For the present, and so long as there are living witnesses of the great war of sections, there will be people who will not be consoled for the loss o… - Ulysses S. Grant

As time passes, people, even of the South, will begin to wonder how it was possible that their ancestors ever fought for or justified institutions which acknowledged the right of property in man.

there will be people who will not be consoled for the loss of a cause which they believed to be holy.

This act brought on a crisis in the career of the general commanding. He had asserted from the beginning that the administration was hostile to him; that it had failed in its promises of men and war material; that the President himself had shown duplicity if not treachery in the endeavor to procure the appointment of Benton: and the administration now gave open evidence of its enmity.

I leave comparisons to history, claiming only that I have acted in every instance from a conscientious desire to do what was right, constitutional, within the law, and for the very best interests of the whole people. Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent.

But the Nation had already become restless and discouraged at the prolongation of the war, and many believed that it would never terminate except by compromise.