d and plunder, are again ready to invade the
Southern States and lay waste the country not already desolated, with
the sword in one hand and the torch in the other. These revengeful
partisans would leave their country a howling wilderness for the want
of more victims to gratify their insatiable cruelty. . . . Let there
be peace! Yet there are those among us who are not sufficiently
satiated with blood and plunder, and cry for more war." General Wool
would have been severely criticised if it had not been remembered that
for nearly sixty years he had been a faithful soldier and had loyally
followed the flag of the Union in three wars.

Many members of the convention were outspoken Democrats and their
presence, therefore, did not indicate and division in the Republican
ranks,--the objective point to which all the efforts of the
Administration were steadily addressed. Conspicuous representatives
of this class were Generals John A. McClernand of Illinois, J. W.
Denver of California, Willis A. Gorman of Minnesota, James B. Steedman
of Ohio. The delegates who had been Republicans were all of the most
conservative type, and it is believed that every one of them became
permanently identified with the Democratic party. The most prominent
of these were General Thomas Ewing of Kansas, Governor Bramlette and
General Rousseau of Kentucky, and Honorable Lewis D. Campbell of Ohio.
General Gordon Granger and General George A. Custer of the regular army
were very active in organizing the convention. It was evident that the
number of soldiers present was small; and the convention really failed
in its principal aim, which was to strengthen the President in the
loyal States.

A telegram, expressing sympathy with its proceedings, was received by
the convention from a number of Confederate officers who were gathered
at Memphis. But it was unfortunate that General N. B. Forrest was a
conspicuous signer; still more unfortunate that the convention passed
a resolution of thanks to Forrest and his rebel associates for the
"magnanimity and kindness" of their message. Forrest's name was
especially odious in the North for his alleged guilty participation in
the massacre at Fort Pillow. All other circumstances united did not
condemn the convention in Northern opinion so deeply as this incident.
Further investigation of the Fort Pillow affair has in some degree
ameliorated the feeling against General Forrest, but at that time his
name among