well as General Lee, had a hard time; they were both weighed down with trouble, cares and responsibilities. He had no more to do with the assassination of President Lincoln than you or I. He was cast into prison, manacled and placed in a dungeon. (General Miles would be glad now if he never had put shackles on him.) A soldier was placed where an eye always rested on Mr. Davis. This was a great annoyance to him.
General Dick Taylor, who succeeded in getting permission from President Johnson to visit President Davis at Fortress Monroe, makes the following statement: "It was with some emotion that I reached the casement in which Mr. Davis was confined. There were two rooms, in the outer of which, near the entrance, stood a sentinel, and in the inner was Jefferson Davis. We met in silence, with grasp of hands. Afterwards he said: 'This is kind, but no more than I expected of you.' Pallid, worn, gray, bent, feeble, suffering from inflammation of the eyes, he was a painful sight to a friend. He uttered no plaint, and made no allusion to the irons. He said 'the light kept all night in his room hurt his eyes, and the noise made every two hours by relieving the sentry prevented much sleep; but that matters had changed for the better since the arrival of General Burton, who was all kindness, and strained his orders to the utmost in his behalf,' etc." Mr. Davis was no doubt a great and good man, for General Taylor, on speaking of some kindness shown to him during the war, said: "No wonder that all who enjoy the friendship of Jefferson Davis love him as Jonathan did David." Had Mr. Davis been a traitor and rebel any more than other leaders of the South, and had he been guilty as charged, of course he would have been tried and executed. It was not done simply because it would have been an open violation of law, and the people of our country had had time to cool off. So Mr. Davis was released. We all believe that had Mr. Lincoln lived we never would have had to go through the farce and humility of reconstruction. Excuse me, Mr. Editor, for this divergence. I have done so "lest we forget; lest we
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