“Yes; and see the progress they are making in this direction. As I have said, there is not a man, with but very few exceptions, North, who denounced the war and those who were engaged in prosecuting it, who is not in some official position. Turn to the South. So far as they are concerned it may seem natural for them to select from their own class; but why should the North fall in with them? You have given, in your answer to me, the only reasonable answer—that of greed and gain; but to see this great change in the minds of the people in so short a time is strange indeed. Twenty years ago they were thundering at the very gates of our Capital. To-day they control the country. There is not a man, save the President of the Southern Confederacy and a very few of the leaders in the war made to destroy our Government, who is not now in some honorable position if he wishes to be. We find them representing us in the first-class missions abroad, in the second-class and in the third-class; and there not being high places enough of this kind, that the world may know the Confederacy has been recognized fully by our people since its downfall, those who were in high positions under it now take to the Consulships and are accepting them as rapidly as can well be done.
“You find your Cabinet largely represented by their leading men, and many of your Auditors, your Assistant Secretaries, Bureau officers, etc., are of them. This not being satisfactory, all the other appointments South are made up of those men to the exclusion of every one who was a Union man before, during, or since the war. The Government not furnishing places enough, all the State, county, and city offices South are filled in the same manner by this same class. This still does not satisfy, and all men sent to the United States Senate or to the House of Representatives from the South, with only one or two exceptions, are of the same class. In fact all of Jeff. Davis's Cabinet, his Senate and House of Representatives, and his Generals that are living, and who desire, are holding official positions of some kind. What does this argue? Does it not notify us who have made sacrifices for this Union that our services are no longer desired, and that we are waste material, of no further use for any purpose?
“Who could have believed, while the war was going on, that this state of things could ever have existed? Suppose this picture had been held up before my seven dead sons when they entered the service. Suppose they could have seen their mother's dream realized—all in their graves beside their mother, and their father living on the charities of a grandchild, laughed at in the streets by young men when speaking of the wrongs inflicted by the rebellion, and told that this is of the past—how many of them do you suppose would have gone right up to the enemy's guns and been shot down in their young manhood?
“Suppose Gen. Tom Anderson could have seen a howling mob murdering his family and no punishment for the murderers; would he have risked his life hunting up the Knights of the Golden Circle and chancing it in battle, as he did, for his country, that the rebels might control it, and that, too, through the influence of the North, whose all was at stake, and whose fortunes were saved and protected by such men as he? I doubt if patriotism would have gone so far. Can you find me the patriot to-day that, deep down in his heart, likes this condition of things?”
“Yes; but Uncle Daniel, these men are not rebels now. They are Democrats,” said Maj. Clymer.
“Yes, true; but they are no more Democrats now than they were then, and they were no less Democrats then than they are now. But I should not say more; I have had trouble enough. Why should I grieve for the condition of things which were not expected? I and mine have paid dearly for this lesson. I hope it may never fall to the lot of any one else to pass through such an experience. I shall see but little more trouble. May God forgive all and protect the right.”
Uncle Daniel here ceased speaking and sank back in his chair. His granddaughter came into the room. Seeing him, she screamed and fell upon his neck. We moved quickly to him. He was dead.
THE END.