erished; I will instruct
my officers to allow the men to retain their horses and take them home
to work their little farms." Lee's final request was for rations for his
starving men. Grant and Lee shook hands, after which the Virginian
mounted his horse and rode off to his army. The Confederates met their
beloved general with tumultuous shouts. With eyes swimming in tears, Lee
said, in substance: "I have done what I thought to be best and what I
thought was right; go back to your homes, conduct yourselves like good
citizens and you will not be molested."

When certain Northern soldiers were preparing to fire salutes to
celebrate the victory, Grant stopped the demonstration. "The best sign
of rejoicing after victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in
the field." All men in the North felt that the fall of Lee's army meant
the fall of the Confederacy. Indeed, it did practically end the war. The
final sheaf of victory is reaped when the commander, at the head of his
troops, marches into the enemy's capital and makes the palace of his foe
to shelter his own horses. The whole South expected Grant to lead his
Army of the Potomac into Richmond. But Grant remembered Lee's sorrow,
and had no desire for a dramatic triumph. He sent a subordinate to
occupy Richmond, and quietly began the work of disbanding the army.
Sending his regiments back to the fields and factories, he said, "Let us
have peace." From that sentiment issued the new South and the new North.

But the man who had fought the war through to a successful issue became
the most beloved man in the North, and soon the people bore him to the
White House. The task was one for a giant. Four million slaves, newly
emancipated, had to be cared for. Their fidelity to the families of
their absent masters during the war was beautiful; while, towards the
end of the strife, the enrollment and gallant fighting of 150,000
coloured men (Northern and Southern) in the Federal armies showed their
manfulness. And now their Southern millions were free. They had the
suffrage, but could not read the names of the men for whom they were
voting. They were free men, but they had no land, no plough, no cabin,
no anything. Pitiful their plight! In retrospect, no race has ever made
such wonderful progress in fifty years. With President Eliot we may say
that "their industrial achievements are the wonder of the world."

The second task that confronted President Grant was the reconstruction