“They are both dead, and many of their co-workers also. There has been a very great mortality among the leaders of the rebellion. That is to say, the older men—those who were somewhat advanced in years when it began.”
“Are many of the Northern men of whom you have spoken in your narratives as rebel sympathizers, Knights of the Golden Circle, or Sons of Liberty, still living?”
“Yes, they were generally young or middle-aged men, and with few exceptions are still living, and are, almost without an exception, in some official position—some of them in the highest and most honorable in our Nation.”
“This could not have occurred in any other Government than ours, and is passing strange,” said Dr. Adams.
“Yes, that is true; but do you not remember my mentioning the fact that Hibbard, who was connected with one of the rebel prisons during the war, came North last Fall to teach us our duty? I also said that probably he would be sent abroad to impress some foreign country with our Christian civilization.”
“Yes, I well remember what you said.”
“Well, I see by the papers that he has been appointed to a Foreign Mission. I also see that a man of great brutality, who is said to have been connected with one of the prisons in Richmond, has been put in charge of all appointments in the greatest Department of the Government—the Treasury.”
“Are these things so? Can it be possible?”
“Yes, these are truths. This is merely testing us in order to see how much the people will bear; and they seem to bear these things without a murmur. The next will be stronger. If the people of the South see that they are sustained in this by the people of the large cities North, on account of a fear that they may lose Southern trade, what may they not demand? Certainly, very soon nothing less than Vice-President will be accepted, and the same people who sustain these things now will cry out that this is right!”
“It does look so. I have been studying this question since you have been reciting your experiences and giving the views of yourself and others, and am now prepared to agree that greed is at the bottom of all this. This same greed is one of the several dangers that threaten our country's institutions to-day. It causes crimes and wrongs to be overlooked, and in many cases defended, in order to gain influence with the people who are determined by any means in their power to control the Government.”