m, in order that I may fully understand
his plan and the principles upon which it is founded?"

The fundamental principles of my suggestion were:

First. The Constitution and laws as they were before secession,
modified to embrace the legitimate results of the war--namely,
national integrity and universal freedom.

Second. Intelligent suffrage, to be regulated by the States
themselves; and

Third. Military governments, in the absence of popular civil
governments, as being the only lawful substitute, under our system,
for a government by the people during their temporary inability,
from whatever cause, to govern themselves.

But these constitutional methods were rejected. First came the
unauthorized system of "provisional" governors, civilians without
any shadow of lawful authority for their appointments, and their
abortive attempts at "reconstruction."

Next the Fourteenth Amendment, disfranchising nearly all the trusted
leaders of the Southern people, and then the "iron-clad oath,"
universal enfranchisement of the ignorant blacks, and "carpet-bag"
government, with all their offensive consequences. If wise
statesmanship instead of party passion had ruled the hour, how
easily could those twelve years of misrule in the South, and
consequent disappointment and shame among its authors in the North,
have been avoided!

A PROVISIONAL GOVERNOR FOR NORTH CAROLINA

A "provisional" governor (William W. Holden) having been appointed
for North Carolina, I relinquished command of the department in
June, 1865, to enter upon more important service in respect to the
then existing military intervention in Mexico by the Emperor of
the French.

CHAPTER XX
French Intervention in Mexico--A Plan to Compel the Withdrawal of
the French Army--Grant's Letter of Instructions to General Sheridan
--Secretary Seward Advocates Moral Suasion--A Mission to Paris With
That End in View--Speechmaking at the American Thanksgiving Dinner
--Napoleon's Method of Retreating with Dignity--A Presentation to
the Emperor and Empress.

While the government of the United States was fully occupied with
the contest for the preservation of the Union, Napoleon III, Emperor
of the French, attempted to overthrow the republican government of
Mexico, and establish in its stead an empire under the Archduke
Maximilian of Austria. If the American conflict had resulted in
the triumph of secession, so also might Napoleon h