s corpus_, on the charge of
sympathizing with the Rebellion. The situation of those persons
more nearly assimilates with that of prisoners of war. It differs
totally from the arrest of General Stone in that the cause of
detention was well known and very often proudly avowed by the person
detained. The key of their prison was generally in the hands of
those who were thus confined,--an honest avowal of loyalty and an
oath of allegiance to the National Government securing their release.
If they could not take the oath they were justifiably held, and
were no more injured in reputation than the millions with whose
daring rebellion they sympathized. But to General Stone the
government permitted the gravest crime to be imputed. A soldier
who will betray his command belongs by the code of all nations to
the most infamous class--his death but feebly atoning for the injury
he has inflicted upon his country. It was under the implied
accusation of this great guilt that General Stone was left in duress
for more than six weary months, deprived of all power of self-
defense, denied the inherited rights of the humblest citizen of
the Republic. In the end, not gracefully but tardily, and as it
seemed grudgingly, the government was compelled to confess its own
wrong and to do partial justice to the injured man by restoring
him to honorable service under the flag of the Nation. No reparation
was made to him for the protracted defamation of his character, no
order was published acknowledging that he was found guiltless, no
communication was ever made to him by National authority giving
even a hint of the grounds on which for half a year he was pilloried
before the nation as a malefactor. The wound which General Stone
received was deep. From some motive, the source of which will
probably remain a mystery, his persecution continued in many petty
and offensive ways, until he was finally driven, towards the close
of the war, when he saw that he could be no longer useful to his
country, to tender his resignation. It was promptly accepted. He
found abroad the respect and consideration which had been denied
him at home, and for many years he was Chief of the General Staff
to the Khedive of Egypt.

It is not conceivable that the flagrant wrong suffered by General
Stone was ever designed by any one of the eminent persons who share
the responsibility for its infliction. They were influenced by
and largely partook of the popular mania