sible for slavery? Has not the South lost all? Have not the Southern people paid the full penalty of all the crimes of war? Are our skirts free? Was Sherman's march a picnic? This war has been a giant conflict of principles to decide whether we are a bundle of petty sovereignties held by a rope of sand or a mighty nation of freemen. But for the loyalty of four border Southern states—but for Farragut and Thomas and their two hundred thousand heroic Southern brethren who fought for the Union against their own flesh and blood, we should have lost. You cannot indict a people"
"I do indict them!" muttered the old man.
"Surely," went on the even, throbbing voice, "surely, the vastness of this war, its titanic battles, its heroism, its sublime earnestness, should sink into oblivion all low schemes of vengeance! Before the sheer grandeur of its history, our children will walk with silent lips and uncovered heads."
"And forget the prison-pen at Andersonville!"
"Yes. We refused, as a policy of war, to exchange those prisoners, blockaded their ports, made medicine contrabrand, and brought the Southern Army itself to starvation. The prison records, when made at last for history, will show as many deaths on our side as on theirs."
"The murderer on the gallows always wins more sympathy than his forgotten victim," interrupted the cynic.
"The sin of vengeance is an easy one under the subtle plea of justice," said the sorrowful voice. "Have we not had enough of bloodshed? Is not God's vengeance enough? When Sherman's army swept to the sea, be-
