HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, GENERAL R. E. LEE, Richmond, Va. GENERAL: Your communication, of date 13th instant, stating the steps you had taken after reading the President's proclamation of the 29th ult., with the view of complying with its provisions, when you learned that, with others, you were to be indicted for treason by the grand jury at Norfolk; that you had supposed that the officers and men of the army of Northern Virginia were, by the terms of their surrender, protected by the United States government from molestation so long as they conformed to its conditions; that you were ready to meet any charges that might be preferred against you, and did not wish to avoid trial; but that if you were correct as to the protection granted by your parole, and were not to be prosecuted, you desired to avail yourself of the President's Amnesty Proclamation, and enclosing an application therefor, with the request that in that event it be acted upon, has been received and forwarded to the Secretary of War, with the following opinion indorsed thereon: "In my opinion, the officers and men paroled at Appomattox Court-house, and since upon the same terms given to Lee, cannot be tried for treason so long as they observe the terms of their parole. This is my understanding. Good faith, as well as true policy, dictates that we should observe the condition of that convention. Bad faith on the part of the government, or a construction of that covenant subjecting the officers to trial for treason, would produce a feeling of insecurity in the minds of the officers and men. If so disposed, they might even regard such an infraction of terms by the government as an entire release from all obligations on their part. I will state further, that the terms granted by me met with the hearty approval of the President at the time, and of the country generally. The action of Judge Underwood, in Norfolk, has already had an injurious effect, and I would ask that he be ordered to quash all indictments found against paroled prisoners of war, and to desist from the further prosecution of them. U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General. HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, June 16, 1865." } This opinion, I am informed, is substantially the same as that entertained by the government. I have forwarded your application for amnesty and pardon to the President, with the following indorsement thereon: "Respectfully forwarded through the Secretary of War to the President, with the earnest recommendation that this application of General R. E. Lee for amnesty and pardon be granted him. The oath of allegiance required by recent order of the President does not accompany this, for the reason, I am informed by General Ord, the order requiring it had not reached Richmond when this was forwarded. U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, June 16, 1865." Very respectfully, U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General. During the month of February, 1866, Grant visited New York, and was received with great enthusiasm wherever he appeared. One of the pleasantest incidents of his visit at this time was a reception given him by the leather dealers of that city, in the warerooms of Messrs. Armstrong and Sons, No. 19 Ferry Street, in what is called the "Swamp," which is the seat of the extensive leather business of the city. The warehouse was handsomely decorated with flags, and an elegant banquet was prepared. Grant, on his appearance, was greeted with enthusiasm, and in response to repeated calls for a speech, said, "Gentlemen, you know I never make speeches. I am happy to meet my old friends of the leather trade." During this visit to New York he also visited the rooms of the Union Relief Committee, and inspected the specimens of writing executed with their left hands by soldiers who had lost their right arms in the war. There were on exhibition two hundred and seventy specimens of such work; and, looking at them, Grant remarked, "These boys write better with their left hands than I do with my right." Before leaving the rooms, he wrote the following upon the visitors' book: NEW YORK, February 24, 1866. I have examined the large and exceedingly interesting collection of the left hand manuscripts written by our disabled soldiers, who have lost their right arms. They are eminently honorable to the authors, and from the excellence of the penmanship, it would require a task I should be sorry to accept, to decide on the merits of the competitors. U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General U. S. Army. On the evening of the 26th he was given a public reception at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and left that night, after the reception, on a special train for Washington. During this visit to New York a purse of one hundred thousand dollars was contributed by a few of the capitalists of New York, and offered to Grant. The presentation was made quite informally, and was received in the same way. Up to this time Grant had been the recipient of the following testimonials from the people of various parts of the country: The citi zens of Philadelphia had presented him with thirty thousand dollars; the citizens of Galena, Illinois, with a house and furniture; some citizens of Boston had given him a library, and besides these he had been presented with various swords, horses, pistols, and other similar gifts. The pecuniary value of all of these was, however, inconsiderable, in comparison with the re wards voted by the British Parliament to Wellington after his victory at Waterloo, or to Marlborough for his victories, and to both of these soldiers these rewards were given in the shape of estates and titles. This species of reward, since the money to furnish it is raised by taxation, is of course really given by the productive labor of the country; but as their will is not consulted in England, and as the credit of such generosity accrues to those who vote it, but do not bear their share in paying it, such lavishness might naturally be expected. There is no such easy generosity as that which is practised with other people's money. The theory and practice of such rewards in this country are entirely dif ferent. The gratitude and admiration of the American people are not to be measured by a pecuniary standard. To the great men of our country, from Washington down, this course has never been pursued. The Washington Monument, despite even the assistance of Everett's "made-to-order" oratory, is to-day in no more imminent danger of completion than it has ever been. It is not in such modes, copied and adopted from the self-glorifications of aristocratical monopolies, that the American people desire to express their gratitude and admiration; and though in the present transitional condition, the method of expressing the national gratitude is not yet entirely developed, yet it is a great step in advance to have discarded the pecuniary form, and it is equally certain that, with the social elevation of productive labor, this spread of justice in the daily distribution of the rewards for service performed, will find the fit means for its expression in all such excep tional cases, for exceptional services. CHAPTER XLVIII. THE SECOND YEAR OF RECONSTRUCTION. — THE BLOCK IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF AFFAIRS. GRANT'S POSITION AND ACTION. IN April, 1866, Grant, accompanied by Mrs. Grant, paid a visit to Richmond, and was received there with great cordiality. In September of this year he accompanied the President in a tour through the country to Chicago, undertaken for the purpose of assisting at the laying of the corner-stone of a monument to Stephen A. Douglas. The presence of Grant and Farragut on this trip was a piece of political diplomacy, upon the part of its originators, which, though apparently successful at first, turned finally, as all such petty tricks must, to the confusion of those who had designed it. The question of reconstruction at this time had commenced to assume great importance. When the armed resistance of the Confederacy was overthrown, the southern people were ready to accept any terms. The system of slavery being, however, abolished, manifestly the most important thing for them to do was to accept the change in good faith, and busy themselves in removing the traces of the ravages of war, and in developing, by a system of free labor, in which justice should be the foundation-stone, the wonderful agricultural and other resources of their territory. But |