southerners who accuse her husband of mere place-hunting, of flattering the conqueror for his own aggrandizement, are totally wrong. He was patriotic. He did believe that he was doing the best for his country. He was a practical American. The war was over. The Union must be restored. The sooner it was restored, the better. And the more good men that took hold to restore it, the better still. The sentiment of lost causes, and fallen flags, and consecrated graves was—sentiment. Those who were to make the future had no time for it. That was his view. And, as all his life, he
