[58] N. and H. ix. 120-122, quoting from the diary of Mr. John Hay.
[59] He had used similar language in a letter to General Canby, December 12, 1864; N. and H. ix. 448; also in his letter to Trumbull concerning the Louisiana senators, January 9, 1865; ibid. 454. Colonel McClure, on the strength of conversations with Lincoln, says that his single purpose was "the speedy and cordial restoration of the dissevered States. He cherished no resentment against the South, and every theory of reconstruction that he ever conceived or presented was eminently peaceful and looking solely to reattaching the estranged people to the government." Lincoln and Men of War-Times, 223.
[60] Sherman, Memoirs, ii. 356.
[61] Grant stigmatizes this as "cruel and harsh treatment ... unnecessarily ... inflicted," Mem. ii. 534, and as "infamous," Badeau, Milit. Hist. of Grant, iii. 636 n.
[62] Sherman, Memoirs, ii. 328. The admiral says that, if Lincoln had lived, he "would have shouldered all the responsibility" for Sherman's action, and Secretary Stanton would have "issued no false telegraphic dispatches." See also Senator Sherman's corroborative statement; McClure, Lincoln and Men of War-Times, 219 n.
[63] Sherman, Memoirs, ii. 360.