It was out of the bitterness of this reconstruction period that I penned the following sonnet to the memory of John M. Daniel, editor of the Richmond Examiner, to which paper I contributed more than threescore editorial articles during the year 1863-4:
DIS MANIBUS
I. M. D.
We miss your pen of fire, whose cloven tongue
Illum'd the good and blasted what was base.
We miss you, fearless fighter for our race,
Your arrows words, your bow a will highstrung.
We miss you, for you tower'd from among
The herd of writers with that careless grace
That springs from undisputed strength. Your place