Frank E. Vandiver

pp. 4-5 Sage Jefferson himself had predicted that slavery was the rock upon which the nation would founder unless something removed it from the future. Nothing had. . . . To some with long memories, the new-found devotion of Southerners to slavery seemed strange. The South, after all, had nurtured Jefferson and his liberalism, had boasted James Madison and his gentle equalitarianism, had produced the nation’s greatest devotees of individualism in David Crockett, Andrew Jackson, and Sam Houston. How could a section with such heroes defend slavery as a “positive good”?

p. 46 Lincoln clearly knew the Southern conviction that secession had legal sanction and was inherent in the federal compact. He also knew that the constitutional issue so dear to Southerners might win converts in Europe, especially in England. . . . A confusing problem in statecraft faced him, a problem which he met squarely with his proclamation. In that document he announced insurrection existing below Mason and Dixon’s line and hence neatly denied the existence of the Confederate States. Secession was not an issue, according to his view of things; the Southern states had not really departed the Union, they were merely out of proper relationship to it. . . .

pp. 305-306 Lee walked out, mounted Traveller, and rode alone to his lines. Veterans saw him, the lowered shoulders, the tragic face, and they knew . . . With elegant simplicity General Lee bade farewell to those good soldiers, spoke his affection for them, and saved a shred of honor. Those men of Lee’s were the winnowed ones who stayed on for the end. They were proud, and they showed it as they fell in for that last parade. They would have liked to look better, but the tatters, the rag-soled shoes, and riddled flags would do. . . . the line moved steadily, and then there were no more. Over the field for a moment there was a strange silence—an age had stood review and gone on to memory.