n the most favorable terms.

I don't know what the President would have done had he been left to
himself, and had our army been unsuccessful, but he was than
wrought up to a high state of excitement. He wanted peace on
almost any terms, and there is no knowing what proposals he might
have been willing to listen to. His heart was tenderness
throughout, and, as long as the rebels laid down their arms, he did
not care how it was done. I do not know how far he was influenced
by General Grant, but I presume, from their long conferences, that
they must have understood each other perfectly, and that the terms
given to Lee after his surrender were authorized by Mr. Lincoln. I
know that the latter was delighted when he heard that they had been
given, and exclaimed, a dozen times, "Good!" "All right!"
"Exactly the thing!" and other similar expressions. Indeed, the
President more than once told me what he supposed the terms would
be: if Lee and Johnston surrendered, he considered the war ended,
and that all the other rebel forces world lay down their arms at
once.

In this he proved to be right. Grant and Sherman were both of the
same opinion, and so was everyone else who knew anything about the
matter.

What signified the terms to them, so long as we obtained the actual
surrender of people who only wanted a good opportunity to give up
gracefully? The rebels had fought "to the last ditch," and all
that they had left them was the hope of being handed down in
history as having received honorable terms.

After hearing General Sherman's account of his own position, and
that of Johnston, at that time, the President expressed fears that
the rebel general would escape south again by the railroads, and
that General Sherman would have to chase him anew, over the same
ground; but the general pronounced this to be impracticable. He
remarked: "I have him where he cannot move without breaking up his
army, which, once disbanded, can never again be got together; and I
have destroyed the Southern railroads, so that they cannot be used
again for a long time." General Grant remarked, "What is to
prevent their laying the rails again?" "Why," said General
Sherman, "my bummers don't do things by halves. Every rail, after
having been placed over a hot fire, has been twisted as crooked as
a ram's-horn, and they never can be used again."

This was the only remark made by General Grant during the
interview, as he sat smoking a short d